Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2024-01-24
Buyer: GÉANT
Country: NL
Region: NL329
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 48822000: Computer servers
Estimated value: 2500000 EUR
Award criteria: quality, price
EU fund: eu-funds

Technical requirements: GÉANT intends to award a framework agreement for delivery, maintenance and support of datacentre hardware, including relevant software and -services.
A crucial requirement for GÉANT is that we work with an organization that can support and deliver all the ICT equipment as defined in this ITT, with an emphasis on DELL and Apple hardware. This organization (pro-actively) informs and advice GÉANT about relevant developments in the market, on hardware choices and makes sure that when hard- and software is procured such is a sustainable way where the organization unburdens GÉANT.  That partner unburdens GÉANT in its operations, is professional, well connected in the ICT industry and can serve the locations in the Netherlands and the UK.    In your answer to this scoring criterium you describe how you are going to deliver hardware, support and maintenance to the GÉANT organization in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. You also describe how you are going to make sure GÉANT has easy, up-to-date and reliable access to relevant information and developments.   Your detailed description should as a minimum contain an explanation of the following aspects:    ● The organizational set-up you envision to support the English and Dutch GÉANT office.  o Where are you located and how do you organize account management to serve GÉANT from these location(s)?  o How do you make sure GÉANT will not be confronted with import duties and / or administrative procedures related to cross-border transactions between the UK and the EC?  o How and from where will GÉANT be invoiced in the future?   ● Your advise / feedback on the scenario attached to this ITT as Annex 1.   ● As described in MR 2 GÉANT uses specific hardware in each Product Category, describe your relationship with the in MR 2 highlighted vendors and how this benefits GÉANT.    ● An overview of the hardware brands you can supply and deliver support and maintenance for, including the status / level of your reseller authorization from the original manufacturer.   ● How do you continuously inform and update GÉANT on relevant developments, timelines of (relevant) manufacturers and, see also MR 7.  Next to these points you are free to describe any other topic that in your opinion contributes to the described requirement in this Scoring Criterium, provided your proposal for SC1 does not exceed 4.000 words.
GÉANT provides 24/7 services to its members via the servers and other equipment in the datacenters. It is curial that this equipment has as little downtime as possible and is properly maintained and supported.   (More information on provided services by GÉANT can be found here GÉANT Services, direct and indirect via its members GÉANT delivers services to thousands of universities and institutes across Europe).   GÉANT requires a partner who delivers reliable and fitting support, both for the critical datacenter equipment, as well as the regular hardware used in the office environment.  The partner must have a well reachable support desk where calls can be easily logged, follow-up on logged calls is well structured, reliable and predictable. Downtime when equipment malfunctions is in all cases is, regardless it is a highly critical servers or an office laptop, as short as possible.   Your detailed description should as a minimum contain an explanation of the following aspects:  ● As stated in the minimum requirements you need to be able to deliver local support in the Netherlands and in England.  ● Describe your support process, how are calls handled? How does your ticketing system works? How is progress monitored? How is GÉANT kept up to date and how are escalations handled. To illustrate this process please describe how a call is handled for:  o A failure in a critical server logged at 03:00 on a Saturday morning.  o A call that a screen of a MacBook Pro has a crack and must be replaced  (indicate if there is a difference in service whether the product is covered by Apple Care or not) o A call that a screen of a DELL laptop has a crack and must be replaced.  (indicate if there is a difference whether the product is still under warranty or not).  ● In paragraph 5.2 of this document several minimum requirements are given that are presently in use. Please provide a proposal for a SLA based on these minimum requirements (or better) for the three categories mentioned in MR 10.  ● How do you approach setting up SLAs between yourselves and GÉANT?  ● Does your organization offer support for hardware not purchased through yourselves?  ● Can your organization offer flexible licensing?  Describe how you would accommodate a temporary need for licensing or even licensing for PoC projects.  Next to these points you are free to describe any other topic that in your opinion contributes to the described requirement in this Scoring Criterium, provided your proposal for SC2 does not exceed 4.000 words.
Please fill in the attached Pricing sheet provided at question 3.2 in the procurement portal.    The offered prices in the pricing sheet will be used by GÉANT to compare the (discounted) prices the Bidder can offer.   Your score for SC3 will be calculated using the method described in paragraph 4.1.3.2 and the value of cell B17 labelled 'Grand Total - Scoring Criterium 3” on the cover sheet of the attached Pricing sheet.   Attention!  1. Please fill in the total of cel B17 of the Pricing sheet (worksheet labelled SC3 Pricing sheet) as answer to this question (question 3.1)   2. Upload your fully completed Pricing sheet at question 3.2    Please note that: All prices must be offered EXCLUDING VAT   1. The quotation for the Server equipment is an actual Request for Pricing. GÉANT may award an order for this equipment directly following this tender procedure. In that case this tender procedure must be regarded as the first mini-competition between the framework holders GÉANT intends to order the Server equipment before the end of 2023.   2. GÉANT may choose to alter the specifications, quantity or configuration for the Server equipment. When such is the case GÉANT will request an updated quotation from the 2 framework holders   3. To enable a like-for-like comparison prices are requested for delivery in the Netherlands and in the UK. In practise GÉANT can decide for delivery in either the Netherlands or the UK. The quantities displayed in column B are correct.   4. GÉANT may also choose to order the products in the Quotation sheet for Office equipment against the offered prices  Compared to the Server equipment however there are no plans yet to procure these items at short notice. The Office equipment is primarily used to compare proposals on this ITT. Prices however should be real and GÉANT may choose to order products against offered prices when the tender procedure is over.   Evaluation Criteria:  • A lower total price will generate a higher score. See 4.1.3.2 for more details


Winner: Bechtle/PQR