Planning

Soft Market Testing Exercise (SMTE) for Research Storage

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Planning

07 Feb 2022 at 15:47

Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The University of Southampton is currently in the planning stage of a procurement process titled "Soft Market Testing Exercise (SMTE) for Research Storage", focusing on the servers industry category. The procurement aims to evaluate and gather insights from potential suppliers to improve the university’s data storage capabilities, which are currently fragmented across different systems. Interested organisations are invited to engage in this preliminary market consultation, with a key deadline for submitting completed SMTE questionnaires set for 3rd March 2022 at 12:00 midday. The procurement will take place at the university's Highfield campus located in Southampton, England.

This SMTE presents significant opportunities for businesses specialising in server solutions, data storage, and IT infrastructure, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and voluntary community and social enterprises (VCSEs). Companies capable of offering centralised storage solutions that can handle large volumes of data will be particularly well suited to participate. Engaging in this tender could enable businesses to establish partnerships with a leading research institution, potentially leading to further opportunities within the educational sector and beyond.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

Soft Market Testing Exercise (SMTE) for Research Storage

Notice Description

The University of Southampton ("University") is a research-intensive university with a broad range of research fields. These research activities generate large amounts of data which is currently stored in several ways depending on the use case: 1) Research File Store 2) HPC storage and 3) distributed edge solutions. The University's main Research File Store is approximately 2PB in capacity. This is currently delivered using the Dell EMC Isilon platform with a primary cluster hosted in our main off-campus datacentre and a secondary cluster hosted in an on-campus datacentre. Currently this storage is used to provide NFS and Samba shares to both servers and workstations (Approx. 350 SMB and 100 NFS with permissions managed though Active Directory groups). This project seeks to reduce the number of siloed data storage solutions and deliver a single central solution which meets as many of the researcher needs as possible. Ideally encompassing the provision of HPC storage as well as bulk server and workstation shares. Full details of the project requirements are provided on the SMTE documentation. This SMTE is intended to allow interested organisations with appropriate experience to outline their views and provide impartial information to the University with no commitment to themselves or the University. Additional information: The University is utilising an electronic tendering tool (In-Tend: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/universityofsouthampton (https://intendhost. co.uk/universityofsouthampton) ) to manage this procurement and to communicate with participating organisations. All documentation in relation to this tender can be downloaded from the In-Tend portal. Participating organisations are advised that there will be no hard copy documents issued to organisations and all communications with the University including the submission of SMTE questionnaires will be conducted via the In-Tend portal. Regular monitoring of the portal is the responsibility of the participating organisation. If you are not already registered as a supplier with the University, you will need to register in In-Tend in order to access the SMTE documentation. Once you have logged in as a supplier: click on 'Tenders'; locate the relevant project; and click 'View Details'. Once you are in the project screen, you will be able to register your company against the project and access all documentation by clicking 'Express Interest'. Further instructions for the submission of SMTE questionnaires are below. To submit your return, please follow the instructions below: 1. Log In 2. Click 'Tenders' 3. Locate the relevant project 4. View Details 5. Click on the tab relating to the relevant project stage (e.g. 'Soft Market Testing') 6. Click on the 'Attach Documents' button and upload your return. 7. Check ALL your response documents are uploaded and displayed in the "My Tender Return" panel. The system will only permit your organisation to make one return. 8. Click the red "Submit Return" button. Please note that, to preserve the integrity of the tendering procedure, all queries must made be via the correspondence function within the In-Tend portal. The deadline for the return for completed SMTE questionnaires is 03rd March 2022 (12:00 midday). Please Note: This early engagement notice is issued solely for the purpose of conducting pre-procurement market engagement and does not constitute an commitment to undertake any procurement in the future. Interested parties will not be prejudiced by any response or failure to respond to the SMTE and a response to this notice does not guarantee and invitation to participate in this exercise of any future procurement. This notice does not constitute a call for competition to procure any services, supplies or works mentioned in this notice and the University will not accept and proposals offered in response to this notice. The University of Southampton is not liable for any costs, fees or expenses incurred by any party in relying to this early engagement notice and/or providing a SMTE response.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-b5fd17-d1dd268a-87b9-48b6-8705-f301eeb880d8
Publication Source
Contracts Finder
Latest Notice
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/5d1a9c29-030a-4521-a22d-8e339fc9851d
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
Market Engagement Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Not specified
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

48 - Software package and information systems

CPV Codes

48820000 - Servers

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
7 Feb 20224 years ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
3 Mar 2022Expired
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
Not specified - Not specified
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planning
Lots Status
Not Specified
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
SOUTHAMPTON
Postcode
SO17 1BJ
Post Town
Southampton
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLJ South East (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLJ3 Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLJ32 Southampton
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Southampton
Electoral Ward
Portswood
Westminster Constituency
Southampton Test

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

Download

The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts. 

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