Suppliers sought for potential £1 billion IT services contracts with London authorities

The City of Westminster (CoW) council has published a contract notice on the 'publictenders.net' website on behalf of 32 other London boroughs as well as the City of London in which it has said it is seeking "flexible" suppliers with which to form four year long framework agreements. The agreements would cover the provision of a wide range of IT services broadly badged under three separate "lots" - 'distributed computing', 'service desk' and 'data centre services'.

A framework is in essence an umbrella agreement which sets out all or some of the terms on which the parties to the agreement will enter into contracts ("call-offs") in the future. 

CoW said that although there was "no guarantee" that the authorities would place orders with selected suppliers through the frameworks, it said that the IT providers could potentially win up to £1.1 billion in future contracts. The minimum combined annual value of the three 'lots' is £3.1 million.

"Currently the council and other participating boroughs each use a variety of service providers to supply different parts of their IT services," the tender document said. "Some are run and managed in-house or hosted and managed externally, and some are a combination of these. This means that the requirements of the participating authorities will vary. Some may issue call offs for each lot and some may not."

"Interested suppliers should note that due to differences in current service provision, participating authorities will select which services within that lot they require and that in respect of each lot not all services may be required by the council or any other participating authority. This means that service providers will have to be flexible in that which they offer to the council and other participating authorities. The Council and other participating authorities may also offer call-off contracts at different times during the life of the framework including during the last year of the terms of the framework agreement," it added.

CoW said it was looking for suppliers that could deliver ICT services "in a consistently efficient and effective manner". Bidding companies should be prepared to support local authorities as they migrate from current systems to "a set of common processes" and may have to themselves invest "in the service delivery".

"The aim is not only to provide outsourced technology but for the successful service provider to demonstrate that the underpinning technology ensures that the Council and the other Participating Authorities receive: streamlined ICT services, improved process efficiency and cost-effectiveness, capacity for self-service where appropriate, improved efficient reporting, identified savings and of course quality of service," the tender document said.

CoW said that it is aiming to appoint separate suppliers for each of the three 'lots', but said that it may give a single service provider the contract for delivering two or even all three of the lots.

"For each lot, a single comprehensive solution is being sought," it said. "Submissions for each lot will therefore be considered from prime contractors and consortia provided that the relevant prime contractor or consortium can provide a single comprehensive solution for that lot."

CoW said that suppliers would need to help it with the transition to new services from early next year and ensure that new services are "operational" from November 2014. The authority, together with the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, are hosting a 'Supplier Day' on Wednesday where they will provide more information on the procurement.

Suppliers have until 5pm on 3 May to submit their bids to obtain the work.