AMENDMENT 01:
ANNEXURE 1
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
BIDDERS MUST SUBMIT ANNEXURE 1 TOGETHER WITH THE MAIN BID DOCUMENT
RFBNUMBER: / RFB1439/2016PUBLICATION DATE: / 24 June 2016
CLOSING DATE: / 08 August 2016
CLOSING TIME: / 11:00AM
RFB DESCRIPTION: / Appointment Of A Service Provider For The Provisioning Of Broadband Connectivity To Certain Government Facilities Located In Eight (8) District Municipalities As Per Phase 1 Implementation Of The Sa Connect Programme”
Table of Content
ANNEXURE 1
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
BIDDERS MUST SUBMIT ANNEXURE 1 TOGETHER WITH THE MAIN BID DOCUMENT
ANNEXURE 1A: RFB BACKGROUND
1INTRODUCTION
2SCOPE
3ROLLOUT SCHEDULE
4DURATION
5SITA INTERCONNECTION REQUIREMENTS
6ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
7EVALUATION CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGY
ANNEXURE 1B: BID PRE-SCREENING REQUIREMENTS
ANNEXURE 1C: TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
ANNEXURE 1D: PRICING SCHEDULE
ANNEXURE 1E: SPECIAL CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT
AGENERAL CONDITION
BINFORMATION AND CLARIFICATION REQUEST
CTECHNOLOGY
D SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE CONDITIONS
ESCOPE OF SERVICES
FDELIVERY CONDITION
GPERSONNEL SECURITY
HSLA PERFORMANCE REPORTING
ISOLUTION DELIVERY
JFINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
ANNEXURE 1F: SERVICES
ANNEXURE 1G: TECHNICAL SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE
ANNEXURE 1H: EXISTING SWITCHING CENTRES/POPS
ANNEXURE 1I: Bidder Capability to operate services of similar scale (Technical
ANNEXURE 1J: Bidder Execution (Technical Non-Mandatory 3.2.3)
ANNEXURE 1A: RFBBACKGROUND
1INTRODUCTION
The vision of South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP) is to achieve the following by 2030:
Underpin the development of a dynamic and connected information society and a vibrant knowledge economy that is more inclusive and prosperous. A seamless information infrastructure will be universally available and accessible, and will meet the needs of individuals, business, and the public sector, providing access to the creation and consumption of a wide range of converged services required for effective economic and social participation – at a cost and quality at least equal to South Africa’s main economic peers and competitors.
Furthermore, there is growing evidence that the diffusion of ICT is an accelerator of economic growth in a country (studies by the OECD, World Bank and Economic Commission for Africa). Broadband is being identified as a key contributor to economic growth and offering “opportunities for employment generation, creation of new sources of innovation and enhancement of industrial competitiveness”.
However many global indices show that South Africa is rapidly falling behind other developed and developing countries (including some on the African continent) when it comes to broadband and telecommunications connectivity. Moreover, the leading countries are accelerating in their capabilities, further widening the gap between South Africa and the more advanced nations.
South Africa Connect (SA Connect) is a policy that gives expression to South Africa’s vision in the NDP of a seamless information infrastructure by 2030 that will underpin a dynamic and connected vibrant information society and a knowledge economy that is more inclusive, equitable and prosperous. In particular the policy objective is to provide affordable broadband available nationally to meet the diverse needs of public and private users. Amongst others, the policy provides guiding principles of efficiency, i.e. within a competitive market, enabling the sharing of infrastructure to avoid unnecessary duplication in driving the deployment of broadband services throughout the country in pursuit of the NDP aspirations.
Deployment of high-speed broadband networks requires an enabling environment that facilitates the coordinated building and sharing of infrastructure. The high cost (up to 80%) in deploying new networks relates to civil engineering works. Inefficiencies and bottlenecks preventing rollout therefore need to be addressed. Co-building of infrastructure will be enabled to avoid unnecessary duplication and investments directed instead to areas that are currently underserved. Exploiting the extensive networks that exist will result in better utilisation, greater cost savings and fair competition.
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) conducted an infrastructure gap analysis that identified gaps between fibre network infrastructure and dwellings, i.e. a situation where the fibre network is available but no last mile infrastructure, or the fibre network is absent. This gap is most highly pronounced in rural areas and in particular in former homelands where the most marginalised communities live.
While there is a considerable duplication and potential inefficient use of infrastructure in the metropolitan areas, the rural areas still experience inadequate access to technologies. To narrow the Digital Divide, Government has to intervene by procuring broadband services for Government facilities, prioritising facilities in the rural areas.
The Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS)aims to aggregate the collective demand from these facilities and position Government as an anchor tenant in an effort to encourage the private sector investment in the rollout of infrastructure. In this regard, the DTPS approached SITA to assist it with the roll-out of broadband services to specific Government facilities in eight (8) rural district municipalities. The technology utilized to provide connectivity to the government sites must be robust, scalable and future proof to meet SA connect targets.
In response, SITA intends to appoint a service provider through a competitive and open bidding process to build and operate broadband access services in these eight district municipalities in support of the DTPS requirement.The broadband access services will connect to the existing Government private network that is operated by SITA and will enable access to Government application services hosted at SITA and to the Internet.
The successful service provider is expected and encouraged to work with small medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in the district municipalities where the services will be provided in order to create job opportunities in those districts.
2SCOPE
The scope of this project is to provide broadband access services to certain Government facilities located in the eight district municipalities identified for Phase 1 implementation of the SA Connect program.
The districtmunicipalities and number of facilities per district municipality are depicted in Table 1.
Table 1: The Identified Phase 1 District Municipalities
No / Phase 1 District Municipality / Total1 / Dr Kenneth Kaunda / 340
2 / GertSibande / 797
3 / O.R.Tambo / 1444
4 / PixleykaSeme / 225
5 / Thabo Mofutsanyane / 747
6 / uMgungundlovu / 771
7 / uMzinyathi / 601
8 / Vhembe / 1210
TOTAL / 6135
The eight (8) identified district municipalities for this programmeare shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: 8 District Municipalities
The breakdown of the identified facilities is depicted in Table 2 below.
Table 2: DistrictMunicipality Facility Breakdown
The project will consist of a build phase (1a) and an operations phase (1b). The build phase will be over a three year period starting from 2016/17 to 2018/19 and the operations phase will be over a ten year period between 2016/2017 and 2025/2026.
For the build phase, the objective is to connect the first 2700 sites within fourteen (14) months of the signing of contract between SITA and the successful bidder and the remainder of the sites over the next twenty four (24) months. Furthermore, the build phase consists of the following at a minimum: (a) access line installations and aggregation, (b) integration into the Government private network and (c) installations and commissioning of customer premises network equipment.For the first five (5) years, all 6135 sites must operate at bandwidths of 10Mbps. Thereafter all sites will need to be upgraded to bandwidths of 100Mbps.
The broadband access network must be able to carry data, voice and video communications and capable of enabling public Internet access together with private corporate Government network access on the same infrastructure.
For the operations phase, the objectiveis to operate and maintain the broadband access network and customer premises network equipment and provide broadband network access services to SITA. These services must be supported by a 24-hour network operating centreand a service centre in accordance with a Service Level Agreement that will be signed between SITA and the successful bidder.
3ROLLOUT SCHEDULE
SITA requires that the rollout schedule adhere to the following principles:
a)That the services be rolled out simultaneously in all identified district municipalities to ensure that the annual targets are achieved.
b)That the rollout schedule to be agreed upon by all parties and signed off by SITA and the DTPS.
c)That the roll-outcommences 2 months after the contract has been signed. The first 2 months provide for planning and assessment.
4DURATION
The contract period will be forten (10) years.
5SITA INTERCONNECTION REQUIREMENTS
All sites must be connected to SITA points of presence as indicated inFigure2 (Annexure1G) and Table 3 below.
Table 3: SITA Points of Presence (POPs)
District Municipality / SITA Point of presence (PoP) / No. of sitesDr Kenneth Kaunda / Mmabatho / 340
GertSibande / Nelspruit / 797
OR Tambo / Bhisho / 1444
PixleykaSeme / Kimberley / 225
Thabo Mofutsanyane / Bloemfontein / 747
uMgungundlovu / Pietermaritzburg / 771
uMzinyathi / Pietermaritzburg / 601
Vhembe / Polokwane / 1210
6ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
It is required that:
a)The service provider must supply 6135 customer premise equipment as defined and specified in the Special Conditions of Contract;
b)The service provider must supply at least 6135 Access points and the Wireless LAN controllers as defined in Figure 2 (Annexure 1G);
c)The service provider must supply at least 6135 Access data lines at Layer 2 with 80ms latency or better;
d)For the duration of the contract, all end-of-life equipment must be replaced within the expiry date as announced by the OEM.
e)All firmware and software upgrades must be costed up front as part of the solution.
7EVALUATION CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGY
The evaluation of the RFB shall be based on the 90/10 preference points system as per Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (Act 5 of 2000 as amended).
The breakdown of points is as follows:
Price points / 90B-BBEE status level contribution / 10
Total / 100 points
The bid will be evaluated over several stages as follows:
Stage 1:Screening of mandatory documents
Stage 2:Technical mandatory requirements
Stage 3:Technical non-mandatory requirements
Stage 4:Price and B-BBEE evaluation
NB: THE BIDDER MUST COMPLY WITH ALL THE REQUIREMENTS OF A SPECIFIC STAGE TO PROCEED TO THE NEXT STAGE OF EVALUATION.
Page 1 of 37ANNEXURE 1B: BID PRE-SCREENING REQUIREMENTS
The following documents/requirements will be mandatory during the bid pre-screening stage. Failure by bidders to comply with the requirement may render their bid incomplete and they may be eliminated from participation in further evaluation stages.
1. / Submission of bid response document on timeBidding conditions / Bidder must submit the bid response at the correct place within the stipulated date and time.
2. / Attendance of compulsory briefing session
Bidding conditions / Bidder must have signed the briefing session attendance register using the name and contacts that appear in the bidding document as a bidder.
3. / Registered Supplier
Bidding conditions / Bidder must be registered as a Supplier on the National Treasury Central Supplier Database (CSD) as per National Treasury Instruction Note 4 of 2016/17.
4. / Submission of required bid response number of hard copies and electronic format documents
Bidding conditions / 1)One (1) original file including pricing which must be submitted in a separate envelope;
2)Five (5) hard copy including pricing which must be submitted in a separate envelopes for each of the pricing schedules A.1 to E.1. These pricing envelopes must be clearly marked per pricing schedules A.1 to E.1
3)One (1) electronic copy on compact disk (CD) in Portable Document Format (PDF) and specified which must include Bid Document and Technical / Functionality Response file.
4)Five (5) electronic copies in compact disc (CD) in Portable Document Format (PDF) and Excel Format (xlsx) and specified which each pricing schedules A.1 to E.1 must be submitted on a separate CD.
ANNEXURE 1C: TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
1INSTRUCTIONS
1.1Bidders are required to EXPLICITLY MARK EITHER “COMPLY”, OR “DO NOT COMPLY” on each and every requirement.Failure to do so will be taken as a “DO NOT COMPLY”.
1.2Bidders mustSUBSTANTIATE BY PROVIDING RELEVANT PROOF for each requirement.Failure to do so will be taken as a “DO NOT COMPLY”.
1.3Failure to comply with any mandatory requirement shall lead to disqualification.
1.4Bidders may where necessary, REFER TO ADDITIONAL REFERENCE MATERIAL SUBMITTED BY DOCUMENT NAME/NUMBER, PAGE NUMBER AND PARAGRAPH. Where a reference in substantiation is made to another page (“off-page”) in the bidder’s submission, such referenced page shall be clearly identified by a unique reference number and such reference number shall be provided in the requirement’s“Provide Relevant Proof” section. During evaluation, SITA reserves the right to treat a question for which an “off-page” referenced substantiation page cannot be located based on such a unique reference number as a “DO NOT COMPLY”.
2MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS
REGULATORY CERTIFICATION/ACCREDITATION REQUIREMENTS
2.12.1 / The bidder must be a holder of a valid IECNS license issued by ICASA as defined in section 1 of the Electronic Communication Act 36 of 2005 as amended. / Comply / Do Not complyProvide relevant proof / The bidder must submit a copy of a valid IECNS license.
2.2 / The bidder must have valid OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) certifications for all routing and switching products that the bidder intends to use in the proposed solution. / Comply / Do Not comply
Provide relevant proof / The bidder must provide:
a)A list of allrouting and switching products that the bidder intends to use in the proposed solution; and
b)Valid OEM certifications for each of the products.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE AND CAPABILITIES
2.32.2 / The bidder must have experience in building Electronic Communication Networks (ECN) using fibre optic cable (as defined in section 1 of the Electronic Communication Act 36 of 2005 as amended) in two or more municipalities that are not Metropolitan Municipalities (as defined in section 3 of Local Government Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998 as amended), at the same time. / Comply / Do Not complyProvide relevant proof / The bidder must submit at least two different certified copies of construction permits (normally issued in terms of a wayleave agreement), where the construction permits indicate:
a)That they were issued by the respective land owners to the bidder;
b)That they were for installing and operating or maintaining land-based fibre optic cables (as defined in section 1 of the Electronic Communication Act 36 of 2005 as amended); and
c)That the land owners’ addresses are in different non-metropolitan municipalities; and
d)That they were issued at dates within six months from each other.
2.42.3. / The bidder must currently be providing Individual Electronic Communication Network Services (IECNS), as defined in section 1 of the Electronic Communication Act (Act 36 of 2005 as amended), in all the eight (8) district municipalities where the services will be provided as indicated in Table 1 and Figure 1. The IECNS must deliver, at a minimum, data connectivity Electronic Communication Services (ECS) to business or Government customers. / Comply / Do Not comply
Provide relevant proof / The bidder must submit one signed reference letter from a business or Government customer from each of the eight (8) district municipality where the services will be provided and to whom the current data connectivity ECSare provided. Each letter must:
a)Be in writing, dated, signed and on a letterhead of the entity giving the reference;
b)Indicate the nature of data connectivity ECS currently provided by the bidder;
c)Confirm that data connectivity ECS are provided by the bidder; and
d)Indicate the district municipality where the data connectivity ECS are provided.
TECHNICAL/FUNCTIONAL
2.5 / The bidder must have Electronic Communication Network(s) (ECN), as defined in section 1 of the Electronic Communication Act (Act 36 of 2005 as amended), in all eight (8) district municipalities where the services will be provided. / Comply / Do Not complyProvide relevant proof / The bidder must provide current ECN distribution diagram(s) (coverage map(s)) that indicate(s) physical presence in all of the eight (8) district municipalities where the services will be provided.
2.6 / The bidder must provide evidence that they will be financially sustainable for a period longer than a year of implementation. / Comply / Do Not comply
Provide relevant proof / 1. The bidder must provide an irrevocable financial warranty that confirms that, (i) the bidder has unencumbered cash balances of no less than R370 million and (ii) the cash balances are exclusively ring-fenced for use to fund the rollout of the services envisaged in this tender and which warranty is:
a)from a financial services provider that is authorised by either the Financial Services Board (FSB) or the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), to provide financial services in South Africa;
b)addressed to the State Information Technology Agency SOC Ltd in the form of a written letter that is specific to the subject of this tender, dated, signed and on a letterhead of the entity giving the guarantee; and
c)valid for a minimum period of twenty four (24) months from the date of issue.
2. The bidder must provide audited financial statements from a registered auditor for the last two financial years that demonstrate the bidder is a going concern.
3NON-MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS
3.1INSTRUCTION AND EVALUATION
a)All of the following non-mandatory criteria must be completed in full and it must be met where possible. It is imperative to understand that not meeting any non-mandatory requirement will be taken into account for the scoring of functionality.
b)In all cases, the bidder must substantiate their response in detail in the “Provide Proof” field provided. Bidders may, where necessary, refer to additional reference material submitted by document name/number, page number and paragraph. Where a reference in substantiation is made to another page (“off-page”) in the bidder’s submission, such referenced page must be clearly identified by a unique reference number and such reference number must be provided in the “Provide Proof” field.
Bidders are encouraged to focus on accuracy and quality of their responses as this may affect the scoring.
c)The table below is the weightings for evaluation of Technical Non-Mandatory requirements.
Technical Non-Mandatory Requirement / WeightingBidder capability to operate services of similar scale / 20 %
Service availability / 40 %
Project execution / 40 %
TOTAL / 100 %
d)THE BIDDERS WILL BE REQUIRED TO ACHIEVE A MINIMUM SCORE OF 61% OUT OF 100% TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR THE NEXT STAGE OF EVALUATION.
3.2NON-MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS
3.2.1 / Bidder capability to operate services of similar scale: The bidder must currently beproviding Electronic Communications Network Services (ECNS) that deliver data connectivity ECSat 2500 or more business or Government customer sites with different physical addresses. At least 50% of the sites must be connected with fixed lines (wire or cable).Provide Proof / The bidder mustprovide one or more letters from one or more business or Government customers where services are being delivered with each letter dated, signed and on a letterhead of the customer. Each letter must include:
a)Customer name, contact details and physical addresses for each customer site;
b)TheRegistered Company name and Registration Numberas registered with Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) if the customer is a business customer;
c)Confirmation of the Nature of the Service is Data Services;
d)The ECN Medium type, being fixed (wire or cable) line or other.
e)Number of customer sites at which the customer receives the ECS services from the bidder.
The bidder must provide abovementioned information in the table as per Annexure 1I.
Evaluation Criteria / The scoring will be based on the total number of customer sites specified in the reference letter(s) as follows:
0 = 0 to 2499 customer sites or incomplete proof
3 = 2500 to 4499 customer sites
4 = 4500 to 6499 customer sites
5 = 6500 or more customer sites
3.2.2 / Service availability:The bidder must have the capacity to operate and maintain electronic communications network services that deliver data connectivity services at 95% service availability or better.
Provide proof / The bidder must provide monthly network operations centre (NOC) statistics for 2500 business or Government customer sites covering a period of 24 months and not older than 24 months of the date of the publication of the tender showing service availability.
Evaluation Criteria / The scoring will be based on the availability statistics per site per month averaged over 24 months and measured over 24 hours per day, except for scheduled maintenance as follows:
0 = 0.0% to less than 95.0% or incomplete proof
3 = 95.0% to 98.9%
4 = 99.0% to 99.8%
5 = more than 99.8%
3.2.3 / Project Execution: The bidder must have delivered a project or projects within a minimum period of 36 months that connected at least 2500 business or Government customer sites with data connectivity Electronic Communications Services (ECS), where 50% of the 2500 sites should have been connected using fixed lines (wire or cable) and have been completed within a maximum average Project Delivery Index of 1.2.
Provide Proof / The bidder must provide:
a)Signed implementation plan indicating the start and end dates of the delivery per site;
b)Signed customer acceptance certificate(s) indicating the actual dates of site(s) handover;
c)Evidence of the Actual Start date if it is not the same as the start date in the implementation plan(s).
d)Average Project Delivery Index, calculated as Actual Duration divided by Planned Duration per site, measured over a period of 36 months;
e)Physical addresses of each customer site; and
f)Business registered company name and registration number of each customer as registered with Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) if the customer is a business customer.
The information above must be summarised in the Table as per Annexure 1J.
Evaluation Criteria / The scoring will be based on the average Project Delivery Index of all the projects as follows:
0 = Average Project Delivery Index > 1.2 or incomplete proof
3 = Average Project Delivery Index is more than 1.1 and less than or equal to 1.2
4 = Average Project Delivery Index is more than 1.0 and less than or equal to 1.1
5 = Average Project Delivery Index is less than or equal to 1.0
ANNEXURE 1D: PRICING SCHEDULE