A prior information notice for a tender worth an estimated £12 billion has been shared by the Crown Commercial Service, for the future provision of technology services for use by the central government and UK public sector bodies.
The notice signals intention to commence market engagement with the technology services market over the next six months, with pre-market customer engagement set to begin next month via webinar. Online and virtual engagement events are also scheduled for November 2023, with the Crown Commercial Service expecting to open procurement in October next year.
The new Technology Services 4 (TS4) framework agreement, will replace the Technology Services 3 (TS3) programme. This means it “will continue to cover traditional Information & Communication Technology services, from strategy through to transition and operational deployment” and also include “new services which have been requested through supplier and buyer engagement, and potentially services amalgamated from other CCS agreements where appropriate”.
The contract is set to begin in April 2025 and run until April 2029.
Interested parties are encouraged to express their interest by registering for these events; full information and dates can be found here.
In related news, we highlighted the announcement of the 12 suppliers involved in the Crown Commercial Service Digital Capability for Health framework, which was set to run between 2021 and 2025. The framework, designed to help public health and social care organisations in developing their digital solutions, was created in collaboration with the NHS, with Robert McMillan (commercial director of NHS Digital, as it was), commenting that the framework “[blends] our organisations’ expertise of the digital market and specialisms”.
We also previously covered how the Crown Commercial Service signed a three-year public cloud agreement with IBM which sought to accelerate adoption of cloud services by supporting public sector organisations to access IBM cloud tools, with chief executive Simon Tse commenting that the agreement provided “great value for public sector organisations as they continue to innovate and improve essential services for citizens throughout the UK.”
