AST-Thuso win R50m government outsourcing contract

The Minister of Finance as trustee of the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) has approved the appointment of the AST-Thuso Consortium for the IT Support and Maintenance Outsourcing contract. The contract is valued at over R50 million.

The AST-Thuso Consortium consists of the AST Group and Thuso Information Technology. In an earlier announcement, Thuso IT acquired Workforce IT from the AST Group, making Thuso IT one of the most substantial empowerment companies in the South African IT industry.

The GEPF has in excess of 1 million members contributing to the fund monthly, with more than 250 000 civil pensioners receiving benefits from the fund.

"We will provide and manage the infrastructure for the GEPF, which will allow the fund to focus on customer service," says John Ramatsui, AST`s Public Sector Executive. "The scope of the project involves the mainframe and WAN infrastructure, as well as support for services such as desktop infrastructure, LANs, procurement, and maintenance of legacy systems and disaster recovery."

By outsourcing its IT requirements to AST-Thuso, the GEPF will benefit from ongoing exposure to best practices and new technologies. This will enable the fund to focus on its core business and customers, the pension fund members, as well as operational issues that impact on technology.

"The GEPF is looking forward to developing a sound and professional relationship with the AST-Thuso Consortium, with the specific objective to jointly provide a world class service to all our members and pensioners," says Peet Maritz, the GEPF Chief Director.

"We are confident that AST-Thuso Consortium has the required expertise and understanding of the business needs and priorities to enable us to provide an even better service," concludes Maritz.

Ramatsui points out that: "AST has extensive experience in large, complex and ambitious outsourcing transactions. We have gained extensive experience while servicing large corporate clients such as Iscor and Absa."

Although the AST Group has had significant Government contracts, the GEPF contract heralds the start of a new era for the Group.

"Our black economic empowerment programme emphasises the need to involve our empowerment partners in all aspects of business so that they can add value, learn and be truly empowered," says Ramatsui. "Through this project, Thuso will be exposed to the IT outsourcing business and AST will transfer skills and knowledge to allow them to undertake a project of this magnitude independently in the future.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers was also appointed by GEPF to assist in the transition to AST-Thuso Consortium, ensuring a professional and smooth transfer without any impact on the ability of the GEPF to continue rendering a service to all beneficiaries.