In one of the most complex and arguably largest IT agreements concluded in SA, the City of Johannesburg has outsourced all its central IT functions.
"Local government`s core business is service delivery such as waste collection and the supply of water and electricity - not IT - and in order to focus on, and improve the services the city provides, we made the decision to outsource, metro-wide, all central IT functions," said Dr Heather Fuller, Director of IT, City of Johannesburg.
HSBC was appointed to run the outsourcing project and after completing a feasibility study and defining the city`s requirements, appointed Outsource Decisions and Management Services (OD&MS), a member of the iSource Group, to assist with the evaluation of the responses to the detailed request for proposals, and the subsequent creation of service definitions, service level agreements and contract negotiation.
In order to allow the new incoming council as much time as possible to continue with its transformation efforts, it was important for the contract to be awarded before the conclusion of the local council elections. OD&MS used its SourceIT methodology (which comprises a series of templates, boilerplates and checklists), to conduct a transparent, structured and objective evaluation, the results of which were utilised by the evaluation team to develop a recommendation to the city regarding which vendor`s proposal best met its requirements. This recommendation culminated in an agreement being concluded between the city and a consortium of an international and local company, covering the outsourcing of the full spectrum of the city`s central IT functions.
To further ensure the success of the outsourcing initiative, City of Johannesburg appointed OD&MS to assist with the management of the transitory and joint verification phases of the outsourcing process. During this period OD&MS continues to work with the vendor consortium and the city to develop appropriate standards, IT policies and set service levels between the city and the various utility companies to which the city will continue to provide IT services.
"The transitory and verification phases are critical to the success of the outsourcing process. Using OD&MS`s methodology and drawing from its extensive experience of outsourcing, we are able to continue to restructure without major business disruptions, enabling the City of Johannesburg to build and refocus on its core businesses to the benefit of the city`s customers," said Fuller.
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