IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support in Leeds – Framework Lead

The current contract for IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support in Leeds is projected to end on 31/5/2018 and may be available for re-tender.The current contract for IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support in Leeds included a range of infrastructure and related services contracts in place for outsourced provision of IT networks and server infrastructure. NGN intends to replace these contracts as and when they expire in 2015 and 2016.It is anticipated that 4 separate procurement events will be issued and single awards for all 4 activities however NGN reserve the right to combine some of the events The events are as follows:1) Hosting of a range of computing environments to be used for production, development, testing and prototyping;2) The provision of an IT network infrastructure and related support for NGN’s Gas System Control function. This is currently the subject of an in-house feasibility study;3) Applications maintenance services to support and enhance existing NGN business applications;4) Transition/migration services to manage the safe transfer of infrastructure and related services from current to future service providers, with minimum disruption to the business.Successful bidders will be expected to manage, operate, maintain, support and improve the infrastructure over the contract term.The procurement is intended to provide NGN with:— Secure and reliable access to hosted services, aligned to business needs for availability, capacity, business continuity etc.;— Rationalisation and optimisation of IT infrastructure, both relative to NGN’s current estate and over the term of any contracts;— Greater clarity and alignment of accountability for specific elements of the services provided, both over the term of any contracts and also to make end-of-contract exit and future transitions easier to manage;— Greater cost predictability and lower costs than for the current comparable services;— Access to different hosting options (depending on business value and suitability of specific applications/services), from dedicated servers/data centres, through to highly virtualised ‘cloud’ based environments, together with the flexibility and capability to progressively move to the latter;— A reduced carbon footprint, for example through rationalisation, sharing of data centre facilities, and the use of more modern, efficient and sustainable hardware components.Depending on the responses received, NGN may select a single supplier for the whole procurement. Alternatively, it may select a range of suppliers, each of which will address part of the total requirement.