Group Information Technology
Mandate
Group IT is responsible for ensuring the effective delivery of IT systems, infrastructure and
processes to support Eskom’s business objectives and business processes. From the safety of
its people, to the experience of its customers and to the efficiency of its power stations, Group IT
plays a vital role in achieving Eskom’s aspiration of becoming a high-performance organisation,
and in the running of the day-to-day operations of the business.
Operational overview
Group IT continued to implement its sourcing strategy, with all major software contracts now
concluded. This will result in 85% of all Group IT spend being covered by enabling agreements,
resulting in significant financial savings for Eskom.
The Agisana project, which is intended to support the National Infrastructure Development Plan,
gathered pace during the year. Eskom was asked by the Department of Public Enterprises to
assume the programme implementation, integration and coordination role for
SIP 01 (strategic
infrastructure project). Eskom leveraged its previous fit-for-purpose study and its relationship with
Oracle to configure and pilot a project management and monitoring solution using the Primavera
product. The solution was successfully demonstrated to the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating
Commission (PICC) management committee. Eskom will manage the new Primavera licences on
behalf of all the state-owned entities.
There was a successful go-live of the new online vending system on 22 July 2013. The system
performance has been good, where Eskom has witnessed a maximum of 131 transactions per
second and more than 1 200 transactions per minute. A total of 807 052 transactions in a day
was also recorded.
The mobility application has been rolled out to the Eskom business enabling Eskom employees
to request and approve leave, and approve travel claims via a mobile device. This innovation
will change the way Eskom works. By enabling these transactions on mobile devices, Eskom
employees will be able to have quick and easy access from anywhere to day-to-day self-service
functions, leading to an improvement in employee agility, efficiency and a better IT experience.
The piloted power management software has been rolled out to the full complement of Windows 7
users in Eskom and includes enhanced power management rules for both desktops and laptops.
The Megawatt Park data centre remains a priority one risk with unplanned failures of components
and environment likely to occur, causing unavailability of major systems and processes. The risk
is addressed through Eskom’s business continuity and disaster management procedures.
The information security programme is underway and will receive continued focus until completion.
This programme will assist in mitigating two of Eskom’s priority one IT risk, namely cyber security
threats and information security attacks resulting in electricity supply interruptions, productivity
and data loss and damage to Eskom’s reputation, and confidential data leakage or data falling
into the wrong hands, leading to tarnishing of Eskom’s image and reputation. The programme
includes, but is not limited to, new software for data leakage prevention, new firewalls, laptop
encryption and a security operations centre.
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