IT Partner Framework

Description

This notice is seeking expressions of interest for the establishment of a Framework Agreement for IT services related to: Application development, infrastructure, strategy and architecture, SAP / ERP, testing, data science, and a range of other related services. This framework agreement is envisaged to be the primary route for selecting suppliers for the delivery of IT consultancy and support services for the duration of the agreement. Any estimated quantities or values contained or referred to in this or other documentation are for guidance only and do not bind YWS to buy any specific quantities should the bidder be successful and enter into an Agreement. Lot 1: Procurement Process: To express an interest in participating in the tender, please contact Sohail Sardana (sohail.sardana@yorkshirewater.co.uk) through email by 17:00 (GMT) on 24th September 2021. Once a bidder expresses an interest, the Invitation to Qualify (ITQ) Round 1 document pack will be shared with them. This will include the ITQ Round 1 document that must be completed by all bidders and returned to the above email address by 17:00 (GMT) on 28th September 2021. All clarifications should also be shared with Sohail Sardana (sohail.sardana@yorkshirewater.co.uk) through email by 17:00 (GMT) on 17th September 2021. YWS will periodically consolidate clarifications that would be relevant to everyone and share the response to these with all bidders anonymously. Following an assessment of responses received for ITQ Round 1, successful suppliers will be invited to ITQ Round 2. This is planned for early October, but is subject to change based on YWS discretion. Following an assessment of responses received for ITQ Round 2, successful suppliers will then be invited to the RFP stage. Procurement Overview: Successful suppliers will work alongside Yorkshire Water Services (YWS) to design, develop, test, implement, support, and maintain a range of business applications, infrastructure solutions, and a range of other related areas. The work will cover all areas of IT project delivery, support, and system integration for both new and legacy systems including, but not limited to, several capability areas. Suppliers securing framework agreements will become part of the Technology & Enterprise Change (TEC) partner pool with suppliers potentially being aligned to and being approved to deliver projects in particular capability areas, as described in this notice. This does not give suppliers any guarantee of work but will enable the supplier to bid for individual pieces of work over the next 5 years. YWS has identified capability areas and the services that sit within these areas. YWS is seeking the best suppliers in each capability area. For the avoidance of doubt, suppliers DO NOT need to deliver services in all capability areas to submit a response to this tender. Capability Areas: Infrastructure Services related to the design, development, integration, implementation, maintenance, and support of a range of infrastructure technologies. The technologies include but are not limited to routers, firewalls, databases, client systems, security services, network management, servers, switches, cabling, storage, backup technology, network infrastructure, telecoms and connectivity. Suppliers delivering services aligned to the Infrastructure capability may also be required to deliver the following kind of services: Project Management, quality control, design assurance, system integration, testing, business continuity management, transition into support / provision of support, technical advice and planning, process design, requirements analysis, solution design, service design, service retirements, security and a variety of other services required by YWS from time to time. SAP Services related to the design, development, integration, maintenance, and support of a range of existing and future applications related to the SAP and asset management solution suite. Specific services might include, for example, impact assessment & planning, technology enablement, application of industry / process expertise, change management and continuous improvement of the SAP environment and related technologies. A particular project will be the migration of the YWS systems from ECC to S4 Hana. Suppliers delivering services aligned to the SAP capability may also be required to deliver the following kind of services: Project Management, quality control, design assurance, system integration, testing, business continuity management, transition into support / provision of support, technical advice and planning, process design, requirements analysis, solution design, service design, service retirements, security and a variety of other services required by YWS from time to time. Application Development and Maintenance Services related to the design, development, integration, maintenance and support of a range of existing and future applications used by the three core YWS business areas including Customer (retail & wholesale), Operations (clean, waste and asset management) and Corporate (central functions, data and shared technologies e.g. middleware and a variety of other IT systems). In addition, services will be required for systems used by future business units which do not yet exist. Suppliers delivering services aligned to the Application Development and Maintenance capability may also be required to deliver the following kind of services : Project Management, quality control, design assurance, system integration, testing, business continuity management, transition into support / provision of support, technical advice and planning, process design, requirements analysis, solution design, service design, service retirements, security and a variety of other services required by YWS from time to time. Data Science Services related to statistics, tools, programming, data manipulation, data visualisation, machine learning, deep learning, model deployment, scenario analysis, forecasting / prediction, planning and Azure. Suppliers delivering services aligned to the Data Science capability may also be required to deliver the following kind of services: Project Management, quality control, design assurance, system integration, testing, business continuity management, transition into support / provision of support, technical advice and planning, process design, requirements analysis, solution design, service design, service retirements, security and a variety of other services required by YWS from time to time. Testing Delivery of services related to test leadership, test execution and test environment demand & release management. This includes provision of testing services, quality assurance and resource augmentation, including the delivery of a range of services, including but not limited to test standards & governance, orchestration, automation, resources, software, and a range of other related services. Suppliers delivering services aligned to the Testing capability may also be required to deliver the following kind of services: Project Management, quality control, design assurance, system integration, business continuity management, transition into support / provision of support, technical advice and planning, process design, requirements analysis, solution design, service design, service retirements, security and a variety of other services required by YWS from time to time. Strategy and Architecture Strategy, consultancy and advisory services in relation to Solution Architecture and Enterprise Architecture, including (but not limited to) the breadth of Applications, Integration, Infrastructure and Security. Suppliers delivering services aligned to the Strategy & Architecture capability may also be required to deliver the following kind of services: Quality control, design assurance, system integration, business continuity management, transition into support / provision of support, technical advice and planning, process design, requirements analysis, solution design, service design, service retirements, security and a variety of other services required by YWS from time to time.