INVITATION TO TENDER

(1)

INVITATION TO TENDER

IT support for London Higher

Summary

1. London Higher invites proposals for a comprehensive IT support service

for the organisation. The primary goals are to continue to outsource our IT support, reduce staff time involved in these functions and enable the whole workforce to work as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Deadline for tenders is 5pm, 20th February 2014. Shortlisted companies need to be available to make a presentation on Tuesday 25th_February.

Context

2. London Higher is a membership organisation that promotes and acts as an

advocate for London’s higher education institutions. It is an ‘umbrella’ body representing over 40 publicly funded universities and colleges. London

Higher is the biggest and most varied of the regional university associations

in the UK.

3. London Higher is a tenant in the BMA owned Tavistock House. We own our

IT hardware e.g. laptops and pcs. We utilise SharePoint and Office 365 and do not have a server. Please refer to Appendix One for details of hardware and software.

Aim of this Tender

4. With this tender we are going through a process that will give us an IT support company that can support and advise us on IT issues and resolve IT problems effectively and quickly, at a competitive cost.

5. Our criteria for success will be: a) all staff can work as efficiently and effectively as possible every day; b) the amount of staff time spent reporting problems, resolving problems or being unable to carry out certain procedures to be at a negligible level; c) all IT purchases to be compatible with current hardware and software; d) to be fully operational within 24 hours of a disaster that affects the office or IT systems.

(2)

6. Proposals are invited that address the following core objectives:

a) IT query resolution;

b) On site visits;

c) Disaster recovery;

d) IT purchasing advice;

e) Software upgrade planning;

7. A full list of our requirements under these headings is set out in Appendix One : Specification for IT Support services

8. In addition, proposals may include other aspects not mentioned in this document but which relate to the outcomes set out in paragraphs 4 and 5.

9. Important dates:

Thursday 20th_{February 5pm – deadline for applications}

Friday 21st_{February – shortlisted companies will be notified}

Tuesday 25th_{February – shortlisted companies will make a presentation}

followed by Q&A’s Costs

10. Proposals should include a detailed breakdown of all costs; the number of site visit days per year included in the service agreement; the daily rates assigned for additional or different tasks and any additional or potential costs.

11. VAT should be included in your cost budget as London Higher is not VAT registered and we cannot reclaim the VAT.

Format of Tenders

12. Tenders should include sections on: a) interpretation of the brief; b) methodology; c) support offered and response times for critical core infrastructure and user support; d) budget; e) knowledge and prior experience of SharePoint and Office 365; and f) a client list relevant to Higher Education or Charities, ideally of a similar size to London Higher. NB We would like to contact several clients on this list for endorsement.

13. London Higher will offer each prospective tenderer one meeting prior to the

submission date to discuss the project in more detail. Prospective bidders should contact the person named in paragraph 19 to arrange this meeting.

(3)

14. London Higher may ask one or more contractors to present their proposals

to members of the Executive. Please be ready to attend on 25th

February 2014 at London Higher’s offices if selected.

Evaluation of Tenders

15. London Higher is not required to award this contract on the basis of price

alone however value for money will be a major consideration.

16. We expect to evaluate bids on the following criteria (not in order of

weighting): a) value for money; b) understanding our needs and the ability to meet them efficiently; c) expertise in SharePoint and Office 365; d) excellent references from similar sized organisations; and e) short notice period (ideally a notice period of three months).

Terms of Contract

17. Standards and terms will be agreed between London Higher and the successful contractor on appointment.

Further Information

18. For further details regarding the tendering process please contact: Neville

Riley (Office Manager, London Higher);

email [email protected] tel: 020 7391 0691.

19. For further details regarding the IT technical information please contact:

Paresh Shah (Research Manager, London Higher);

(4)

Appendix One

Specification for IT Support services Proposals are invited that address the following:

a) IT query resolution;

 What is supported?

 The type of cover

 Service response times

 Hours covered

 Out of office hours support

 Qualifications and experience of staff especially regarding SharePoint and Office 365

b) On site visits and maintenance;

 Maintenance procedures

 Automatic update system for pcs

 How many site visits would be included in the contract

c) Disaster recovery;

 Disaster planning methodology

d) IT purchasing advice;

 IT purchasing advice considerations

 What would your advice cover?

e) Software upgrade;

(5)

Appendix Two

(A) Hardware

Work PCs

 Dell Vostro 360, Intel i3, Windows 7 x11 (purchased 2012)

 Dell Optiplex 9010, Intel i3, Windows 7 x2 (purchased 2013) Work Laptops

 Dell Vostro laptop, Intel i3, Windows 7 x3 (purchased 2012)

 HP Pavilion G6 x3 Intel i3, Windows 7 (purchased 2012) Home PCs (CEO)

Dell Vostro 360, Intel i3, Windows7 x2 (purchased 2012) Work smartphones

 Blackberry

 Nokia Lumia

 Samsung

 iPhone

Home working and BYOD

 Tablets – iPad, Hudl

 Smartphones – iPhone

 Home systems – includes Apple Macintosh laptops and desktops Other Hardware

 Buffalo Linkstation 4 Tb NAS x2 (purchased 2012)

 Draytek Vigor 286 Router/Firewall (purchased 2013)

 Netgear wi fi router (purchased 2012) Printers

 Kyocera TASKalfa 250ci multifunction printer (purchased 2012)

 HP Laserjet 4200n (> 5 years old)

Please not that we have service agreements for the printers and the mobile phones. However our IT support company will need to enable newly purchased mobile phones to be synchronised with Microsoft exchange (email and calendar).

(6)

Broadband supply (via BMA)

 Internet services with single IP address, 15Mb symmetrical: 15Mb upload and 15Mb download provided over an Ethernet circuit.

 Industry standard firewall configured to allow MS Office365 and general Internet browsing.

(B) Software

 MS Office 2013 including Outlook 2013

 Office for Macintosh (homeworking)

 Office365: SharePoint 2013; SkyDrive Pro; Lync 2013

 SAGE  CutePDF freeware  GIMP freeware  Adobe Professional (2007) Preferred browsers  Chrome  Internet Explorer 10  Firefox