Public Enterprises minister Jeff Radebe has expressed optimism that arivia.kom, the new state-owned IT company, will soon assume heavyweight status and help close the digital divide for South Africans.
Radebe said at the official launch of arivia.kom in Sandton today that while the new organisation might be a victim of market scepticism in an unforgiving and demanding market, it had captured the imagination of some significant IT players since it was announced in January.
While the company holds IT outsourcing contracts with shareholders Eskom, Denel and Transnet, it also provides IT solutions to a broad range of clients in the private and public sector.
[VIDEO]Radebe said the new company was the product of concerted government efforts to extract embedded value and synergies within state-owned enterprises, specifically Eskom, Transnet and Denel. The main objective was to leverage these IT capabilities to accelerate service delivery, promote effective black economic empowerment, reduce input costs and make digital technologies the "dynamo that drives the economy".
He said arivia.kom would play a complementary role alongside the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), which was established through an Act of Parliament in October 1998.
Arivia.kom already has offices throughout SA, and a staff complement of 1 800. Most of its board is in place, with a permanent CEO due to be named by the end of April.
The company`s chairman Nku Nyembezi-Heita is emphatic that the organisation will be run on sound business principles, with profitability and black empowerment among its major goals. Nyembezi-Heita says the group is serious about reaching the top three IT companies in terms of size.
[VIDEO]Interim CEO Zeth Malele says arivia.kom does not see itself as trading in technologies - it sees itself trading in service, support and delivery to find business solutions where IT is the means and not an end in itself. He says that in terms of turnover, arivia.kom is already in the top business solutions and IT companies in SA.
The restructuring process is expected to fine-tune its business model and help grow it into a vehicle that will attract foreign investment, stimulate the economy and achieve its social objectives. However, it still faces a challenging and ongoing process of integrating its systems, business processes and employee skills base.
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