Software package and information systems

Tender description

The University is seeking to establish a framework to allow procurement of cloud-enabled IT services including, but not limited to, cloud hosting, cloud compute services, cloud network services, cloud storage services, other cloud technologies, marketplaces for PaaS and SaaS services and cloud-related consulting services such as training, professional services and managed services as well as technical support. The University has a number of current projects which are built around Microsoft’s Azure hosting service. The costs to move these to another platform is high and so the desired business outcome is to continue, for now at least, with the current platform and put in place a procurement route for the services which allows for consolidated and managed billing and which is within the 2015 Procurement Regulations. As a result, the University is looking for a reseller which can provide the spectrum of Microsoft cloud-based services, at prices which allow the University to get best value for money (‘VfM’) for both the current and future, potential, projects. The University is also keen to work with a supplier which can add value, not just in minimising costs, but also by providing other management and reporting services which could be used to ensure best VfM for the University in the future. The University has a number of current projects which are built around AWS’s hosting service. The costs to move these to another platform is high and so the desired business outcome is to continue, for now at least, with the current platform and put in place a procurement route for the services which allows for consolidated and managed billing and which is within the 2015 Procurement Regulations. As a result, the University is looking for a reseller which can provide the spectrum of AWS cloud-based services, at prices which allow the University to get best VfM for both the current and future, potential, projects. The University is also keen to work with a supplier which can add value, not just in minimising costs, but also by providing other management and reporting services which could be used to ensure best VfM for the University in the future. The University has a number of current projects, largely in research, which are built around Google’s Cloud hosting service. The costs to move these to another platform is high and so the desired business outcome is to continue, for now at least, with the current platform and put in place a procurement route for the services which allows for consolidated and managed billing and which is within the 2015 Procurement Regulations. As a result, the University is looking for a reseller which can provide the spectrum of Google Cloud’s cloud-based services, at prices which allow the University to get best VfM for both the current and future, potential, projects. The University is also keen to work with a Supplier which can add value, not just in minimising costs, but also by providing other management and reporting services which could be used to ensure best VfM for the University in the future. The University wishes to have available a number of other cloud computing services which it can procure for future projects. These projects are not yet defined and so the requirements for these are ‘generic’ at this stage. As a result, the University is looking for a number of providers, or resellers in conjunction with a provider, which can provide the spectrum of cloud computing services, at prices which allow the University to get best VfM for these future, potential, projects. The University is also keen to work with suppliers which can add value, not just in minimising costs, but also by providing other management and reporting services which could be used to ensure best VfM for the University in the future. The University wishes to use the framework to select suppliers for future business and projects. The successful Bidders from Lots 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be added, at the time of award, to Lot 5 and it will be from Lot 5 that the supplier for any new call-off will be selected. The selection for future business will be either by a direct award off from the pricing catalogue where the requirement can only be fulfilled by one cloud services provider or, where the requirement can be fulfilled by multiple cloud services providers, the University shall determine on a case by case basis whether to make a direct award based on other technical or value for money requirements or undertake a mini-competition.