Trend Micro Security Licence Renewal

The South African Post Office (SAPO) is seeking a service provider to renew its existing Trend Micro security licences, including maintenance and support, for a twelve-month period from 1 March 2027 to 29 February 2028. The scope covers two components: Trend Micro Smart Protection Complete, which provides endpoint, email and internet access security through a pool of 705,000 TrendAI Flex credits, and the TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) network security estate. The network component comprises two 15 Gbps TPS Inspection Licences with Threat DV, TLS Inspection and Digital Vaccine support; two 8200TX hardware appliances with support; one vSMS Enterprise Virtual Appliance with support; and one Deep Discovery Inspector Virtual Appliance rated at 500 Mbps. Quantities are unchanged from the current deployment, and no migration, re-deployment or replacement of existing solutions is required. The renewed licences must be active from 1 March 2027 with no lapse in protection. If the purchase order is issued after that date, the appointed provider must complete activation within two to five working days of the order date. The solutions are hosted at SAPO's data centre, with the point of delivery at the National Post Centre in Pretoria.

Bidders must meet several mandatory gatekeeping and bid conditions. They must be an authorised Trend Micro and/or TrendAI partner in good standing for at least five of the past seven years, and must demonstrate experience delivering enterprise security licence renewals and support in comparable environments within the past seven years, using the prescribed client reference template (Annexure BR). The bid must nominate at least two engineers assigned to the contract who hold valid Trend Micro or TrendAI certification and have relevant working experience on these products within the past four years, supported by proof of certification (Annexure PR). Bidders must also submit a standard support and call logging procedure covering priority definitions, response times per priority, logging channels and operating hours including after-hours support, the escalation path to the OEM with named contacts, and how call status is reported through to resolution. Support must be included at no additional cost, and only the SKUs listed in the pricing schedule may be quoted. Bidders must also complete the conformance to specification declaration (Annexure BC), provide a complete pricing schedule in South African Rand excluding VAT, and be registered on the National Treasury Central Supplier Database. Prices must remain firm for the twelve-month contract period. Pricing covers the full contract value, with evaluation based on an 80/20 or 90/10 split between price and B-BBEE specific goals.

For SAPO, the value of this contract lies in uninterrupted protection of its IT estate, avoiding the operational and security risks of a licence lapse, while maintaining the current architecture without disruption. The award will be subject to due diligence, which may include presentations, verification of partner status and engineer certifications directly with Trend Micro or TrendAI, product entitlement validation with the OEM, and reference checks. Key dates include a compulsory briefing session on 29 October 2026 at 11:00, a deadline for clarification questions on 4 November 2026, and bid closing on 13 November 2026 at 11:00, with the bid valid for 180 days from closing.