Credit: PA

Birmingham City Council is looking for market advice ahead of a device refresh and a Windows 10 migration.

The authority has issued notice of its intent to undertake a “soft market testing exercise”, during which Birmingham will ask potential suppliers to “help shape and inform” a procurement planned for this summer. 

The council wishes to find out more about available options and potential costs in three areas: the provision of end-user computing devices; the provision of related support services; and a project to upgrade the authority to Windows 10. 

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“These services may be delivered as a single managed service, or by multiple suppliers delivering one or more of the above services,” the council said. “There is no preferred solution at this stage.”

The exercise follows on from an event in May at which the authority launched the procurement process. The end-user device refresh is part of an ongoing programme of work to the council is undertaking to decouple itself from its long-standing Service Birmingham joint venture with Capita. Over the next three years, the authority intends to become its own "system integrator".

Birmingham City Council is Europe’s largest local authority, employing something in the region of 7,000 staff and electing 101 councillors to serve a population of a million people.