IT Services Renewal.

Descriptions

Citizens Advice is the operating name of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, consisting of 338 individual charities who deliver advice services and information from over 3,300 community locations in England and Wales as well as by telephone, via the internet www.adviceguide.org.uk by email and through the media.Advice provided by Bureaux is free, independent, confidential and impartial, and open to everybody regardless of race, sex, disability, sexuality or nationality. Every bureau is an independent registered charity.Citizens Advice sets standards for Bureau advice and performance, and support Bureaux with a range of services including Information Systems.Together, Citizens Advice and Bureaux are the Citizens Advice service. For more information see the booklet available for download at: http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/publications/introduction_citizens_advice.htmCitizens Advice ('the Contracting Authority') currently uses a single outsourced managed service partner for the provision of information technology services. This contractual arrangement expires on 31st March 2015.Citizens Advice have undertaken a review of their IT requirements and intend to adopt a multi-sourced structure for their future delivery, with some elements brought in-house and other systems and services delivered by specialist third parties.This notice therefore advertises the procurement by the Contracting Authority of IT systems and services to be centrally provided to Citizens Advice and CAB in England and Wales. The Programme will not cover any systems or services provided to or by Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) nor Northern Ireland Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NIACAB).The services the Contracting Authority currently wishes to procure under the Programme include: server, database and application hosting; website hosting; lifecycle management provision and support; hosting and support of 'Petra', a customised Case Management system.The successful candidate(s) will be expected to supply the services to, or for the benefit of, Citizens Advice and/or any relevant CAB.The Contracting Authority currently envisages that services to be procured externally will consist of the following Lots:1. Website and Business System Hosting Services2. Lifecycle Management Services3. Petra Hosting and Support ServicesFurther detail on the envisaged scope of each Lot is set out in Annex B. However, the Contracting Authority reserves the right not to award contract(s) in relation to any or all of these Lots.With the current IT Strategic Partnership contract scheduled to end on 31.3.2015, the Contracting Authority anticipates that a transition period will be required prior to this, during which the live service systems will be frozen. During that period, no technical changes will be able to be made to live services (apart from emergency changes and essential maintenance such as system patches, virus updates etc).The transition between suppliers must be complete by 31.3.2015 and allow a smooth transition from the current contract to new contracts, although opportunities to transition before the current contract end may exist. The Contracting Authority welcomes information from potential suppliers on their proposed approach to transition in their PQQ responses.The Contracting Authority currently envisages that the contracts for Lots 1 and 2 will have a duration of 3 years and the contract for Lot 3 (Petra) will be 2 Years with an optional 1 Year extension.Successful candidate(s) will be required to comply with all relevant legislation and guidance.Further information in respect of the proposed agreement will be provided in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire ('PQQ') which may be obtained from the address specified in Section I.1.