Replacement of avaya ip telephony and contact centre with microsoft teams phone and dynamics 365 contact center (5-Year contract)

Release of RFP: 03 November 2026

Last day for enquiries: 23 November 2026

Responses to enquiries: 25 November 2026

Closing date and time: 27 November 2026 at 12:00

Note: Sasria may amend these dates; changes are communicated via the Sasria Online Tender Portal.

Enquiries

• Portal: https://procurement.sasria.co.za/ (Queries section)
• Email for portal registration assistance: [email protected]

Submission

• Method: Sasria Online Tender Portal only
• Portal URL: https://procurement.sasria.co.za/

Sasria registered address

36 Fricker Road

Illovo

Sandton

Johannesburg

Submission method

• Online only via the Sasria Online Tender Portal: https://procurement.sasria.co.za/
• Bidders must register on the portal before the closing date and time.
• Hand-delivered, posted, emailed or faxed proposals will not be accepted or evaluated.
• All correspondence is conducted through the portal.

Submission format

• Four schedules must be completed and submitted; the portal will not accept a bid unless all four are complete.
• Schedule 1: Executive summary (understanding of the RFP, proposed solution, relevant experience) plus Annexure B (Acceptance of Bid Conditions and Bidder's Details), completed and signed.
• Schedule 2: All Part 6 documents except Annexure B, completed and signed, including CSD registration number confirming tax compliance and a valid B-BBEE certificate or affidavit.
• Schedule 3: Technical proposal responding to the technical evaluation criteria and Annexure E detailed requirements list.
• Schedule 4: Financial/price proposal in the Part 4 format.

File limits

• Maximum 4MB per file.
• Maximum 30MB per schedule.

Returnable documents

• SBD 1 (Invitation to Bid): bidder identification and contact details, signed as the offer.
• SBD 4 (Declaration of Interest): discloses state employment or connections of directors, shareholders or members.
• SBD 6.1 (Preference Points Claim): claims specific-goal preference points.
• Annexure A (Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreement): binds the bidder to confidentiality.
• Annexure B (Acceptance of Bid Conditions and Bidder's Details): signed acceptance of bid conditions.
• Annexure C (Shareholder Information): ownership details.
• Annexure D (Bidder's Experience and Proposed Project Team): experience and team CVs.
• Annexure E (Detailed Requirements List): compliance response to functional and non-functional requirements.
• Price Declaration Form: total bid price excluding VAT, signed.
• CSD registration number confirming tax compliance.
• Valid B-BBEE certificate or affidavit.
• Microsoft accreditation certificate or OEM letter.
• Client reference letters (on client letterhead, signed and dated).
• Consortium/JV agreement or subcontracting agreement where applicable.

Disqualification risks

• Omitting any Part 6 document.
• Late submission or failure to submit through the portal.
• Failure to provide proof of SARS tax compliance.
• Incomplete or inaccurate information.
• Failure to meet mandatory technical requirements.
• Being on National Treasury's restricted/defaulters register or prohibited from doing business with the state.

Evaluation stages

1. Level 1 — Governance verification

• CSD registration confirming tax compliance.
• Valid B-BBEE certificate or affidavit.
• Completed SBD forms and Part 6 documents.
• Technical and financial proposals in the required formats.
• Non-compliance may lead to disqualification.

2. Level 2 — Technical evaluation (functionality)

Phase 1: Mandatory technical requirements

• Current Microsoft accreditation to design, implement, integrate, license, support and maintain Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center and Microsoft Teams Phone.
• Valid OEM certificate or letter confirming accreditation for installation, maintenance and support of the proposed telephony and contact centre solution.
• Failure to provide substantiating documentation results in automatic disqualification.

Phase 2: Technical scoring (100 points)

• Proposed solution (50 points): full compliance with functional (FRQ) and non-functional (NFR) requirements scores 50; fewer than 40 FRQ/NFR met scores 0.
• Bidder's experience (30 points): 5 relevant reference letters = 30; 3–4 = 21; 1–2 = 9; none = 0. Letters must be on client letterhead, signed and dated, identify Microsoft workloads, and relate to implementations within the past five years.
• Team experience (20 points): 5 or more years with relevant certificate = 20; 4 years = 14; 2–3 years = 6; below 2 years or no relevant certificate = 0. Technical lead must hold a current Microsoft certificate relevant to the proposed architecture.
• Minimum qualifying score: 70/100 to proceed to Phase 3.

Phase 3: Solution demonstration (100 points)

• Shortlisted bidders receive a maximum of 5 days' notice.
• Demonstration of the actual solution against Annexure E requirements.
• Scoring: 90–100% of requirements met = 100 points; 80–89% = 80 points; 70–79% = 70 points; below 70% = 0 points.
• Minimum qualifying score: 70/100 to proceed to price and specific goals.

3. Level 3 — Preference point system (80/20)

• Price: 80 points.
• Specific goals: 20 points.
• Total: 100 points.

Specific goals scoring

• Black ownership (10 points): 100% black-owned = 10; 51–99% = 5; 0–50% = 0.
• Black women ownership (5 points): 30–100% = 5; 0–29% = 0.
• EME or QSE at least 51% black-owned (5 points).
• Proof: B-BBEE certificate, sworn affidavit or CIPC B-BBEE certificate; consolidated scorecard accepted for joint ventures.
• Failure to submit proof means preference points are not claimed.

Purpose

• Replace the existing Avaya IP Telephony and Contact Centre environment with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center and Microsoft Teams Phone.
• Five-year contract covering design, supply, implementation, configuration, integration, testing, documentation, training, support and maintenance.

Current environment

• Avaya ACCS version 7.2, Avaya IX Workplace and Avaya Call Reporting (ACR).
• Approximately 188 user licences, 188 DID numbers, 4 receptionist licences, 5 supervisors and 21 contact centre agents.
• One SIP trunk providing 35 concurrent voice channels.
• Guidewire Claims Centre version 10.3.2 on Windows Server 2019.

Functional requirements

• Voice calling: internal, inbound, local outbound and authorised international outbound.
• Messaging/chat functionality.
• Hunt groups and call distribution (IVR) from a single number to a person or group.
• Call recording of internal, inbound and outbound calls with date, time and user stamp.
• Recordings stored and retrievable against the relevant claim in Guidewire.
• Recordings in .wav or Sasria-approved format.
• Claims-based routing using voice prompts and the last six digits of the claim number where available.
• Routing to the controller who worked the claim, or next eligible controller in the hunt group.
• Caller transferred only once before voicemail option.
• Voicemail saved against the claim and notification generated in Claims Centre.
• Controllers can view voicemail on Dynamics 365 before accessing Claims Centre.
• Call records remain available against the claim regardless of user.
• Post-call customer survey with voice prompts and reporting.
• Enterprise telephony: SIP trunking, PSTN breakout, IVR, auto attendants, call queues, softphone/mobile access, web-based calling.
• Omnichannel: at minimum voice, email and web chat; extendable to SMS, social media, enquiry forms, self-service, chatbots.
• Integration with Microsoft 365 tenant and Microsoft Entra ID for identity, SSO, RBAC, conditional access and MFA.
• Licensing bill of materials covering existing entitlements, new licences, add-ons, usage charges, telephony consumption, Dataverse capacity, storage, recording, AI/Copilot and third-party components.
• PSTN connectivity via Microsoft Operator Connect or Direct Routing; Direct Routing requires Microsoft-certified session border controllers.
• Guidewire integration via secure APIs or middleware with full technical design, field mappings, authentication, audit trails, error handling, monitoring, retry processes, data-retention controls and support ownership.

Non-functional, security and integration

• Integration with on-premises Guidewire 10.3.2 and option for future cloud Guidewire.
• Reconfiguration of telephony, network, routing, security and integration components for transition.
• Patching and upgrades on stable releases subject to change management.
• Strong authentication and access control, including MFA where applicable.
• Encryption of sensitive voice and messaging traffic.
• Monitoring and logging of user activity, system events, faults and security events.
• Secure network design: segmentation, firewalling, access controls.
• Input validation for chatbots/self-service; secure error handling.
• Testing, QA and code/configuration reviews for vulnerabilities.
• High availability and disaster recovery with no single points of failure across critical components, SIP services, call routing, databases, integrations and recording; extend to DR environment where required.

Support, SLA and maintenance

• Incident resolution and escalation to OEM/platform provider.
• Minimum response time to a logged call: 15 minutes.
• Maximum resolution time: 8 hours, with penalties for SLA failure where applicable.
• Software incidents: 8x5x4 SLA.
• Hardware incidents: 8x5xNBD SLA.
• Minimum system availability: 98%.
• Support and maintenance for five years from contract commencement.

Reporting

• Real-time and historical management call reporting for eligible claims users.
• Report data: user name and surname, group, report generation date/time, call reference number, external number/caller ID, call time interval, call date, call duration, claim number, call timestamp.
• Cradle-to-grave reporting in chronological order.
• Real-time dashboards, wallboards, historical and SLA reporting, queue/agent performance, call volumes, abandoned calls, average speed of answer, call duration, first contact resolution indicators, channel-level reporting.
• Claim-linked and customer journey reporting where data is available.
• Monthly service performance reports within 5 days after month-end.
• Quarterly service review meetings within 14 days after month-end.
• Optional AI-enabled analytics (interaction summarisation, sentiment/trend analysis, conversation intelligence, customer journey insights, knowledge recommendations, operational performance analysis) with secure integration to Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft 365 and approved analytics platforms.

Contract duration

• Five years, starting immediately after contract signature.

Bidder experience

• Demonstrated experience implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center and Microsoft Teams Phone solutions, including integration, support and maintenance.
• Client reference letters for successful implementations within the past five years.
• Letters must be on the client's letterhead, signed and dated, and clearly identify the Microsoft workloads implemented.
• Scoring: 5 letters = 30 points; 3–4 = 21; 1–2 = 9; none = 0.

Team experience

• CVs of the proposed technical team showing experience in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center, Microsoft Teams Phone, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Power Platform, enterprise voice, integration, security, support and maintenance.
• The technical lead must hold a current Microsoft certificate relevant to the proposed solution architecture.
• Scoring: 5+ years with relevant certificate = 20 points; 4 years = 14; 2–3 years = 6; below 2 years or no relevant certificate = 0.

Accreditation

• Current Microsoft accreditation to design, implement, integrate, license, support and maintain Dynamics 365 Contact Center and Teams Phone.
• Valid OEM certificate or letter confirming accreditation for installation, maintenance and support of the proposed telephony and contact centre solution.

Quality and security requirements

• The solution must meet all stated business, functional, integration, reporting, security and support requirements.
• Software patches and upgrades must be applied when stable releases become available, subject to Sasria's change management processes.
• The solution must be maintained and updated regularly for security, stability and supportability.
• Strong authentication and access control, including password-based authentication and MFA where applicable.
• Encryption of sensitive information transmitted over the platform, including voice and messaging traffic where applicable.
• Monitoring and logging of user activity, system events, faults and security-related events.
• Secure network design: segmentation, firewalling and access controls.
• Input validation for chatbots, self-service or automated input to prevent malicious commands or code.
• Secure error handling to avoid information leakage while providing meaningful operational feedback.
• Testing, quality assurance and code/configuration reviews to identify and address security vulnerabilities.
• Integration points must be designed with security, auditability, operational resilience and clear integration methods, including authentication, data fields, error handling, audit trails, data retention, implementation dependencies and any custom development.
• High availability and disaster recovery with no single points of failure across critical components, SIP services, call routing, databases, integrations and recording services; extend to Sasria's DR environment where required.

Pricing structure

• All prices VAT exclusive and in ZAR.
• Total bid price must cover the complete Microsoft solution over five years.

Components

• 5.1.1 Installation and implementation: once-off implementation and migration costs, with rate per hour, number of hours and total cost per resource.
• 5.1.2 Hardware and equipment, if applicable: quantity, unit price, rate per hour and total cost.
• 5.1.3 Licences and subscriptions: annual cost for Years 1–5.
• 5.1.4 Managed services, support and maintenance: estimated hours per annum (Year 1 = 250; Years 3–5 = 150 each), rate per hour and total cost.

Total bid price

• Sum of sub-totals 5.1.1 to 5.1.4, VAT exclusive.
• Used for evaluation.

Price Declaration Form

• Total amount excluding VAT in figures and words.
• Confirms the price covers all scope activities and Sasria incurs no additional costs.
• Offer held open for 150 days from submission.
• Signed by an authorised signatory.

Pricing

• All prices VAT exclusive and in South African Rand (ZAR).
• Total bid price must cover the complete Microsoft solution over five years.
• Separate pricing required for:
• Once-off implementation and migration costs (rate per hour, number of hours, total cost).
• Hardware and equipment, if applicable (quantity, unit price, rate per hour, total cost).
• Licences and subscriptions (annual cost for Years 1–5).
• Managed services, support and maintenance (estimated hours per annum: Year 1 = 250; Years 3–5 = 150 each; rate per hour; total cost).
• Total bid price is the sum of the four sub-totals and is used for evaluation.
• Price Declaration Form must state the total amount excluding VAT in figures and words.
• Bidders must indicate whether the bid price is linked to the exchange rate and, if so, which portion.
• Bidders must indicate compliance with National Treasury Instruction /2025: Cost Containment Measures and substantiate.

Bid validity

• Proposals must remain valid for 150 days after the closing date.

Payment

• Payments linked to approved deliverables.

No bid security, performance bond, guarantee or retention is stated in the document.

Mandatory eligibility

• CSD registration confirming tax compliance.
• Valid B-BBEE certificate or affidavit:
• EME with annual turnover below R10 million: sworn affidavit confirming annual total revenue and black ownership level.
• QSE with 51% or more black beneficiaries: sworn affidavit confirming annual total revenue and black ownership level.
• Current Microsoft accreditation to design, implement, integrate, license, support and maintain Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center and Microsoft Teams Phone.
• Valid OEM certificate or letter confirming accreditation for installation, maintenance and support of the proposed telephony and contact centre solution.
• Not on National Treasury's restricted/defaulters register and not prohibited from doing business with the state.

Returnable forms

• SBD 1 (Invitation to Bid): signed offer cover page.
• SBD 4 (Declaration of Interest): discloses state employment or connections of directors/shareholders.
• SBD 6.1 (Preference Points Claim): claims specific-goal points.
• Annexure A (Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreement): signed confidentiality undertaking.
• Annexure B (Acceptance of Bid Conditions and Bidder's Details): signed acceptance.
• Annexure C (Shareholder Information): ownership details.
• Annexure D (Bidder's Experience and Proposed Project Team): experience and team CVs.
• Annexure E (Detailed Requirements List): compliance response.
• Price Declaration Form: signed total price.
• CSD registration number.
• B-BBEE certificate or affidavit.
• Microsoft accreditation certificate or OEM letter.
• Client reference letters (on client letterhead, signed and dated).
• Consortium/JV agreement or subcontracting agreement where applicable.

B-BBEE and specific goals

• Preference points claimed under the 80/20 system.
• Black ownership: 100% = 10 points; 51–99% = 5 points; 0–50% = 0 points.
• Black women ownership: 30–100% = 5 points; 0–29% = 0 points.
• EME or QSE at least 51% black-owned = 5 points.
• Proof: B-BBEE certificate, sworn affidavit or CIPC B-BBEE certificate; consolidated scorecard accepted for JVs.
• Failure to submit proof means points are not claimed.

Transformation

• Bidders are encouraged to partner with majority black-owned (51% black-owned and controlled) and SME entities.
• A partnership/subcontracting proposal detailing the portion of work outsourced and the level of involvement of the black-owned partner must be submitted, with a consolidated B-BBEE scorecard where relevant.

Local content

• No local content thresholds are stated.

Contract formation

• No binding contract exists until a formal written agreement is signed by Sasria.
• Notification of preferred bidder status does not create enforceable rights.
• Sasria may cancel the RFP at any time before signature.

Sasria's rights

• Amend, deviate from, postpone, discontinue or terminate the process without liability.
• Not award to the highest-ranked or highest-scoring bidder.
• Award in whole or in part, or to more than one bidder.
• Negotiate with shortlisted bidders.
• Conduct site visits at bidder or client sites.
• Request information to verify or clarify bid content.
• Restrict a company or person from doing business with the state for up to 10 years.

Contract duration

• Five years, starting immediately after contract signature.

Confidentiality

• The successful bidder must sign the Annexure A confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement.

Costs

• All bid preparation costs are borne by the bidder.

Validity

• Proposals must remain valid for 150 days after the closing date.

Special instruction

• A bidder who believes the functional requirements are not open or fair must notify Sasria Procurement within five days after publication of the RFP.

Evaluation is in three levels.

Level 1 — Governance verification

• CSD registration confirming tax compliance.
• Valid B-BBEE certificate or affidavit.
• Completed SBD forms and Part 6 documents.
• Technical and financial proposals in the required formats.
• Non-compliance may lead to disqualification.

Level 2 — Technical evaluation

Phase 1: Mandatory technical requirements

• Current Microsoft accreditation for Dynamics 365 Contact Center and Teams Phone.
• Valid OEM certificate or letter confirming accreditation for installation, maintenance and support.
• Failure to provide substantiating documentation results in automatic disqualification.

Phase 2: Technical scoring (100 points)

• Proposed solution: 50 points (full FRQ/NFR compliance = 50; fewer than 40 met = 0).
• Bidder's experience: 30 points (5 reference letters = 30; 3–4 = 21; 1–2 = 9; none = 0). Letters must be on client letterhead, signed and dated, identify Microsoft workloads, and relate to implementations within the past five years.
• Team experience: 20 points (5+ years with relevant certificate = 20; 4 years = 14; 2–3 years = 6; below 2 years or no relevant certificate = 0). Technical lead must hold a current Microsoft certificate relevant to the proposed architecture.
• Minimum qualifying score: 70/100 to proceed to Phase 3.

Phase 3: Solution demonstration (100 points)

• Shortlisted bidders receive a maximum of 5 days' notice.
• Demonstration of the actual solution against Annexure E requirements.
• Scoring: 90–100% of requirements met = 100 points; 80–89% = 80 points; 70–79% = 70 points; below 70% = 0 points.
• Minimum qualifying score: 70/100 to proceed to price and specific goals.

Level 3 — Preference point system (80/20)

• Price: 80 points.
• Specific goals: 20 points.
• Total: 100 points.

Specific goals scoring

• Black ownership (10 points): 100% black-owned = 10; 51–99% = 5; 0–50% = 0.
• Black women ownership (5 points): 30–100% = 5; 0–29% = 0.
• EME or QSE at least 51% black-owned (5 points).
• Proof: B-BBEE certificate, sworn affidavit or CIPC B-BBEE certificate; consolidated scorecard accepted for JVs.
• Failure to submit proof means preference points are not claimed.