Liverpool City Council is creating an £11.2m framework of suppliers to provide hardware and software for staff in its offices and in schools.

The council says up to 17 firms could be appointed to the three year framework, which will be divided into seven lots.

One of the lots mandates the creation of an e-catalogue to make it easier for staff to procure low volume, standard ICT hardware from the hardware lot.

A tender published in the Official Journal of the European Union said: “The city currently procures hardware, software, support and maintenance, and professional services through a specific supplier.

“The city is looking to identify suitable framework approved suppliers to deliver these products and services in the future.”

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The lots being offered, with their estimated annual spend are:

• Hardware £730,000;
• Software £600,000;
• Professional services £12,500;
• Support and maintenance £100,000;
• e-Catalogue £90,000;
• Schools hardware £1,200,000;
• Schools software £65,000.

The council expects the maximum  number of participants in any framework agreement to be 17, and says that it will reserve the right to extend the contract for a year.

Over the initial three years, estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration for the framework agreement is £11,190,000.

Hardware items in the first lot include PCs, laptops, monitors, tablets and network switches, with the council saying that purchases in this category could help more staff work remotely.

Specialist desktop equipment for staff with disabilities or equipment specified by the customer would be provided through a separate lot.

In the professional services lot, the council said that it “would expect some professional services to be delivered free of charge” – particularly if this could be deemed as pre-sales effort or “when there are new and innovative solutions that the supplier wants to make the city aware of”.

“Because of the disparate requirements of LCC and the nature of new and emerging technologies we would expect any supplier to be help drive innovation and investigate new and emerging technologies that would help LCC achieve savings and efficiencies across the organisation,” it said.

In December last year, Liverpool launched a series tenders worth up to £36m to replace ICT, telephony and contact centre services previously provided through its cancelled joint venture with supplier BT.

In October of that year, the council took back responsibility for the previously outsourced services after failing to renegotiate the contract with Liverpool Direct Limited – a joint venture with BT.