Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2017-04-11
Buyer: Secretary Of State for the Home Department
Country: UK
Region: Inner London - West
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 72000000 | 72100000 | 72200000 | 72300000
Estimated value: 24600000 GBP

Technical requirements: The Contracting Authority intends to procure a Biometric Matcher Platform & associated Services (BMPS) to deliver biometric search and verification capabilities across multiple biometric modalities and for multiple data sets (immigration, citizenship, law enforcement etc.) as part of the Home Office Biometrics (HOB) programme.
Separate lots will be used to procure the Matcher Service Supplier, a standard (minutiae based) Matcher Engine Software Supplier and an orthogonal (non-minutiae based) Matcher Engine Software Supplier. The contracts will be for an initial term of five (5) years with an option to extend by a further two (2) years and then one (1) year (8 years altogether).
The BMPS as a key sub-system will provide matching services to the wider Biometrics Services Platform. The BMPS will split into 2:
— Matcher Service Bus — containing the biometric transaction processing logic, workflow rules, integration of Matcher Engine Software deployments and presentation of a Matcher Service interface to service requestors.
— Matcher Engine Software — a combination of algorithm software and associated components deployed as ‘Matcher Engines’ that provide the biometric matching capability to the Matcher Service Bus.
— Matcher Service Platform that includes a Matcher Service Bus, Matcher Service interface, integration of Matching Engine Software and operation of the overall Matcher subsystem;
— Logical and physical designs, hardware specifications and hosting requirements for the Matcher Service Platform;
— Collaboration with Matcher Engine Software supplier(s) to provide build, test and operation of the Matcher Service Platform;
— Biometric Matching Engine Software (minutiae based) for matching of TenPrint, palm and latent marks including support for verification, search and de-duplication of biometric records;
Biometric Matching Engine Software (BMES) (non -minutiae based) Supplier(s) will be selected to provide:
— Biometric Matching Engine Software (non-minutiae based) for matching and re-ranking of TenPrint, palm and latent marks including support for verification, search and de-duplication of biometric record;
All personnel involved in the design, delivery and testing of the solution must hold security clearances (SC) from the Home Office and Police Service and depending on the role and level of access to live systems and data may also require Non Police Personnel Vetting- Level 3.
The Contracting Authority requires that security clearances be applied for at the earliest opportunity. Please see additional information
The authority intends in this procurement for the Strategic Matcher Service that the MSS will be independent from the BMES provider(s), and separate in Lots accordingly, such that.
— The legal entity leading a Lot 1 bid or a subcontractor in a bid for Lot 1 cannot bid as the legal entity leading (or a subcontractor in) a bid for either of Lots 2 or 3.