Award

Voice, Video and Integration (VVI) services

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Award

19 Nov 2021 at 22:45

Summary of the contracting process

The Ministry of Justice is seeking suppliers for Voice, Video, and Integration (VVI) services under a contract valued between £80 million and £105 million, depending on future service adaptations. The procurement process is currently at the Award stage, having been initiated with a competitive tender. The initial contract term spans 22 months, with a possible 12-month extension, and began on 10 December 2021. Services will be delivered nationally across various locations, including the Ministry's headquarters and numerous courts and tribunals throughout the UK.

This tender represents a significant opportunity for businesses in the telecommunications sector, particularly those with expertise in managing and maintaining video and telephony services. Companies that specialise in WAN and LAN service integration, as well as those capable of designing and implementing gateway services, would be well-suited to compete. Given the unique technical requirements outlined, this contract may favour established suppliers with proven knowledge of the existing ICT environment, but innovative firms could present new solutions to challenge the current supplier, Vodafone Ltd.

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Notice Title

Voice, Video and Integration (VVI) services

Notice Description

Contract for the supply of voice, video & integration (VVI) services

Lot Information

Lot 1

To provide the following main areas of service: (i) the provision, management and maintenance of video and telephony services; (ii) the management and maintenance of the integration of WAN services and LAN services; (iii) the design and management of gateway services and IP addressing; (iv) local server rooms / communications rooms; and (v) the design and technical integration of video services, telephony services, WAN services and LAN services; and integration with other Services. Services may be removed from scope as they are transitioned to replacement suppliers or insourced.

Procurement Information

The authority relies on Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) (Use of negotiated procedure without prior publication) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 namely: the services can only be provided by a particular economic operator, the incumbent supplier (Vodafone Limited), who has been providing the services forming the subject matter of this contract under a contract with the authority for the last 7 years eleven months which is due to expire on 09.12.21, because competition is absent for technical reasons, and no reasonable alternative substitute exists and the absence of competition is not the result of an artificial narrowing down of the parameters of the procurement for the following reasons. (a) No other supplier has the necessary technical knowledge/experience to provide the services, because: (i) video traffic between the authority and other government bodies traverses the public services network (PSN). The authority cannot migrate away from the PSN until these other bodies have also migrated to new solutions as it is a closed system. For another PSN provider to provide the PSN link, intercommunity firewall rules and 3rd party allowed lists would require updating. Previously it has taken a minimum of 12 months for all 3rd parties to update their allowed lists with these timescales being outside the authority's control. Migrating the PSN IP address ranges to another supplier's network would have to be done simultaneously because IP ranges can only be in one place, presenting significant and unacceptable risks to service continuity. As PSN is due to close by 2023 the authority would also incur significant wasted costs by changing supplier given the short remaining lifespan of PSN; (ii) many of the hardware components that are core to the services are hosted in Vodafone's datacentres. A new supplier would have to i) design/implement a new environment, ii) re-route sub-contracted solutions through their own datacentres or a combination of these options, which would introduce a high level of risk to service delivery and substantial duplication of costs given PSN is due to close and would not therefore be a reasonable alternative/substitute; and (iii) Vodafone has knowledge of the environment and complexities of how it inter-operates with other parts of the authority's ICT environment, i.e. the WAN/LAN service, developed over the past 13 years. The integration gateway was designed with separate security domains to satisfy information assurance requirements at the time. This segregated environment means WAN traffic must be routed via the gateway to communicate, and only Vodafone can provide this gateway with the existing WAN/LAN service, until the WAN/LAN service is replaced. (b) Even if it was theoretically possible that another supplier did have the necessary technical knowledge/experience, which the authority does not consider to be the case, it is estimated to take around 12 months to procure a replacement supplier and a further 18 to 24 months to complete a managed transition, whereas the services are required from 10.12.2021.

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-02f8a9
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/028986-2021
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
Award Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Limited
Procurement Method Details
Negotiated without publication of a contract notice
Tender Suitability
Not specified
Awardee Scale
Large

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

64 - Postal and telecommunications services


CPV Codes

64200000 - Telecommunications services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
£105,000,000 £100M-£1B

Notice Dates

Publication Date
19 Nov 20214 years ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
19 Nov 20214 years ago
Contract Period
Not specified - Not specified
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Not Specified
Awards Status
Active
Contracts Status
Active

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
Contact Name
Philip Monteith
Contact Email
philip.monteith@justice.gov.uk
Contact Phone
+44 02033343555

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
SW1H 9AJ
Post Town
South West London
Country
England

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI35 Westminster and City of London
Delivery Location
Not specified

Local Authority
Westminster
Electoral Ward
St James's
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

VODAFONE

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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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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