£600m government IT services deals up for grabs

Suppliers sought for IT services

The government is looking for suppliers for a framework contract covering the provision of managed IT services across the public sector, in deals that could be worth £600m over two years.

Whitehall purchasing agency Buying Solutions, part of the Office of Government Commerce, has issued a contract notice on the Official Journal of the European Union, inviting bids from vendors. As many as 10 companies could be chosen for the deal, which would enable them to offer services to government departments, the NHS, local authorities, emergency services and other public bodies.

The tender specifies a range of services to be provided, including management of PCs, servers, networking, mobile and peripheral equipment. Other services to be included range from disaster recovery to hosting, service desk, print management and asset management.

Shortlisted suppliers will be expected to submit final bids through an electronic auction process.

Framework agreements are a popular way of obtaining value for money through the combined purchasing power of government bodies, although public organisations are not bound by the contract to procure services exclusively through any such deals.