Office Network Connections · UK public procurement notice

Single Suppliers Technical Reasons; Additional Repeat Extension Partial Replacement; Additional Repeat Further Following Competitive Procedure

Claranet Limited has been Aster’s network infrastructure partner for over 10 years, providing great technical knowledge of the existing environment. Over this period, Claranet has designed, delivered, and continuously managed Aster’s MPLS network, Data Centre breakout, Cloud Connect services, and CoLocation environments. This ongoing operational involvement means Claranet possesses the deepest understanding of Aster’s current architecture, performance characteristics, dependencies, and growth requirements.

All network equipment and circuits in scope are owned and managed by Claranet. These assets cannot be transferred to an alternative supplier and would require complete replacement and installation of new infrastructure if another provider were selected.

While other Suppliers could theoretically be able to provide the same services as Claranet, they would not be able to utilise or integrate with the existing Claranet-managed MPLS environment. Any such replacement would require a complete new installation of hardware and circuits, alongside associated reconfiguration and migration activities. This would significantly increase costs due to:

-procurement of new equipment,

-installation and engineering time on site,

-dual-running or transition overheads, and

-potential downtime or service disruption during cutover.

This introduces significant cost, risk, and operational disruption should a new Supplier be awarded this contract.

Claranet also has detailed insight into Aster’s future network roadmap, including planned growth and acquisition activity, and has already produced designs and budgetary proposals to support and scale with Aster’s strategic direction. No other supplier has this level of established access, historical knowledge, or readiness to provide the necessary design, integration, and installation support for the current and future network.