Published date: 13 December 2024

Awarded contract - This means that the contract has been awarded to a supplier.


Closing: 13 October 2024, 12pm

Contract summary

Industry

  • IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support - 72000000

Location of contract

Any region

Value of contract

£94,403,421

Procurement reference

CF-0404100D8d000003VQwdEAG

Published date

13 December 2024

Closing date

13 October 2024

Closing time

12pm

Contract start date

14 October 2024

Contract end date

13 October 2029

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Competitive procedure with negotiation (above threshold)

Anyone may ask to participate, but only those who are pre-selected will be invited to submit initial tenders and to negotiate.

This procedure can be used for procurements above the relevant contract value threshold.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

No

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

No


Description

The outsourced Application and Maintenance Support Services (AMS) will provide the following to Defra:

• Application Monitoring - collecting data from applications to measure their performance and availability. This data can then be used to proactively identify and resolve issues before they impact users. Issues can include situations where an application is not performing as designed or, in the worst case, there is an outage and it is not available to end users.

• Application Maintenance - as technology progresses and the needs of end users adapt over time, continuous updating and modifying of applications is required to ensure they are running to the best of their abilities. This constant re-evaluating process means that faults can be corrected, and performance continue to be improved.

• Application Support - specialist support that can be contacted by receiving escalations from the service desk when they are unable to resolve a user's problem. This includes fixing issues that vary in levels of priority (from P4 to P1), however always on a minor tactical scale as the focus is to enable the application to function (as opposed to large scale Application Development).

By outsourcing the provision of these services to a specialist external provider, Defra can allow its IT function to continue focussing on longer term, more strategic planning. Typically, leveraging AMS services enables an organisation to improve internal efficiency and increase user-satisfaction. This is because internal IT teams are not having to spend time fixing applications that are not working as the end user expects them to.

In Defra's case, there are also regulatory requirements that must be adhered to, which makes the ongoing support of multiple applications even more critical. As well as ensuring that applications do not stop working, the AMS supplier will work to reduce the impact from outages and release fixes if a critical incident occurs.

Performing these duties limits the impact to farmers, borders and trade as a number of Defra's application are integral to them carrying out their jobs. Solving critical issues is also key as the alternative is working via sub-optimal methods or workarounds that can cost significantly more.


More information

Previous notice about this procurement

C26527 Applications Maintenance and Support Services (AMS)

  • Awarded contract
  • Published 13 December 2024

Attachments


Award information

Awarded date

14 October 2024

Contract start date

14 October 2024

Contract end date

13 October 2029

Total value of contract

£78,800,000

This contract was awarded to 1 supplier.

Accenture (UK) Limited

Address

1 Plantation Place, 30 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 3BD, United Kingdom EC3M 3BD

Reference

None


About the buyer

Contact name

Mamun Islam

Address

2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
UK

Telephone

+44 7123456789

Email

mamun.islam@defra.gov.uk