Scotland set to splash up to £100m on managed services

Scottish government on hunt for MSPs as it prepares to launch a new public sector framework

The Scottish government is tendering out between £50m and £100m of MSP contracts as it looks to replace an existing IT managed services framework.

A notice on the Official Journal of the European Union revealed the Scottish government is tendering for suppliers in data hosting, desktop and server support, disaster recovery, hardware hosting, helpdesk services and service integration among others, with a "start of award procedures" date of 1 September this year.

It read: "Scottish Procurement wishes to appoint a number of suppliers to operate under a new framework that will be available for use within the Scottish public sector."

The framework is open to a number of Scottish authorities, including Scottish ministers (including agencies), cross-border public authorities, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Police Authority, health boards, Student Loans Company and Forestry Commission. Plus many more.

As yet there is no start date for the framework itself.

The tender is to replace an existing Scottish Procurement framework on managed services which is set to expire.

Those interested in tendering were pointed here.