Top ICT tenders: Transnet aims to improve rolling stock efficiency

It’s a busy week on National Treasury’s eTenders Portal, with well over 600 new advertisements published on the platform. This boost in activity will be particularly welcomed by the ICT industry, as recent weeks predominantly produced request for quotation opportunities.

Despite the rise in tender numbers, Transnet takes this week’s spotlight with a request for information on an advanced technology rolling stock supersite, using advanced condition assessment, artificial intelligence, robotics and machine vision technologies.

In its documentation, the company reveals that Transnet Freight Rail has traditionally relied on manual processes and fixed wayside condition assessment and monitoring technologies to ensure the safety and reliability of its rolling stock – such as locomotives and wagons – and infrastructure assets.

“These systems have provided early warnings of rolling stock faults, defects and potential failures, thereby improving safety and operational efficiency but with limited capability, capacity and technological advancements,” it says.

“Transnet therefore requires new state-of-the-art/technologically-advanced systems to further detect, identify, classify, predict and reduce rolling stock faults, defects and failures; thereby improving safety, operational efficiency, reliability and preventing accidents and reduce downtime in the most effective and efficient manner possible.”

Accordingly, the company is gathering information for the local and international market for a technologically advanced supersite to automate rolling stock pre-departure inspections and utilise condition-based assessment technologies at point of train departure for Transnet Freight Rail.

The technologies should deliver reliable and actionable data to provide real-time visibility into the condition of Transnet’s rolling stock to identify potential rolling stock faults before they become serious problems, and optimise maintenance schedules to reduce downtime and increase operational efficiency. This, in turn, will help the company minimise failures, and ensure improved safety, operational efficiency and reliability across the fleet.

“This initiative aims to advance, modernise and streamline the inspection and condition assessment process by leveraging advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robotics and machine vision-based solutions (but not limited to these),” it says.

Other tenders that make this week’s top 10:

• The City of Cape Town requires maintenance of its metering data unification system (MDUS) from SDG Technologies. Maintenance and guarantees will be for all the MDUS hardware and software, including licence continuity for the main site, maintenance for main site, the disaster recovery site and the staging server. Network connectivity and network equipment are excluded from the maintenance agreement.
• Eskom is calling for the design and delivery of a ‘leading with digital fluency’ module across its 1 350 supervisory, 1 350 middle and 300 senior manager leadership segments. The development of the module content will take place in partnership between Eskom and the service provider, co-designed to ensure its relevance to the organisational context.

• Eskom National Transmission Company of South Africa invites bids for the provision of IP and cyber security training. The company notes its telecommunications network is undergoing a significant transformation, migrating from a TDM-based to OT IP/MPLS-based network. While this evolution offers numerous advantages, it also introduces new cyber security challenges and vulnerabilities. Accordingly, it’s imperative to develop and maintain IP and cyber security skills to ensure employees can deliver effectively on their mandate.

• Transnet is looking to acquire a network detection and response (NDR) solution. This is sophisticated cyber security technology designed to continuously monitor network traffic, detect anomalous activities and respond to potential threats in real-time. Transnet’s lack of such a solution increases the organisation’s vulnerability to cyber threats, it says.

• KwaZulu-Natal’s eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality wishes to appoint a service provider for support and maintenance of various business process management/e-government applications. The current support and maintenance contract will end in August 2025, it says, and this tender seeks to appoint a service provider to supply support and maintenance in conjunction with the internal ICT resources.

• The South African Revenue Service is advertising for the supply and delivery of Cisco network equipment and related services. This will cover all Cisco technology categories; pre-sales support, including technical consulting and product configuration; integration with Cisco Commerce Workplace; and quoting, order management and contract negotiations. The contract will not include post-sales activities such as installation, maintenance and troubleshooting.

• The Department of Water and Sanitation wishes to appoint a professional service provider to support the development of the tool for implementation of the National Water Resources Strategy (NWRS-3) through the national water and sanitation master plan and formulate the monitoring, evaluation and reporting framework. This is required to ensure the protection and management of water resources to enable equitable and sustainable access to water and sanitation services, the department says.

• The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) wants to procure 500 Atlassian data centre licences, covering Jira data centre, Confluence and Draw.io, with maintenance and support. The licences form part of the Cloud IDE and DevOps platforms established on SITA’s infrastructure, it says.

• Postbank is looking for a service provider to develop and implement a comprehensive software-as-a-service (SaaS) portfolio, programme and project management. The fit-for-purpose tool is required to ensure the bank’s portfolio is managed in a coordinated manner to realise the strategic objectives linked to projects within the portfolio.