Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2023-09-19
Buyer: European Patent Office (EPO)
Country: NL
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 72720000: Wide area network services
Submission deadline: 2023-11-07
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: The EPO requires telecommunication services to form a wide area network between its sites in Rijswijk (the Netherlands), Munich, Berlin (both Germany), Vienna (Austria) and Betzdorf (Luxembourg), its cloud hubs and the internet; this wide area network will be used by the EPO for the transport of a variety of data, including electronic mail, voice over IP, videoconferencing and back up data.
Bidders may propose to supply either the services described as "Carrier A" (Lot 1) or those described as "Carrier B" (Lot 2), or both lots provided that the services will be supplied through distinct carriers. In case that a bidder proposes to supply both lots, the EPO reserves the right to only award a single lot and the choice for the lot concerned will be at the discretion of the EPO. If the bidder operates as a broker /reseller of data communication connections it is not allowed to engage the same subcontractor(s) for both the services described as "Carrier A" and those described as "Carrier B". In that case the bidder should engage different subcontractors for the services described as "Carrier A" and described as "Carrier B".
The Wide Area Network (WAN) to be provided by the Contractor shall connect the EPO’s Office sites, its DC (Data Centre) in Luxembourg, its Disaster Recovery (DR) DC in Munich, the Equinix Cloud hubs and the Internet to each other.
The full set of services defined as 'Carrier A’ in the procurement documents constitutes the contents of Lot 1.
The Initial Contract Period may, at the discretion of the EPO, be extended up to 2 (two) times by periods of 1 (one) year each.
Proposals for variants, the effect of which would be to reduce significantly the rights and safeguards of the EPO, are not allowed.
Questions submitted after the deadline for receipt of requests for clarification (see VI.3) will not be answered. After expiry of the deadline, the questions submitted by others and the corresponding clarifications will be available in the BIDDING COCKPIT.
The Wide Area Network (WAN) to be provided by the Contractor shall connect the EPO’s Office sites, its DC (Data Centre) in Luxembourg, its Disaster Recovery (DR) DC in Munich, the Equinix Cloud hubs and the Internet to each other.
The full set of services defined as 'Carrier B’ in the procurement documents constitutes the contents of Lot 2.
The Initial Contract Period may, at the discretion of the EPO, be extended up to 2 (two) times by periods of 1 (one) year each.
Proposals for variants, the effect of which would be to reduce significantly the rights and safeguards of the EPO, are not allowed.
Questions submitted after the deadline for receipt of requests for clarification (see VI.3) will not be answered. After expiry of the deadline, the questions submitted by others and the corresponding clarifications will be available in the BIDDING COCKPIT.
If several bidders submit a joint bid, they must be jointly and severally liable for the performance of the obligations under the contract. A declaration to this effect, duly signed by all members of the grouping and appointing a representative authorised to act on behalf of all members, must be submitted with the bid.
Only electronic bids may be submitted. Please note that a qualified electronic signature is required as specified on EPO's website: https://www.epo.org/about-us/tenders/signatures.html
Please note that EPO's procurement procedures are governed solely by EPO's own procurement rules. The relevant rules are described in the EPO's General Conditions of Tender, which are available at the EPO's website https://www.epo.org/about-us/tenders/general-conditions.html.