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Small company part of consortium that wins e-schools tender
One of the companies in The Innovation Hub's pre-incubation programme has made a remarkable breakthrough by securing a slice of a huge Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) ICT contract. With it's solution for integrated multimedia hardware for schools, iClass made the grade as part of the team of three of the six heavyweight ICT companies who were jointly awarded the multi-million Rand tender for supplying Gauteng schools with personal computers (PC's) and other related technology.
Left Fulton Ramaphakela, Jimmy Tefo and Steven Letswela [seated]. |
The GautengOnline project is aimed at turning public schools into e-schools by providing every school in the province with 25 PC's and an e-mail address for every learner by 2006. The winning bidders for the three-year R700 million contracts are Mustek/Mecer, Hewlett Packard, Business Connexion, Sahara, Pinnacle and Dell. iClass is a member of the Mustek/Mecer, Hewlett Packard and Business Connexion consortium.
Entrepreneur Fulton Ramaphakela, CEO of iClass, says he approached the GDE about two years ago with his idea of an integrated multimedia product to be utilised as a learning tool, shortly after premier Mbhazima Shilowa announced GautengOnline. "I realised that 25 PC's for a school with about 800 learners is not sufficient, as this will offer each learner only about an hour-long opportunity every two weeks to work with a computer. A possible solution to boost this important initiative to turn learners into smart kids, was the introduction to classes of a single integrated multimedia product - an all-in-one TV, PC, radio, VCR- and DVD-player, that also allows satellite connection and can be used for content delivery.
"Wonderful idea, I was told, along with a some friendly advice to knock on the door of The Innovation Hub in order to start putting my ideas to work. Using a TV-unit as the magic box, we built about seven prototypes before we became a member of the consortium bidding for the tender," he said.
For GautengOnline iClass will assemble security units to enclose the computers and other technology, and help with the roll-out and installation of the hardware. "At this stage our first urgent priority is to set up a full production line with quality controls. It's time for delivery, but I believe this is the beginning of bigger things," according to Ramaphakela.
iClass is a company in Moloko Group Holdings. It started off as Moloko Information Systems, but in 2000 Ramaphakela decided it was necessary to diversify. Through development and acquisition, the Group now has four companies and employs 42 people. He started the company with money he had saved while working as a salaried employee - without a loan from a financial institution. Most of the employees are from Thembisa, where Ramaphakela grew up. They joined the group straight after school and have been developed and trained on the job. Some of them are managers now.
The Innovation Hub is one of 11 major Blue IQ projects, a multi billion Rand initiative by the Gauteng Provincial Government to stimulate economic growth. Its objective is to enhance innovative capacity and economic development of Gauteng. Among others, The Innovation Hub has a pre-incubator and incubator programme to support start-up and early stage knowledge driven companies to bring their innovative high-tech products to the market.
iClass Hybrid Multimedia Solutions is South Africa's first empowerment company active in developing multimedia delivery systems designed to converge existing telecoms, satellite content streaming, video, pc technology and storage within a single unit. Company MD Fulton Ramaphakela says their system has been developed to help meet South Africa's educational needs through the e-School, as conceptualised by the e-Africa commission, the ICT implementation arm of NEPAD, as the preferred model for modernising schools in Africa.
"Given the infrastructure we can build with the support of the Blue IQ and SERA resources, we can expand this concept to a facility, culture and environment that can make an important impact in achieving the goals set out in the Gauteng Provincial Government's economic strategy. In addition, initiatives like The Innovation Hub will help to build and keep world-class IT and other high-tech capacity in South Africa by creating an environment in which skilled and talented people can thrive and compete globally," he says.
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