Government puts in place £500m framework for educational ICT infrastructure services

£500m agreement will replace the Becta ICT services framework

The Government Procurement Service (GPS) has published a prior notice detailing a £500m framework for educational ICT infrastructure services.

GPS will be the contracting authority for services for customers such as local authorities, regional broadband consortia, maintained schools, free schools, academies, further education colleges and the skills sector.

The framework agreement, which is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), will replace the Becta ICT services framework of October 2010.

Working on behalf of and with the Department for Education (DfE) and the Education Funding Agency (EFA), GPS said it aims to establish a framework agreement, in support of government educational strategies and policies, to enable educational institutions to obtain ICT solutions and specialist educational ICT goods and services that meet their specific needs.

The requirements covered include the design, specification, supply, integration, implementation, testing, training, support and maintenance.

In the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) prior notice, GPS said that providers should be capable of supplying a range of delivery models including supply and fit, support and maintenance, systems configuration and management, partial or fully managed ICT service, and complete integrated service with other technologies and partners.

"Within such models, providers must be able to supply a range of ICT infrastructure environments from being locally installed in the institution (on devices or via virtual technologies) through levels of remotely hosted solutions through to a full infrastructure as a service (IaaS)," the notice reads.

Providers will be expected to supply and integrate new build ICT with legacy ICT environments. ICT infrastructure will include, but is not limited to, servers, user computing devices, operating systems, office productivity software, network and security software, networks, peripheral equipment, and AV equipment such as projectors.

Mobile computing, including netbooks, tablets and smartphones, are required, as is mobile connectivity. However, fixed-line broadband connectivity is not within the scope of the procurement. GPS expects that prospective customers will provision broadband connectivity separately.

GPS, DfE and EFA plan to host a market engagement event in August to further develop their understanding of the market to prepare for any future procurement. They want organisations to provide input through interactive group sessions.

"Organisations will be able to discuss and share their experiences of ICT Services in education, best practice and scope for innovation to inform the government's approach.

"During the event, DfE and EFA will talk about the features expected to be part of the solution and how they would best work with suppliers to achieve these. Some of these requirements will be based on feedback obtained from a range of key stakeholders prior to the event," the notice reads.

The event will take place on 6 August 2013 at Broadway House Conference Centre, and more information can be found here.