Johannesburg, 14 Nov 2002
Safrican, one of the country`s largest funeral insurance companies with over eight million members and part of listed Thebe Investments, has contracted ICL to provide a total solution for the supply of servers, Microsoft SQL and Exchange, connectivity to the Internet and a backup solution involving Computer Associates` ArchServe.
Safrican operates its head office from Johannesburg and has branches in Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, with a total of 120 users.
Safrican financial director Trevor Laing said ICL designed and built the solution to provide a more cost-effective environment and improved performance.
Previously, Safrican utilised an outsourcing company. Following an evaluation of costs presented by ICL, Safrican chose to discontinue its third-party outsourcing agreement and selected ICL to provide an in-house solution.
"ICL advised us of the benefits of owning our own equipment which would give us more control as well as provide a balance sheet asset," he explained.
"We also had an implementation deadline because the contract with our outsourcing supplier was soon to end. The system in its entirety was delivered on time and within budget. We have found it to be more reliable and more efficient," explained Laing.
National sales manager, Kethan Parbhoo at ICL`s ISD division added: "The solution also involved the installation and integration of Fujitsu SiemensIntel-based servers, 3Com Switches, Cisco routers, and CA`s ArchServe backup solution. ICL also provided the project management which included the data migration of the old system and the management of the installation of ISDN, Diginet and Telkom lines and the tape library."
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