West Sussex Gigabit Framework.
Framework Agreement for the provision of dark fiber connectivity to Public Sector sites in the West Sussex County area and the city of Brighton and Hove.
Chichester, West Sussex.
West Sussex County Council currently runs IT services over a Wide Area Network that is subject to an outsourcing contract,, currently provided by Capita Business Services Limited.
There is a strategic plan to improve both the value and flexibility of this arrangement through the procurement of infrastructure across the county.
This infrastructure will consist of ducting and fibre optic cables connecting key locations across the county that can then be made available to West Sussex County Council and its delivery partners as a service, when and where required. Either the County Council or its Service Provider will install additional Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) to incorporate this additional capacity into the managed Wide Area Network. Other public sector bodies have expressed an interest in accessing this infrastructure, when available and also potentially extending its reach to better meet their needs.
In the first instance this means the inclusion of some District and Borough sites into the initial requirements described in this procurement. It has also led to the intention to establish a Framework Agreement that can be accessed by other public sector agencies within the County and also potentially extended to cover the Requirements of Brighton and Hove City Council in the future.
West Sussex County Council is a first wave exemplary project for the Full Fibre Network Programme (LFFN) operated by the Broadband Development UK (BDUK) programme within the Department for Digital, Media, Culture, and Sport (DCMS) and this procurement is a partially funded by DCMS.
The Framework Authority is acting as a Lead Authority on behalf of a wider group of public sector bodies. The Framework Authority is working in partnership with all six (6) Districts and Borough Councils in West Sussex (Adur and Worthing, Arun, Chichester, Crawley, Horsham and Mid Sussex) and will action the first Call-Off Contract for its own requirements and those of its partners.
The Framework Authority is seeking a sole service provider to provide a catalogue of services on a framework basis for a period of 4 years. These services include design, installation, support and maintenance of dark fibre connectivity circuits to a Contracting Authority’s sites on a long-term basis of at least 20 years.
This Procurement will be conducted using the Competitive Procedure with Negotiation. Full details of the process can be found in the Invitation to Participate (ITP) documents. Statements including the specific requirements can be found in Section III.1.1, III.1.2 and III.1.3 of the Contract Notice.
The duration of the Framework Agreement is 48 months. The duration of call-off contracts under the Framework Agreement shall be up to 20 years from the date on which the dark fiber services are first available for use. The duration of the call-off contract is justified by reference to the standard practice within the industry to spread the cost of the infrastructure over an extended period.
Not applicable.
Bidders will be required to have a minimum "general" yearly turnover of 5,000,000 GBP for the last 2 years. As evidence, the Contracting Authority may ask for annual accounts from the bidder. Where turnover information is not available for the time period requested, the bidder will be required to state the date which they were set up or started trading. There must be no qualification or contra-indication from any other parts of the accounts.
Minimum levels of standards required: In addition to the validation of information provided in the response to the SSQ, the Contracting Authority will require details of a minimum 2 year’s financial accounts, including both Profit & Loss Statement and Balance Sheet and evidence of valid Insurance Certification prior to any contract award. With reference to the economic and financial standing criteria above, the Contracting Authority reserves the right in its sole discretion to waive these minimum requirements in the case of Bidders who are able to offer the Contracting Authority adequate substitute surety to the Contracting Authority’s entire satisfaction. By way of example only (but without limitation), adequate substitute surety may be an unqualified guarantee for the performance of the Bidder’s entire obligations under the contract to follow on this process by a parent or associated company established in the UK and which parent or associated company does meet the minimum requirements set out in these criteria.
It is a requirement of this contract that Bidders hold or can commit to obtaining prior to the commencement of any subsequently awarded contract, the types and levels of insurance indicated below:
— Employer’s (Compulsory) Liability Insurance = 5,000,000.00 GBP per occurrence. http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/hse40.pdf
— Public Liability Insurance = 10,000,000.00 GBP per occurrence,
— Product liability cover = 2,000,000.00 GBP per occurrence, and,
— £2,000,000 Professional Indemnity Insurance per occurrence.
Bidders must achieve a minimum average score of 4, across the three case studies, evaluated in accordance with the Down-selection Criteria set out at below.
— 0: Unacceptable
— — nil or inadequate response,
— — fails to demonstrate previous experience/ capacity/ capability,
— 2: Poor
— — the response is partially relevant but generally poor or utilizing limited solutions,
— — the case study relies on redundant technologies/solutions or is un-scalable,
— — the response shows some elements of relevance but contains insufficient/ limited detail or explanation to demonstrate previous relevant experience/ capacity/ capability,
— 4: Acceptable
— — the response is relevant and acceptable. The response demonstrates broad previous experience, knowledge and skills/capacity/capability but may lack in some aspects of similarity e.g. previous experience, knowledge or skills may not be of a similar nature or there may have some moderate technical concerns,
— 6: Good
— — the response is relevant and good,
— — the response is sufficiently detailed to demonstrate a good amount of experience, knowledge or skills/capacity/capability relevant to providing similar services to similar clients,
— 8: Excellent
— — the response is completely relevant and excellent overall,
— — the response is comprehensive, unambiguous and demonstrates thorough experience, knowledge or skills/capacity/capability relevant to providing similar services to similar clients.
Quality Assurance Schemes and Environmental Management Standards:
— bidders are required to confirm that as a minimum standard they hold Quality Management BS EN ISO 9001 and Occupational Health and Safety Management OHSAS 18001 (or equivalents).
— if Bidders do not hold BS EN ISO 9001 and/ or OHSAS 18001(or equivalents) they should indicate if they are working towards such certification and the expected award date and/ or confirm that they have a documented policy regarding quality management and health and safety management systems, processes and procedures.
Environmental Management:
— bidders are required to confirm that as a minimum standard they hold BS EN ISO 14001 or a valid EMAS Certificate (or equivalents).
— if Bidders do not hold BS EN ISO 14001 (or equivalents) they should indicate if they are working towards such certification and the expected award date and/ or confirm that they have a documented policy regarding environmental management systems, processes, and procedures.
The Contracting Authority may ask for certificates or policy documents from the bidder.
