When millions of South Africans go to voting stations on 14 April, yet another milestone in the country`s history will have been reached. This year`s general election is the third democratic election in SA`s history and also marks 10 years of constitutional democracy.
Internet Solutions (IS) is proud to be a South African company closely involved in the election process through several initiatives, not the least being its sponsorship of hosting and connectivity services for the Electoral Commission (IEC) Web site.
"The Web site has played an important role in this election," says Libisi Maphanga, CIO for the IEC. "The weekend of 24/25 January 2004 was the last voter registration weekend for the 2004 election and over 3 million eligible voters visited voting stations. In addition, the Web site received 249 036 hits during this period. Voters can check their registration status online, read frequently asked questions, see statistics, and get general information about the voting process. We expect this usage to increase dramatically leading up to election day and beyond."
Kate Shackleton, Marketing Manager at IS, has driven this project from the start. "It is our opportunity to put something back into both the community and to show our commitment to being Proudly South African," she says.
The IEC will be headquartered at the Tshwane Showgrounds in Pretoria from 7 April, and during that period IS will also offer IS fax services and operate an Internet caf'e with a WiFi hotspot for the expected international and local media corps as well as officials from across the world.
"We expect about 24 million hits on our Web site during the election period," says Maphanga. "Not only is it the third democratic election for the new SA, but our 10-year anniversary. During the last election, our Web site simply couldn`t cope with the global and local traffic, this time we are confident that IS has the infrastructure, people, resources and bandwidth to handle this volume."
The Internet caf'e at the showgrounds is expected to be very busy during the period 7 to 17 April, when it is live. "The world`s media are expected, the president and other dignitaries will be there, communication is key for everyone involved, so the daily traffic is unpredictable at the moment," says Shackleton. "During this period we will have IS staff on site to assist everyone trying to get their e-mail and our usual 24x7 support centre will be constantly monitoring calls and the situation."
Additionally, IS has sponsored the Internet connectivity at the IEC call centre in Sandton where over 100 people will be answering calls on the progress of the election. "It has been an end-to-end project," says Thami Radebe, who led the IEC call centre project. "It will be live for about 40 days and includes voice, Internet and e-mail services. We have supplied a sizeable mail server, security through a firewall, connectivity and the resources to keep it all running smoothly. This has been a collaborative effort between ourselves, Microsoft, Siemens, Telkom and Dimension Data, so the planning had to be extensive to ensure everything was handed over on time."
"The eyes of the world will be on SA over the next few weeks," concludes Shackleton. "It`s an exciting time for all of us."
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Internet Solutions (IS) has transformed its business model and become the only full network service provider in the country.
The business was founded on the principle of developing a robust infrastructure in order for corporates to conduct e-business. Over the past decade IS has established itself as a leader in this space, attracting over 80% of SA`s top businesses as clients.
During its 10 year life span IS has evolved and grown its service offerings. Today, the company is the leading hosting service provider and security service provider in SA, as well as having significant market share in the virtual private network (VPN) and application service provider (ASP) space.
Internet Solutions has earned an impressive collection of accolades, including eight First National Bank "Most Admired" awards, Financial Mail Best Company to Work For and a place in the Top Unlisted Company Awards.
The company partners with major players such as Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle BT and AT&T and in 2002 was certified as a Cisco Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), the first and only company outside of the US to be awarded this accolade.
For more, visit www.is.co.za.
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