Johannesburg, 30 Jul 2003
Face Technologies, a subsidiary of IT solutions provider, arivia.kom, has announced the formalisation of its relationship with Ciber Information International SA (Pty) Ltd in a contract valued at R27 million, for its role on the National Transport Information System (Natis) Project currently being implemented by Tasima (Pty) Ltd.
Tasima is a joint venture company which was established to implement Natis for the South African Department of Transport. Face Technologies is the primary contractor together with two other BEE companies, Webcom Consulting and Thuthukani Information Technology Services. Natis, at a project value of R311 million, is one of the largest IT projects ever to be undertaken in SA.
Ciber is a 100% black-owned IT services company operating in the areas of IT consultancy, systems integration and software development and was part of the original Face Technologies team which tendered for the contract as the Tasima consortium. This contract sees the formalisation of a memorandum of understanding (MOU), which has been in place until now.
The contract stipulates that R27 million of Face Technologies` R200 million portion of the Natis project is guaranteed to Ciber. This makes it the largest single contract awarded to Ciber since its inception in 2000. In terms of the contract, Ciber will deliver IT resources to fill 17 positions at Tasima over a contract period of 48 months.
Says Pule Ganyane, managing director of Ciber: "This is a positive step forward for Ciber in terms of our growth and development strategy. Being involved in the team which is implementing Natis provides us with the opportunity to grow beyond what we have already achieved and provides experience on large scale projects.
"Our primary objective as Ciber is to provide cost-effective solutions to our customers that help them address their business challenges through the application of technology. A central part of the Ciber philosophy is to identify suitable partners, such as arivia.kom, who will enhance our value proposition to our selected customers.
"Since we have traditionally delivered IT services to government agencies and mid-size parastatal and local government organisations, this contract positions us in another league. It shows us that we can be serious players and make serious deals in the South African IT sector.
"We believe that each and every opportunity which comes our way is also an opportunity for us to pursue the empowerment of more black IT professionals. It is therefore our strategic intent to utilise this opportunity for the organic growth of our organisation and consequently we project that our staff levels will increase substantially over the period."
Johan Vorster, managing director of Tasima notes: "Ciber has worked jointly with arivia.kom on other projects and has a proven track record for high quality and delivery excellence.
"This is the first time that Ciber has joined a Face Technologies team and we have found the team to be proactive and energetic in its approach. Our relationship with Ciber is healthy and it has demonstrated clearly that it shares the same commitment to service delivery and customer focus that Face Technologies does."
Face Technologies prefers a close relationship with partners and its approach is to second resources into the team. This is in line with the company`s approach to BEE partnerships and Face believes this is what ensures that its BEE partners are involved in sustainable operations.
Serfies Serfontein, Face Technologies managing director, adds: "This latest contract forms part of our broader BEE development programme, which aims to select newer and smaller IT companies for partnership opportunities.
"An important factor in the success of Face Technologies` BEE partnerships is that we require our BEE partners to become an integral part of our project teams, in order to ensure that our goals of skills development, training and transfer are met during the projects."
In terms of Tasima and the implementation of Natis, Webcom is responsible for the provision of all hardware requirements, Thuthukani meets all network infrastructure requirements and Face Technologies is responsible for all software development, consulting and project management. Ciber, as a Face Technologies partner, is involved in software development and consulting.
Among other projects, Ciber is also currently rolling out a help desk application for City Power and is developing a management information system strategy for the Companies and Property Registration Office.
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