Some 434 T-Systems South Africa employees are to be briefed tomorrow about the outsourcing company's loss of the Eskom contract and what it means for them.
T-Systems secured the five-year Eskom contract - rumoured to be worth about R500 million a year - when it took over state-owned ICT services provider arivia.kom at the beginning of 2010. However, the company has not been short-listed for the renewal of the contract and was reportedly informed of this at the end of last month.
A well-placed source says tomorrow's session will see T-Systems staff briefed by the company's and Eskom's management, where they will be informed they will be either be placed with the power utility, or absorbed by the new service provider when the contract is transferred next year.
In a statement issued this afternoon, T-Systems confirms it has been notified by Eskom that it is "Eskom's intention to take the current full scope of services under the contract, which T-Systems South Africa has successfully delivered over the past five years".
"The current contract will be transitioned into a combination of in-sourced services by Eskom and the services under the RFP [request for proposals] scope. Communication of this intent has been shared with all employees in a transparent manner.
"Tomorrow's town hall session is part of our ongoing process. T-Systems South Africa is not aware of the successful bidder of the RFP process, as the process has not been concluded as yet."
It is understood Eskom issued a request for proposals earlier this year for the contract's renewal, attracting bids from big players such as Dimension Data, EOH, and Business Connexion.
T-Systems initially beat four rival bidders to secure arivia.kom, after interest was shown by Dimension Data, IBM, Siemens and Accenture, securing not only the Eskom contract, but also a long-term Transnet deal that was rumoured to be worth about R200 million a year.
Earlier this month, T-Systems MD Gert Schoonbee said he was unable to comment on specific contractual details, but described the Eskom deal as one of the most challenging contracts with which to achieve stability in terms of cost and service delivery.
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