The State IT Agency (SITA) has awarded 23 ICT companies a three-year contract estimated to be worth half-a-billion rand, for local and wide area networks (LANs and WANs).
Though the tender results were published last week, SITA's communications department has not explained yet exactly where the networks will be used.
Deirdre van Schalkwyk, Cisco product manager at GijimaAst (one of the winning companies), says it is an ongoing tender covering the maintenance and enhancement of the networks used in a variety of state departments.
"We're still waiting for confirmation from SITA of exactly how the tender will be used," she explains, adding that GijimaAst's role in the contract will be the supply of Cisco, Huawei and 3Com products.
Quality team
The other companies awarded the contract include arivia.kom, Business Connexion, Bytes Systems, Choice Technologies, Datacentrix, Dimension Data, Siemens, T-Systems and Telkom.
Andre Markgraaf, bid manager of another of the winners, Baraka IT Solutions, says the total value of the three-year tender will be about R500 million, but the proportionate involvement of the 23 companies is not yet clear.
Raj Wanniappa, Dimension Data's GM for the public sector, explains: "It is a transversal tender which replaces previous SITA tenders 63, 64 and 66 which were the exclusive domain of GijimaAst, Tecor and arivia.kom."
If properly adopted, he says, the tender should allow national, provincial and local government departments to implement networking projects in a more cost-effective and efficient manner than under the prior model.
"We are eagerly awaiting the exact specifics from SITA of how the tender is expected to work," he adds.
Bar code scanners
Baraka has also been awarded a "multimillion-rand" SITA tender for the supply of bar code printers and scanners, notes Markgraaf.
According to the SITA Web site, the contract relates to the "acquisition of 530 bar code printers and scanners and a further unspecified quantity for a period of 12 months".
Markgraaf says it is likely Baraka will be called on to supply more than the initial 530. "They will be used for scanning appliances throughout a variety of state departments," he adds.
For a full list of the tender winners, visit the SITA Web site.
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