Finally, Gauteng schools go online

By Rodney Weidemann for Mustek

Johannesburg, 10 Sep 2003

The winning bidders for the three-year, R500 million GautengOnline tender were announced yesterday. The companies that will work on the project are: Mustek/Mecer, Hewlett-Packard, Sahara, Pinnacle, Business Connexion and Dell.

The GautengOnline project was launched by Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa two years ago, and is aimed at providing every school in the province with 25 computers and to ensure every pupil has an e-mail address by 2006.

"We expect the project to actually commence on 1 October, as the next couple of weeks will see the winning consortiums negotiating service level agreements (SLAs) with the Gauteng Department of Education," says Tony Church, project manager for the Mecer consortium.

"At present, the percentage of the total contract that each consortium will be awarded is not known, but we expect that to be sorted out at the same time as the SLAs, and it will probably be based on issues like the consortiums` pricing structures and ability to deliver."

He says the project involves delivery not only of hardware, but will also require integration and a certain level of onsite support. Microsoft will supply all the software for the GautengOnline project.

"We have 32 companies within our consortium, including Futurekids, which will be involved in training; Unisys, which are our asset management partners; and 26 roll-out partners that are focused on BEE [black economic empowerment]," says Church.

"Since the project relies heavily on skills transfer, the BEE component is very important to our consortium."

Church says the GautengOnline project is aimed at supplying a total of 2 000 schools, of which around 350 are ready to be outfitted.

"As I understand it, there are another 850 that are in the process of being prepared, so I would expect that by the end of next year, a total of 1 100 schools will be up and running, with the remaining 900 or so completed by the end of the following year."

The Department of Education could not be reached for comment.