Local authority in the north west will appoint a handful of suppliers to fulfil the tech needs of the council and local schools until nearly the end of the decade

Liverpool City Council is seeking four core technology suppliers to provide the authority with a comprehensive range of IT products and services over the coming years.

The council recently issued a commercial notice outlining its intent to implement a four-year agreement featuring two lots. The first of these will cover hardware and the latter will feature software, with both also addressing buyers’ needs for related professional services.

Each lot is intended to provide IT and support offerings to both the council’s corporate operations,  as well as to education establishments across the city.

The notice adds that, as well as Liverpool City Council and its direct partners, “on occasion, the framework may also be used by: Halton Borough Council; Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council; Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council; St Helens Borough Council; Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council; Liverpool City Region Combined Authority; [and] Merseytravel”.

The hardware lot, valued at £12m without VAT, will feature only a single supplier which “will be required to become a supply partner for any ICT hardware related goods and professional services that are required by the customer… [and] may also be required to facilitate requests for the support and maintenance of a variety specialist hardware solutions”.

Related content

• Liverpool NHS trust to combine social housing and health data
• Data from three NHS hospitals accessed in Liverpool cyberattack
• Liverpool and Birmingham councils seek digital leaders

The notice says: “These hardware solutions are currently covered by support and maintenance contracts which will likely run to their termination date, but these contracts will expire during the term of the framework.”

The software lot, which is expected to be worth up to £13m plus VAT, will be awarded to up to three providers.

These firms “will not be ranked on the framework in any way, and all three suppliers will be invited to partake in each further competition”.

The procurement notice states that the types of software to be offered via the framework are likely to include “business function-specific software; content authoring, editing and management software; educational or reference software; finance accounting and enterprise resource planning software; operating environment software (including Microsoft Enterprise Software Agreement which is due for re-tender 2023, and may be procured via further competition on this framework); security and protection software; system-management software; utility and device driver software”.

Bids for a spot on the framework are open until 20 March and the council hopes that the framework will come into effect around 25 May. The deal will then run into 2029.

Once tax is included, the buying vehicle is expected to be worth £30m to the four firms that secure a spot.