We can agree that this may not be on the eCitizen team’s side. But
ultimately, key factors behind how successful a product can be is also
measured by how available that service is. And in the case of eCitizen what
is also an important metric to consider is Service Provider track record.
The problem mostly comes in one of 2 forms:
1. Either that the Service Provider themselves are not at per, or
2. The Service Provider is at par but we get what we ask for (what we
pay for, or what we configure our Service Provider hosted system to do)
Either way due diligence in these 2 items for a critical service is
important. Infact I would even state its worth noting that eCitizen and a
number of our portals which fail due to high traffic are nothing in
comparison to what other systems out there demand on infrastructure. And
lets not even talk about multinational systems. Jumia’s
amount of traffic they receive doesn’t bog them down. I have not seen a
single day Jumia has gone off even when they have deals.
When we talk of world class service delivery, this is what normally happens
in an Internet Minute in 2017. And these services have not a glitch in
performance:
www.businessinsider.com/everything-that-happens-in-one-minute-on-the-internet-2017-9
On Mon, Jan 15, 2018 at 6:56 PM, Ali Hussein via kictanet <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Dorcas
>
> I agree.
>
> We should be encouraging and help where we can. The incidences though at
> eCitizen have become way too common. It’s incumbent on us to point them out
> and suggest solutions.
>
> When the only place you can get G2C services is the portal then it becomes
> critically important to monitor availability, service levels and customer
> service response times. When this becomes below par then the Kshs. 50
> convenience fee quickly becomes a disincentive.
>
> Regards
>
> *Ali Hussein*
> *Principal*
> *Hussein & Associates*
> +254 0713 601113 <+254%20713%20601113>
>
> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>
> Skype: abu-jomo
>
> LinkedIn: ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>
> “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a
> habit.” ~ Aristotle
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On 15 Jan 2018, at 6:48 PM, Dorcas Muthoni via kictanet <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
> Let’s not be too critical. While I accept that hi-availability is a
> standard practice that must be upheld, we all experience outages wherever
> we work and are responsible.
>
> Let’s not be too mean to the eCitizen team. What if it is caused by a
> service provider which is indeed a possibility.
>
> Perhaps we should be requiring that an incident report be provided
> publicly.
>
> Happy New Year listers!
>
> On Jan 15, 2018 6:39 PM, “kanini mutemi via kictanet” <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I like eCitizen I do (or rather the concept). But my interactions with
>> the platfrom always leave me with a bitter taste. It returns an error
>> message quite often. Of course customer care is a huge problem. Online
>> support is no better because they always tell you to call Customer Care.
>> It’s also not the most user friendly of platforms so you get stuck quite a
>> lot. Then there’s that controversial ‘convenience fee’ per transaction.
>>
>> On Mon, 15 Jan 2018 at 18:23, Ali Hussein via kictanet <
>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> James
>>>
>>> You raise a very critical issue about critical government services. I’m
>>> curious. Since Lilian from ICT has responded to Victor maybe she can come
>>> back to us after consulting internally with answers to the following
>>> questions:-
>>>
>>> 1. Where is the eCitizen Portal hosted and what are the SLA details?
>>> 2. Why is it so difficult to get anyone on the Customer Service Line?
>>> 3. There’s no recourse when there is an issue to resolve. In November I
>>> had to pay twice for my driving license renewal. To date I’m not even sure
>>> who to speak with for a refund.
>>> 4. For such a critical service we are past the stage of being ‘happy’
>>> simply to have the service. As citizens we expect NOTHING BUT THE BEST from
>>> Silicon Savannah.
>>> 5. When will the service be fully mobile enabled?
>>>
>>> It’s high time we elevate this service to world class standard. As it is
>>> every time I think about using the service I start getting agitated.
>>>
>>> *Ali Hussein*
>>> *Principal*
>>> *Hussein & Associates*
>>> +254 0713 601113 <0713%20601113>
>>>
>>> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>>>
>>> Skype: abu-jomo
>>>
>>> LinkedIn: ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>>>
>>> “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but
>>> a habit.” ~ Aristotle
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>
>>> On 15 Jan 2018, at 6:07 PM, James Muendo via kictanet <
>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Listers,
>>>
>>> Barack, I wonder whether those servers are here or out there. And if out
>>> there, two critical questions arise:
>>>
>>> 1. What is the SLA agreement, and especially when it comes to getting
>>> the service back within acceptable timeline(s)?
>>> 2. Why host away from the country, yet we have companies like Node and
>>> Angani, who I believe have the various competencies to handle such locally?
>>> Plus there is KIXP to support the traffic that comes through? I believe a
>>> great number of the users of the system are local. Why not make it easier
>>> and quicker?
>>>
>>> Just wondering.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jan 15, 2018 at 5:06 PM, Barrack Otieno via kictanet <
>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Teacher Karis,
>>>>
>>>> Maybe the servers are in another time zone, give them a few hours they
>>>> will be opened.
>>>>
>>>> Regards
>>>>
>>>> On 15 Jan 2018 17:02, “Kelvin Kariuki via kictanet” <
>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I have been trying it since morning, it gives this error:
>>>>> “503 Service UnavailableNo server is available to handle this
>>>>> request.”
>>>>>
>>>>> Its time they commit to a serious Service Level Agreement. Of late the
>>>>> downtime has been frequent, I have been in the process of registering a
>>>>> company and most of the time the service is not available. As a community,
>>>>> we are supposed to speak up about this to save the millions of Kenyans
>>>>> suffering from this inconvenience.
>>>>>
>>>>> The 503 Service Unavailable error is an HTTP status code that means
>>>>> the web site’s server is simply not available right now. *Most of the
>>>>> time, it occurs because the server is too busy or because there’s
>>>>> maintenance being performed on it*… Read on:
>>>>> www.lifewire.com/503-service-unavailable-explained-2622940
>>>>>
>>>>> The error is most likely caused by simultaneous access by millions of
>>>>> Kenyans, the servers they have can’t handle that amount of traffic. They
>>>>> should upgrade their data center. A Service Level Agreement will enforce
>>>>> them to do that and Kenyans will get a convenient service.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Jan 15, 2018 at 4:42 PM, Victor Kapiyo via kictanet <
>>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi Listers,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Anyone noticed that the ecitizen portal is down. I’m not sure how
>>>>>> frequently this happens but what’s the acceptable downtime for such a
>>>>>> critical service. Or should we go back to manual backup?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Victor
>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
