Software programming and consultancy services

Tender description

The Thames Tideway Tunnel is a major new project, urgently needed to protect the tidal River Thames from increasing pollution. London's sewerage system is no longer fit for purpose and spills tens of millions of tonnes of untreated sewage mixed with rainwater (combined sewage) into the tidal reaches of the River Thames every year. The Thames Tideway Tunnel (the Project) will control combined sewer overflow (CSO) discharges by intercepting and diverting combined sewage flows into a new tunnel system for storage and transfer for treatment. The tunnel system will consist of connection tunnels and a main tunnel that will run from Acton Storm Tanks in West London to Abbey Mills Pumping Station in the East, where it will connect to the Lee Tunnel, which will transfer the flows to Beckton Sewage Treatment Works for treatment. The primary objective of the Project is to control discharges from CSOs in order to meet the requirements of the European Union's Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC) (UWWTD) and the related United Kingdom (UK) Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations 1993. Other legislation also forms part of the legal framework within which the Project is to be designed and delivered such as the Water Framework Directive, and the regulations that transpose it into UK law, which sets out various ‘environmental objectives’ to be achieved in relation to surface water quality. Bazalgette Tunnel Limited (BTL) trading as Tideway, is the licensed Infrastructure Provider set up to finance, build, maintain and operate the Thames Tideway Tunnel. Tideway wishes to award a Framework Agreement with several operators. The Framework Agreement is intended to be used by the Contracting Entity to call off Information Services (IS) professional services. The IS professional services that may be called off pursuant to the Framework Agreement and the terms of Work Packages are further described in the Pre-Qualification Pack (PQP) but are envisaged to include the following Services: — System Design; — System Integration; — Technical Architecture; — Data Architecture; — Solution Architecture; — Programme Management; — Project Management; — Change Management; — Programme Management Office. The overarching role and purpose of the Framework Agreement is to support the Information Services directorate at Tideway in fulfilling their function within the Project of delivering and maintaining the information technology needs of the business. Delivery of these needs is via a constantly evolving portfolio of system specific projects. Each project follows a defined plan through controlled stages: Define, Analyse, Design, Realise, Final Prep, and Deploy. Once deployed, each system or application is handed over to Information Services to operate, support and maintain, so as to provide the necessary availability of the systems and services to the business. The deployment of each new system or major upgrade has consequences for the end users in terms of process, training, interoperability and support model impacts. Smooth implementation therefore requires significant business readiness effort in order to ensure systems are adopted without loss of productivity. The nature of the portfolio delivery model is such that the key skills required (IT Architects, Programme/Project Managers, Business Readiness experts) need to be available in a flexible yet reliable manner, due to the inherently unpredictable nature of IT transformation. IS Projects are usually system or application specific, and can be broken down into four groups: a. Infrastructure and Network projects b. Information and Document Management projects c. Asset Management and Building Information Management (‘BIM’) projects d. Back Office systems projects (e.g. Finance, Human Resources (HR), Procurement, Health, Safety, Security,Environment (HSSE)). Interested parties need to register on the Contracting Entity's e-sourcing portal and will be able to download a pre-qualification pack (‘PQP’) including the form of pre-qualification questionnaire (‘PQQ’) to be completed and returned to express interest. The registration process is set out in section III.2) of this contract notice. The PQP contains further detail regarding the Contracting Entity, BTL and further detail on the Framework Agreement and the time-line and phases of the procurement including information regarding the pre-qualification stage. Whilst it is intended that the procurement will be run in accordance with the time-line and process described in the PQP, this contract notice and the procurement documents, the Contracting Entity reserves the right to amend or cancel any or all of the procurement at any time and/or amend the time-scales. Interested organisations should refer to sections II.2) (Quantity or scope), VI.3) (Additional information) of this contract notice, the PQP and the Contracting Entity's website http://www.tideway.london for further information regarding the Framework Agreement and the Project generally.