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Thread: Traffic information system

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    Traffic information system

    From IOL TODAY:
    The contract of Tasima, the consortium that had engineered the troubled electronic national traffic information system (eNatis), would be extended, Mpumi Mpofu, director-general of transport, said yesterday.

    The system has caused frustration among people anxious to renew their vehicle registrations. Mpofu said the government procurement system included a built-in 15 percent escalation of the R400 million contract price to take care of unforeseen crises, and this would be used to work on eNatis. The contract was due to expire this month.

    Contractors worked at the weekend to speed up the communications system, said eNatis project officer Werner Koekemoer, who expected it to run smoothly from now on.


    Transport minister Jeff Radebe said eNatis held great promise for the future. - Michael Hamlyn

    This article first appeared in Business Report


    Am I missing something here?

    The system did not function - surely no additional financial reward should be paid to the contractors?

    Yvonne

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    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yvonne Symons View Post
    The system did not function - surely no additional financial reward should be paid to the contractors?
    Maybe that is a bit harsh? There have certainly been implementation problems, but it doesn't mean the system does not work, or is not good. Whoever handled the switch over, from old to new, should be fired though...
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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    For R400 million I'm trying to imagine just how big and complex this installation really is. I'm assuming that includes hardware....

    But that is one heck of an IT bill. It's gotta rival Bill Gate's "intelligent home".

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    I accept your point of view, being in the industry you are more likely to know more than I.

    A project of this magnitude should not "Reward" failure.
    Consider if you will the domino affect of any project, of any size, with the identical outcome.
    For example: Gautrain
    Infrastructure for 2010
    Schools, clinics and Hospitals


    Yvonne

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    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
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    I hear you Yvonne. For R400mil you expect it to work. No work, no pay...
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    First, let's look at the alleged problem. The server(s) just ain't up to the job.

    What happens from there really depends on the nature of the contract.

    If this was a turnkey contract, then price agreed is the final price paid upon delivery of an appropriate working product. A serverside or software issue would be the contractor's problem. However, needing additional workstations above the original spec. quantity would be at the goverment's expense.

    If, however, the contract wasn't turnkey, and the spec. was defined in the tender and met by the provider, it's whoever set the spec. that should be in for the high jump.

    And given the highly technical nature I'm pretty sure that spec. would have been outsourced....

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    allrighty then....

    Supply of 4 servers, all 4 being backups for each other, load balancing, fibre optic communication channels between them...

    4 times 1mb Hellkom ADSL line, goverment can use their influence to get it bumped to 4mb each, plus 2times isdn lines for backup...

    Total cost for hardware... 2mill

    Software: Joomla, free... get it here, http://www.joomla.org (example on my main site, click my logo)

    Back-end scripting and application programming cost, rough estimate at 100k..

    Total cost, 2.1mill...

    So it's safe to say the other 399.79 mill has gone in Mercs, Beemers, and nice chandeliers to go with the new homes bought for those involved.... There is no way that a system could cost 400mill, unless our goverment has picked up tips from the Americans about an ashtray costing $37.50 and a sheet of paper costing $3.25, all in the name of funneling money elsewhere...

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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    There are a few things to add to the list.

    Add cost of end user terminals and printers, cable installation, hookup, travel and accomodation costs (the installation is country wide)... based on (my wild guestimate of) about 2000 end user terminals?

    A different approach, but that works out to roughly R200 000.00 per terminal.

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    Email problem RKS Computer Solutions's Avatar
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    The 400mill didn't include new terminals/etc... As far as I know, having some contact with goverment, the new system was put in place because local servers in every city could just be uploaded with the new terminal software for the dumb-terminals to work from...

    The upgrade was put in place knowing that the current systems would only need the upgrade of a local server (which could be done remotely) and all the terminals would automatically connect and start with the new software...

    Figure that out....

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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Sounds like somebody must have made a little bit of money out of all this.

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