Johannesburg, 09 Jun 2009
SPI, a leading African distributor for utility software products and services to the open systems segment of the IT industry, today announced that UNISA had implemented the Optio software product for its new registration processes.
In 2004, UNISA combined with two other tertiary educational institutions, Technikon SA and the distance education component of Vista University (VUDEC), to form the new UNISA.
A decision was taken following this merger for the new UNISA to standardise on the Elexir product for its registration processes. This product was originally supplied by Xerox and was being used by the 'old' UNISA. Technikon Southern Africa was previously using FormScape and VUDEC was using software from Optio Software. However, in 2008, support for Elexir had become almost non-existent, and thus a replacement system was urgently required for the impending 2009 registrations.
“We requested a proof of concept (POC) from several vendors, and subjected the products to an extensive evaluation,” commented Vic Stipinovich, IT Director for UNISA. “We found that each of the products evaluated could do the job; however, the Optio solution needed less customisation than the others and the support and expertise that SPI offered was immensely superior to that which was offered by the other vendors.”
“As a direct result of this, we engaged SPI for this assignment,” added Stipinovich. The modifications we required were undertaken successfully and within the time constraints for the new registration processes.”
“We have had a long and successful relationship with SPI and were already using the Xi products that they had supplied to us several years ago,” added Stipinovich, “so in many ways, this was a natural extension to this partnership. There is no doubt that we made the best and most cost-effective decision for UNISA.”
“We are delighted that we have been able to extend our long-term relationship with UNISA,” concluded Chris Anderson, Managing Director of SPI. “In addition, the decision was that much sweeter, as we were the preferred Bottomline Technologies distributor for undertaking this project.”
UNISA is a South Africa-based open learning and distance education institution. Its vision is to become Africa's premier distance education provider and one that serves every country on the continent by transcending all language and cultural barriers.
For further information, please contact Chris Anderson at tel: +27 11 234 1560; fax +27 11 234 1387; e-mail chris@spi.co.za.
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