Communications network

Tender description

Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, trading as Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Authority (the 'Authority'), is inviting expressions of interest from organisations wishing to enter into a contract for the design, implementation, installation and maintenance of a replacement integrated communication control system and mobilising solution. The main deliverables of the Solution will include the following: — provision of all hardware, including but not limited to workstation and server based hardware, — provision of the core command and control software, — provision of resilience/fall back arrangements by way of establishing a secondary control location, — design, development, implementation, configuration, testing, user transition and training, — provision of maintenance and support services throughout the life of the contract, and — provision of a new Incident Reporting System (IRS). Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, trading as Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Authority (the 'Authority'), is inviting expressions of interest from suitably qualified organisations wishing to enter into a contract for the design, implementation, installation and maintenance of a replacement integrated communication control system and mobilising solution. The main deliverables of the solution will include the following: — provision of all hardware, including but not limited to workstation and server based hardware, — provision of the core command and control software, — provision of resilience/fall back arrangements by way of establishing a secondary control location at the Authority's reference site, — design, development, implementation, configuration, testing, user transition and training, — provision of maintenance and support services throughout the life of the contract, and — provision of a new Incident Reporting System (IRS). During the contract term, the solution will need to obtain ESN accreditation and smoothly and successfully transition from the current Airwave Tetra system to the Emergency Services Network. The Authority is conducting this procurement under the Competitive Procedure with Negotiation (‘CPN’) pursuant to Regulation 29 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, as amended. In the event the Authority exercises the right to award on the basis of initial tenders without negotiation as prescribed by Regulation 29. it is anticipated that the contract will be awarded in January 2020 and the formal services phase shall commence on 14.1.2020 for a period of five (5) years from the Go Live Date with an option to extend for any period or periods of up to four (4) years in twelve (12) or twenty-four (24) month blocks, such extension to be exercised at the Authority’s discretion. The Authority has set an overall affordability envelope for the delivery of the contract. Submissions with a total whole life cost over the initial five (5) year contract term in excess of 1 800 000 GBP will be disqualified. The Authority is not prescribing any specific technologies and/or hosting arrangements and as such all technical solutions put forward will be considered, providing they are capable of meeting the Authority's requirements. The Authority is procuring this contract on the basis of an outcomes-based specification with the view of encouraging innovative solutions and ensuring that continuous improvement and further technological development can be achieved during the contract term. The Authority reserves its position as to whether it will (or not) enter into contractual arrangements. Subsequently, the publication of the selection questionnaire instructions pack and the invitation to submit initial tenders (ISIT) pack in no way commits the Authority to enter into any contractual relationship with the bidders or any other party. The Authority reserves the right to: — cancel, postpone, suspend or abort the selection and evaluation process at any stage of this procurement in its entirety, — vary the project timetable or procurement process, including without limitation, to introduce further submission requirements, and — amend, vary or digress from the process set out in the ISIT pack. In the event of any change to the process, the Authority will inform all bidders of the change.