Housing body seeking suppliers for £82m technology framework

Six lot framework encompasses solutions around telecommunications, cloud and the Internet of Things

The Procurement for Housing (PfH) is seeking providers to join a technology framework worth a total £82.5m.

It includes services around telecommunications, digital inclusion, the Internet of Things and other associated services and is divided into six separate lots.

The PfH is a national procurement consortium dedicated to the social housing sector and manages more than 75 per cent of the UK's social housing stock. It aims to "achieve efficiency savings using a wide range of services" such as framework agreements.

"The framework is intended to provide services and associated products relating to networking and security including cloud-based solutions, voice solutions, unified communications, mobile communications and total communications, in addition to providing solution to support digital inclusion and solutions utilising the Internet of Things technologies," the tender states.

Lot one focuses on networking and security and includes a range of "data connectivity and internet services" such as SD-WAN, security and disaster recovery solutions, cloud hosting and associated hardware and is worth a total £10m.

The PfH is seeking to appoint five suppliers to the lot but it is open to appointing a fewer or greater number of businesses.

The second lot is titled "unified communications and voice solutions" and will require suppliers to provide services like VOIP, contact centre solutions and associated hardware and is worth £12m, with five suppliers again being sought.

Lot three, worth £15m, offers the opportunity to "call off requirements for services spanning both lot one and two" and instead "enable both the member and supplier to develop and implement a total communications solution under the remit of a single supplier".

The fourth lot is valued at £8.5m and seeks mobile solutions like connectivity and data bundles, while the fifth lot is worth £5m and is focused on providing connectivity, hardware and training for PfH's customers.

And the final lot is divided into two sub-lots - shared solutions and private solutions - encompassing connectivity solutions around the Internet of Things for a wide range of applications.

It is worth £32m overall with five suppliers being sought for the lot, though it could be given to less or more.

The framework will run for an initial three years and may be extended by a further year.

Interested participants must send in their applications by 6 September. For the full information, visit the tender here.