Networks

Description

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the Department for International Development (DFID) and the British Council (BC) (together the ‘ECHO2 Partners’) are in the early stages of formulating their procurement strategy for the future provision of global telecommunications network and connectivity services. These services are required to connect ministerial headquarters and other head offices in the United Kingdom with their respective embassies, consulates and other office locations across the globe totalling approximately 500 sites in 170 countries. At present, the services are provided under a framework agreement with a single provider. The ECHO2 Partners have conducted initial market analysis and are considering alternative service delivery models. The alternatives include a measured approach to the disaggregation of services and the use of more flexible procurement options to align with perceived changes in the global telecommunications market. The strategic objectives of the ECHO2 Programme are to: — ensure continuity of service, — deliver a flexible, performant, secure and responsive global telecommunications service to support the One HMG Overseas platform, — deliver VFM objectives, — enable ECHO2 Partner business and IT transformation strategies, recognising their critical dependence upon a resilient and stable global network, — deliver a network which meets user needs and delivers a positive user experience. The FCO has commenced two separate strands of pre-procurement market engagement on behalf of the ECHO2 Partners to explore alternative service delivery models. These relate to: (a) the procurement of a network services integrator; and (b) the establishment and operation of a dynamic purchasing system (DPS) for the procurement of internet services. The FCO intends to use this market engagement phase to assess the general capabilities of the market, determine the level of market interest in the above options and to test and inform the ECHO2 procurement strategy more generally. The FCO has identified a fair, broad and representative sample of the market with whom to engage which includes potential suppliers (ranging from large managed service providers to circuit aggregators and circuit providers), DPS providers and operators as well as other contracting authorities with relevant procurement experience in this area. On completion of the market engagement phase, the FCO plans to review the relevant information with a view to issuing to potential suppliers a market engagement synopsis. This will include the same information provided to the suppliers who participated in the market engagement phase and will summarise the FCO's findings. Any prospective supplier that would like to receive a copy of this synopsis should contact Craig Wormleighton whose details are set out in Section I.1). Please note that the participation of suppliers in this market engagement phase will have no impact whatsoever on their chances of success in any resultant formal procurement procedure and that other potential suppliers will not be unfairly disadvantaged in any way. The market engagement synopsis will be issued well in advance of the FCO commencing any of the formal procurements under the ECHO Programme thereby ensuring that all potential suppliers have sufficient time to digest the information properly before deciding whether to express an interest in any such procurement.