Ordnance Survey issues £2m tender for IT services

The UK national mapping agency, Ordnance Survey, has issued a tender estimated to be worth £2m for IT services.

The tender, found in the Official Journal of the European Union, states that the agency wants to enter into a four-year framework agreement with an agile software development partner with a proven track record of delivering software solutions for web and mobile projects.

The agency said it anticipated that all software development work would be undertaken at its headquarters in Southampton to support its "agile project approach".

"Our preferred strategy is to outsource entire projects on a call-off basis to an agile software development supplier who will wholly manage individual work packages onsite with support from key Ordnance Survey staff," the tender reads.

The deal could involve projects such as: rebuilding the existing election map website; rebuilding online services including the Ordnance Survey OpenData portal; back office data fulfilment services; bespoke mapping data mobile apps; and the potential to redesign the Ordnance Survey website.

The tender also lists some of the technologies that the successful contractor may encounter: Java, Python, MySQL, Java Script, PHP, DotNet, Postgres, CSS, Teamsite and Magneto.

The mapping agency goes on to state that the contractor must be able to respond to requests for services within a short timescale and be able to provide an onsite presence at short notice. In addition, the successful contractor could be expected to provision and manage hosted systems and applications if required.

Although the agency is noted as a government department and executive agency in the tender, the contract is not covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA).