CONTRACT NOTICE – NATIONAL

1 Authority Details

1.1

Authority Name and Address

1.2

Address from which documentation may be obtained

1.3

Completed documents must be returned to:

2 Contract Details

2.1

Title

Provision of Hardware Maintenance for Intel Server Infrastructure

2.2

Description of the goods or services required

The Authority is seeking quotations from invited suppliers to provide hardware maintenance for their Intel Server estate. Suppliers responding to this tender are required to provide support from 11 November 2023 for two years duration with an option to extend the contract for a further 2 years renewable on an annual basis.

The Council’s I.T. team supports over 7000 PC’s & laptops, 3000+ Corporate and 4500+ Curriculum, across 200 sites. There are more than 130 physical servers throughout the Authority, and several ESX servers hosting in excess of 300 virtual servers.

It is imperative that the authority receives a high quality, efficient and reliable service from qualified and competent professionals.

The Supplier shall take full responsibility for ensuring a smooth transition from the incumbent maintainer to their maintenance services. The supplier shall be responsible for all costs associated with the handover process. No claims for additional costs will be considered after award of contract. The Council’s existing maintainer shall cooperate in an appropriate handover process.

All services shall be performed by suitably qualified personnel that have received appropriate training. In all circumstances staff employed by the Supplier shall be expected to be fully knowledgeable and skilled in the service they are providing, and to apply both knowledge and skill with care and diligence in performing their service.

The server estate is based on two manufacturers. IBM & Lenovo technologies, which are System X servers.

For public facing applications, a Demilitarized Zone is provided where servers are isolated for increased security. Each server that has contact with the general public will need to be locked down and secured in this area to minimise the risk of unauthorised access.

Caerphilly CBC is actively supporting consolidation of both Intel and mature virtualised environment. This has been achieved using VMWare’s ESX and IBM’s logical partitioning technologies. With the exception of Intel applications that have high I/O or are processor intensive, all applications must be supported in a VMWare environment.

Remote support is provided through the Internet via VPN that gives a secure connection to the Authority’s network.

Backup and Recovery is provided through Veeam that’s has a local backup and also an off-site backup via the cloud.

Before submitting a tender the Proposer will have the option to visit the site, and for the purpose of the contract, shall be deemed to have visited the site to acquaint himself with the local conditions, means of access, confines of the site, and the supply and general conditions affecting labour, materials and plant required for the execution of the work He shall be deemed to have made all enquiries which a prudent proposer would make, and have satisfied himself on all matters, including ambiguities which will affect his tender response, as no claim for extra payment on the grounds of misunderstanding or lack of information will be allowed. Access to properties must be by prior arrangement with the Principal Operations Officer.

NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Sell2Wales Web Site at https://www.sell2wales.gov.wales/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=135633.

2.3

Notice Coding and Classification

2.4

Total quantity or scope of tender

The Council is unable to commit to a specific spend for this arrangement and there is no guarantee or commitment of value or volume given by the Council.

3 Conditions for Participation

3.1

Minimum standards and qualification required

Please refer to the Proactis portal e-tendering system and tender documents contained within the tender pack attached to the project in the Proactis portal

4 Administrative Information

4.1

Type of Procedure

Single stage

4.2

Reference number attributed to the notice by the contracting authority

CCBC/PS2484/23/JR

4.3

Time Limits

4.5

Language or languages in which tenders or requests to participate can be drawn up

4.6

Tender Submission Postbox

5 Other Information

5.1

Additional Information

(WA Ref:135633)

5.2

Additional Documentation

5.3

Publication date of this notice