It’s a quieter week for the ICT sector on National Treasury’s eTender Portal as the public sector prepares for president Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address this week. These lower activity levels may extend through most of February with government looking for guidance from the National Budget Speech which is scheduled to take place on 21 February.
With national and provincial elections due to take place this year, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has been focused on preparing its processes and systems for this high-intensity event. It’s for this reason that this week’s seemingly simple request from the organisation should not be overlooked.
A closer look at the documentation reveals that the advertisement for a scanning software solution actually has an important role to play in the electoral process.
“The Electoral Commission introduced an image scanning solution for the 2009 National Elections, using the IRIS Powerscan software solution. The main aim of this solution was to enhance transparency in the voting process as the scanning solution was used to scan the results slips, which were linked to the captured results on the results system. Political parties, media, etc., to the scanned image to ensure that the results were captured correctly, and then compared the results,” it says.
This system is, however, based on a fat client-server solution resulting in limited licensing flexibility and integration features. For this reason, the IEC is looking for a centralised on-premises solution that will enhance the current architecture and reduce the challenges experienced. These difficulties include on-boarding new clients, cumbersome support and maintenance of the application running on the clients dispersed throughout the country and other processing issues experienced in the back-end processing environment.
The IEC notes there are currently three scanning solutions in its environment. The first is for the scanning of internal documents such as attendance registers, staff contracts, results slips and voter registration forms. During election years, the scanning volumes increase “drastically” as compared to by-elections or non-election years.
The second solution is used for external stakeholders such as political parties and jobseekers, enabling them to scan in their documents. This solution caters for the external scanning of documents into the Electoral Commissions environment for further processing.
Finally, the IEC recently introduced voter self-registration where copies of documents such as IDs need to be uploaded as part of the registration or amendment to a registration. In this environment the IEC uses Google Vision API to identify and extract information from the uploaded documents and images. The new solution will either replace Google Vision API or work alongside, it says.
Other tenders that make this week’s top 10 include:
- The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition invites bids for the renewal of backup solution licenses including maintenance and support for a period of five years. The national department’s solution is made up of Huawei hardware and Commvault software.
The South African Social Security Agency is looking for Microsoft partners to participate in a closed bidding process for the provision of an enterprise project governance tool (EPGT) for a period of three years. The agency’s current solution is obsolete and cannot be maintained which has resulted in it being unable to monitor projects and get technical assistance from the OEM. Interestingly, SASSA notes it requires total ownership of the source code.
In a second tender, SASSA wishes to acquire ICT infrastructure and end user support, maintenance and service desk services. The agency advises bidders to quote to support approximately 450 offices with about 8 000 users.
Broadband Infraco has re-issued its call for entities holding a valid, unencumbered individual electronic communications services licence that is in good standing with ICASA, to contact it regarding the sale and transfer of such a licence. The company first advertised this request in November 2023.
The Road Accident Fund is looking for an experienced and suitable service provider for the provision of a governance, risk and compliance tool for a period of five years. Currently RAF Assurance Providers work on different IT systems and some of the assurance processes are manual making the alignment and integration of information for Combined Assurance coordination time consuming and fragmented, it says.
The State Information Technology Agency is advertising for session initiation protocol (SIP) services for the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition. The agency notes the objective of this exercise is to replace the outdated, end of life and end of support technology with modern SIP technology and reduce the cost of telephone calls.
Eskom is calling for the supply, delivery and installation of IT infrastructure, hardware and software systems for the South African Bone Marrow Registry. The price schedule includes docking stations, laptops, monitors, cables, endpoint protection, anti-virus, penetration testing and a variety of services. It is unclear why the utility is procuring technology on behalf of the registry.
The South African National Roads Agency is looking for a service provider to provide a case management system to manage SANRAL’s fraud hotline. A closer look at the tender documentation reveals the contract will require the successful service provider to take over the use and maintenance of the hotline’s account. This includes the provision of call centre agents that are able to cater to all 11 official languages on 24/7/365 basis.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation Limited requires renewal of its Adobe Creative Cloud licences for a period of three years. It’s current contract is expiring in November 2024 and it hopes to reduce pressure on its Cr8ive Cloud team by extending access to its digital content specialists and producers
New tenders
Independent Electoral Commission
The IEC is looking for a scanning software solution for a period of three years.
Note: All services providers that wish to render goods/services to the Electoral Commission must self-register on the National Treasury Central Suppliers Database (CSD) at www.csd.gov.za.
Tender no: 0010512915
Information: Maphanga Libisi, Tel:012 622 5700, E-mail: maphangal@elections.org.za.
Closing date: 4 Mar 2024
Tags: Software, Scanning, Imaging
Department of Trade, Industry and Competition
The national department invites bids for the renewal of backup solution licenses (Huawei hardware, Commvault software) including maintenance and support for a period of five (5) years.
Tender no: dtic 03/23-24
Information: Yvette Cronje, Tel: 012 394 5762, E-mail: YCronje@thedtic.gov.za.
Closing date: 23 Feb 2024
Tags: Hardware, Software, Backup, Licencing, Software licensing, Services, Support and maintenance
South African Social Security Agency
Microsoft partners are invited to participate in a closed bidding process for the provision of an enterprise project governance tool for a period of three years.
Tender no: SASSA: 113-23-ICT-HO
Information: Mathebe Mokone, Tel: 012 400 2533, E-mail: MathebeM@sassa.gov.za.
Closing date: 23 Feb 2024
Tags: Software, Software development, Governance, Project governance, Project management
The agency is also advertising for the provision of ICT infrastructure and end user support, maintenance and service desk services.
Compulsory briefing: 9 February
Tender no: SASSA:109-23-ICT-HO
Information: Shadi Leshika, Tel: 012 400 2392, E-mail: ShadiL@sassa.gov.za.
Closing date: 20 Feb 2024
Tags: Hardware, Services, Support and maintenance
Broadband Infraco
The company is re-advertising for an individual electronic communications services licence holder to sell and transfer an i-ECS licence to Broadband Infraco.
Tender no: RE-ISSUE INF/TEN: 312
Information: Keletso Phiri, Tel:011 235 1848; E-mail: Keletso.Phiri@infraco.co.za.
Closing date: 27 Feb 2023
Tags: Telecommunications, telecommunications licence, individual electronic communications services, i-ECS
Road Accident Fund
The RAF is looking for an experienced and suitable service provider for the provision of a governance, risk and compliance tool for a period of five (5) years.
Non-compulsory briefing: 9 Feb
Tender no: RAF/2024/00002
Information: Matome Ramathoka, Tel: 012 649 2015, E-mail: matomer@raf.co.za.
Closing date: 22 Feb 2024
Tags: Software, GRC, Governance, Risk management, Compliance
State Information Technology Agency
SITA wishes to procure a session initiation protocol (SIP) service for the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC).
Compulsory briefing: 8 Feb – Microsoft Teams.
Tender no: RFB 2844-2023
Information: Lungile Sibiya, Tel: 012 482 2006, E-mail: lungile.sibiya@sita.co.za.
Closing date: 26 Feb 2024
Tags: Telecommunications, Session initiation protocol, SIP, Services, IP telephony
Eskom
The utility is advertising for the supply, delivery and installation of IT infrastructure, hardware and software systems for the South African Bone Marrow Registry for a period of 5 months.
Note: Clarification questions should be sent by e-mail to makumej@eskom.co.za.
Tender no: MWP2251CX-R
Information: Jeanette Makume, Tel: 011 800 5642, E-mail: makumej@eskom.co.za.
Closing date: 12 Mar 2024
Tags: Hardware, Software, Services, Professional services
South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited
A service provider is sought to provide a case management system to manage SANRAL’s fraud hotline.
Tender no: SANRAL HO 1025/58700/2023/01
Information: Tel: 012 844 8000, E-mail: ProcurementHO12@sanral.co.za.
Closing date: 6 Mar 2024
Tags: Software, Case management, Contact centre, Call centre, Services
South African Broadcasting Corporation Limited
The SABC requires renewal of its Adobe Creative Cloud licences for a period of 03 years.
Tender no: RFP/IT/2024/1
Information: Asa, Tel: 011 714 4644, E-mail: tenderqueries@sabc.co.za.
Closing date: 29 Feb 2024
Tags: Software, Software licensing
Cancellations
Eskom
The utility is cancelling its tender for the provision of manufacturing, supply and delivery of smart prepaid meters within Gauteng Cluster for a period of 36 months, on an “as and when” required basis.
This is because no suitable tenders were received. It says a clarification meeting on the outcome of the evaluation will be arranged and communicated.
Tender no: MWP1763-R DX
Information: Thembile Mbhiza, Tel: 011 655 2271, E-mail: mbhizat@eskom.co.za.
Tags: Hardware, Software, Smart technology, IoT, Smart meters, Prepaid
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