Vehicle Connectivity Request for Information 2

Tender description

BACKGROUND TO THE CONTRACTING AUTHORITY Surrey and Sussex Police currently connect approximately 500 vehicles to our Force datacentres using a third-party private APN. The number of vehicles connected is continuing to grow in line with business needs. The solution, whilst reliable, does not provide the levels of flexibility we would like to make best use of available technology and connectivity paths. We are therefore exploring alternative vendor offerings that will not only allow traffic to be securely transferred to and from our datacentres but also connect to cloud-hosted SaaS solutions through localised in-vehicle Internet breakout. CURRENT SITUATION The Force currently uses unmanaged routers within the vehicles, connecting services back to our datacentres over a private-APN. The Force would like to maximise productivity and connectivity options from the vehicles, creating a secure office on wheels work environment that can benefit operational policing. The existing private APN enables ANPR reads to be sent to our datacentres as well as lookups of data from national systems. A single provider SIM within the router provides the cellular connectivity to the mobile provider edge, before handing off to IPsec tunnels to protect the data from provider edge, into our datacentres. All traffic needs to traverse the APN, and there is no way to securely send data outside of the APN to leverage the capability of cloud-hosted Force and third-party managed solutions. The Force also do not have the connectivity in-place to allow for efficient management and updates of in-vehicle systems, which currently require vehicles to return to workshops for hardware to be removed, updated, and reinstalled. OUR AIMS - WHAT WE WANT TO ACHIEVE We are seeking a solution to replace our existing unmanaged routers within approximately 500 fleet vehicles. Vehicles would gradually be migrated in-line with business need and as new vehicles are introduced and old, decommissioned. As part of this RFI the Force wishes to understand the following: o Outline costs for budgeting and planning purposes. o Identification of revenue and capital costs. o Gain a conceptual design for different solutions available based on the requirements outlined in this RFI. Within the design an architectural diagram and description of components should be added. o Understand potential timelines around migrating to a new solution, bearing in mind the desire of the Force to gradually transition to the new service to minimise operational impact. o Learn how pricing is structured so requirements can be created around a future catalogue. o Build an understanding around the markets price vs quantity. o Under how realistic certain requirements are. For example, is a 4-hour SLA possible for managed components of the service. Deadline for responses is 31st January 2025 at 12:00 (Noon). Please note... Additional information: Is a Recurrent Procurement Type? : No