It’s a quiet week for National Treasury’s eTender Portal, as public sector procurement enters year-end slowdown. This is also demonstrated in the majority of advertisements featuring submission deadlines in January next year.
The biggest news on the portal this week is a notice from Eskom that its tender for the upgrade of its revenue management and billing system has been cancelled.
Advertised in August, the utility initially said the upgrades to the “mission-critical” system would help it address several challenges, deliver new functionality, improve ease-of-use and enhance debt management.
However, Eskom now says it has had to withdraw the tender due to improper specifications and functionality criteria in the enquiry document.
Eskom currently uses Oracle Customer Care and Billing for its revenue management functions to host all its customer information. This on-premises solution was first implemented in 2002 and was last upgraded in 2018.
Its original tender documentation revealed that some of the challenges with this system included “perceived unreliability” of integration between the billing system and other applications; lack of integration from billing system to human resource systems for access control purposes; inflexible customer business area hierarchy requiring resource-intensive customer data moves; inflexible bill display, formatting and output management; and analytics and flexible self-service reporting not deployed within Eskom.
Eskom’s billing system has faced criticism from customers, including the high-profile dispute with the City of Johannesburg, which says the utility has overbilled it by R3.4 billion.
“The city has repeatedly raised concerns about this continued overbilling, which Eskom has failed to address, placing additional strain on the city's resources… Eskom's approach of ‘pay now and resolve disputes later’ in its dealings with the City of Johannesburg can no longer go unchallenged,” the metro said.
The utility did not state when, or if, a new tender for the upgrade of the revenue management and billing system would be issued.
Tenders that make this week’s top 10:
- The Department of Water and Sanitation wishes to appoint a panel of experts to assist it with specialised ICT audit services. The department notes the capacity of its internal audit chief directorate is not adequate to deliver on its mandate and objectives. Accordingly, the special skills are required to supplement, build capacity and transfer skills to current staff.
The Department of Basic Education is looking for a service provider, or consortium of service providers, to conduct a sample data quality audit which targets 500 schools in nine provinces. This is required to measure the credibility and reliability of the department’s learner enrolment and educator data.
The Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC) is calling for a knowledge and information management technical advisor for the intergovernmental relations division to support in the implementation of the Municipal Finance Improvement Programme Phase IIIX. GTAC notes the overall purpose of the MFIP knowledge and information management unit is to ensure knowledge and content management, and technology enablement and innovation, which will result in improved local public financial management practices.
Limpopo’s Office of the Premier is advertising for a shared e-mail security and continuity solution. The current solution has been implemented across all 10 provincial government departments and has assisted the province to guard against cyber attacks, while making e-mails always available and secure.
Sentech wishes to establish a panel of cloud platform providers. This panel will enable the entity to create cloud solutions and emerging technologies, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, edge computing and blockchain that will fall within its broadcast media, IT and telecoms domains.
Eskom is calling for maintenance and support for Job Access With Speech (JAWS) perpetual licences. In addition to the maintenance and support, Eskom requires the vendor to provide professional services to address existing compatibility, integration and interaction-related issues with its various software/applications.
The Electoral Commission requires an identity governance and administration solution to integrate with SAP Authentication, Active Directory, custom-built security layer called Global via REST application program interfaces, Microsoft Exchange and its ICT business systems. The solution must also be accompanied by professional services that include defining and/or refining policies, implementation, migration from current to new environments and change management.
The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa invites bids for the provision of internet services. The connectivity service should be rendered to its head office in Sandton and its disaster recovery site in Kempton Park, as well as connect the Sandton office to the DR site via a point-to-point service.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is requesting proposals for the supply, delivery, installation and configuration of equipment for the co-lo networking environment and the associated warranty. The CSIR explains the project aims to establish a secondary data centre as a failover site for the primary data centre, ensuring business continuity and high availability. This initiative involves deploying infrastructure and services that replicate the critical functions of the primary data centre, enabling seamless failover in the event of outages.
The CSIR is also advertising for the provision of co-lo enterprise hardware. The request includes servers, storage and software.
New tenders
Department of Water and Sanitation
The national department wishes to appoint a panel of experts to assist it with specialised audit services in ICT, on an as and when required basis for three years.
Tender no: WP11495
Information: Jacobus Mabusela, Tel: 012 336 7240, E-mail: mabuselaj@dws.gov.za
Closing date: 13 February 2025
Tags: Services, professional services, consulting, auditing, ICT audit
Department of Basic Education
A service provider or consortium of service providers is sought for a data quality audit of the department’s education management system for nine months.
Non-compulsory briefing: 12 December – Microsoft Teams
Tender no: DBE200
Information: N Metula, Tel: 012 357 3134, E-mail: tenders@dbe.gov.za
Closing date: 17 January 2025
Tags: Services, professional services, consulting, auditing, data audit
Government Technical Advisory Centre
Bids are invited for the provision of technical knowledge and information management advisory services to GTAC for the intergovernmental relations division, to support in the implementation of the Municipal Finance Improvement Programme Phase IIIX.
Tender no: GTAC 016-2024-25
Information: Conory Mgwena, Tel: 012 395 6617, E-mail: Conory.Mgwena@gtac.gov.za
Closing date: 17 January 2025
Tags: Services, professional services, consulting, knowledge management, information management
Office of the Premier, Limpopo
The premier’s office is advertising for the provision of a shared e-mail security and continuity solution.
Compulsory briefing: 10 December
Tender no: PRDP 78/2024-2
Information: E Nemuhuyuni, Tel: 015 287 6000, E-mail: tenders@premier.limpopo.gov.za
Closing date: 16 January 2025
Tags: Software, security, e-mail security, e-mail, continuity, business continuity
Sentech
Sentech wishes to appoint a panel of cloud platform providers for three years, with an optional extension of two years.
Non-compulsory briefing: 10 December – Microsoft Teams
Tender no: SENT-061-2024-25
Information: Amukelani, Norman or Nosipho, Tel: 011 471 4443, E-mail: tendera@sentech.co.za
Closing date: 31 January 2025
Tags: Services, managed services, cloud computing, software, cloud platform
Eskom
The state-owned utility is calling for maintenance and support for JAWS perpetual licences.
Compulsory briefing: 12 December
Tender no: MWP2914CX
Information: Tlou Mashalane, Tel: 011 800 4954, E-mail: mashalst@eskom.co.za
Closing date: 30 January 2025
Tags: Software, services, support and maintenance
The Electoral Commission
The IEC requires an identity governance and administration solution and implementation services.
Non-compulsory briefing: 12 December – Virtual
Tender no: 0010535237
Information: Bridget Ndlovu, Tel: 012 622 5700, E-mail: ndlovub@elections.org.za
Closing date: 30 January 2025
Tags: Software, security, identity governance and administration, services
Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa
The IDC invites bids for the provision of internet services.
Tender no: RFB 3040-2024
Information: Lunga Mbatha, Tel: 011 269 4376, E-mail: Lungam@idc.co.za
Closing date: 20 January 2025
Tags: Telecommunications, internet, internet service provider, ISP
CSIR
Proposals are requested for the supply, delivery, installation and configuration of equipment for the co-lo networking environment and the associated warranty for five years.
Tender no: CSIR RFP 3666/13/12/2024
Information: SCM, Tel: 012 841 2911, E-mail: tender@csir.co.za
Closing date: 13 December 2024
Tags: Hardware, networking
The CSIR is also advertising for the provision of co-lo enterprise hardware (server, storage and software).
Tender no: CSIR RFP 3667/13/12/2024
Information: SCM, Tel: 012 841 2911, E-mail: tender@csir.co.za
Closing date: 13 December 2024
Tags: Hardware, software, servers, storage
Cancellation
Eskom
Procurement of revenue and billing system upgrade.
Tender no: MWP2695CX.
Information: Tel: 011 800 4824, E-mail: Ndunenw@eskom.co.za
Tags: Software, services, support and maintenance
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