Top ICT tenders: Transport dept targets infrastructure refresh

The Department of Transport’s IT infrastructure – including server storage and network – requires replacement.

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Activity on National Treasury’s eTenders Portal has returned to normal levels, with the public sector beginning to issue tender advertisements that will come into play next year. The ICT industry fares well, with a wide range of requests to cover all sectors.

The Department of Transport (DOT) takes the top spot with its intention to appoint a service provider for the procurement of hyperconverged infrastructure and implementation services.

In the tender documentation, the department reveals its IT infrastructure – including server storage and network – is aging and requires replacement. The storage equipment is particularly problematic as it is reaching end-of-life, which will mean that maintenance cannot be renewed.

“Lack of maintenance on primary production equipment risks the business, as failures can lead to no guarantee of service restoration,” the DOT explains.

Pointing to international trends, the department notes that a server hardware refresh requires the replacement of an entire storage or computer system, typically by swapping the suite of storage hardware with the latest version of the equipment.

“The DOT needs to meet the industry’s IT regulations regarding equipment and data storage. Significant business expansion requires an overhaul in data storage devices and related capabilities,” it adds.

The scope of work will include the supply, configuration and migration of data to two hyperconverged infrastructure from the Dell server blade infrastructure in use at the department’s Pretoria head office and Centurion data centre on VMware virtualisation environment into a private cloud deployment.

The all-in-one solution should be hypervisor agnostic, feature HCI nodes that add up to 150Tb usable each, have generative AI capabilities and include a vCentre enhanced linked mode between head office, Centurion and the DOT cloud environment.

The department will hold a compulsory briefing at 10am on 25 November. The closing date for submissions is 9 December.

Other tenders that make this week’s top 10:

• The South African Social Security Agency’s (SASSA’s) Free State region is inviting proposals for the procurement of 80 portable desktops scanners and 100 biometric fingerprint scanners. The tender forms part of the agency’s modernisation and digitisation programme it embarked on in 2024/25.

• The Free State also requires procurement of a queue management system and self-service kiosks. The region notes that some of its local offices do not yet have QMS and kiosk systems that comply with the SASSA ICT norms and standards, and in some cases are having to use a manual queue management process.

• Finally, the Free State region invites proposals for the deployment of wireless local area network (WiFi) ICT infrastructure. This is another situation where some local offices do not have WiFi infrastructure that complies with the agency’s ICT norms and standards. This need has been prioritised for the 2025/26 financial year.

• Moving to the coastal areas, SASSA’s KwaZulu-Natal region wishes to appoint a service provider(s) for the supply, delivery and installation of bulk scanners for its records management centre. The objective for the region is to digitise records for safe-keeping and easy retrieval in line with the grant’s administrations automation and digitisation projects.

• The agency’s Eastern Cape region closes SASSA’s tender representation with an invitation to prospective suppliers to bid for the supply, configuration and delivery of 952 standard laptops, 10 desktops, five all-in-one desktops, 325 sensitive biometric fingerprint readers and 510 standard biometric fingerprint readers, 550 barcode scanners and 23 multifunction printers, as per SITA RFB 740. The tender notes the successful service provider will be expected to deliver to the Eastern Cape regional office on or before 13 March 2026 as per agreed specifications.

• The Eastern Cape Department of Education requires implementation of a turnkey digitisation solution for its enterprise records and knowledge management programme for three years, with an option to renew for a further period subject to budget availability, supplier performance and the department’s needs. The department states that a well-managed information ecosystem is crucial for evidence-based decision-making, resource allocation and socio-economic upliftment.

• The Airports Company of South Africa is inviting proposals for the supply, support and maintenance of a customer relationship management (CRM) solution that will enable efficient, standardised customer engagement and service delivery across the business. The CRM solution will be expected to cater to several departments and customer segments, including corporate services; non-aeronautical customers, such as car rental companies, retail shops, airlines, ground handling companies and hotels; as well as aeronautical customers. Additionally, it will support client and passenger services in managing strategic customers like VIPs whose relationships need to be managed differently, as well as key accounts, enabling the organisation to build, nurture and strategically manage relationships with its most valuable customers.

• The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) is advertising for the procurement, implementation and installation of a time and attendance system/solution with biometric capabilities and software. including maintenance and support, for an unnamed client. The agency says the client needs a system that will identify members positively and verify them when they report for duty. It is also important that the system reflect the status of all client members at any period (daily) to determine the strength of a unit. The solution is to be implemented at all client locations and enable attendance for approximately 91 000 users countrywide.

• Eskom’s National Transmission Company South Africa closes the issue with a call for information on telecommunications work management, network analysis and activity log system/s. The entity intends to use the market-testing exercise to inform and assist its further deliberation and development of a strategy, it says.