June 15, 2026
Invitation to Tender
CHRU, a division of Wits Health Consortium (WHC), hereby invites suitably qualified and experienced service providers to submit proposals for the provision of comprehensive IT support and managed services for a period of thirty-six (36) months. The appointed service provider will be expected to provide stable, secure, compliant, and responsive services across the CHRU operating environment, with service delivery tailored to clinical research operations and research-support systems.
Employer / Client Introduction
Wits Health Consortium (WHC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of the Witwatersrand and provides the governance, legal, financial, operational, and administrative support platform through which health-sciences research, clinical trials, and related programmes are enabled. CHRU operates as a division of WHC within this broader health-sector research framework.
The Clinical Health Research Unit (CHRU) is a specialised health-sector clinical research unit focused on infectious diseases and related public-health priorities, including HIV, TB, HPV, Hepatitis B and C, and COVID-19. As a donor-funded and research-intensive operating environment, CHRU requires disciplined governance, service continuity, confidentiality, cyber resilience, audit readiness, and careful change control across all technology services.
The purpose of this tender is therefore not merely to procure routine IT support, but to appoint a service provider able to operate within a regulated, research-active, multi-site environment where service continuity, information security, and governance discipline are essential to study integrity and operational continuity.
Invitation to Tender
• appoint a single accountable managed services provider or lead contractor for end-user support, infrastructure support, cyber security support, governance support, reporting, and service improvement;
• ensure continuity of service to CHRU research, clinical, operational, and administrative teams across Johannesburg and Gqeberha/Port Elizabeth operations where applicable;
• formalise service levels, escalation routes, governance routines, reporting obligations, and transition requirements;
• reduce operational risk associated with fragmented support arrangements, inconsistent documentation, or unmanaged infrastructure dependencies; and
• procure services through a fair, transparent, and defensible procurement process aligned with South African governance and procurement requirements.
Procurement and Governance Framework
This tender must be interpreted and administered in accordance with the applicable internal procurement policy of WHC, delegated authority requirements, and relevant South African legislative and regulatory requirements. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, biddersshall note that compliance expectationsin thistender have been informed by the Public Finance Management Act and Treasury Regulations governing supply chain management, the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act and the 2022 Preferential Procurement Regulations, the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013, and applicable B-BBEE documentation requirements and practice notes.
• No bidder will be appointed unless the procurement process is completed in accordance with internal approval and governance requirements.
• All communication with bidders must be channelled through the designated procurement contact person.
• Any attempt to influence the process outside authorised channels may result in disqualification.
• The employer reserves the right to verify any representation, certificate, reference, system capability, or financial information submitted by a bidder.
Current Environment Overview
• multi-site environment with operational activities in Johannesburg and Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), subject to operational changes or clarification communicated through the tender process;
• The current environment is a hybrid environment comprising on-premises infrastructure and cloud-hosted Microsoft 365 services.
• business-critical systems include, or may include research and clinical applications such as REDCap, LIMS, Therapy Edge or equivalent specialised healthcare/research systems, Microsoft productivity tools, connectivity infrastructure, and endpoint environments. Unless otherwise stated, software licensing costs are excluded from the managed-services fee and remain the responsibility of CHRU/WHC;
• service delivery is expected to cover both remote and on-site support requirements;
• the environment includes infrastructure, network, endpoint, application, security, backup, asset-management, and user-support components;
• the successful bidder will be required to familiarise itself with CHRU operational workflows, research sensitivities, approved policies, and technology dependencies during transition.
Baseline metrics:
The average volume of calls received is ~340 per month. Important to note that this number excludes time spent on IT Projects, maintenance and servicing, as well as updates to IT related equipment.
Network diagrams for the various sites are presented below:
Helen Joseph Hospital:
Sizwe:
Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth):
CHRU/WHC reserves the right to arrange optional bidder site visits prior to tender closure.
Scope of Services
The successful bidder shall provide a fully integrated managed-service offering covering, at minimum, the service components set out below. Bidders may propose additional value-added services where relevant, provided that such proposals do not dilute the minimum scope requirements.
Service Levels
Notes to the service level table:
• Business hours are 08:00 – 17:00 South African Standard Time, from Monday to Friday, excluding Public Holidays unless otherwise agreed.
• These service levels relate to business hours only. Out of business hour calls/service requests are rare. Should out of business hour requests be made, a reasonable turnaround time is expected based on the urgency of the request.
• Weekend/public holiday expectation: If the organisation requires support on weekends or public holidays it is practice for the organisation to request this a week in advance. IT maintenance and changes are performed on weekends to avoid disruption to the organisation.
• (*) On call requirements for critical incidents:
o Helen Joseph Hospital – a technician is expected to be on site during business hours.
o Sizwe – A technician should be on standby with a maximum time of 2 hours to be on site.
o Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) – A technician is expected to be on site for at least 75% of the time during business hours. This requirement may be satisfied through scheduled on-site attendance agreed with CHRU.
o Remote assistance is expected to always be available during business hours.
Transition and Mobilisation Requirements
• The bidder shall submit a transition and mobilisation plan not exceeding eight (8) weeks from contract commencement, unless otherwise approved by CHRU/WHC.
• The plan shall include discovery activities, due-diligence assumptions, knowledge transfer requirements, staffing model, risk controls, asset / access verification, documentation takeover, communication plan, and service-commencement readiness criteria.
• The bidder shall identify transition dependencies requiring client support and clearly distinguish between pre-award assumptions and post-award confirmation activities.
• No production changes or service transfer activities may be undertaken without approved change-control and access-control arrangements.
• CHRU/WHC will provide reasonable access to systems, documentation, personnel, and incumbent service providers during transition.
• The successful bidder shall provide reasonable exit-transition assistance at contract expiry or termination to facilitate orderly transfer of services.
• Where an incumbent service provider exists, CHRU/WHC will facilitate reasonable knowledge transfer and handover activities, subject to contractual and confidentiality constraints.
Contract Period
The intended contract period is thirty-six (36) months from the effective date of contract signature, subject to satisfactory performance, budget availability, governance approvals, and contract terms. No renewal, extension, or expansion shall be implied unless approved in writing in accordance with the employer’s delegated authority and contracting framework.
Eligibility, Mandatory Returnable Documents, and Required Bid Content
For clarity, this tender distinguishes between mandatory returnable documents and required bid-response documents. Mandatory returnables are compliance and eligibility documents whose absence, invalidity, or material non-compliance may render a bid non-responsive or liable for disqualification. Required bid-response documents are substantive evaluation documents used to assess capability, methodology, commercial viability, and contractual readiness.
Submission Instructions
1. Bidders shall submit one technical proposal and one financial proposal, clearly separated and labelled.
2. Where electronic submission is used, the technical and financial proposals must be submitted as separate files, and pricing must not appear in the technical proposal.
3. All clarification questions must be submitted in writing by the clarification deadline stated in this tender. Responses of general relevance may be shared with all bidders, without disclosing bidder identity where appropriate.
4. Late submissions may not be considered.
5. Bidders are responsible for ensuring that their submissions are complete, legible, virus-free, and received before closing time.
6. CHRU/WHC may request original documents, verification material, demonstrations, reference checks, or presentations as part of the evaluation or due-diligence process.
Disqualification and Non-Responsiveness
• failure to submit mandatory returnable documents or failure to provide materially compliant versions thereof;
• late submission or submission through an unauthorised channel;
• misrepresentation, false declaration, forged documentation, or material omission;
• failure to meet the minimum functionality threshold;
• pricing included in the technical proposal where this compromises process integrity;
• evidence of collusion, canvassing, inappropriate bidder contact, or conflict of interest not properly disclosed;
• material qualification of the tender terms where such qualification is not acceptable to CHRU/WHC;
• tax non-compliance, sanction screening concerns, or other governance findings that make award inappropriate.
Evaluation Methodology
Evaluation will be undertaken in stages to ensure that only compliant and capable bidders proceed to commercial comparison. The employer reserves the right to verify all bidder claims, conduct due diligence, seek clarifications, and correct arithmetical errors on a stated basis. The proposed methodology below should be aligned to the final approved internal procurement strategy before publication.\
The proposed functionality criteria below have been weighted according to the operational risk and service criticality associated with a clinical research environment. Technical delivery capability, cyber-security maturity, specialised systems support, and transition discipline have accordingly been weighted more heavily than generic corporate profile material.
Specialized Systems Capability Scale
Pricing Schedule
• All prices must be stated in South African Rand, inclusive or exclusive of VAT as clearly indicated, and must remain fixed for the validity period unless otherwise expressly permitted in the final conditions of tender. Bidders must clearly identify assumptions, pass-through licensing elements, third-party dependencies, and any annual escalation assumptions proposed.
• Bidders must clearly identify services included in the base fee, services charged on a consumption or time-and-material basis, and any exclusions from scope.
• Bidders must provide a fixed monthly managed service fee and separately identify any variable, consumption-based, project-based or out-of-scope charges.
• CHRU/WHC reserves the right to request revised pricing, best-and-final offers, or clarification submissions from one or more bidders where considered appropriate and consistent with procurement principles.
General Conditions of Tender
1. CHRU/WHC does not bind itself to accept the lowest-priced bid or any bid received.
2. CHRU/WHC reserves the right to cancel, suspend, amend, or re-issue the tender, in whole or in part, without making an award.
3. CHRU/WHC reservesthe right to negotiate with the preferred bidder within the limits of applicable procurement rules and internal approvals.
4. CHRU/WHC may award the tender in whole, in part, or not at all, depending on scope, budget, risk, and governance considerations.
5. Bidders shall bear all costs associated with preparation and submission of their bids.
6. Any confidential information disclosed during the tender process must be treated accordingly and used solely for tender purposes.
7. The successful bidder will be required to enter into a formal written agreement and service level agreement before commencement of services.
8. Where personal information may be processed on behalf of CHRU/WHC, the successful bidder will be required to comply with POPIA-related security and operator obligations and to enter into appropriate contractual undertakings.
9. A bidder whose bid is unsuccessful shall not, by reason only of non-selection, be entitled to a detailed explanation beyond what the employer chooses or is obliged to provide in accordance with its applicable process and policy.
10. Where the successful bidder processes personal information on behalf of CHRU/WHC, the bidder shall act as an Operator as contemplated in POPIA and comply with all applicable operator obligations.
Query Process
All queries and clarification questions relating to this tender must be submitted in writing to the designated procurement contact person by 1 July 2026 at 16:00. Clarification responses may be consolidated and shared with all bidders to ensure fairness and equal access to information. No verbal clarification shall be binding unless confirmed in writing by the authorized procurement representative.
Annexures as required
Closing Statement
CHRU/WHC seeks to appoint a service provider that demonstrates not only technical ability, but also governance maturity, responsiveness, cyber-security awareness, and the ability to support a research-intensive environment with professionalism and accountability. Bidders are encouraged to respond clearly, completely, and in a manner that enables fair comparison across technical quality, risk, and value for money.