Printing and related services

Tender description

Commercial Services is one of the largest trading organisations of its kind in Europe with a turnover in excess of 600 000 000 GBP and employing over 700 people from its base in Kent. Tracing its roots back to 1902, as an education stores department for Kent County Council, Commercial Services has subsequently grown organically to supply an ever-increasing range of best value goods and services to other publicly funded organisations. These include local government, education establishments, the care sector and the emergency services. KCS is a trading unit of Commercial Services and provides a purchasing, warehousing and distribution service to a wide ranging customer base within local government and associated public bodies in Kent, neighbouring counties and across the UK. Kent County Council (the Council) is the largest local authority in England covering an area of 3 500 square kilometres. It has an annual expenditure of circa. 1 000 000 000 000 GBP on goods and services with a population of 1 500 000. The Council provides a wide range of personal and strategic services on behalf of its residents, operating in partnership with 12 district councils and 309 parish/town councils. In accordance with best procurement practice, EU and UK Procurement Directives and Regulations, KCS, on behalf of the Central Buying Consortium, has created a Framework Agreement (the Agreement) for the supply and delivery of Managed Services for Business Solutions.‘Managed Service' is the practice of outsourcing day-to-day management responsibilities and functions as a strategic method for transforming and improving business processes and cutting operating costs. The service may include, but not be limited to, software, hardware, digital mailroom, and purchase to pay automation, cloud storage, document workflow management, data security and data loss prevention systems, Customer communication management systems and other IP networking Services. The procurement process adopted by the Contracting Authority is based upon the “Open” Procedure, as detailed in the 'Public Contract Regulations 2015’.