/ 13 November 2003

R1bn contract takes Eskom to 2005

Eskom on Thursday announced a continuation of its relationship with Arivia.kom with the signing of a service-level agreement contract worth more than R1-billion to address Eskom’s information technology requirements to the end of 2005.

Eskom supplies more than 50% of the electricity consumed on the African continent.

Arivia.kom’s solution comprises infrastructure and application support that includes mainframe, midrange, network, helpdesk and distributed computing environments as well as business solutions.

This will enable Eskom to focus on its core business and continue providing value-added services to its clients.

Dr Steve Lennon, MD of Eskom’s Resources and Strategy Group, said: “Our relationship with Arivia.kom is business-driven and focused on business transformation. Both organisations are commercially driven and the agreement holds financial benefits for both parties. We jointly developed a competitive pricing model based on value-for-money delivery.”

Output-based service level agreements and metrics will be used to measure service performance and ensure consistent achievement of agreed targets. Regular assessments of service level, target and pricing metrics will take place.

These assessments will also ensure that IT services remain relevant and aligned to Eskom’s changing business needs.

Arivia.kom CEO Zeth Malele noted: “Our long-term agreements enable us mutually to develop the IT and energy business platform that will support both Eskom’s and arivia.kom’s initiatives into the rest of Africa, and contribute to the achievement of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development’s objectives.”