Five-year fully managed cisco sd-wan solution for 272 nhls sites, including private apn and 24x7 noc

Late bids: bids delivered after the stipulated closing time will not be accepted for consideration.

Clarification queries: must be submitted in writing on or before 17 November 2026; no other NHLS employee may be approached.

Closing date and time: 03 December 2026 at 11:00.

Postal or courier delivery: must reach the office at least 36 hours before the closing date.

Submission method: hard copy delivered to the NHLS bid box; telephonic, faxed, e-mailed or oral tenders are not accepted.

Packaging: one original, one hard copy and one electronic copy on a USB flash drive in PDF format, sealed in two envelopes inside an outer envelope.

Envelope 1: marked “BID / Proposal Section” and holds all documents excluding the price schedule, price declaration and detailed supporting pricing documentation.

Envelope 2: marked “PRICING Section” and holds the pricing schedule, price declaration and detailed supporting pricing documentation.

Outer envelope: clearly marked with the RFB number, RFB description and bidder’s name.

Signing: the original copy must be signed in black ink by an authorised employee, agent or representative; every page must carry the same signatory’s initials.

Oversized bids: hand in at the reception desk during office hours 08:00–16:30 or before 11:00 on the closing date.

Postal or courier bids: must reach the office at least 36 hours before the closing date; late bids are returned and not considered.

Closing: bids must be in the bid box before or on 03 December 2026 at 11:00.

Returnable forms:

• SBD 1 (Invitation to Bid): signed offer cover page with bidder and contact details.
• SBD 4 (Bidder’s Disclosure / Declaration of Interest): discloses whether any director or shareholder is employed by the state or connected to the procuring institution; a false declaration disqualifies the bid.
• SBD 5 (National Industrial Participation Programme): required where the contract has imported content.
• SBD 6.1 (Preference Points Claim): claims B-BBEE points; must be accompanied by a B-BBEE certificate or sworn affidavit.
• Price Declaration Form: total bid price, VAT inclusive, held open for 180 days.
• Proof of authority to sign, for example a company resolution.

Evaluation stages: a bidder must pass each stage to proceed to the next.

Stage 1: Administrative compliance verification — returnable documents and signatures are checked.

Stage 2: Technical mandatory requirement evaluation — full compliance with every mandatory requirement; each response must be substantiated with page references; unanswered or unsubstantiated responses result in disqualification.

Stage 3: Technical functionality requirement evaluation — scored on depth, relevance, clarity and evidence; minimum qualifying threshold is 85%; submissions below 85% are disqualified.

Stage 4: Price / Specific Goals evaluation — 80/20 or 90/10 PPPFA principle.

Public bid opening: held at the closing date and time; bidder names are announced, but prices are not disclosed.

Award: the bid with the highest combined points (Merit 1) is recommended; the NHLS Chief Executive Officer must approve the Bid Adjudication Committee recommendation; any deviation must be motivated and reported to Treasury.

Scope: appointment of a service provider to deliver a fully managed Cisco-based SD-WAN solution for five (5) years, including solution design, supply and provisioning, reuse of existing routers, last-mile access, migration, managed operations, reporting and service governance.

Sites and capacity: approximately 272 NHLS sites; link capacities range from 20 Mbps to 10 Gbps; future scalability for bandwidth upgrades, additional sites, policy changes and increased application traffic must be supported.

Existing infrastructure: expand the current in-house Cisco Viptela SD-WAN deployment over 12 SANReN Layer 2 links into a managed service model; SANReN physical links remain with TENET/SANREN and the SD-WAN overlay is in scope; internet breakout is not required as it is separately procured from TENET.

Routers: NHLS owns 50 Cisco ISR routers (13 on the existing Viptela SD-WAN and 37 Cisco ISR 4431 routers); these must be incorporated into the SD-WAN system where technically feasible, supportable and suitable for lifecycle.

Access and resilience: support diverse access technologies including fibre; provide resilient design options per site; peer with SANReN and other service providers; advertise NHLS routes into the SD-WAN network using OSPF.

Performance: jitter average 15 ms and latency average 40 ms between site and Point of Presence; guaranteed matching of last-mile bandwidth capacity within SD-WAN virtual sites.

Microsoft 365 traffic: application-aware routing for Microsoft 365 / Office 365 using Microsoft-published endpoints, URLs and IP addresses; local or regional internet breakout to optimise latency; avoid unnecessary backhauling or hairpinning through NHLS data centres.

Quality of service: implement flexible QoS from NHLS laboratories and academic sites through the bidder network to NHLS Head Office; data may use all available bandwidth when no voice or video traffic is present.

Security: safeguards against unauthorised access, tapping and sniffing; service provider network fully isolated from internet traffic; all routers SNMP-managed and exporting NetFlow; CPE patched as patches are released; IOS security audit report furnished; configurations available for audit.

IPv6: network infrastructure compatible with migration to IPv6 at no additional cost; SD-WAN links and other supplied devices must be IPv6 compliant.

Connectivity: all NHLS network segments reachable directly from any other location through the SD-WAN cloud via the shortest path without traversing NHLS data centres; coordinate relocation of SD-WAN links if NHLS shifts data centres, branches or offices.

Cisco alignment: propose, implement and support a Cisco SD-WAN solution aligned with Cisco Validated Designs and best practices, including design justification, deviations, risks and implementation by suitably qualified personnel.

Cisco DNA Center / Catalyst Center: demonstrate integration architecture, data flows, APIs or connectors, event-to-ticket workflow, service desk integration, NOC monitoring, reporting outputs, escalation workflow and security controls; NHLS may conduct a physical NOC visit and service desk demonstration before award.

Practical demonstration: live demonstration during technical evaluation or due diligence covering event detection, classification, incident creation, priority assignment, NOC acknowledgement, escalation, closure, reporting and historical audit trail.

Implementation plan: detailed plan covering discovery and assessment, solution design and validation, production rollout waves, migration of existing SANReN-connected sites, circuit installation and coordination, router onboarding and configuration, testing and acceptance, knowledge transfer and transition to operations.

Managed service: 24x7 monitoring, incident management and escalation, problem management and root-cause analysis, change control, performance management, capacity reporting, monthly service reviews, executive escalation, service desk and support contact model, and contract management and reporting.

Private APN: private 4/5G LTE APN for up to 5000 SIM cards; compatible with LTE, UMTS, HSPA, EDGE, 3G, 4G and 5G bands; dynamic IP allocation; aggregate monthly data bundle of 30 TB; enable or disable out-of-bundle charging; data bundle top-up at in-bundle rates; APN traffic passes through the firewall at the internet breakout; web portal SIM management with real-time reporting; automatic roaming on a competitor network in poor coverage areas; usage monitoring and spend control with quotas, limits and alerts; portal-based activation, deactivation and suspension of SIM cards.

Service levels: minimum monthly availability of 99.9% for Primary and Secondary Datacentres and 99.0% per laboratory and NHLS office, measured monthly per site excluding approved maintenance windows, force majeure, NHLS-controlled system outages and third-party delays outside the bidder’s responsibility; fifteen (15) minutes incident response time.

Network operations centre: fully-fledged NMC/NOC manned 24x7x365 by skilled technical personnel for centralised remote monitoring, configuration, diagnosis, troubleshooting and performance management.

Web portal: real-time login portal showing link health, uptime, downtime, capacity, utilisation, traffic analysis and QoS graphs.

Support and reporting: maintenance downtime and advance warning procedures; scheduled incident and performance reporting; technical support personnel located within each region; monthly SLA and operations meetings.

Root cause analysis: formal root cause analysis within five days of every performance or availability problem, with an action plan to prevent recurrence.

Cost optimisation: five-year cost optimisation plan and annual service optimisation reviews, underpinned by a baseline cost assessment methodology covering connectivity, bandwidth, carrier costs, cloud connectivity, operational support, outage costs and application traffic; measurable, auditable projected savings with defined assumptions.

Chronic failure: a site failing the availability target in two consecutive months or three months within any rolling six-month period is a Chronic Failure Site; root cause analysis within five business days, corrective action plan, executive service review if requested, and an additional 5% service credit for each continuing month of non-compliance.

Pricing format: prices must be VAT inclusive of all applicable taxes and quoted in South African Rand (ZAR); prices must be firm and fixed from the tender closing date for the duration of the contract.

Total bid price: must be indicated in the pricing schedule and in a separate envelope marked with the RFB number, RFB description and bidder’s name; if amounts differ, the amount on the cover form is the correct price.

Costing: all bidders must cost according to the pricing schedule provided; failure to do so leads to disqualification.

Offer validity: the offer must remain open for acceptance for 180 days from the date of submission.

Costs: the bidder bears all costs of preparing and submitting the tender; NHLS will incur no additional costs over and above the total tendered contract sum.

Licences: all licences required for complete implementation and future expansion must be fully described and disclosed.

Financial capacity: a solvency statement signed by a qualified independent auditor must confirm that the company’s financial position is sound and that it can mobilise financial resources to deliver the project.

Consortium or joint venture: each partner must submit a complete set of the latest audited financial statements.

National Industrial Participation Programme: SBD 5 applies to contracts with imported content; contracts in excess of R10 million must be reported to the Department of Trade and Industry after award.

Mandatory returnable documents:

• CSD Registration Report.
• Original valid Tax Clearance Certificate or Tax Compliance Status letter with PIN from SARS, or a CSD report reflecting active tax compliance; each consortium, joint venture or subcontractor member must submit its own.
• SBD 1 (Invitation to Bid): signed offer cover page.
• SBD 4 (Bidder’s Disclosure / Declaration of Interest): discloses whether any director or shareholder is employed by the state or connected to the procuring institution.
• SBD 5 (National Industrial Participation Programme): required for contracts with imported content.
• SBD 6.1 (Preference Points Claim): claims B-BBEE points; must be accompanied by a B-BBEE verification certificate from an authorised body or person, or a sworn affidavit prescribed by the B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice; each legal entity in a consortium or subcontracting arrangement must complete its own.
• Price Declaration Form.
• Proof of authority to sign, for example a company resolution.

Compliance questions: bidders must mark “Comply/Accept” or “Do not comply/Do not accept” for every question from 11.2 to 11.34 and complete the NHLS Special Conditions of Contract (12.2.1 to 12.2.9) in full; an incomplete bid is disqualified.

Security clearances: employees and subcontractors of the successful bidder may require valid security clearances at a level determined by the State Security Agency or NHLS, at the bidder’s cost; a personnel list with clearance status must be maintained and non-disclosure agreements signed.

Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act 13 of 1993: all employees, including subcontractor employees, must be covered for the duration of the bid and any subsequent agreement; NHLS may request proof of registration and good standing with the Compensation Fund.

Language: bids must be submitted in English.

B-BBEE: NHLS applies the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act and requires a completed preference certificate; bidders are assessed on B-BBEE commitment in ownership, skills transfer, employment equity and procurement practices.