Assisting Cambridgeshire County Council with the Procurement of a New WAN Service
The below case study details how 4C Strategies was able to assist Cambridgeshire County Council with the procurement of a new WAN service.
The Client
Cambridgeshire County Council is responsible for providing traditional county council services to all of Cambridgeshire except for Peterborough city which has its own unitary council.
The Project
Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire County Councils had an existing regional wide area network (WAN), known as Cambridgeshire Public Sector Network (CPSN). As the existing CPSN contract was coming to an end, it was decided that Cambridgeshire County Council should lead the procurement for a new WAN service to be known as EastNet. It was anticipated that EastNet would serve a variety of public sector organisations, including councils, schools, NHS Trusts and fire and rescue services.
How 4C Helped
It was decided that the EastNet WAN procurement should be a competitive dialogue. 4C Strategies was retained as a subject matter expert, to assist partners with the identification of their requirements, to prepare the relevant procurement documentation, to assist with the evaluation of supplier proposals and to provide the Council with technical and procurement-related advice as and when it was required.
The procurement involved four of the UK’s major WAN providers; two were national carriers and two were network integrators.
The Outcome
The 4C procurement ‘tool-set’ fully captured the requirements of both the Council and its partners and allowed the four suppliers to clearly articulate their proposals at all stages of the competitive dialogue. The format of the responses requested also facilitated a straightforward evaluation by the multi-partner project team.
The outcome of the 18-month procurement is that Cambridgeshire County Council has entered into a long-term framework agreement with the new service provider, so that each EastNet partner can enter into its own discrete call-off contract for services.
The overall project will see the transition of around 1000 sites from CPSN to EastNet over the course of the next 12-18 months.
Client Testimonial
“At an early stage in the process Cambridgeshire County Council identified that the procurement of a new regional public-sector WAN (EastNet) to replace CPSN was going to be a long and complex project. Following a competitive procurement for a Subject Matter Expert we retained 4C Strategies to help EastNet partners identify their requirements, prepare the documentation for the Competitive Dialogue and participate in the evaluation of supplier proposals.
Over the 18-month procurement 4C became a valuable member of our project team by producing high quality documentation, helping us to understand the UK marketplace and playing a full and proactive role in the evaluation.
The 4C procurement ‘tool-set’ fully captured our requirements and allowed the four suppliers to clearly articulate their proposals at all stages of the Competitive Dialogue. The format of the responses requested also facilitated a straightforward evaluation by our multi-partner project team.
If you have a need for an independent ICT consultancy we would have no hesitation in recommending 4C Strategies.”
- Sue Grace
Director of Corporate and Customer Services
Get in Touch
To speak with one of 4C Strategies’ experienced network consultants, call 01858 438938, or email [email protected].