Dear Reader Although born and bred an African, I never really grasped the whole ubuntu thing until recently. The notion that "the success of one is the success of many" and "the failure of one is the failure of many" has touched my heart over the past months. First we vividly experienced the shared ubuntu success with the aftermath of praise from across the globe for a successful Soccer World Cup. Then days thereafter we started witnessing the unfolding of orchestrated group efforts to force change, unfortunately with sometimes very negative results and pain for fellow citizens. A partnership between a service provider and a client is nothing else but ubuntu. Sometimes it goes well and both benefit and other times these relationships might suffer with negative consequences on both sides. In this edition we will celebrate the successes of ubuntu. You will read of our clients' successes at the Productivity Awards, an extended service contract as a result of five years of successful partnering, an invitation to attend the Pragma Customer Days and a very special cycling partnership that will reach its high point at the 2011 Absa Cape Epic mountain bike race. Look out for the 2011 Physical Asset Management Thought Leadership conference dates and book them in your diary. We are working hard to compile an interesting and hands-on conference that will create ubuntu for all. If you have material or a successful case study well worth sharing with fellow attendees, I would like to hear from you. Lastly, I would like to invite you to visit our Facebook site and tell us about your successful PAM stories. There is an exciting competition running with a Leatherman up for grabs for the winner. All the best for the last quarter of 2010. Let's trust that the economy will also start blooming with the change of the season. Yours in PAM Liza The 2011 ABSA Cape Epic an Epic journey in the true sense for Team Pragma Team Pragma, who will be participating in the 2011 ABSA Cape Epic mountain bike race, will truly be taking part in an Epic Journey. Gerrie Olivier, Pragma's most experienced and daring (maybe crazy at times) cyclist has invited Hein Wagner, adventurer and motivational speaker, to be his partner. If you know who Hein is, you have already come to the conclusion that he is beyond adventurous to enrol in something as extreme as a 900km off road race. For those who do not know Hein, he is an admirable person who has set aside the fact that he has been totally blind from birth to live an abundant life and never hesitate or stand back from any challenge. Read more... Visit Pragma on Facebook and partake in: Nepad Transport and Infrastructure Summit 13 - 15 October at the Gallagher Convention Centre Come and visit us at the Summit. We would love to touch base with you. Delmas Coal Compiled by Darryl Aberdein Delmas Coal went live with the ACC service on 1 August 2010. Implementation started in March this year with the AMIP assessment and subsequent development of the Asset Management Strategy, Policy and Standards Manuals. July was a hectic month in which schedules were finalised, staff trained, job card books printed and the like. All this was very able handled by the site team headed up by the AC Engineer, Quintus Theron. The Equipment Performance and Warehousing processes are to be rolled out over the next two months. Pragma's value-add verified By Adriaan Scheeres - CEO I am proud to be able to say that the value-add that my company delivers results in success for our clients. This was once again demonstrated at the regional Productivity SA Awards (Western Cape) when our clients stood out amongst the other participants. Fair Cape Dairies were awarded the first prize in the Corporate Sector and Sonnendal Dairies went through to the finals. In the Public Sector category, Mossie Mostert from Electrical Support Services, City of Cape Town (2009 regional and national winner) announced the 2010 winner. Mr Mostert not only mentioned Pragma as their partner but also gave tremendous praise to Pragma during his speech. Read more... Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality re-appointed Pragma Africa to operate their ACC within Electricity until June 2013 by Pierre Vermaak Ekurhuleni has entrusted the management of their R24 billions worth of maintenance of significant assets to Pragma for a further three years. Over the past five years, Pragma has built an excellent asset management base on which Ekurhuleni Electricity has gained control of their assets. Read more... Pragma Customer days around the corner Our annual regional customer days are running on the 7th, 11th and 13th of October. Be sure not to miss out on any of the exciting new ACC service and On Key 5 developments. View registration form (PDF) View programme (PDF) Read more... Physical Asset Management Thought Leadership Conference 2011 Date: 8-10 June 2011 Venue: Lord Charles Hotel, Cape Town Theme: PAM - the sustainable way Format: Day 1 and 2 industry streams on relevant PAM topics with supporting case studies. Day 3 Topical Workshops Conference investment: R3500pd (excl. VAT) Call for papers: Liza.Burger@pragmaworld.net Sponsors & exhibitions: Corneli.Vorster@pragmaworld.net Nkomati Mine ready to go live on the ACC Service by Darryl Aberdein Nkomati Mine, near to Barberton in Mpumalanga, is an old On Key client that decided to work closer with Pragma and implement an ACC service. The implementation is almost complete and the go-live date is 1 September 2010. Nkomati mine consists of an open pit operation, an underground operation and two separate processing plants. The mine is an old mine that was re-commissioned and expanded. Much of the maintenance of mobile mining equipment is outsourced, and so one of the biggest challenges for the ACC staff is to collect reliable maintenance and cost information so that sound asset replacement decisions can be taken. Read more...