SIA Solutions, the 60-40 business partnership between Tellumat and Harambe Technologies, is winning multimillion rand turnkey contracts and boasting the skills that prove BEE can add value beyond board level in ultra-high-tech fields such as aviation and meteorology.
SIA has won a number of contracts recently which are worth well over R12 million, says Colin Meintjes, executive director. These include:
* Automated weather observer systems (AWOS) for Lanseria International Airport.
* Project management and installation of 19 lightning detector sites for SA Weather Services.
* Sub-contracted for instrument landing system, distance measuring equipment (ILS-DME) and refurbishment of very high frequency omni-directional beacon for Bisho Airport.
* Fibre-optic communication infrastructure technology to Meraka Institute, a CSIR initiative.
* Several fibre-optic communications installations, including Airports Company of SA (ACSA), connecting specialised equipment to air-traffic control systems.
SIA also won a R20 million deal with ACSA shortly after inception in 2004, for aviation navigation aid (nav-aid) systems, and it has honoured and continues to honour multiple warranties for infrastructure supplied to ACSA, the SA Air Force, Air Traffic and Navigations Services (ATNS), which controls the civil airspace in SA, and for other customers where systems were implemented under the Tellumat or Plessey brands. Furthermore, it has maintenance agreements with the South African Air Force and provides ad-hoc maintenance for ACSA, ATNS, Lanseria Airport and other African countries, ie, Namibia DCA and Botswana DCA.
Ntsane Kolisang, marketing manager for SIA Solutions (and a director of Harambe), notes that true value-added BEE had been a shared value from the start of talks between Tellumat and Harambe. "Tellumat wanted a BEE entity with advanced technical skills to aid its nav-aids business, and Harambe wanted to be operationally involved with a company that is serious about BEE."
The company's first contract, the ACSA deal, which saw ILS-DME installations in Johannesburg, Durban and two in East London, proved the relationship was working, says Kolisang. In 2005, SIA was noted in ACSA's annual report as a Preferred Technology Supplier.
Staying close to its bread and butter aviation customers, nav-aids have been SIA's core business from the outset, but the company decided to also diversify into other relevant technologies - including fibre comms backbone technology, connect approach and en-route navigation equipment to control rooms, airport security systems, meteorological systems as well as advance surface movement guidance control systems (A-SMGCS) for use at airports.
SIA Solutions employs nine staff directly. With Tellumat's secondments on standby to provide additional expertise, this number reaches 13. The relationship with Tellumat, skills-wise, is strongest in evidence at Tellumat Technology Group, which brings expertise not just at systems level, but at a fundamental electronic (circuit board customisation) level as well.
SIA Solutions represents globally-renowned companies with leading technology including Selex Sistemi Integrati (Rome-based with presence in the US), US-based Sensis Corporation and Canadian-based SenStar Steller Corporation. SIA Solutions is now introducing GPS-based navigation systems and automatic dependent surveillance broadcast systems. This offering will ensure that SIA customers, mainly African, remain technologically proficient and on par with the best of the rest of the world.
Meintjes and Kolisang are agreed on the venture's success. "I am confident that the relationship persists in a way that remains true to its original intent," says Kolisang. "And that it has worked and paid off for both entities, as well as our customers, shareholders and other stakeholders," adds Meintjes.
For more information contact Rasheed Hargey, Tellumat, +27 (0)21 710 2911, rhargey@tellumat.com, www.tellumat.com
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