CONTRACT NOTICE - UTILITIES

Section I: Contracting Entity

I.1)

Name, Address and Contact Point(s)

I.2)

Main activity or activities of the contracting entity

	Production, transport and distribution of gas and heat
	Electricity
	Exploration and extraction of gas and oil
	Exploration and extraction of coal and other solid fuels
	Water
	Postal services
	Railway services
	Urban railway, tramway, trolleybus or bus services
	Port-related activities
	Airport-related activities

Section II: Object of the Contract

II.1)

Description

II.1.1)

Title attributed to the contract by the contracting entity

IT Managed Services.

II.1.2(a))

Type of works contract

II.1.2(b))

Type of supplies contract

II.1.2(c))

Type of service contract

II.1.2)

Site or location of works, place of delivery or performance

Antrim.

II.1.3)

This notice involves

A public contract
The setting up of a Dynamic Purchasing System
The establishment of a framework agreement

II.1.4)

Information on framework agreement (if applicable)

Framework agreement with a single operator
Framework agreement with several operators

Number of participants to the framework agreement envisaged

Duration of the framework agreement

Estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the framework agreement

Frequency of the contracts to be awarded

II.1.5)

Short description of the contract or purchase(s)

A leading energy provider in Northern Ireland, firmus energy is responsible for building, owning and operating distribution networks extending to 850 km delivering gas to industrial, commercial and residential customers in Northern Ireland. Firmus energy has supply and distribution licences for the development of a natural gas network outside greater Belfast, supplying over 25 000 local business and domestic customers. It also supplies natural gas in greater Belfast to over 45 000 business and domestic customers. Firmus energy wishes to appoint an IT Managed Services provider.

The following is a brief overview of the list (non-exhaustive) of high-level requirements for the IT Managed Services contract, which will be covered under this procurement exercise. Note that any required quantities or volumes outlined below are indicative (without commitment) based on current provision and will be confirmed during the ITN stage of the procurement process:

A. Transition Services:

— Planning and project management of the transition of firmus energy systems, applications and infrastructure services from a shared Bord Gais Energy service to the new contractor within the agreed timescales. The contractor must work closely with the BGE and its incumbent suppliers and contract holders to ensure successful transition;

— Design and implement data migration from incumbent network.

B. Wide Area Network:

— Provision and support of a new resilient WAN connection to provide firmus energy with a data connection to the IT Managed Service providers hosted infrastructure.

C. Voice Network:

— Provision of design services to ensure appropriate voice network is deployed for firmus energy;

— Provision, design/configuration, installation and support of voice network switch hardware (or hosted equivalent);

— Provision of licenses, installation and support for a replacement IP telephony voice processing solution;

— Provision of licenses, installation and support for a replacement contact center solution;

— Provision of licenses, installation and support for a replacement automated attendant solution;

— Provision of licenses, installation and support of a call recording application, including Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant call recording for card payments;

— Provision of voice network design services;

— Provision of voice hardware support;

— Provision of user training for new voice solutions.

D. Data (LAN and wLAN):

— Provision of design services to ensure appropriate network infrastructure is developed for firmus energy;

— Provision, design/configuration, installation and support of data network hardware;

— Provision, design/configuration, installation and support of wLAN access control and authentication solution;

— Provision of LAN and wLAN hardware support.

E. Other Network Services:

— Redesign/configuration and support of existing video conferencing units;

— Communications room cabling housekeeping;

F. Hosting Services:

— Provision of design services to ensure appropriate hosting solution is developed;

— Provision of secure hosting solution for firmus energy line of business, end user applications and IT back office applications;

— Full backup solution and management for applications and file stores;

— Data storage for all file shares, applications and user data;

— Provision of secure e-mail hosting services;

— Provision of database administration services e.g. Network, Unix, Database, Storage etc.;

— Provision of secure access from firmus energy end user devices including laptops and tablets (either office based or mobile);

— Provision of all patching/upgrade services;

— Provision of performance monitoring and pro-active management;

— Hosting of telephony/voice applications and back up of existing databases;

— Provision of back up and disaster recovery for telephony applications;

— Provision and support of an uninterruptible power supply suitable for any onsite hardware.

G. Applications:

— Installation, licensing, maintenance and support for firmus energy line of business applications;

— Installation, licensing, maintenance and support for end user applications;

— Installation, licensing, maintenance and support for IT back office applications;

— Upgrade of any company owned applications to the correct version to operate on new OS design;

— Transition and testing activities;

— Ongoing software upgrades and patching.

H. Service Management:

— Provision of design services to ensure Service Management solution is developed;

— Provision of a fully managed Service Management help desk service with full incident management to agreed SLAs and availability levels;

— Provision of part time onsite level 1 support services;

— Provision of ITIL services — change management, problem management, service requests etc.;

— Provision of support services for user install/move/add/changes (IMAC);

— Provision of support services for new application deployments;

— Provision of security and anti-virus services including the implementation of a security policy across hardware and maintaining up to date antivirus and malware protection for the firmus energy estate.

I. End User:

— Provision of replacement laptops and desktops;

— Provision of replacement multifunction printers;

— Support of desktops, laptops, tablets, and peripherals by providing remote and onsite support as well as managing assets to keep them patched (application, operating system, drivers etc.);

— Provision of additional end user hardware kit if required (e.g. via service catalogue);

— Provision and installation of new/replacement equipment at the firmus energy Antrim site including any network connectivity as required;

— Configuration management of IT assets such as laptops, desktops, printers, tablets etc.;

— Provision of encryption and backup solutions for data stored on laptops.

Transformation Services — Following the successful separation of IT services from BGE through the transition to an IT managed services partner, firmus energy intends to undertake a service transformation programme to ensure that the application suite and set up that they have is the most efficient for their business. The transformation programme will look at some of the key line of business applications in use in firmus energy and assess them against current and expected future requirements. The scope of the transformation programme has not been outlined or defined at this stage.

II.1.6)

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

II.1.7)

Contract covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

II.1.8)

Division into lots

II.1.9)

Will variants be accepted

II.2)

Quantity or Scope of the Contract

II.2.1)

Total quantity or scope

Please see section II.1.5) of contract notice and scope of services within tender documentation.

II.2.2)

Options

2 options to extend — each option being a period of 1 year.

Firmus energy may, at its discretion and dependent upon the terms of the Service Level Agreement having been complied with in full and, without limitation, satisfactory performance of the Contractor, extend the Services Agreement for 2 further periods of 12 months each.

Transformation Services — Following the successful separation of IT services from BGE through the transition to an IT managed services partner, firmus energy intends to undertake a service transformation programme to ensure that the application suite and set up that they have is the most efficient for their business. The transformation programme will look at some of the key line of business applications in use in firmus energy and assess them against current and expected future requirements. The scope of the transformation programme has not been outlined or defined at this stage.

Provisional timetable for recourse to these options

Number of possible renewals

In the case of renewable contracts, estimated time frame for subsequent calls for competition:

II.3)

Duration of the contract or limit for completion

Section III: Legal, Economic, Financial and Technical Information

III.1)

Conditions relating to the contract

III.1.1)

Deposits and guarantees required

As detailed in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire and/or Tender Documents.

III.1.2)

Main Terms of financing and payment and/or reference to the relevant provisions

As detailed in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire and/or Tender Documents.

III.1.3)

Legal form to be taken by the grouping of suppliers, contractors or service providers to whom the contract is to be awarded

As detailed in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire and/or Tender Documents.

III.1.4)

Other particular conditions to which the performance of the contract is subject

As detailed in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire and/or Tender Documents.

III.2)

Conditions for Participation

III.2.1)

Personal situation of suppliers,contractors or service providers

Please refer to Pre-Qualification Questionnaire.

III.2.2)

Economic and financial capacity

Please refer to Pre-Qualification Questionnaire.

III.2.3)

Technical capacity

III.2.4)

Reserved contracts

The contract is restricted to sheltered workshops
The execution of the contract is restricted to the framework of sheltered employment programmes

III.3)

Conditions Specific to Service Contracts

III.3.1)

Is provision of the service reserved to a specific profession?

III.3.2)

Will legal entities be required to state the names and professional qualifications of the personnel responsible for executing the contract?

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)

Type of Procedure

Open		Restricted
Negotiated		Have candidates already been selected?	No

IV.2)

Award Criteria

IV.2.2)

An electronic auction will be used

IV.3) Administrative Information

IV.3.1)

Reference number attributed to the notice by the contracting entity

IT_15_02

IV.3.2)

Previous publication concerning the same contract

Periodic indicative notice
Notice on a buyer profile

Other previous publications

IV.3.3)

Conditions for obtaining contract document and additional documents

IV.3.4)

Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate

IV.3.5)

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

IV.3.6)

Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain its tender 

IV.3.7)

Conditions for opening tenders

Section VI: Complementary Information

VI.1)

Indicate whether this Procurement is a Recurrent one and the estimated timing for further notices to be published

VI.2)

Does the contract relate to a Project/Programme financed by Community Funds?

VI.3)

Additional Information

1) Tender Documents are available by submitting an expression of interest via e-mail to procurement@firmusenergy.co.uk before 27.2.2015.

2) Candidates should carefully read the documents which set out the rules governing this process.

VI.4)

Procedures for appeal

VI.4.1)

Body responsible for appeal procedures

Body responsible for mediation procedures

VI.4.2)

Lodging of appeals

This process will incorporate a standstill period at the point information on the award of the contract is communicated to tenderers. That notification will provide full information on the award decision. The standstill period, which will be for a minimum of 10 calendar days, provides time for unsuccessful tenderers to challenge the award decision before the contract is entered into. The Utilities Contracts Regulations 2006 provide for aggrieved parties who have been harmed or are at risk of harm by a breach of the rules to take action in the High Court (England, Wales and Northern Ireland).

VI.4.3)

Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained

VI.5)

Dispatch date of this Notice