Systems integrator Datacentrix has scored a R298 million outsourcing deal with the South African National Parks (SANParks).
Datacentrix was awarded a five-year contract for the full outsource of SANParks’ network and infrastructure services across more than 100 sites nationwide.
SANParks is a public entity under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environmental Affairs. The organisation manages a system of 19 functional national parks in seven of South Africa’s nine provinces, with a total area of just over four million hectares (comprising 67% of the protected areas under state management).
In the past two decades, seven new national parks have been established, totalling over 700 000 hectares, with much of this being in under-conserved ecological areas such as the Succulent Karoo and Fynbos Biomes.
Datacentrix was accounted for as a 100%-owned subsidiary of Alviva with effect from February 2017 after Alviva finalised the acquisition of the remainder of shares of Datacentrix that it did not already own in January that year.
Alviva says it paid out R563 million for the acquisition, although the original amount reported when the deal was first announced was R541 million.
Datacentrix is a complete ICT systems integrator that provides solutions and services across the full information value chain. It listed on the main board of the JSE in 1998 and delisted on 14 February 2017, after being acquired by Alviva.
SANParks’ requirement for a single service aggregator will see Datacentrix manage multiple suppliers of both ICT and business services, providing a single business-facing ICT organisation.
The systems integrator says this approach aims to seamlessly integrate interdependent services from various internal and external service providers into an end-to-end service, meeting SANParks’ business requirements of service optimisation, maturity and innovation.
In this role, Datacentrix will also deliver network services. The company notes that the network and connectivity services will be delivered by eNetworks, a wholly-owned Datacentrix company.
It points out that SANParks needs a robust network to pave the way for its future technology plans. This necessitates a complete reengineering of the network.
It will also offer infrastructure services. According to Datacentrix, the full outsource solution involves having a team on site to deliver day-to-day infrastructure support, managing SANParks’ servers, desktops and Exchange, including 24x7 helpdesk services, environment monitoring services, as well as third party aggregation services.
“Our appointment as the SANParks outsource partner is a significant accolade to Datacentrix, proving that, as a company, we are executing our vision of becoming the ICT partner of choice to both corporate and public sector South Africa,” says Savan Marimuthu, senior account manager at Datacentrix.
“The tender was awarded to us based on the strength of our managed services track record of more than 15 years, as well as our solid understanding of SANParks’ business environment, cost effectiveness and Level One empowerment rating. Our dedication to enterprise development – through our network of SMMEs that will assist in the delivery of this project – and the level of innovation that was applied to architecting the solution put forward to SANParks, were also key criteria in Datacentrix clinching this deal.”
Share