London’s tri-borough alliance of local authorities has launched a tender for network connectivity and telecommunications services which could end up being worth £200m.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has launched the tender for a new framework on behalf of its partners, London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and Westminster City Council.
However, it said that the framework agreement will be open to all councils and other public sector bodies across the capital.
The tender document said: “The above public sector bodies have a need for the provision of innovative network connectivity, telecommunications and other services, including PSN compliant services and non-PSN compliant services, to facilitate inter-organisational collaboration through secure communication, interoperability and sharing of information.”
The services to be made available under the framework will include data access, local connectivity, traditional and IP-based telephony, video and audio conferencing, mobile and pagers plus call centres, email and internet.
In addition, it will cover content filtering and other security systems, information assurance, consultancy and audit services.
The framework agreement will have an initial term of four years, and call-off contracts awarded will be for four years with an option to extend by three periods of a year each.
It will be worth between £20m and £200m, depending on how many councils join, according to the tender documents.
The closing date for applications is 6 February.
The news comes a month after the tri-borough authorities agreed a new operating model for shared ICT operations.
The new structure will see a standalone ICT service created to serve all three authorities, and will aim to save £6.55m each year by 2017/18.