Johannesburg, 30 Jun 2005
Symantec South Africa welcomed the recent harvest reaped by the many Feed the People farms across SA, as remote projects were able to update their records and harvest revenues on computers supported centrally by donated Symantec PC Anywhere software. The implementation of remote IT support cut unnecessary support costs and allowed the farmers to focus on what's important - their crop.
Feed The People approached Symantec when the organisation identified the need to expand its operations to new, isolated locations. Sound business ethics and principles underline a commitment to developing self-sufficient and independent projects, as each Feed The People project must meet stringent financial reporting criteria - set by the various donor agencies and foundations that assist the non-governmental organisation financially.
This requires that IT infrastructure be implemented as an element of each project, to enable the feedback of project reports to the organisation's central management. Symantec's community development commitment prompted the company to donate 30 copies of their PC Anywhere software to Feed The People, to support them in establishing these new projects.
Placing computers in rural projects is essential, but creates a new set of challenges and hurdles for project administrators - primarily local farmers. Symantec PC Anywhere assisted in combating these challenges, as a remote access system that would allow the central NGO administrators to support the rural sites in the event of computer problems, as well as checking records and revenue to meet the requirements of the donors.
"Introducing computers into isolated, rural and tribal areas has been a test of our capacity to maintain the impetus of our developmental mandate," commented Garrett Hutton, national co-ordinator, Feed The People South Africa. "We have learnt many lessons and realised that we could not be successful without an infrastructure management and support solution. The combined cost of downtime and actual support would be untenable. These rural regions stand the chance of emerging into the computer age, with all of its associated benefits. This converged with our urgent desire to develop their local micro economies. Symantec's PC Anywhere afforded us the opportunity to attend to a percentage of the difficulties experienced by these inaccessible projects on a remote computer basis, thereby reducing the strain on our infrastructure as we establish an increasing number of remote sites."
"Symantec South Africa is delighted to be able to work closely with an NGO such as Feed The People, which has a clear vision of how IT can help them champion their cause to uplift underprivileged communities; through the provision of feasible, continual food security. Symantec PC Anywhere is the world's leading remote control solution that works across platforms, automatically adjusting for optimum performance across any kind of connection. Supporting community development in this country is critical and it is even more gratifying when we can donate our technology to support projects such as this," commented Patrick Evans, regional director, Symantec sub-Saharan Africa.
The NGO identified 20 projects for the initial roll-out, which will be extended after the first year period and as they implement projects across SA. The organisation is involved in conventional (soil) farming and organic farming, as well as hydroponic farming spanning all types of vegetables, berries and flowers. Feed The People caters for small and large commercial farmers and spans the breadth of standalone independent commercial farming systems, collective training farms, community projects and special export projects. Farmers joining Feed The People do so in the knowledge that they will be competitive in world terms, benefiting from technology transfer that also introduces the latest international information and techniques.
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