Procurement & Implementation Support

The role of IPA in Planning & Procurement is to ensure that systems and services are procured that are in line with both the strategic direction of the University and also in-line with target infrastructure reference architecture.

This approach ensures that quality of service is not compromised and that adequate resources and skills are available to support proposed architectures. IPA performs the following roles in the procurement cycle:

• Provide ICT Architecture Design Services.
• Contribute to the procurement of IT goods and services through the creation of Request for Tender, Request for Quotation and Request for Information documents based on IPA approved architectures and designs.
• Management of the review of tender and quotation response reviews from a technical and operational paradigm perspective.

System Implementation and Integration is a critical service provided by Systems Infrastructure department. This service requires a fair amount of planning for the preparation of the environment for the commissioning of required equipment. This work is carried out in conjunction with the Data Services Group to ensure that appropriate space, power and air facilities are available for the respective infrastructure.

As the needs of the University changes, higher processing and storage capabilities are required. These infrastructure implementations are increasingly complex and require careful planning to ensure high availability and continuity of services.

In addition, integration requirements are increasing and as such complexity of infrastructure can exceed beyond good operational practice and therefore best practice architecture, monitoring tools, resources and planning are required to reduce complexities and thus improve manageability of these systems.

Implementation and Integration service delivery incorporates:

• Hardware environmental planning
• Hardware commissioning
• Operational planning for monitoring and maintenance of equipment
• Resource Planning
• Roadmap Planning