IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Tender description

Full Fibre Northern Ireland is a consortium of ten councils in Northern Ireland, hosted by Newry, Mourne and Down District Council. The consortium has been conditionally awarded 15 000 000 GBP from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Local Full Fibre Network Programme (LLFN). It plans to supplement this grant with funding from other sources. The Consortium and other public sector bodies recognise that the provision of high quality, reliable high-speed connectivity is a necessity for a 21st century economy and society. They seek to future proof their network connectivity requirements over a period of 20-30 years through the installation of gigabit capable network services through LFFN Public Sector Anchor Tenancy (PSAT) projects. The consortium plans to run up to 5 separate procurements with very similar features to meet its requirements. This PIN concerns the pre-market engagement for these procurements. Details of a market information day are given below. This PIN concerns the pre market engagement for procurements for the Full Fibre Northern Ireland Consortium. Full Fibre Northern Ireland is a consortium of ten councils in Northern Ireland, hosted by Newry, Mourne and Down District Council: — Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, — Ards and North Down Borough Council, — Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council, — Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, — Derry City and Strabane District Council, — Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, — Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council, — Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, — Mid Ulster District Council, — Newry, Mourne and Down District Council. The Consortium has been conditionally awarded 15 000 000 GBP from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Local Full Fibre Network Programme (LLFN). It plans to supplement this grant with funding from other sources. The Consortium and other public sector bodies recognise that the provision of high quality, reliable high-speed connectivity is a necessity for a 21st century economy and society. They seek to future proof their network connectivity requirements over a period of 20-30 years through the installation of gigabit capable network services through LFFN Public Sector Anchor Tenancy (PSAT) projects. Through the PSAT approach, the Consortium intends to procure the long-term use of flexible and future proofed gigabit capable fibre infrastructure for as much of the public sector estate as possible within budget constraints. The method of providing this long-term use is not defined. For example, bidders are free to propose an indefeasible right of use, or to propose an alternative approach that provides long-term availability in a different way. The consortium wishes to procure replacement access circuits in the form of maintained Point-to-Point (P2P) dark fibre, or virtual equivalent circuits (tail circuit services) to more than 800 corporate locations across Northern Ireland. These services will be procured over the long term, between 20 and 30 years. It is anticipated that through the potentially large number of connected sites, economies of scale may be realised through aggregation, leading to innovative and cost-effective solutions from the market. The consortium requires the supplier to design, build and operate the services over the duration of the contract. The consortium intends to separate the provision of these infrastructure services from the provision of its Wide Area Network (WAN) services. Its WAN managed services will be delivered through existing arrangements, or will be separately procured. The supplier may provide all elements of the Solution itself or may combine commodity services and products from telecoms providers, services from subcontractors, and its own tools, services and expertise, to provide the solution. The supplier will provide a service management function to proactively manage the availability of the solution to agreed service levels, and to provide prompt remedial action in the event of failure. All aspects of the service should be compliant with the relevant security, information management and regulatory requirements. A market information day will be held on 20.5.2019 at Downshire Civic Centre, Ardglass Road, Downpatrick, BT30 6GQ. All potential suppliers are invited to attend to hear and discuss the consortium’s current plans, to ask questions, and to suggest improvements that could be made to the plans. The market information day will also provide an opportunity for 1:1 sessions with the Consortium, so that commercially sensitive topics may be addressed privately. These private sessions will be conducted to the same agenda, with each organisation given equal access time to the consortium. Organisations wishing to attend the market information day, and/or to participate in a 1:1 session are asked to register by emailing Michael Forster at michael.forster@nmandd.org as early as possible.