Dynamic purchasing system seeks suppliers of products and services

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The Scottish Government is seeking suppliers for a dynamic purchasing system for internet of things technologies.

The government has issued a contract notice alerting the market to the imminent launch of the DPS, which will run on an initial two-year term until 18 August 2021. The notice said that “due to the wide and diverse nature of IoT, it isn’t possible to list all the types of technologies and services” that will be included on the framework.

But the Scottish Government has picked out a range of core offerings it expects to feature. This includes hardware end points, such as sensors, network infrastructure, and all related installation services.

Also set to be included is software dedicated to the management of IoT devices, as well as programs for managing how data is collected, processed, and stored.  Analytics tools are also likely to form part of the DPS, as are products for enabling “business applications in any deployment model to analyse data and accomplish IoT-related business functions”.

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Security hardware and software offerings are also likely to feature on the agreement, alongside audit services.

A minimum of 20 companies are expected to be appointed to the dynamic purchasing system which, unlike a traditional static framework agreement, allows suppliers to be added throughout the lifespan of the contract. Existing providers can also update their offering or terms.

The Scottish Government said: “The main purpose of IoT is to collect and exchange data to create value. IoT is a system of physical objects or things, embedded with sensors, software, electronics and connectivity to enable improvements in performance by exchanging information or data with other connected devices over the internet which can generate useful information.”

It added: “Public sector organisations can make use of this data directly or via analytics tools to allow timely decisions and actions to be taken. The Scottish public sector is at an early stage with IoT but with forecast growth during the period of this arrangement providing innovative solutions and efficiency benefits. Due to the increase in the cyberthreat, security is an important aspect of this IoT arrangement.”

An estimated value has not been specified for the agreement, which will be open for use by the entirety of the Scottish public sector.