Information technology requirements review services

Tender description

Post Office Ltd (‘POL’) is pleased to invite expressions of interest to participate in preliminary market consultations undertaken in accordance with Regulation 40 of The Public Contracts Regulations 2015, regarding the development and deployment of a new ‘family’ of customer-facing self-service devices for use across its network. These consultations shall comprise a supplier information day followed by a formal request for information with further individual supplier sessions scheduled as required. The supplier information day shall be held in central London during October 2019. Further details shall be provided upon registration of expressions of interest. It is intended the information generated by these consultations shall be used by POL to inform any future pilot schemes, commercial trials and/or procurement(s) which may be undertaken by POL. Please see the full description attached for further details including a timetable and registration instructions. POL wants to develop and deploy a new ‘family’ of customer-facing self-service devices for use across its network. This enables POL’s Retail Strategy and is required to meet the expectations of customers and agents. In particular, this is intended to ensure that POL meets its ambition to remain number one in letters and parcels (mails transactions). The ‘family’ of devices is expected to range from ‘full-service’ kiosks offering customers a complete suite of products (e.g. mails transactions, retail transactions, E-Top Up transactions (mobile phone and utilities) and bill payments) through to other devices with a limited product offering (e.g. intelligent ‘parcel and packet’ drop-boxes and returns-only solutions). All devices must have the potential to increase revenue by reducing queues, transaction times and cost to serve and to enhance the customer experience by improving access to particular products. POL’s network currently has c. 11 600 branches. The majority of these are operated by agents (franchisees) with a very small number of POL-owned branches. Transactional analysis of these branches may inform the deployment of specific devices. In the future, devices may also be requested by agents and/or deployed in new stand-alone non-POL locations. Preliminary analysis indicates up to 1 500 ‘full-service’ kiosks may be required over the next 5 years in support of various POL strategic initiatives. The number of other devices required remains to be determined but may be up to 2 500. In light of this, POL wants to identify a commercially compelling, scalable and simple end-to-end solution encompassing the supply, deployment and service and support of self-service devices in a range of sites across its network. This solution will need to comprise hardware, software (including user interface) and a full service model (including remote monitoring and support). In addition, an appropriate commercial operating model which is attractive to POL and its agents will need to be identified to enable the solution to be delivered, potentially via a framework agreement, allowing POL and/or its agents to ‘call-off’ devices as required on a purchase and/or lease basis. In order to identify a suitable solution POL wants to ensure it has considered all available market intelligence and so, as noted above, POL is inviting expressions of interest to participate in preliminary market consultations during which POL shall present its current strategy and seek information to help us to better understand the current market and the ways in which suppliers may support POL. As noted above, it is intended the information generated by these consultations shall be used by POL to inform any future pilot schemes, commercial trials and/or procurement(s) which may be undertaken by POL. Participation in the consultations is not a prerequisite for participation in any future procurement(s). The timetable for these consultations is set out below. This is correct at the time of publication but may be subject to change. Supplier information day: October 2019 (date TBC). Request for information process: October to December 2019. POL internal governance: January 2020. POL procurement activity (subject to approval): January 2020 onwards. If you wish to participate in these consultations please register your interest by email to procurement@postoffice.co.uk by 4.10.2019. No information contained within this notice or in any communication made between POL and any participant in connection with this notice, shall be relied upon as constituting a contract, agreement or representation that any contract shall be offered in accordance with this notice. These consultations shall be conducted subject to POL’s internal governance procedures. POL reserves the right to vary or terminate these consultations without notice at any time. POL shall not reimburse any costs incurred by participants in connection with their participation in these consultations. Details correct at time of publishing.