--- title: "Placement Portal Replacement - Soft Market Sounding Exercise" ocid: "ocds-b5fd17-3d76d6a0-44bd-4929-a44b-f851d53b78c6" canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-3d76d6a0-44bd-4929-a44b-f851d53b78c6" markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-3d76d6a0-44bd-4929-a44b-f851d53b78c6.md" json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-3d76d6a0-44bd-4929-a44b-f851d53b78c6.json" source: "Contracts Finder" current_stage: "Planning" buyer: "BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL" published: "2020-12-15" --- # Placement Portal Replacement - Soft Market Sounding Exercise Buyer: BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL Current stage: Planning OCID: ocds-b5fd17-3d76d6a0-44bd-4929-a44b-f851d53b78c6 [View canonical contract page](https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-3d76d6a0-44bd-4929-a44b-f851d53b78c6) [Download OCDS JSON](https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-3d76d6a0-44bd-4929-a44b-f851d53b78c6.json) ## Summary Birmingham City Council is conducting a soft market sounding exercise for the "Placement Portal Replacement" project, aimed at enhancing a web-based IT solution for brokerage of services and placements. This initiative falls under the Information Systems and Servers industry category and is currently in the planning stage. Key dates include the engagement end date on 15th January 2021, with documents published as of 15th December 2020. The procurement method is tender, allowing for initial market engagement to gather insights from potential suppliers of relevant IT products and services. This tender presents significant opportunities for businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and voluntary, community, and social enterprises (VCSEs) that provide IT solutions. Companies capable of delivering web-based platforms to facilitate service and placement searches will find this exercise particularly beneficial. Engaging with Birmingham City Council through this soft market sounding can enable these businesses to share innovative ideas and influence how the upcoming procurement process is shaped, thereby fostering their growth in the regional market. ## Notice Birmingham City Council (BCC) is working with West Midlands Childrens Services (a collaborative of 14 Local Authorities and Children's Trusts) to undertake Soft Market testing for a web-based IT solution that enables brokerage of services and placements searches across a number of frameworks. The existing system is due to expire in 2021 and we are interested to learn about innovative ideas and solutions as an enhancement on the current system. This soft market sounding may be of interest to suppliers of relevant IT products and services. For those potential suppliers of IT products and services, this soft market sounding is an opportunity to: * Inform the council of relevant products and services in a way that can be easily used and implemented on a regional basis by Children's commissioners, placements teams and providers. * Use the feedback from the market to shape the procurement scope and approach. For Birmingham City Council, the purpose of this soft market sounding is to: * Give the market an understanding of the Region's needs for a web-based platform to undertake brokerage of services and placements searches, on the basis of enhancing our experience of the current system. * Share the region's current thinking on trade-offs between scope, capability, and affordability that need to be made before decisions on the next steps are made. * Find out current market interest in providing relevant products and services to the council and wider regional partners * Find out what solutions are available and whether they need developing or are ready to implement, and within what timeframe. * Find out delivery and market options, including potential cost and cost structures. * Find out the experience the market has in delivering similar services at similar-sized organisations. * Gain insight from the market when considering how best to deliver the service. Please read the document and if you feel that your organisation is able to contribute to this soft market sounding exercise please complete the requirements questionnaire, along with a solution overview and itemised price list and submit it via the In-Tend portal https://in-tendhost.co.uk/birminghamcc by 5:00pm on the 15th January 2021. Registration on In-Tend is free. The system is secure and access to the clarifications will only be made available to those employees of the Council, and/or their authorised advisers in respect of this soft market sounding request. If you are unable to register with In-Tend please either email us at cps@birmingham.gov.uk or call 0121 464 8000. If you are interested in responding please click on the following link to access the Council's portal: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/birminghamcc/ and submit your details to register your interest. We will send you a username and password so you can download the documentation. Please note that this is not a call for competition. ## Key Details | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication source | Contracts Finder | | Latest notice | https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/b5467cb9-4c85-403a-9c51-5a09f38696ff | | 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 | | All stages | Planning | ## Dates | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication date | 15 Dec 2020 | | Submission deadline | Not specified | | Future notice date | 15 Jan 2021 | | Award date | Not specified | | Contract period | Not specified | | Recurrence | Not specified | ## Values | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender value | Not specified | | Lots value | Not specified | | Awards value | Not specified | | Contracts value | Not specified | ## Status | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender status | Planning | | Lots status | Not specified | | Awards status | Not specified | | Contracts status | Not specified | ## Buyer | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Main buyer | BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL | | Locality | BIRMINGHAM | | Post town | Birmingham | | Postcode | B4 7WB | | Country | England | | ITL 1 | TLG West Midlands (England) | | ITL 2 | TLG3 West Midlands | | ITL 3 | TLG31 Birmingham | | Local authority | Birmingham | | Electoral ward | Newtown | | Westminster constituency | Birmingham Ladywood | | Delivery location | TLG West Midlands (England) | ## CPV Codes ### Divisions - 48 - Software package and information systems ### Codes - 48800000 - Information systems and servers ## Release History - 15 Dec 2020 at 23:39 - Planning - Market Engagement Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/b5467cb9-4c85-403a-9c51-5a09f38696ff ## Documents - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/b5467cb9-4c85-403a-9c51-5a09f38696ff 15th December 2020 - Early engagement notice on Contracts Finder ## Notice URLs - http://www.in-tendhost.co.uk/birminghamcc - https://in-tendhost.co.uk/birminghamcc - https://in-tendhost.co.uk/birminghamcc/ ## Provenance This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-3d76d6a0-44bd-4929-a44b-f851d53b78c6. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-3d76d6a0-44bd-4929-a44b-f851d53b78c6.json.