Johannesburg, 25 Jan 2005
The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality has partnered with Bytes Technology Networks (BTN), in a project worth about R12 million, to upgrade and replace much of its existing networking infrastructure.
The project is part of the Ekurhuleni vision to become a smart, creative and developmental Metro, as well as to bring improved automated services to the people of its regions which extend across Alberton, Benoni, Boksburg, Kempton Park Tembisa, Germiston, Springs, Nigel, Brakpan, Lethabong and the Eastern Gauteng Services Municipality.
Says Colin Pillay, Executive Director: ICT at the Ekurhuleni Metro: "One of the challenges facing local government is getting services to the people, especially those in outlying areas and those without transport. Government has taken a strategic decision to start reaching these people via the use of technology - a decision we have been only too happy to embrace."
As part of a phased project BTN is working with the Metro to redo its entire networking infrastructure in the area, starting with Benoni, Boksburg and Kempton Park. According to Pillay, not only was the existing network old but it was already battling to handle the existing network traffic, without even the consideration of new services and applications being rolled out across the region.
"Our goal is to create a first-class network that is able to scale to accommodate the provision of e-services to the citizens in our region. Once we had identified the need to upgrade our infrastructure, we then took the decision to standardise on Cisco hardware for the job. The third phase of which was to go out to tender and identify a services and installation partner to facilitate the roll-out - this is where BTN was selected," adds Pillay.
BTN was selected out of 30 other parties which tendered for the business which has been touted as the largest Cisco networking deal in 2004. According to Pillay, the Metro wanted a partner who was competitively priced, had a good relationship with Cisco and its technology, had the backing of a large organisation, and has a strong black empowerment element to its business mix.
"BTN, being part of the Altron group, having Kagiso as its empowerment partner and being so willing to accommodate as opposed to dictate our business needs, knocked the pants off of the Cisco Gold Partners in this country. In addition to which BTN is also prepared to assist us in setting up an academy within the Metro - the CNAP academy is a very important component of our business going forward. On a social responsibility level BTN has come on board as a partner to us sponsoring our soccer ball challenge and getting involved in our golf day," adds Pillay.
One of Pillay`s main aims is to get the entire Metro networked on fibre as well as exploit wireless networking where ever possible. The new networking infrastructure is to be a high-speed, multi-service-capable, state-of-the-art voice and data, video technology infrastructure. While BTN is not at this stage involved in the voice component of the deal, the Metro`s desire is to move away from traditional PABX and skill up to take advantage of VOIP in the Metro - driving telecoms costs down by running the service on its VPN.
Looking ahead, Pillay states that the Metro will be looking to roll-out a full ERP suite for the Metro, deploy business intelligence tools, standardise its backend database systems on Oracle, move towards running Linux on the desktop as well as the backend and build true e-government services for the people and deliver these through Web-based platforms.
As part of Pillay`s vision, he would also like to roll-out a digital village programme for the community to assist in bridging the digital divide, and create a full portal of municipal services delivered and rolled out to the people through the villages. In addition to which he is keenly concentrating on the improvement and roll-out of healthcare systems and services throughout the Metro.
Says Patrick Hastings, regional director, Gauteng at BTN: "This is a very exciting deal for us at BTN as it allows us to exploit a variety of our skills and capabilities on one project. While we are working on the infrastructure side of the project we have also managed to fulfil the role of trusted advisor, as Colin and his team have turned to us on more than one occasion to ask us our opinion on their plans."
BTN has a full project manager on the project who is based on-site; he currently operates in a full advisory perspective, and is in charge of the full design of the network. In addition, the company is also responsible for maintenance of the site. As part of the deal, it was awarded the maintenance contract - to support new and existing data networking infrastructure for the Ekurhuleni Metro.
According to Pillay, he has also been very happy with BTN`s ability and willingness to work with some of its existing suppliers, such as Mfumo Data Cabling which is its preferred cabling partner.
"From a personal perspective my comfort levels are greatly improved as I have been able to hand over much of the day to day operational head aches caused by such a big project. The relationship between BTN and my own team has allowed me to separate myself from the everyday processes of the project.
"While no project is without challenges, we have jointly been able to shake out these before they become real problems. We continue to meet with Cisco at a strategic level and BTN`s own relationship with the vendor has been a great help with this," states Pillay.
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