Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2020-03-09
Buyer: Sunderland City Council
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 32400000 | 32500000 | 48200000 | 48500000 | 48800000

Technical requirements: Sunderland City Council is seeking strategic partner(s) to enter a joint venture with the Council which will control all of our connectivity assets and: invest in the necessary fibre and 5G network infrastructure, deliver and operate an open access network and 5G neutral host.
Whilst Sunderland City Council (‘the Council’) has determined to proceed with a forthcoming procurement process for the appointment of a strategic partner(s) for its Smart City project (as described in the prospectus which can be found at www.nepo.org under reference), the Council would like to engage with the market place before it finalises its approach to this procurement. As such the Council is requesting:
1) participation in preliminary market engagement activity (described further below) by lead suppliers who are interested in leading a consortium bid for the proposed strategic partnership; and
2) expressions of interest from any other organisation interested in participating as part of a potential consortium responding to the forthcoming procurement process.
Market engagement activity with lead suppliers: the Council proposes to hold individual meetings with a number of lead suppliers to receive input on the proposed procurement exercise to appoint a strategic partner to fund, deploy and operate a comprehensive open access and 5G neutral host network within Sunderland. Whilst it is expected that due to the scope of the role, the strategic partner is likely to be a consortium, this preliminary market engagement is intended to be held with likely lead suppliers (although the lead organisation may bring one or more representatives of consortium members to the meeting).
It is proposed that each meeting will last for no more than 2 hours. Lead suppliers can discuss any aspect of the proposed procurement, however the Council would like to include in the discussions as minimum:
If you are a lead supplier and you are interested in participating in this pre-procurement engagement activity, please register on the NEPO Portal (www.nepo.org) under reference DN467791 and complete and submit, via the NEPO Portal, the expression of interest form to be received no later than 4 p.m. on 23 March 2020, together with your preference for days during the week commencing 30 March 2020.
Please note that the number of organisations the Council can meet during this week is limited to 10. Therefore the Council reserves the right to determine which organisations are most appropriate for this discussion where more than 10 expressions of interest are received.
Other organisations: any other organisation, who is interested in participating as a member of a potential consortium in the future procurement but will not be a lead supplier, should register their interest on the NEPO Portal (www.nepo.org) under reference DN467791 and complete and submit, via the NEPO Portal, the expression of interest form to be received no later than 4 p.m. on 23 March 2020.
The Council will circulate details of such other organisations to the lead suppliers who participate in this initial engagement activity to support the creation of consortiums. It is further intended that there will be a market engagement day in Sunderland on a date to be confirmed in May 2020, to which all interested parties will be invited to attend prior to the formal commencement of the procurement process. This day will provide a further opportunity for organisations to develop consortiums.