Top ICT tenders: SABS calls for new standards platform development

The ICT industry is back in favour this week, with National Treasury’s eTenders Portal featuring a number of tech-focused advertisements, particularly from state-owned entities.

The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) takes the headline, however, with its announcement that it wishes to replace SABStan – a bespoke desktop application built on Oracle Forms 6 that has been in place since 1998.

“This custom-developed desktop application manages the development and publication of standards, storing metadata, version management, tracking project phases, managing standards relations, grouping keywords and generating metadata for the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system within the SABS and the SANS Webstore (an e-commerce platform powered by Adobe Commerce, through which standards are sold and distributed),” it says.

However, SABStan has presented several operational challenges, the SABS explains, becoming a bottleneck in its digital transformation journey.

These challenges include:

• The lack of modern features and optimisations found in contemporary systems, resulting in an absence of intelligent automation for workflows, approvals and notification.
• The system’s outdated architecture creates significant compatibility and integration issues, hindering the SABS’s ability to adopt emerging technologies and digital tools.
• Absence of support by its original developers or vendors, resulting in no access to patches, updates or technical support. As a result, the system is increasingly exposed to system failures and vulnerabilities.
• Inability to scale with the growing and evolving needs of SABS, as it cannot accommodate the increasing volumes of users, documents, or standards.
• Increased likelihood of unexpected outages that disrupt critical business operations, posing a threat to productivity and business continuity, as well as a risk of data loss or corruption due to a lack of modern data backup and recovery mechanisms.
• SABStan operates in isolation as there is no direct integration with other core systems within the SABS, requiring manual data transfers, which may lead to duplication, errors and inefficiencies.
• As a desktop application, SABStan requires local installation, limiting remote access. Moreover, the system lacks mobile compatibility and browser-based access.

As a result, the SABS is seeking proposals from a reputable service provider to implement an end-to-end solution to replace the critical SABStan system. The required solution will use the latest technology to automate end-to-end business processes and procedures across its standards development, sales and information services, and call centre departments, it says.

“The contracted service provider will be responsible for the end-to-end design, development, implementation, integration, quality assurance and testing, deployment of a modern and scalable solution that is capable of being customised as per the requirements outlined by the SABS in a bid to replace SABStan. Additionally, the contracted service provider shall provide effective skills transfer and training to the relevant stakeholders. Subsequently, the service provider shall provide ongoing technical assistance, support and maintenance for three years from the date of go-live.”

The tender documentation reveals the proposed solution must facilitate or support the various departments’ internal process through the provisioning of a fully integrated, end-to-end digital environment that facilitates the complete lifecycle of standards development and publication within the SABS.

This includes facilitating the development of standards by enabling the creation, editing and approval of standards documents; managing version control and tracking the progression of standards through various development phases; and maintaining comprehensive metadata for each standard and associated project.

The solution must also support the management of relationships between standards, including identifying or classifying homegrown versus adopted standards, and allow for the grouping of keywords to enhance searchability and classification. Moreover, the proposed solution should also automate the generation of metadata required for integration with external systems, such as the ERP system and the Adobe Commerce Webstore.

Furthermore, the solution must streamline workflows, support collaboration among internal and external stakeholders, and ensure secure, role-based access to sensitive content. It should ensure that finalised standards are published in multiple formats and distributed through appropriate channels, while maintaining a robust audit trail and ensuring compliance with regulatory and operational requirements.

The SABS will hold a compulsory briefing on 14 August on the Microsoft platform. The closing date for submissions is 29 August.

Other tenders that make this week’s top 10:

• The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) wishes to appoint a service provider to supply services for the Government Communication and Information Systems’ (GCIS) SharePoint migration. The contract will include eService applications redevelopment, as well as maintenance, support and enhancements. The agency explains GCIS uses Microsoft SharePoint as its enterprise content management system and has customised it according to the departmental business needs. It serves, among others, as the departmental intranet, document management system and automation of leave, requisition, transport request and invoice approval processes.

• Bids are also invited for the provision of maintenance and support of the ADVA FSP300 wave division multiplexors (WDM) installed at SITA’s Numerus and Beta data centres. The WDMs are used to connect the primary storage devices in the Numerus data centre to the secondary storage devices in the Beta data centre, enabling data replication of all production system data between the two sites. The WDMs are therefore a critical component of the disaster recovery service that is rendered to the South African Police Service (SAPS) under the current SLA between SITA and SAPS, the agency says.

• SITA is requesting proposals for the provision, installation and configuration, including maintenance and support of an e-mail cleansing solution, for itself and its clients. The agency explains the internet and security team within NTSS plays a pivotal role in facilitating internet and extranet connectivity services for various NGN clients, including SITA. These services are integral for accessing the wider internet landscape and facilitating external e-mail communications. As a default feature, the team manages upstream mail cleansing services, ensuring the security and integrity of inbound and outbound e-mails in all NGN VPNs.

• Finally, the agency wishes to provide preventative and corrective infrastructure maintenance to the SAPS switching centres and nodal point sites. This includes 25 major telecommunications switching centres and approximately 66 secondary nodal points telecommunication facilities throughout South Africa.

• The City of Cape Town’s ethics and forensic services department requires sophisticated and robust digital forensic tools and hardware to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of forensic investigations, specifically relating to the acquisition, analysing, handling and storing of digital evidence. The goal is to equip the department with the necessary software, hardware and training to effectively conduct digital forensic investigations, manage electronic discovery (eDiscovery) processes and handle a variety of electronic evidence types, it says.

• Eskom is calling for the supply of DevExpress DXperience subscription licences. The supplier will be expected to provide three subscription licences for five years, with a non-committal provision of three additional licences that may be required over the years. No formal training will be required.

• The South African Broadcasting Corporation is advertising for SAP thirdline support. The broadcaster implemented the SAP system as its ERP solution in 2007 and has gone through numerous enhancements and improvements over the years. The support will include resolving logged incidents, enhancements, projects, consulting, etc, and must include all required functional and technical skills.

• The National Health Laboratory Service requires professional services to implement a data management program development according to the DMBOK framework within 12 months. It notes the current absence of an enterprise-wide data management framework exposes it to risks such as data duplication, inconsistent definitions, privacy breaches, compliance failures, reputational harm, operational inefficiencies and financial penalties. Accordingly, it requires the establishment of a formal DAMA-DMBOK2-aligned data management program that will introduce governance, accountability, quality standards and integrated practices across the full data lifecycle to enable secure, compliant and value-driven use of data.

• Gauteng’s Department of e-Government closes the issue with request for information on cloud computing services. The primary goals are to identify service providers capable of delivering scalable and secure cloud computing services; gather information about potential service offerings, infrastructure models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and pricing structure; and understand service provider capabilities in security, compliance, service level agreements and support.