Oxfordshire County Council: Internet Connectivity PIN

Oxfordshire County Council seeks a Network Services Supplier to provide reliable, high speed internet connectivity to approximately 150 sites in Oxfordshire for a term of up to 12 years. The Council is procuring services for itself with a future option to include services for District and City Councils of Oxfordshire.

The Council is currently delivering a programme of work to implement a Zero Trust network security model. The Zero Trust Network has been implemented on the basis of "Never trust, Always verify" to focus on good security. The council has adopted Microsoft best practises for identity and device management and deployed Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) and Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) to create a holistic zero trust environment that provides work-from-anywhere (WFA) application access. The Council will be deploying Cisco Meraki equipment to each site to manage filtering and traffic flow. This change instigates a significant change in how the Council's network operates. As a result, there is no longer a need for a traditional Wide Area Network, and there is instead a stronger emphasis on reliable, high speed internet connectivity for each site.

Connections must be full fibre, docsis or equivalent, with a static IP address for each site. The Supplier should access the best value infrastructure and internet connectivity provision for the sites.

A draft list of sites is attached with details of the expected bandwidth required. Bidders must offer connectivity solutions for all sites listed in the procurement documentation. The Supplier must be able to provide connectivity to all of the Council's current and future sites. These are primarily in Oxfordshire, but may also be in other locations.

The Council has a current requirement to provide internet connectivity to approximately 150 sites. Connectivity speed will vary across the Council's estate and has been categorised as follows:

• 93 Small Sites: 100MB connectivity
• 47 Medium Sites: 250MB connectivity
• 5 Large Sites: 500MB connectivity
• 4 Very Large Sites: 1GB connectivity.

Due to factors including changing working practices resulting from Covid-19 and the Councils ambition to review its property estate, the number of sites requiring connectivity, and the type of connectivity required, is expected to vary over time. The Supplier must be able to respond quickly and cost-effectively to these changes as required.

For approximately 35 sites, the Council has engaged Neos Networks Limited to implement fibre infrastructure from Openreach, Virgin Media, Gigaclear and Neos. Around 10 sites are likely candidates for novation of existing infrastructure connections. The Supplier will be required to take account of these features to propose the best value connectivity solution for the Council.

The Supplier will manage the internet connectivity services throughout the term, reviewing them at least annually to ensure that they remain best value for the Council at all times. The Supplier will manage its subcontractors to ensure that service levels are met.

This procurement activity is likely to be published in April 2022.

We intend to run a suppliers workshop whereby the ICT Team will run through this project in further detail on Monday 4th April 2022 at 11:00-12:30. To join this suppliers workshop, please follow the link below, the day of the meeting:

oxon.cc/ICPIN ↗

Following this workshop, individual 30 minute sessions will be held with those parties interested for further question and answer sessions.

Once the above steps have been completed, an open tender exercise will be undertaken through a compliant process.