Ariel Technologies has fought off stiff competition to win a multimillion rand tender for the development and maintenance of the Office of the Chief Surveyor General (CSG)'s spatial information system.

The tender was plucked from the grasp of, among others, a powerful consortium involving a number of organisations including Hewlett-Packard, Spescom, Africon and Pretoria University, as well as contracting firm Megasub and three Autodesk Geographic Information System (GIS) dealers. Chief Surveyor General, Apie van den Berg, says the contract involves the CSG's total requirements, from its Autodesk World-based software and development, to manpower, support and training, for a period of two years.

Computer Foundation, Ariel Technology's specialist GIS business unit, will undertake the work required in terms of the contract. Computer Foundation is no stranger to the CSG, having provided its GIS requirements for the previous five-year contract, which terminated at the end of November 1999.

Says van den Berg: "In awarding the tender, the State Tender Board considered not only price but also the supplier's contribution to the RDP as well as its affirmative action policies.

"Another important criterion was that we wanted a single supplier: one company that would take accountability for the whole contract." Wilhelm Herbst, Managing Director of Computer Foundation, comments: "The award of this hotly contended tender - which even survived an objection - proves once again that Computer Foundation is the leader in supply of GIS solutions in this country, as well as the only one that can supply a complete solution under one roof."

The contract covers the GIS requirements of all four offices of the CSG - Pietermaritzburg, Bloemfontein, Pretoria and Cape Town - which will be serviced by Computer Foundation's head office in Centurion and two of its branch offices in Cape Town and Durban.

About Computer Foundation:

An Ariel Technologies subsidiary, Computer Foundation is a South African market leader in the supply of spatial solutions, with offices in Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Maseru and Gaberone.

It lays claim to being the largest supplier of the Autodesk range of GIS products which include AutoCAD Map, Autodesk World and Autodesk MapGuide and the first Autodesk Authorised System Centre in this country, in the GIS and mapping applications arena.

Adding to its capabilities in the GIS arena in South Africa, Computer Foundation is also a reseller of MapInfo Professional, the most widely used GIS software for commercial applications.

Computer Foundation also supplies and supports ER Mapper.

The company has enviable capabilities in the development of a large range of mapping software based on the products in its portfolio.

One of its major achievements is the development of the world's first Autodesk interface to Oracle's spatial capability which complies with Open GIS (OGIS) Consortium standards for SQL at database level. Computer Foundation also supplies a wide range of support services which include technical support, training, project management, consulting and data brokering.

Computer Foundation

(012) 672 0100