Invitation to Tender (ITT) for FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT

Transcription

1 Invitation to Tender (ITT) for FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT relating to the provision of broadband and related services (Phase 4) to the members of the South East Grid for Learning and others Issued: XXXX Response Due: XXXX COMPLETED BY ORGANISATION NAME DATE [Tenderer to complete] [Tenderer to complete] [Tenderer to complete] SEGfL ITT Final Dec 2012 i

2 1. Contents 1. Contents...ii SEGfL Invitation to Tender (ITT) Section Introduction Outline Requirements Project Schedule Instructions to Tenderers Suppliers Open Meeting Supplier Presentations Section 1: Supplier Contact Details...7 Section 2: Service Requirements...8 Part 1 -Tender Response for Services to schools Supplier Responses Section 3: SEGfL Phase 4 Pricing Workbook Part 2 -Statement of Service Requirements Statement of Service Requirements Systems Integrator Services WIDE AREA NETWORK Education Requirements Education Broadband to Single Sites Additional Desirable Services Evaluation methodology Introduction Principles of Evaluation The Evaluation Process ITT Evaluation Method Section 4: Form of Tender Section 5: Framework Agreement Compliance Statement Section 6: Tender Checklist Appendix A -Guidance to Tenderers on Freedom of Information Act Appendix B -Framework Agreement Appendix C -SEGfL Phase 4 Pricing Workbook Appendix D Freedom of Information Act Schedule of Reserved Information:.. 56 SEGfL ITT Final Dec 2012 ii

3 SEGfL Invitation to Tender (ITT) Section 1 1 Introduction Bracknell Forest Borough Council (the Authority) has issued this Invitation to Tender (ITT) in connection with a competitive procurement conducted in accordance with the restricted procedure under the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (the Regulations). In response to the notice sent for publication in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) and published on the TED database (Tenders Electronic Daily), September 20, 2012 you completed the pre-qualificationquestionnaire (PQQ) and you have been shortlisted to proceed to the award stage. The Authority now asks that you provide written responses to the requirements defined in this document, which should be read in conjunction with Framework for Broadband and Related Services (Phase 4) Information Memorandum, published September 2012 as a Supplier Briefing Document with the PQQ. The Authority, as lead authority for the South East Grid for Learning (SEGfL), which is a Regional Broadband Consortium (RBC), invites you to tender for a Framework Agreement that will, through Call-off Contracts, offer SEGfL members, associate members and other bodies listed in the OJEU notice (the Customers) a choice of suppliers and technologies that use best practice and ensure that value for money is achieved such that: The Framework Agreement represents a contractually robust and well constructed contractual vehicle. The Contract Management facilities enable SEGfL to perform the essential role of accrediting the services. Flexible Systems Integrator arrangements are contracted, which allow services to be delivered locally or regionally as required by Customers. The Flexibility of Commercial and Technical Solutions allows Customers a choice of available and affordable technologies from a selection of leading telecommunications service providers. A Mini-competition Process maintains competition and provides best value from SEGfL suppliers. The Discount Structures reflect savings to be achieved by Customers through aggregation of expenditure across the region. Auditing and Open Book Accounting Measures provide good levels of evidence of how each Supplier is accountable for its pricing under Call-off Contracts. Management Information Reporting and Service Level Agreements are contracted, which present SEGfL, Customers and their customers with good levels of statistics to assist in the determination of value for money and the analysis and rectification of poor service delivery. SEGfL ITT Final Dec

4 2 Outline Requirements Given the changing environment for education and the investment already made by members of SEGfL, the aim of the new framework will be to: offer a safe and compliant procurement vehicle for local authorities, schools and other customers; where required, maintain and develop the existing network, connectivity and associated services; extend the education broadband offer to individual schools and smaller groups of schools and academies etc.; develop the catalogue of services for suppliers and customers; offer choice and flexibility to Customers by enabling the delivery of a range of online and cloud services from a variety of suppliers; maintain SEGfL as a National Educational Network (NEN) Provider. 3 Project Schedule Event 1 Publish OJEU Notice & advert in South East Business Portal 2 Issue Invitation to Tender 3 Suppliers' Open Meeting 4 Deadline for Clarification Questions from Tenderers 5 Issue Final Question & Answer Summary 6 Receive Responses from Tenderers 7 Notification of Preferred Suppliers 8 Supplier Presentations 9 Notification of Award of Framework Agreement (and start of 10 day standstill period) 10 Framework Agreement Start SEGfL ITT Final Dec

5 4 Instructions to Tenderers 4.1 General Instructions If you intend to respond to this ITT, please read the following instructions carefully and prepare your tender accordingly The Authority will not be responsible for any costs or expenses you incur in preparing or delivering or in the evaluation of the tender, nor with any costs or expenses incurred with the finalisation of the Framework Agreement or any subsequent Call-off Contract should you be successful You are deemed to have obtained at your own expense, all information necessary for the preparation of your tender Prior to the date for return of tenders, the Authority may clarify, amend or add to this ITT. A copy of each such instruction will be issued by the Authority to every tenderer and shall form part of this ITT. No amendment shall be made to the ITT unless it is the subject of such an instruction. You should promptly acknowledge receipt of such instructions Clarification questions relating to the ITT must be made in writing by either or letter to the following: XXXXXX As soon as practical after receipt of any request for clarification, the Authority will respond in writing to all tenderers except where the clarification has been identified by the tenderer, and subsequently agreed by the Authority, as being commercially sensitive. The Authority will not be bound to respond to any request for clarification of the ITT that is received later than the date specified as the deadline for clarification questions in the Project Schedule Only clarifications made in writing by the Authority will form part of the ITT All questions submitted to the Authority in writing and answers, will be logged, summarised and issued to all tenderers, other than those which the are agreed to be commercially sensitive All information contained in the ITT shall be treated as confidential except insofar as is necessary to be disclosed for the purposes of obtaining quotations essential for the preparation of your tender. 4.2 Format of Tenders Please submit one hard copy of your response, plus two electronic copies (one as a.pdf or equivalent and a second in the source business application (Word or Excel or equivalent)). Any file containing code, password protection or seemingly inappropriate images will be rejected. We are unable to accept responses on a USB stick Where any external reference material, such as brochures, specifications and system descriptions, is used to support your tender, any statements within the reference material which may allow change to obligations or reduce liability, such as "specifications subject to change without notice", or other disclaimers will be regarded negatively and will be evaluated SEGfL ITT Final Dec

6 accordingly and will not form part of the Framework Agreement or any subsequent Call-off Contract in the event that the tender is accepted Where a particular section of the tender relates to information given in another section or in external reference material, then you must ensure that the response is clearly cross-referenced All pricing should be stated exclusive of VAT Tenders shall remain open for an initial acceptance for a minimum of 6 months, although the Authority may ask you to extend of the period of validity. 4.3 Tender Contents Tenderers must ensure that the following sections are properly completed and returned: Section 1: Supplier Contact Details Section 2: Service Requirements Section 3: SEGfL Phase 4 Pricing Workbook Section 4: Form of Tender Section 5: Framework Agreement Compliance Statement Section 6: Tender Checklist 4.4 Submission of Tenders The original, signed, tender must be returned by no later than the time and date specified in the Project Schedule Please address to: Tender Opening Ref: Framework Agreement relating to the provision of broadband and related services (Phase 4) to the members of the South East Grid for Learning and others XXXXX When submitting hard copies, the packaging must not indicate the name of the sender; packages that do may be rejected unopened. Similarly, tenders received after the tender submission date/time may be rejected. 4.5 Tender Decline If you decide not to respond to this ITT, please let the contact in Section know in writing as soon as possible, giving a brief reason(s). SEGfL ITT Final Dec

7 Evaluation of Tenders The Principles of Evaluation section of this document sets out the evaluation processes by which tenders will be evaluated The Authority shall be under no obligation to award a contract for all or any part of the requirement set out in the ITT to any tenderer or at all You may be required to answer any Authority queries on your proposal and to attend formal meetings with the Authority during the tender evaluation period. Additionally the Authority may wish to visit tenderers premises to view the facilities and systems that may be used to deliver the service If there are any changes to the information provided by you at the PQQ stage, you must notify the Authority promptly. The Authority reserves the right to re-do the PQQ assessment in these circumstances. 4.6 Alternative Offers Alternative offers will only be considered if they constitute a fully priced alternative and are submitted in addition to a tender complying with the requirements specified in the ITT. Alternative offers must contain sufficient supplementary information, drawings and data to permit a complete evaluation to be made. 4.7 Canvassing Any tenderer who directly or indirectly canvasses any member or official of the Authority concerning the award of the contract for the provision of the services, or who directly or indirectly obtains or attempts to obtain information from any such member or official concerning any other tender for the service will be disqualified. 4.8 Whistle blowing policy Your attention is drawn to the Authority s whistle blowing policy which can be found on the procurement website at: 5 Suppliers Open Meeting All tenderers are invited to an open meeting where further explanations of SEGfL s objectives will be given and questions answered. The date set for this meeting is stated in the Project Schedule. The venue is the SEGfL Offices at Easthampstead Park. 6 Supplier Presentations It is currently proposed that all tenderers invited to discussions will be invited to present their proposal to an extended audience of potential Customers, including school representatives, local authority members and other stakeholders, as appropriate. Tenderers will have the opportunity to describe and explain the capability of their proposed solution, demonstrate their ability to meet Customers requirements, SEGfL ITT Final Dec

8 describe their approach and explain the commercial and financial benefits of their proposal. These presentations will not be evaluated. SEGfL ITT Final Dec

9 2. Section 1: Supplier Contact Details Trading name in whose name the tender is submitted Main Contact Name: Position: Address: Telephone number: address: Fax Number: SEGfL ITT Final Dec

10 Section 2: Service Requirements Introduction Responses to this section of the ITT should be in two parts. Part 1 requires suppliers to quote for the supply of services to a group of schools. This is not a real customer exercise. Suppliers are asked to use the Phase 4 workbooks to quote for services at these schools. Part 2 is the complete list of services that might be called-off under the framework. In part 2, Suppliers are required to indicate their capacity to provide each of the services. Education Services Required SEGfL describes education broadband services as having the following elements: Network Elements Infrastructure Layer: Access circuits Access circuits are those first mile circuits that deliver service from the provider s point of presence to the customer premises. These local circuits will connect to some customer premises equipment (CPE) inside the school. Points of Presence Points of presence are the other end of the circuit, which may be in BT telephone exchanges or similar, or in public sector buildings. Alternatively, customer traffic might be routed through telecommunications infrastructure to a supplier s co-location. Service Hosting Centre Hosted services are shared between schools. Until recently, services have been hosted somewhere on a wide area network and were private to the schools connected. More recently, there has been a move to host in supplier s facilities (in the Cloud) where they are shared widely. SEGfL would prefer services that are private or virtually private in that only SEGfL schools share them. Education Services A common set of services that is essential to almost every education broadband service would include: Systems Integration, the ability to combine services from various parts of their company or from sub contractors to create end-to-end services; Internet services (Janet and/or commercial Internet transit, the NEN); DNS, Firewall, Virus protection, relay; Web filtering appropriate for current education requirements; Service desk, monitoring and reporting of network performance; A wider range of services may also be important for some schools, which could choose to buy a managed service or supply elements themselves. These would include: Mobile access. (Bring Your Own Devices) Intrusion detection/prevention services (IDS, IPS) Remote access from home for staff and/or pupils SEGfL ITT Final Dec

11 Remote backup of data from servers provision for students and staff Telephony Learning platform or VLE Using these principles, SEGfL has devised the following 5 classes of service Class 1 Bandwidth of at least 4 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload over the cheapest, appropriate connectivity. Education services hosted off site (DNS, Firewall, Virus protection, relay) Filtering with two profiles: staff and students Low cost or free for staff and students Costed option of encrypted for administrative staff only Managed service including service desk Access to optional online services Class 2 Bandwidth of at least 10 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload over appropriate connectivity Managed Education services hosted off site (DNS, Firewall, Virus protection, relay) Filtering with two profiles: staff and students Low cost or free for students. Business class for staff Costed option of encrypted for administrative staff only Off-site backup Managed service including service desk Access to optional online services Class 3 Synchronous Bandwidth of at least 10Mbps upgradeable in 10Mbps steps to 100Mbps Managed Education services hosted on or off site (DNS, Firewall, Virus protection, relay) Filtering with three profiles: staff, students, network administrators, linked to local Active Directory (or equivalent) Low cost or free for students. Business class for staff, secure for administrative staff Costed option for secure file transfer Off-site backup, In-school use of VLE, Use of videoconferencing Managed service including service desk Access to optional online services Class 4 Synchronous 100 Mbps over 100Mbps bearer Managed Education services hosted on or off site (DNS, Firewall, Virus protection, relay) Locally hosted and managed firewall, linked to upstream, managed firewall. Many filtering policies, linked to Active Directory (or equivalent) SEGfL ITT Final Dec

12 Capacity for joint working and shared services with other schools (videoconferencing, secure information transfer etc) Low cost or free for students. Business class for staff, secure for administrative staff Off-site backup, In-school use of VLE, Home access for staff. Managed service including service desk Access to optional online services Class 5 Synchronous100 Mbps upgradeable in 100Mbps steps to 1Gbps Locally managed firewall and filtering solution, linked to IWF only Many filtering policies, linked to locally managed Active Directory (or equivalent). Capacity for joint working and shared services with other schools (videoconferencing, secure information transfer etc.). Low cost or free for students. Business class for staff, secure for administrative staff Off-site backup, in-school use of VLE, home access for staff and students Service desk for fault reporting Access to optional online services SEGfL ITT Final Dec

13 Part 1 - Tender Response for Services to schools Introduction The schools listed below require a range of broadband services. Although the names and locations are real, this is a theoretical exercise for this ITT. Tenderers are required to: assess the requirements at each site; suggest their best solutions for connection and the provision of services; explain their rationale for their solution choices and; use the SEGfL Phase 4 Pricing Workbook provided to quote prices for year one year of service and then for two further years. The premise is that they are provided as two sets (one in Berkshire and one in Oxfordshire) so tenderers can choose to provide either a core infrastructure or a virtual WAN. However, tenderers cannot assume that any school will accept collective responsibility of the others. All will expect to join or leave the service independently of any others. The first group of schools is in a definable area of the Thames Valley. Tenderers are expected to use their experience to determine the most cost effective way of delivering the required services to that group of schools. The final 7 schools is a cluster group in Oxfordshire. The scenario is that The Icknield wishes to offer services to the cluster so that some sort of private network connecting the 7 schools is preferred. It is known that some of these schools are small, rural and hard to connect. Tenderers must offer innovative solutions to ensure best vale to this cluster of schools. The range of services required is listed below in stated Classes; Class 1 to Class 5. Suppliers should study each Class and then use their technical expertise and experience in this market to propose appropriate solutions to each Class and each school. This should be done by: 1. Answering the questions R1 to R Completing the SEGfL Phase 4 Pricing Workbook to complete the services and prices. Questions R1 and R2 are general in that they apply to all Customers regardless of their particular range of Call-off Services. Question R3 refers to the creation of private or virtually private networks. Questions R4 to R13 should be addressed separately for each class of service, as shown. As a guide, responses to question R1 to R3 should be of about two-sides, including diagrams. Other responses should be shorter. SEGfL ITT Final Dec

14 3. Supplier Responses 1 Systems Integrator Services SEGfL intends that all Framework Holders shall have the capacity to act as systems integrator and prime contractor for a potentially wide range of services. Many of those services are listed as core service requirements but others may be required from the developing SEGfL Catalogue. It is therefore essential to SEGfL that tenderers can manage a wide range of services and sub-contractors and provide evidence of this. Principally, SEGfL aims to maintain the highest quality of education ISP services to schools whilst extending networking opportunities for the public sector and facilitating shared services across local authorities and groups of schools. It is therefore essential that tenderers demonstrate both a successful track record of systems integration in a public sector and schools setting and a clear vision of how they will partner local authority members, groups of schools and single schools, to develop services. R.1. Supplier response to the requirement for Systems Integrator Services 2 Customer Relationships Management There are a variety of potential Customers in this framework. Suppliers will be accountable to SEGfL, its member local authorities, schools and any number of other connected Sites. Suppliers will have a responsibility to each of these Customers for pro-active Account Management and Contract Management. R.2. With reference to the Meeting and Reporting requirements in the Framework Agreement and the Call-off Contract, Suppliers must state how they will mange their customer liaison strategy in these complex situations. 3 Private (or virtually private) Networking Increasing numbers of schools are establishing shared services arrangements that allow them to aggregate the provision of finance, human resources, technology support and so on. Networks will have to be managed so that these groups can be confident in their ability to share sensitive information. R.3. With reference to the 7 Oxfordshire schools in the sample, explain your provision for creating confidence that those schools can host and share sensitive information. SEGfL ITT Final Dec

15 4 R.4. Class 1 Customers Describe with appropriate justifications, the range of network services you propose to supply to Class 1 Customers stating: The range of access circuits and CPEs you propose; Your design for network architecture including backhaul and access to services and the internet; Where and how services are hosted and managed including; o Comments on sharing, contention and service levels o Network monitoring, reporting and fix targets Customer fault reporting and change requests R.5. With reference to Education Services state the applications chosen and justify the choices made for: Content filtering Responding to Support Calls 5 R.6. Class 2 Customers Describe with appropriate justifications, the range of network services you propose to supply to Class 2 Customers stating: The range of access circuits and CPEs you propose; Your design for network architecture including backhaul and access to services and the internet; Where and how services are hosted and managed including; o Comments on sharing, contention and service levels o Network monitoring, reporting and fix targets Customer fault reporting and change requests R.7. With reference to Education Services state the applications chosen and justify the choices made for: Content filtering SEGfL ITT Final Dec

16 Responding to Support Calls 6 R.8. Class 3 Customers Describe with appropriate justifications, the range of network services you propose to supply to Class 3 Customers stating: The range of access circuits and CPEs you propose; Your design for network architecture including backhaul and access to services and the internet; Where and how services are hosted and managed including; o Comments on sharing, contention and service levels o Network monitoring, reporting and fix targets Customer fault reporting and change requests R.9. With reference to Education Services state the applications chosen and justify the choices made for: Content filtering Responding to Support Calls 7 Class 4 Customers R.10. Describe with appropriate justifications, the range of network services you propose to supply to Class 4 Customers stating: The range of access circuits and CPEs you propose; Your design for network architecture including backhaul and access to services and the internet; Where and how services are hosted and managed including; o Comments on sharing, contention and service levels o Network monitoring, reporting and fix targets Customer fault reporting and change requests SEGfL ITT Final Dec

17 R.11. With reference to Education Services state the applications chosen and justify the choices made for: Content filtering Responding to Support Calls 8 Class 5 Customers R.12. Describe with appropriate justifications, the range of network services you propose to supply to Class 5 Customers stating: The range of access circuits and CPEs you propose; Your design for network architecture including backhaul and access to services and the internet; Where and how services are hosted and managed including; o Comments on sharing, contention and service levels o Network monitoring, reporting and fix targets Customer fault reporting and change requests R.13. With reference to Education Services state the applications chosen and justify the choices made for: Content filtering Responding to Support Calls 4. Section 3: SEGfL Phase 4 Pricing Workbook Tenderers must complete their response to the SSR by quoting for the provision of their stated services in the MS Excel Workbook, SEGfL Phase 4 Pricing Workbook, supplied separately. A paper copy is also provided for reference as Appendix C - SEGfL Phase 4 Pricing Workbook SEGfL ITT Final Dec

18 List of Schools Below is the list of schools. Tenderers are required to use the SEGfL Phase 4 Pricing Workbook to quote for appropriate services at each school. Tenderers should be aware that prices, including margins quoted for managed and unmanaged connectivity services and for sub-contracted services and Monitored Service Components provided by third party suppliers, shall be quoted in the Charging Principles set out in the Framework Agreement. SCHOOL SCHOOL POSTCODE ('A END') SCHOOL TYPE Class of Service Required Katesgrove Primary RG1 2NL PRI 2 New Town Primary RG1 3LS PRI 3 Kendrick School RG1 5BN SEC 4 Reading School RG1 5LW SEC 5 Redlands Primary RG1 5QH PRI 2 Coley Primary RG1 6AZ PRI 2 St Mary & All Saints CE Primary RG1 6DU PRI 2 All Saints CE Infant RG1 6NP PRI 2 Oxford Road Primary RG1 7PJ PRI 2 EP Collier Primary RG1 8DZ PRI 2 New Christ Church CE Primary RG2 0AY PRI 2 George Palmer Primary RG2 0EN PRI 3 Whitley Park Infant RG2 0JA PRI 2 Whitley Park Junior RG2 0JA PRI 2 Phoenix College RG2 7AY SSEC 3 The Ridgeway Primary RG2 7EL PRI 2 Blagdon Nursery School RG2 7NT NURS 1 Reading Girls School RG2 7PY SEC 4 Christ the King RC Primary RG2 8LX PRI 2 Geoffrey Field Infant RG2 8RH PRI 1 SEGfL ITT Final Dec

19 Geoffrey Field Junior RG2 8RH PRI 2 The Avenue School RG2 OEN SALL 3 Whiteknights Primary RG2 8EP PRI 2 Shinfield Infant RG2 9EH PRI 1 Shinfield St Marys Junior RG2 9EJ PRI 2 Coombes CE Primary RG2 9NX PRI 2 The Holt School RG41 1EE SEC 4 The Emmbrook School RG41 1JP SEC 5 Emmbrook Infant RG41 1JR PRI 1 Emmbrook Junior RG41 1JR PRI 2 BAU RG41 2RE OTHER 1 Walter Infant RG41 2TA PRI 1 St Paul's C.E. Junior RG41 2YJ PRI 2 The Hawthorns Primary RG41 3PQ PRI 2 Bearwood Primary RG41 5BB PRI 2 Winnersh Primary RG41 5JS PRI 3 The Forest School RG41 5NE SEC 4 Earley St Peter RG6 1EY PRI 2 Hawkedon Primary RG6 3AP PRI 2 Hillside Primary RG6 4HQ PRI 2 Radstock Primary RG6 5UZ PRI 2 Aldryngton Primary RG6 7HR PRI 2 Maiden Erlegh School RG6 7HS SEC 5 Loddon Primary RG6 7LP PRI 1 Icknield Community College OX49 5RB SEC 4 Ewelme Primary OX10 6HU PRI 1 Lewknor Primary OX49 5TH PRI 1 Stadhampton Primary OX44 7XL PRI 1 SEGfL ITT Final Dec

20 Watlington Primary OX49 5RB PRI 3 RAF Benson Primary OX10 6EP PRI 1 Chalgrove OX44 7ST PRI 2 Part 2 - Statement of Service Requirements The tables listed in Part 2 describe the Service Requirements for Phase 4 Services. Services include connectivity, managed wide-area network, local area networks, managed IP services (including voice and PSN) and Education ISP Services. Suppliers must complete the tables of service requirements. Part 2 responses shall be recorded as Schedule 2 of the Framework Agreement (if awarded). Suppliers should study the tables in this Part 2 and indicate their capacity to supply each requirement as follows: In column SUP (for supplied), suppliers should indicate: Y for supplied as standard; O for supplied as an option or; N for not supplied. In column CAT (available as a Catalogue Service) suppliers that have responded with Y or O should also respond: Y to indicate the ability to supply as a separate catalogue service or; N for not able to supply as a separate catalogue service. SEGfL ITT Final Dec

21 Statement of Service Requirements 1. Systems Integrator Services 1.1. Regional Capabilities Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT System-wide co-ordination and co-operation Prime Contractor Role Aggregated Contracts and Billing Work with the SEGfL Consultancy to keep abreast of the policies and frameworks relevant to schools and learners. Work with SEGfL and Customers to ensure that the Phase 4 Services remain fit for purpose. Remain aware of services that are being offered through the SEGfL Catalogue. Continue to offer new services for inclusion on the SEGfL Catalogue. Act as the single point of contact for Customers in relation to all Phase Services provided to that Customer. Accept the responsibility and risk for services delivered by all sub-contractors engaged in the delivery of Phase 4 Services. Act as the Supplier s representative for all subcontractors employed in the delivery of Phase 4 Services. Where required, act as central billing and payment service for all sub-contractors employed in the delivery of Phase 4 Services. Represent all sub-contractors engaged in the delivery of Phase 4 Services at meetings with SEGfL. Act for sub-contractors engaged in the delivery of Phase 4 Services in the submission of suggested services for the SEGfL Catalogue. Ensure continuous improvement and value for money from all services supplied by sub-contractors including reviewing alternatives offered through the SEGfL Catalogue with the SEGfL Consultancy. Ability to manage contracts and accounts for aggregated schools sites (for example, from a local authority or Academies Trust) and to bill accordingly. SEGfL ITT Final Dec

22 1.2. Local Capabilities Local Advice and Sales Individual Contracts and Billing Ability to survey local requirements and supply quotes and services. Respond to single Customer requirements. For example, schools seeking individual services will require local advice and sales support. Ability to manage contracts and accounts for many single schools sites and to bill schools directly. 2. WIDE AREA NETWORK 2.1. Design Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT General The whole SEGfL WAN infrastructure shall be considered as a single (virtual) network. Best practice management and security techniques, such as ITIL, should be used to ensure that information exchange across any points on the network is secure and predictable Local Connectivity Backhaul Connectivity Local bearer circuits at appropriate speeds. SEGfL recommends a minimum of 10 Mbps symmetrical to primary schools (or 10 Mbps download and 4 Mbps upload, where conditions dictate) and 100 Mbps symmetrical to secondary. Circuits should be upgradeable as required. Connectivity at suitable speeds for the effective backhaul to ISP Services, JA.NET, the NEN and the internet The Internet HTTP access to the Internet. Preferred access through JA.NET The Internet service must support all current areas of internet functionality, including electronic mail, web browsing, file transfer, media streaming (audio and video), conferencing (audio and video) etc. Prevention of illegal material from being transported over its services. Internet availability 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, for all users. No restrictions on the amount of time spent accessing the Internet, or the amount of data downloaded from it. No restrictions on the total data transferred over the provided network. SEGfL ITT Final Dec

23 Network interfaces Supported protocols, logical interfaces and switching standard Contention Ratios Customer-premises equipment and other network interfaces shall be of industry standard and supplied and supported as required. Industry standard protocols, logical interface and switching standards, supplied and supported as required. The IP of TCP/IP suite of protocols as standard. Traffic segmentation as required, for example, MPLS. Local connection should have no contention. Circuits between the core network and those of its required Internet gateway provider with typical contention ratios of not more than 4:1. Potential congestion points monitored. Exact design to be agreed in each Call-off Contract Resilience Suitable resilience at core network points and at other points of the network as required Flexible design Where larger groups of Customers are concerned, the Supplier must work with SEGfL and the Customers to offer flexibility and innovation of WAN design that could include, for example, shared sites, wireless networks, satellite, microwave, etc Active Network Components Components must be of business standard and must conform to required routing standards Network Technical Standards Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT Standards The provision of equipment, software, telecommunications services and any other associated services, shall comply with EU and relevant British standards, or equivalents. The Supplier shall ensure that as technical standards for the national education network in general, and regional broadband consortia in particular, develop and emerge, so supplies and services provided to SEGfL must be capable of future adjustment to meet such standards where necessary and reasonable. Services conform to information security standards (e.g. the ISO family). SEGfL ITT Final Dec

24 Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT Information standards, including but not limited to the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act. Services conform to web and domain name standards, including but not limited to Nominet Public Services Network (PSN) Integration Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT Public Services Network As a Public Services Network (PSN) Connectivity Provider, the Supplier can provide elements of the supplied network that are PSN compliant. By arrangement with a named sub-contractor and PSN Connectivity Provider, the Supplier can provide elements of the supplied network that are PSN compliant Network management As a PSN Services Provider, the Supplier can provide PSN compliant services and systems. By arrangement with a named sub contractor and PSN Services Provider, the Supplier can provide PSN compliant services and systems. Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT Fault detection Network management facilities that detect and manage faults on the communications infrastructure, including circuits, active elements and server-based systems particularly with respect to partial failure and errors Fault triggers Network monitoring that ensures that faults trigger multilevel events, alerts and alarms (prioritised) within its organisation. Faults diagnostics and management on all parts of the network. The production and management of a faults history database. Backup of device configuration and reconfiguration of installed devices Configuration The configuration, management and maintenance of active devices within the network. SEGfL ITT Final Dec

25 Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT The generation, management and maintenance of address and routing tables. The maintenance of suitable inventories and backups to ensure accurate reinstallation and reconfiguration after failure Security Security on active components. Security policies shall be agreed in each Call-off Contract. Options should be available to comply with current security standards (for example, GSX) Intrusion detection and prevention services (IDS, IPS) Firewall Firewall facilities to accepted industry standards Caching Bandwidth conservation and the delivery of media-rich digital content by provision of suitable caching at all required levels of the network IP Addressing The supply and allocation of IP addresses and address ranges according to a defined schema. IP schema records kept up-to-date and published to SEGfL on request. Suitable DNS and DHCP services to support the Customers serviced Monitoring Statistics and Reporting Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT General Description Consolidated Reports for A ggregat ed Monitoring equipment is expected to log a wide range of performance metrics. These should be available to be reported proactively to Customers at least quarterly and, in summary form, annually to SEGfL. Suppliers are required to report on the following, as a minimum: SEGfL ITT Final Dec

26 Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT Availability of Internet connection. Average availability of core network including Domain Name Server and connectivity to area hub sites (if any). Average availability of site connectivity. Average availability of cache server. Average availability of Firewall. Details of Customers operating outside of the agreed SLA during the previous reporting period. Details of and service credits due during the previous reporting period. Details of sites operating outside of the agreed operating limits. (e.g. Above 90% of capacity or below 10%). Details of sites suffering from temporary outages or interruption of service they may not trigger SLA exceptions. Summaries of fault logs and fixes achieved. Volume of traffic flowing to the Internet Volume of traffic flowing to the Interconnect Measurements of average packet latency at specified sites. Helpdesk performance and call statistics. (Number of calls, average response time, average call closure time etc.). Order processing and project rollout performance. Loading on the Network Supplier concerns with matters of resilience Supplier concerns with matters of security A "top ten" of web sites visited by Customer both in number of "hits" and volume of traffic. Supplier concerns with and security violations. Supplier concerns with virus or spam attacks. Supplier concerns with inappropriate web activities Customer Reports The Supplier shall report a site s total availability per calendar month. (It is assumed that the majority of site statistics will be uncomplicated to understand (substantially graphical in nature) and available via a web browser and online portal). SEGfL ITT Final Dec

27 Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT The Supplier shall report a Customer s current availability status. The Supplier shall report a Customer s current inbound traffic volume. The Supplier shall report a Customer s current outbound traffic volume. Upon request, the Supplier shall report number of hits by Web object or page per calendar month. Upon request, the Supplier shall report round trip response times to a UK web site. Upon request, the Supplier shall report packet loss during a five minute period. Upon request, the Supplier shall report the number of hits on a Customer s web Customer. Upon request, the Supplier shall report the sources of hits on a Customer s web site. Upon request, the Supplier shall report the sources of, and reasons for, rejected Customer s. Upon request, the Supplier shall report the sources of, and reasons for, rejected Customer URL requests. 3. Education Requirements 3.1. Filtering Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT Static filtering mechanisms Web filtering services such that some or all of the following is featured: Access to specific sites can be allowed by their category. Access to specific sites can be disallowed by their category. Access to specific sites can be allowed by their URL. (i.e. allow by White List or "Walled Garden"). Access to specific sites can be disallowed by their URL. (i.e. deny by Black List). Access to specific sites can be disallowed if their URL contains words from a prescribed list (e.g. sex, racism). Access to specific sites can be disallowed by fleshtone filtering SEGfL ITT Final Dec

28 Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT Allowed and disallowed sites (however defined) can be overlaid to provide multi-tiered protection (e.g. allow sports sites except football365.com) Internet content blocking, in languages other than English, as required; by the use of keyword deny lists to block undesirable Internet content at the source. Internet web filtering from Keyword lists, in languages other than English, as required, to be used on Web Address and web page body at the source. Local allow and deny lists that are easy to construct with the facility to import URLs in bulk from a file. Managed Blacklists and/or Keyword lists are updated at least once a week Dynamic Filtering of Java/ActiveX on accessed Web pages filtering mechanisms. Filtering individually customisable per WAN segment. Filtering individually customisable per site Filtering individually customisable per user or class of user. Virus scanning on downloads/transfers from external/internet Web sites File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Certain specified file types blocked. e.g. EXE, SCR The facility to prevent the use of FTP completely, at the request of a Site without affecting service to other customers Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT Basic capability An relay service such that an institution with a local mail server can send and receive all messages for the institution using the Supplier s mail server. An relay service which stores mail for at least 5 (five) days in the case of a local server not being available, with the return of appropriate messages to the sender. A web based service that is suitable for pupils Services Services such that institutions can access their without the need for a local mail server. services that support the sending and receiving of attachments in recognised MIME formats. SEGfL ITT Final Dec

29 Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT A unique address to be allocated to every child, teacher and governor in the SEGfL region, including addresses that protect the anonymity of the users. The Supplier shall make no attempt to determine the content of sent or received via the service, except as a necessary security precaution. The Supplier shall ensure that it is easy for the Customer and Site Representatives to add delete and otherwise edit any allocated address at any time Security and filtering All attachments in incoming destined for a SEGfL school must be scanned for viruses before being forwarded to the school. All attachments in outgoing must be scanned for viruses before being forwarded to its intended destination. The subject and message body of incoming and outgoing will be filtered using Keyword lists. Controls to prevent Sites from being subjected to spamming and/or any other such -based attack methods. The facility to add legal disclaimers to all received from schools. Flexibility in meeting the requirements of the Sites to support attachments. Each user's account includes a mailbox that will store up to 10MB of incoming mail. Flexibility in meeting other requirements of the Site. The Service shall include the ability to create e- mail domain deny lists for outgoing . The Service shall include the ability to create e- mail domain deny lists for incoming . The Service shall include the ability to create domain allow lists whereby can only be sent to an addresses whose domain is in the allow list. The Service shall provide the facility to filter in foreign languages found in the subject line, where required. SEGfL ITT Final Dec

30 Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT The Service shall provide the facility to allow encrypted to be both received and sent by any SEGfL Site. Responsibility for the content of any encrypted shall lie solely with the Site. The Supplier shall make no attempt to decipher or otherwise determine the content of encrypted . The Service shall provide the mechanisms to restrict (or block) access by subscribers to public-access browser services such as those offered by Hotmail or Yahoo! The Service shall feature filtering individually customisable per Customer. The Service shall provide the facility for filtering to be individually customisable per site. The Service shall feature filtering individually customisable per user Use of encryption Encrypted (e.g. for staff) must be allowed to be both received and sent by a Site. Responsibility for the content of any encrypted lies solely with the Site. No attempt to be made to decipher or otherwise determine the content of encrypted Naming An authoritative DNS service for the network with low latency and the capacity to carry the traffic predicted. Support (and transfer as necessary) for any domain name and username allocation policy that is currently in use in any Site. Each Site will have its own unique domain name that is not connected with (or is a sub-domain of) the Internet access provider. This shall include the facility for a Site to use an existing Domain name with the service. Domain names will be made available for use via any other Internet service provider, and will be transferred free of charge if the Site should change their service provider. The Supplier must support (and transfer as necessary) any domain name and username allocation policy that is currently in use in any SEGfL school. Where a school has no existing domain name or username policy or the domain name is to change (e.g. to conform with the Becta/Nominet standard) the Supplier is free to suggest any appropriate convention(s) but must ultimately implement whatever is decided upon by the school. SEGfL ITT Final Dec

31 3.3. Virus Protection Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT Basic Requirements The Supplier shall ensure that the security of customer equipment and data is not compromised by the Internet connection, and that the filtering mechanism shall allow for easy and rapid updates and be configurable to each customer s requirements. The Supplier shall ensure that all Internet services supplied are secure at the ISP s end, including, without limitation, adequate protection against: External malicious attacks Viruses and trojan horses Denial of service attacks bombs and spam Software Anti-virus protection shall be updated when the Anti-virus vendor issues new definition files Alerts Sites will be warned about new and potentially fatal computer viruses Attachments All attachments in incoming received by the Supplier and destined for a SEGfL Site are scanned for viruses before being forwarded to the Site Help Desk All attachments in outgoing received by the Supplier from a SEGfL Site are scanned for viruses before being forwarded to its intended destination. Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT Help Desk Help desks must provide technical support via telephone and for all aspects of the service provided. Telephone and support for the Internet service must be available during "Core" hours of 8:00 18:00, every working day (Monday to Friday excluding Public Holidays). Help desks must provide an integrated service that, for example, offers a single point of contact for service and support queries. Telephone support must be available at national call rates or lower. SEGfL ITT Final Dec

32 The Help Desk service must be available to school level, if required. The Help Desk service must be available to LEA/RBC staff only, if required. The Help Desk must provide a comprehensive, effective, documented escalation mechanism to ensure progression of incidents according to their severity. The Help Desk must provide a response to requests for support within 2 (two) core hours. This may take the form of a call reference number for telephone support and an automated response for support. 4. Education Broadband to Single Sites 4.1. Local Broadband Services Advice and Supply Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT Local Connectivity Advice and supply of the most appropriate, locally available connectivity to schools. Backhaul connectivity to education services. Supply and installation of LAN cabling Supply of Education Services Wide Area Integrity Advice and supply of the most appropriate range of services with respect to the school s stated requirements. Through peering, use of the SEGfL Interconnect or use of Janet, the ability of schools across the region to communicate without accessing the public internet Education ISP Services Ref Topic Requirement SUP CAT Local Connectivity Advice and supply of the most appropriate, locally available connectivity. Backhaul connectivity to education services. Supply and installation of LAN cabling Supply of Education Services Advice and supply of the most appropriate range of services with respect to the schools stated requirements. SEGfL ITT Final Dec