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Activity on National Treasury’s eTender Portal is once again picking up; however, public sector procurement focus tends towards requests for quotations with quick turnaround times.
The Road Accident Fund (RAF) rescues what is an otherwise dull week for the ICT industry, with three tenders focused on tightening up its security endeavours.
However, it is its call for expressions of interest for the provisioning of a comprehensive and digital document lifecycle management solution that is likely to draw the most interest. According to the documentation, the invitation comes as a response to the operational challenges it is experiencing relating to records management.
“Currently, the RAF receives documents through various channels, namely: hand deliveries, post, couriers and e-mail. The type of documents that are mostly handled by the organisation include but are not limited to: lodgement documents, claims supporting documents, payments documents and litigation documents.
“In terms of claims processing, the current procedure of the RAF is prescribed in the Act and is manual and paper-based. Thus, the prescript of the Act has inherently caused the organisation a problem in documents management in relation to claims handling,” it says.
Section 24 of the Road Accident Fund Act states: “A claim for compensation shall be sent by registered post or delivered by hand to the fund at its principal branch or registered office.”
In the tender documentation, the RAF outlines the current process and its various challenges:
- Receipting: The RAF is inundated with the number of documents submissions through various channels that are still manual and paper-based. This requires the recipient to go through voluminous physical documents to check for correctness of submissions before acknowledging receipt.
Recording of documents: Once a claim’s paperwork has been received and acknowledged, it is manually recorded in various non-integrated systems and applications like manual spreadsheets, notebooks, work tracking solution, etc. This leads to lack of data integrity and data breach as similar data is duplicated around multiple systems.
Documents and claims processing: Manual handling and processing of paper is “in its nature” tedious, time-consuming, prone to human errors and leads to delays that puts the organisation at the risk of being litigated. Section 6 of the RAF Act requires that the organisation settle claims within 120 days, or face litigation.
- Reporting: Lack of real-time reporting and visibility of the work under way makes it difficult to track and trace documents.
- Filing and storage: Noting that paper degrades over time, the RAF says it is always faced with challenges of loose pages in the claim files, incomplete documentation on the file and mixed-up file contents. This process also faces the risk of fire, water damage, unauthorised access and theft, among other things.
Interested parties are expected to present a solution proposal which addresses the problem statement, the challenges and benefits for RAF. This should include high-level business processes, as well as resource requirements to enable the end-to-end business process.
Tenders that make this week’s top 10:
- The RAF opens the issue with a call for an “experienced and suitable” service provider for the procurement of an attack surface management solution. This will provide it with a continuous view of system exposures and weaknesses from an external (attacker) perspective, allowing the RAF to proactively reduce and mitigate these security vulnerabilities, it says.
In its second tender, the fund is advertising for the supply and implementation of a cloud-based endpoint detection and response (EDR) solution. The RAF notes its technology and digital security team currently manages the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint solution, which is deployed across the estate. However, as part of its ongoing security capabilities enhancements, the RAF is looking to deploy an additional EDR solution on highly-critical systems, which will serve as an additional ‘defence in depth’ EDR solution.
In its final request for bids, the RAF wishes to procure a network detection and response solution. This will play a “crucial role” within the RAF’s overall cyber security strategy, providing deep visibility and insights into network activities, in turn helping the technology and digital security team to respond swiftly to potential incidents, it says.
Limpopo’s Department of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs wishes to appoint a service provider for the servicing and maintenance of its ICT data centre. Interested parties must be approved by the State IT Agency’s RFB1183/2022 transversal tender.
The Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) wishes to set up a panel for the provision of ICT goods and services for the CTICC and Cape Town Stadium. Bidders not registered on the CTICC database, or National Treasury’s central supplier database are not precluded from submitting tenders, but must be registered prior to the adjudication date of the offers to be responsive.
The Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) is looking for a partner for revenue enhancement through the provisioning, on-selling and management of ICT infrastructure. The company says typical ICT infrastructure to be considered are the current and future network connectivity infrastructure, physical infrastructure and telecommunications (voice and data). Respondents must propose a revenue-sharing model on innovative solutions, programmes and plans to improve the management and operation of the multi-operator ICT infrastructure, as well as monetising current available infrastructure already deployed.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) wishes to establish a cutting-edge visual radio system with social media integration for two of its key radio stations. The SABC says this “transformative system” will be designed to offer listeners an enriched and interactive experience, seamlessly blending visual content with traditional audio broadcasting. It is expected to operate within the SABC’s OTT environment, and will deliver quality streams to various visual platforms, creating a new way for listeners to connect with their preferred radio station.
Transnet is calling for information that will give it insight and knowledge on potential data archiving systems for the Transnet Corporate Centre. It notes there is a growing need to manage systems that consume ongoing storage and maintain costs, as these systems pose a legal risk because the data they hold must be accessible; for example, to auditors and the shareholder. What’s more, it says, as knowledge of old systems fades and old hardware is removed, data accessibility becomes unpredictable.
New tenders
Road Accident Fund
The RAF seeks to appoint an experienced and suitable service provider for procurement of an attack surface management solution for five years.
Compulsory briefing: 26 July
Tender no: RAF/2024/00034
Information: Ilish Seema, Tel: 012 429 5135, E-mail: ilishs@raf.co.za
Closing date: 13 August 2024
Tags: Software, security, attack surface management
The fund is also looking for an endpoint detection and response add-on solution for five years.
Non-compulsory briefing: 26 July
Tender no: RAF/2024/00033
Information: Tebogo Diutlwileng, Tel: 012 621 1921, E-mail: tebogomal@raf.co.za
Closing date: 12 August 2024
Tags: Software, security, endpoint detection
An experienced and suitable service provider is sought to procure a network detection and response solution for five years.
Non-compulsory briefing: 26 July
Tender no: RAF/2024/00031
Information: Shadi Matlou, Tel: 012 649 2030, E-mail: Shadim@raf.co.za
Closing date: 14 August 2024
Tags: Hardware, software, networking, security, network detection and response
Department of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Limpopo
The provincial department wishes to appoint a service provider for the servicing and maintenance of its ICT data centre for three years.
Tender no: COGHSTAB06/2024-25FY
Information: JT Masenya, Tel: 015 294 2290, E-mail: masenyajt@coghsta.limpopo.gov.za
Closing date: 12 August 2024
Tags: Hardware, software, data centre, services, support and maintenance
Cape Town International Convention Centre
The company wishes to set up a panel for the provision of ICT goods and services for the CTICC and Cape Town Stadium.
Compulsory briefing: 2 August
Tender no: CTICC 011/2024
Information: Charlene de Waal, Tel: 021 410 5212, E-mail: charlened@cticc.co.za
Closing date: 21 August 2024
Tags: Software, hardware, services
Airports Company of South Africa
Proposals are invited for revenue enhancement through the provisioning, on-selling and management of ICT infrastructure at ACSA for 10 years.
Compulsory briefing: 31 July
Tender no: COR7519/2024/RFP
Information: Sydney Mfeka, Tel: 011 723 1483, E-mail: sydney.mfeka@airports.co.za
Closing date: 23 August 2024
Tags: Hardware, software, services
South African Broadcasting Corporation
A service provider is sought to assist the broadcaster with a visual radio and social media system.
Tender no: RFP/RAD/2024/1244679/22
Information:Hlabane Mamogobo, Tel: 011 714 4644, E-mail: tenderqueries@sabc.co.za
Closing date: 30 August 2024
Tags: Hardware, software, services, broadcasting, video, radio, social media
Request for information
Transnet
Information is requested on data archiving systems for the Transnet Corporate Centre.
Non-compulsory briefing: 30 July – Microsoft Teams
Tender no: TCC/2024/05/0001/65761/RFI
Information: Deon Tobias, Tel: 083 461 7241, E-mail: deon.tobias@transnet.net
Closing date: 12 August 2024
Tags: Software, hardware, data, data archiving, archiving
Expression of interest
Road Accident Fund
Expressions of interest are invited for the provisioning of a comprehensive and digital document lifecycle management solution.
Tender no: RAF/2024/00035
Information: Tshiamo Motitswe, Tel: 012 429 5645, E-mail: Tshiamomo@raf.co.za
Closing date: 1 August 2024
Tags: Software, document lifecycle management solution, document management
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