Iocore`s IT hosting centre set to expand

IT services company Iocore Africa, which holds SAP Hosting, Consulting and Implementation Partnerships with SAP Southern Africa, has been hosting SAP R/3 for various South African manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies for over four years.

It runs a state-of-the-art IT Hosting Centre from its Bryanston head office, which manages the complete SAP portfolios of 10 companies, with sites ranging in size from 10 users and less, through to those with over 100 users.

The centre boasts advanced security, power supply and fire protection systems and is backed by redundant, monitored virtual private networks (VPN). A core team comprising 23 highly experienced SAP Basis and Application consultants, in addition to in-house ABAP programmers and operators, supports the SAP clients.

The Iocore SAP team specialises in all SAP Financial and Logistics applications. Their experience with SAP R/2 and R/3 covers several industry sectors, although the team specialises in the chemical manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries.

Iocore recently launched its new three-part Outsourcing Initiative to the marketplace.

The first consists of a hardware, operating system and software upgrade for all current clients still using 32-bit systems to 64-bit SAP 4.6C and higher.

Secondly, Iocore will use some of its new hardware for exclusive ASP (application service provider) deployment to SMEs. New implementations for ASP clients will be based on the Accelerated SAP (ASAP) methodology.

Using pre-configured SAP Financial and Logistics applications mapped to user roles, the Iocore SAP team undertakes to roll-out standard SAP Financials and limited Logistics to new clients in less than eight weeks.

Thirdly, Iocore will expand its SAP hosting and ASP portfolio to incorporate and offer its entire spectrum of skills and products via the IT Hosting Centre.

In addition to the SAP server rooms, the Hosting Centre contains a large number of database, Web and application servers which are similarly maintained by expert teams from the company`s Oracle and Microsoft divisions.

Iocore has a wealth of experience in SAP hosting to larger clients, spanning several years. Its vision is to use this experience for the benefit of smaller clients, with a minimum of 10 users. Its SAP ASP offering will be based on an initial, fixed development cost, followed by a monthly cost per user. Relationships with new ASP clients will be governed by standard three-year service level agreements (SLAs).

The reasonable monthly rate per user will include all basic support, such as backups, offsite data storage, off- or onsite DRP (if required), some application support, system monitoring and access to extended support via a state-of-the-art customer care centre.

Additional Iocore SAP services, which can be purchased once the core SAP system is live, include month- and year-end support, custom programming, on- and off-site printing, system audits, training, feasibility studies, and SAP consulting.

Once a company`s core SAP system is live, the client can select and purchase additional services and products from Iocore, including Web-enabling and Internet hosting of applications, customer relationship management (CRM), inter-technology application development, sales force automation, warehousing and distribution applications using barcodes, supply chain management using a variety of applications, payroll applications, links to banks and other databases, eg for fleet management and access control, links to real-time control systems, links to spatial data systems, demand planning, retail solutions, e-learning, mobile computing and the like.

Iocore can offer all of the above services using its own highly skilled resources. Comprehensive IT solutions for any customer requirement can literally be provided from a single source, as the customer requires it.