---
title: "MOD Request for Information (RFI) - Army Operational Legacy Branch (AOLB) Archive digitisation Proof of Concept (PoC)"
ocid: "ocds-b5fd17-d40aa844-7893-4558-99f0-6e1eb39302e0"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-d40aa844-7893-4558-99f0-6e1eb39302e0"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-d40aa844-7893-4558-99f0-6e1eb39302e0.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-d40aa844-7893-4558-99f0-6e1eb39302e0.json"
source: "Contracts Finder"
current_stage: "Planning"
buyer: "MINISTRY OF DEFENCE"
published: "2023-03-16"
---

# MOD Request for Information (RFI) - Army Operational Legacy Branch (AOLB) Archive digitisation Proof of Concept (PoC)

Buyer: MINISTRY OF DEFENCE  
Current stage: Planning  
OCID: ocds-b5fd17-d40aa844-7893-4558-99f0-6e1eb39302e0

[View canonical contract page](https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-d40aa844-7893-4558-99f0-6e1eb39302e0)  
[Download OCDS JSON](https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-d40aa844-7893-4558-99f0-6e1eb39302e0.json)

## Summary

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is planning a procurement process titled "MOD Request for Information (RFI) - Army Operational Legacy Branch (AOLB) Archive digitisation Proof of Concept (PoC)" in the IT services industry category. The procurement stage is at the planning phase with an engagement end date set for 31st March 2023. The MOD is looking for a software solution to develop a fully searchable electronic archive of material stored, meeting ISO 10002 standards and legal obligations. The procurement is initiated through a tender process, and the contracting authority contact person is Jon Burt from the Defence Artificial Intelligence Centre.

This tender by the MOD offers opportunities for IT service providers experienced in software development and consulting. Businesses with capabilities in creating searchable databases with robust search and optical character recognition functionalities are well-suited to compete. The procurement is targeted at a wide range of delivery addresses, including British Oversea Territories, United Kingdom, and Europe. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are specifically identified as suitable for this opportunity, indicating a focus on encouraging participation from smaller businesses in the procurement process.

## Notice

The Army Operational Legacy branch (AOLB) in collaboration with the Defence Artificial intelligence Centre (DAIC) would like to develop a proof of concept (PoC) for a fully searchable electronic archive of the material store. The material located within the store is of varying age, format, and condition. A sample of 2000 documents are being digitised for this PoC and a software solution is now required to provide robust search and optical character recognition (OCR) functionality over the digitised documents and their metadata to meet legal standards. The digital archive must be searchable to a degree of accuracy that meets the ISO 10002 and legal obligations of the MOD to disclose all relevant records pertaining to an inquest or investigation. A generic capability is sought that supports both filtering on metadata and search over textual document content. No other criteria is defined to allow for creativity during the PoC but is should be noted that accuracy is paramount - false positives are preferable over missing relevant documents. The software will be tested against current processes to evaluate its performance and suitability. The MOD would like to invite industry to provide feedback on the following questions: 1. Do you have a COTS product, or can you develop a MOTS solution that can demonstrably search across the provided dataset? 2. What is your licensing model, with costs? 3. Can the solution be deployed to run standalone in a secure environment and guaranteed to run on UK servers only or is it dependent on public cloud resources? 4. Do you have Security Cleared (SC) individuals within your organisation? Your response should be sent to the Contracting Authority email address as detailed in this RFI (Jon.Burt111@mod.gov.uk). Your response should be sent in Microsoft Word format. Please note that the MOD Gateway will only accept emails less than 60MB in size.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Contracts Finder |
| Latest notice | https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/187f346d-d2a0-46a6-a35e-de76c1b63337 |
| Notice type | Market Engagement Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Not specified |
| Procurement method | Not Specified |
| Procurement method details | Not specified |
| Tender suitability | SME |
| Awardee scale | Not specified |
| All stages | Planning |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 16 Mar 2023 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | 31 Mar 2023 |
| 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 | MINISTRY OF DEFENCE |
| Locality | CORSHAM |
| Post town | Swindon |
| Postcode | SN13 9NR |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLK South West (England) |
| ITL 2 | TLK7 Gloucestershire and Wiltshire |
| ITL 3 | TLK72 Wiltshire |
| Local authority | Wiltshire |
| Electoral ward | Corsham Ladbrook |
| Westminster constituency | Chippenham |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

### Codes

- 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

## Release History

- 16 Mar 2023 at 15:59 - Planning - Market Engagement Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/187f346d-d2a0-46a6-a35e-de76c1b63337

## Documents

- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/187f346d-d2a0-46a6-a35e-de76c1b63337
  16th March 2023 - Early engagement notice on Contracts Finder

## 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-d40aa844-7893-4558-99f0-6e1eb39302e0. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-d40aa844-7893-4558-99f0-6e1eb39302e0.json.