Print channel wins big on £120m-plus pan-Scottish framework

Local reseller Capital Document Solutions leads channel charge alongside big-name vendors on potential four-year deal

A new print and services framework potentially worth almost £150m and serving the whole of the Scottish public sector has gone live this month, with a duo of resellers making the cut alongside the usual vendor suspects.

The Office Equipment framework runs for an initial term of two years with two optional 12-month extensions included in the contract. It is a more or less direct replacement for an equivalent framework which ran for four years from 2009.

Lot one covers an array of multi-function devices, alongside managed print services, while lot two addresses print estate audits. The tender document, issued shortly before the turn of the year, pegs the deal's worth at between £70m and £120m excluding VAT.

Featuring on lot one are VARs Capital Document Solutions and Danwood, alongside vendor quintet Canon, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, Toshiba and Xerox. Capito and NewField IT make up lot two.

Capital, which runs six offices across Scotland and whose business is focused solely north of the border, features on the framework for the second time in succession. Managing director Tom Flockhart told CRN that the framework would provide "a significant amount of business" for his firm.

"We are up against big, national companies, but not necessarily with big representation in Scotland. We have the knowledge and the expertise, and we also have representation in every region in Scotland", he added. "For us, Scotland is 100 per cent of what we do, but for the national players it might be seven or eight per cent. They will not be as responsive; we have people right at the coalface."

Capital features on the framework alongside manufacturer partners HP, Konica-Minolta and Ricoh. But Flockhart insisted all parties will give no quarter and compete for business as rivals.

"We will bid independently for every contract; we will show them no undue respect and we assume they will do the same," he added.