While government faces the ambitious and all-embracing task of getting SA’s ICT infrastructure up to scratch, scarce skills in the country could impact the state’s programme.

This was one of the issues raised in an address by president Jacob Zuma in response to the debate on the State of the Nation address (SONA) at the National Assembly, in Cape Town, yesterday.

“Government set itself the task of increasing broadband penetration, reducing ICT costs, developing national broadband legislation, developing wholesale backbone infrastructure, rolling out digital terrestrial television and local loop unbundling,” said Zuma. He pointed out, however, that minister of economic development Ebrahim Patel has called attention to the lack of skills in, among others, engineering, technology and science – which “could impact on the infrastructure programme.”

Zuma said it is for this reason that government introduced programmes such as the ‘Youth into Science Strategy’, aimed at encouraging learners to pursue science, engineering, technology and mathematics studies at a tertiary level. “In particular, we need to increase the numbers of graduates in engineering and the sciences.”

The Department of Higher Education, added Zuma, is working with deans of the relevant faculties at SA’s tertiary education institutes in order to determine short- to medium-term strategies to reach the 2014 graduate output targets for these insufficient skills.

“I will meet with the principals of Further Education and Training Colleges in April to discuss their role in producing the skills that will make our economy grow faster and be sustainable.”

Zuma’s SONA last week Thursday revealed government’s R330 billion infrastructure plan for 2012, going forward. He said government would engage in a massive infrastructure development drive, which will be driven by the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission.

Zuma said the investment in infrastructure must leave more than just power stations, rail-lines, dams and roads. “It must industrialise the country, generate skills and boost much-needed job creation.”

While this focus on infrastructure development was seen as an encouraging step by the Black IT Forum, the opposition party questioned government’s capacity to source the funds needed for the projects.

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The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has published invitations to apply (ITAs) for commercial sound broadcasting in the primary and secondary markets, as well as subscription broadcasting services.

In the primary markets, the authority intends to award six licences – two licences to applicants in the geographical markets in Gauteng, two in the metropolitan areas of and around Durban and a further two licences in the metropolitan areas of and around Cape Town for frequencies on the medium wave band.

In the secondary markets licensing process, the authority intends to award four licenses – one licence in the Northern Cape, two in Free State and one in the Eastern Cape.

The number of licences to be issued for subscription broadcasting services will be determined by the level of compliance with the requirements set out in the ITA.

Take control by embracing your logistics service providers and using insourcing in three easy step.

Few organisations today will contest the results that outsourcing can achieve – both from a capital- and cost-reduction perspective. Rarely does implementing the outsource model come without challenges, however. Gaps in communication. Incompatible technologies. Contractual restrictions. These can all interfere with the quality of your service levels.

Over the last five to seven decades the argument for outsourcing has taken a firm hold of logistics experts. But research* of the past five years shows a failure among organisations to fully integrate the logistics functions – both those that are outsourced and those that are managed directly or ‘internally’. The result is a high degree of ‘unhappiness’ with the outsourcing of the warehouse and transport functions.

While many organisations have incorporated outsourcing as part of their logistics strategy at decision makiing levels, they are frustrated by a perceived lack of control. It is with this problem in mind that Cargo Carriers has created new meaning for the term ‘insourcing’. And such a model is not difficult to embrace, if one is to change one’s approach by taking three simple steps.

Insourcing – Build Closer Relationships

“Strategic relationships are key to success,” says Cargo Carriers Marketing Director, Andre Jansen van Vuuren. “The market place demands that organisations need to inject greater flexibility and competitiveness into their supply chain system. Developing closer relationships with their outsourced service providers gives them much more visibility and the flexibility that high service levels require.” A glass pipeline is, after all, only as good as the information it conveys up and down stream.

As a leading supply chain solutions provider, Cargo Carriers in some instances even establishes offices at their clients’ premises to adopt their culture and circumvent potential communication breakdowns. “Closing the information loop through ‘insourced relationships’ can enhance the typical benefits of outsourcing,” says Jansen van Vuuren. “With greater strategic alignment the costs can be reduced further for our clients. As their control increases so does their visibility, flexibility and responsiveness – all contributing to better service levels.”

Insourcing – Create a Virtual Team

To build sustainable success into the integrated ‘insourced’ model, collaboration from both sides is vital. It enables improved planning and forecasting, coping with increased volumes and, importantly, eradicating the organisation’s skills shortage.

Research* shows that companies endowed with superior supply chain management skills enjoy greater success in terms of their ability to service the market. The same research tells us that these companies are pursuing strategic relationships with their logistics service providers – augmenting their own skills base by tapping into their partners’ expertise on a variable cost basis.

Insourcing – Forget the Crystal Ball

With the global supply chain environment changing at an ever-faster pace, the ability to predict demand cycles with any certainty is becoming increasingly difficult. In a market place where customer needs are continually evolving and lead times are shrinking, it is visibility and flexibility that enable the kind of responsiveness which leads to competitive advantage.

The only way to satisfy customer expectations is having the ability to respond quickly to changes in demand. This agility is enabled through tight-knit teams (whether outsourced or not) collaborating for improved communication and higher levels of organisational control.

It’s how you do it

Cargo Carriers’ approach towards ‘insourced’ relationships is simple. A unit comprising representatives from the client and from the logistics solutions specialist is first established. An optimised and integrated supply chain model is conceived, engineered and designed. This model is implemented in line with a cost-benefit proposal and within an agreed timeframe.

“We become consultative,” says Jansen van Vuuren. “We can never fully know a client’s business as well as it does, but our advice is based on theory as well as practical considerations. Our experience obviously comes into play. And as the ‘insource’ partner we need to ”walk the talk”. But the true value we offer lies in our ethos of continually improving supply chain efficiencies for competitive advantage. The environment never stops evolving, so why should your solutions‘”

http://www.gbn.co.za/articles/dailynews/2618/0.html

South Africa is the world’s 31st-largest economy, according to World Bank data for 2009 and is less than a quarter the size of the smallest “BRIC” economy, Russia, in the informal grouping that also numbers Brazil, India and China.

“There are a number of requests to join BRIC, in particular an application by the South African republic,” Medvedev told a news conference, saying other members agreed.

Some economists have already dubbed fast-growing Indonesia as the next “BRIC”, a term invented in 2001 by Jim O’Neill, the chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

When contacted by Reuters for his view on whether South Africa should be included, O’Neill issued a terse reply: “No”.

South Africa’s economy is projected by its government to grow just 2.3 percent this year, hardly the blistering pace seen in other BRIC countries.

The BRIC countries have sought greater clout for their grouping, holding a summit in Russian in 2009.

Some investors make asset allocations based on the BRIC classification and all of the countries that currently make up the grouping have seen their global financial clout increase substantially in recent years.

(Reporting by Gleb Bryanski and Alan Wheatley; Writing by David Chance; Editing by John Chalmers)

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