Circuit Brokerage and Portal Service - RFI

Tender description

This is an information gathering exercise by Jisc. The information obtained from this RFI will be used by Jisc to determine if it is able to procure a circuit brokerage and portal service and what route to market will be appropriate. Jisc is a major purchaser of telecommunications circuits (approximately 150 – 200 circuits per annum) and has procured a framework contract against which it can buy circuits, either individually or when entire regional networks are to be replaced, through a mini competition. Our current architectural model is to build regional networks to extend the reach of our national backbone. We deliver connections from individual customer locations to a number of regional core points of presence (PoP). Our regional infrastructure then aggregates traffic onto the Janet backbone. Jisc has over 1200 connected institutions in the Further Education, Higher Education and Research sectors. The terms for obtaining quotations under the existing framework allow suppliers to take a significant amount of time to respond to requests for quotes, and we are finding that a more agile system is required, which can respond to requests for pricing from our customers and potential customers in a matter of minutes rather than days. Keywords: Telecommunications, Circuit, Portal, Brokerage