Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2020-11-25
Buyer: Department of Finance
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 72000000 | 72400000 | 72410000: Provider services | 72420000
Estimated value: 450000 GBP
Submission deadline: 2020-12-22
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: Υπηρεσίες τεχνολογίας των πληροφοριών: παροχή συμβουλών, ανάπτυξη λογισμικού, Διαδίκτυο και υποστήριξη
Department of Finance wishes to procure a contract for a high capacity, highly resilient, flexible internet service which is used to support the existing and growing range of data services for NICS. This must be provisioned via a minimum of two 10 Gb bearer circuits with network terminating equipment also sized for up to 10 Gb throughput, one to each leased Data Centre initially sized to allow combined throughput of 10 Gbps across both data centres (i.e. each circuit should be initially configured to carry 5 Gbps load balanced across both centres in an active/active configuration). The maximum combined throughput should be able to increase incrementally to the full combined throughput of both circuits of 20 Gb. Current demand for Internet services within the NICS is expanding rapidly. It is essential that we balance the flexibility and responsiveness of meeting the growing demand yet minimising the total cost of ownership to the NICS. It is expected that the demand will not exceed 20 Gb.
The successful contractor’s performance on this contract will be managed as per the specification and regularly monitored (see Procurement Guidance Note 01/12 — Contract Management — Procedures and Principles). Contractors not delivering on contract requirements is a serious matter. It means the public purse is not getting what it is paying for. If a contractor fails to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance they will be given a specified time to improve. If, after the specified time, they still fail to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance, the matter will be escalated to senior management in CPD for further action. If this occurs and their performance still does not improve to satisfactory levels within the specified period, it may be regarded as an act of grave professional misconduct and they may be issued with a notice of unsatisfactory performance and this contract may be terminated. A central register of such notices for supplies and services contracts will be maintained and published on the CPD website. Any contractor in receipt of a notice of unsatisfactory performance will be required to declare this in future tender submissions for a period of 3 years from the date of issue of the notice. It may also result in the contractor being excluded from all procurement competitions being undertaken by Centres of Procurement Expertise on behalf of bodies covered by the Northern Ireland Procurement Policy. The authority expressly reserves the rights:
(i) not to award any contract as a result of the procurement process commenced by publication of this notice;
(ii) to make whatever changes it may see fit to the content and structure of the tendering competition;
(iii) to award (a) contract(s) in respect of any part(s) of the (services) covered by this notice; and
(iv) to award contract(s) in stages and in no circumstances will the authority be liable for any costs incurred by candidates.
CPD will comply with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and, where appropriate, will incorporate a standstill period (i.e. a minimum of 10 calendar days) at the point information on the award of contract is communicated to tenderers. That notification will provide full information on the award decision. This provides time for the unsuccessful tenderers to challenge the award decision before the contract is entered into.


Award value: 450000