2010 Durban Website

Posted on 01 September, 2009 | 3 Comments

At our last 27Dinner meeting, we had Richard McClennan from Adapt-IT discussing the costs involved in the controversial R6.5m Durban 2010 website.

Quite simply, this is what he had to say…

1. R6.5m is NOT JUST for the website
2. R870,000 has been allocated to phase one of the website
3. The rest is for infrastructure
   • This includes Sharepoint Licensing
   • Implementation of sharepoint within Etekwini Municipality
   • Upgrading of systems within Etekwini Municipality
4. Language translation of 60,000 at R1 per word into 5 different languages. And possibly more in the future.

I have done work with government departments in the past and what I have found is that what you get in the brief and what you have quoted for, often is not what you end up doing.  So we included contingency amounts to cover us in the event that we go over and above the project brief.  Out of the 5 large projects I worked on, every one of them went way over budget, in some cases, double the budget.

Most of us are pretty much apalled at the design of the site, well, you should be, because the design was not not by experts, it is what the customer wants.  And with my experience in government work, I know that you cannot argue with them.  The site’s inital designs were very cutting edge, but the client wanted simplicity.  And that’s what they got, a simply boring website.  Don’t blame Adapt-IT for that.

So if you look at the bigger picture, where the money has been allocated and how government works then it’s not as bad as the press has made it out to be.

I really want to commend Adapt-IT for being as transparent as they can, and for not letting this dog lie.  They have actively gone out to explain themselves, and I can honestly say that is a lot more than what most government departments have done.

3 Responses to “2010 Durban Website”

1. evl says:
   September 1st, 2009 at 1:25 pm

   That makes sense

2. Arthur Charles Van Wyk says:
   September 13th, 2009 at 11:03 pm

   sadly I could not attend the 27Dinner.. I was working on a number of client websites and planning a talk on social media for a signage exhibition at the time..

   As an I.T company does Adapt-IT not know that open source is the future?

   Secondly, a major part of developing websites includes client or customer education. That is why the client does what he or she does best and you do what you do best. I assume they got the tender because they were considered “the best”. Ande being the best at what you do includes explaining to the client why you do what you do so well. You explain design aesthetics, navigation, emarketing follow-thru, optimisation etc..

   As a web developer your job is to let the client know in no uncertain terms that the last person whose use the website is developed for is the client. It’s a projection of the client, but it’s not for his use.. and who understands the use of websites better than a company that develops websites..

   Excuses..

3. Paul says:
   February 5th, 2010 at 11:13 pm

   Well said Charles, a client might say I want an e-commerce site that is the business requirement, as the experts the developer claims to be in this case Adapt-IT they need to draw the line and setup bounderies which the client cannot cross as far as layout navigation etc, the point is you have said it well more than I could.

   PM

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website