The City of Cape Town's .Net Competency Centre was yesterday awarded the SA Bureau of Standards' ISO 9001 certification, and Microsoft has committed to a $300 000 (R2.1 million) sponsorship to enhance its intellectual property (IP).
Speaking at the handing over ceremony to mark the completion of the two-year project to obtain the certification, Microsoft SA's developer and platform group director, Danny Naidoo, said: "I have done a search of Microsoft's databases and could find no other city in the world with a similar certification. I would say this is the first certification of its kind for a municipality."
The ISO 9001 certification is awarded when an organisation has put in place the necessary systems to properly document developments on its procedures, representing that best practices are in place for processes, products and services with respect to quality.
"It is because the City of Cape Town has taken the time and trouble to get this certification that Microsoft is able to partner with it in developing the 'Smart IP' concept. This means Cape Town will be promoted as a development centre to attract skilled people to develop applications that other local government agencies could use, and so not duplicate the investment," Naidoo said.
Nirvesh Sooful, City of Cape Town CIO, said the certification of the city's ICT business units was one of the ways in which to build a base for the future skills and competencies that will be needed in local government.
"The first project under the 'Smart IP' banner will be the writing of a new land information system, which already has mayoral approval," he said.
Sooful said the SAP unit had already received its certification and that a project was under way to obtain a certification for its broadband infrastructure roll-out.
"A certification for our open source competency centre is also being considered. However, just how it will be done and what it will entail still has to be worked out," he said.
Isabel Gweru, applications manager for the City of Cape Town, said the city would increasingly seek to develop its own applications rather than trying to buy them and then alter them to fit its needs.
"With the skills we have developed within our .Net Competency Centre it would be fruitless for us to purchase these applications, as these would still have to be changed in order to meet our needs," she said.
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