LOC marches on

Johannesburg, 24 Feb 2009

Despite the postponement of a briefing and demonstration on the state of ICT readiness for the Confederations Cup and 2010 Fifa World Cup, the LOC says its plans are progressing.

The briefing was scheduled to be held in Pretoria today and communications minister Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri was to demonstrate the state of readiness of the ICT infrastructure at Loftus stadium. However, the briefing was postponed at the request of the minister - but no details were given for the postponement and a new date for the briefing was not set.

The Department of Communications had planned the briefing to illustrate its capability to deliver on its guarantees to Fifa with regards to the 2010 World Cup. These guarantees include the provision of relevant telecommunications and information technology for venue locations, a media centre and the international broadcasting centre.

The CEO of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), Danny Jordan, along with representatives from Telkom, Sentech and SABC, were also scheduled to be present at the briefing.

LOC searches

Meanwhile, the LOC continues with plans to provide office solutions for venue locations and offices for the soccer championships.

The LOC has issued a request for quotation and information (RFQ&I) for print, scan, copy and fax solutions for both the Confederations Cup, in June, and the 2010 World Cup. The closing date for submissions is 3 March and the winning bid will be announced shortly afterwards.

The LOC says it is looking for a “large” number of serviced machines and additional services around these for the four Confederations Cup venues and 10 2010 venues. It says the expected value of the tender cannot be revealed as the tender process is still open.

The committee states it is looking for “reputable” service providers who have the capability and capacity to provide a turnkey solution during the two soccer championships. The service providers should demonstrate their possession of adequate capacity in the skilled resources envisaged for deployment in the operations of this project.

Additionally, the RFQ&I requires a comprehensive proposal detailing the extensive possession of the required volumes of various models of printers, copiers, scanners and faxes, and a “detailed robust execution plan, project management capability, pragmatic deployment methodology, ability to execute seamless event-related operations and world-class service delivery”.

The LOC says the successful bidder will be one with capacity and a national presence, will prove that it can provide the committee with the deployment of the solution at the venue locations, and has proven experience and a track record in events of similar magnitude.