Networks

Tender description

The University owns and manages 5 183 student bedrooms across three student villages, and internet and voice services are a critical part of the service offering. Our students expect easy to connect to, fast and reliable internet access to enable them to succeed academically as well as for their personal and social uses. Existing provision includes a wired service to every bedroom, a shared wireless service into every cluster flat (typically but not exclusively six bedrooms and kitchen), as well as intercom/VoIP services to each flat. Student expectations increase year on year and we would like to future-proof our services for the next decade. We wish to award a contract to a provider who can offer these services for the next 5 years cost effectively but to a high standard. The University of Birmingham is looking to award a 5-year contract with an initial period of 3 years followed by two individual one-year extensions at the discretion of the University of Birmingham. The requirement is to provide a high speed wired and wireless managed internet service to 5,183 student bedrooms, in addition to an intercom/VOIP service to 891 cluster flats and 131 studio apartments. The data service solution must: — provide high-speed internet access to residents 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, — be managed end to end from design to service delivery, taking full responsibility for the service from the University and its students, — be quick and easy to connect too, — offer short, term easy access guest accounts for short term visitors, — provide always available multi-lingual technical support services via various methods (phone, social media, web chat etc) with ability to respond to high volume periods (e.g. start of academic year), with measurable KPIs for response times, — provide secure local network for networking of individual devices, — support multiple devices per account, — offer enhancements (at individual customer cost) e.g. additional access speeds, — support Eduroam service, — high levels of service uptime, — fast response for on-site service maintenance issues. The intercom/VOIP service must: — provide free calls between handsets, — provide free calls to specified key numbers (e.g. accommodation receptions), — support intercom service via the same handsets, — support the ability to make pre-paid outbound calls, — support incoming calls. All tender questions must be answered within the online evaluation to facilitate comparison of responses. Please do not state ‘refer to attached documentation’.