Outsourcing ESA's corporate information system infrastructure –
Invitation to Tender
The European Space Agency plans to outsource its entire corporate information system infrastructure services under a single Prime contractor. The Agency considers this contract to be of strategic importance and invites bids from major market players including companies that have not previously collaborated with ESA. The contract will be for a maximum of seven years with a total value exceeding 100 MEuro.
Until now all the Agency's information systems (IS) infrastructures and the associated services have been outsourced through a number of separate procurements with different contractors, each dedicated to particular infrastructure elements, components or services. The new contract will combine the different systems and services into one large contract to be phased in during the third quarter of 2005.
The objectives of this new centralised contract are to:
- Match and respond to the Agency's need for information technology services by use of mature readily available market solutions and services that fit ESA’s needs.
- Improve the IS services and reduce their cost where and when the marketplace provides opportunities, both extending existing services and providing new services as required.
- Increase organizational flexibility and adaptability to new IS market service models and practices.
The Invitation to Tender (ITT) will cover the management, provision, monitoring, and coordination of the IS services, their sustaining and operations engineering processes. It will cover the following corporate IS areas: networks, desktop, office automation, application infrastructure, security, mobility and the user support for these service areas. All related hardware and software procurement and management are included.
The intention is to introduce a single Prime contractor, in order to facilitate ESA management of all its corporate IT services. The Prime contractor will be responsible for selecting appropriate subcontractors to bring in the best systems and expertise in the different IS fields.
The ITT will be issued shortly and is open to companies in ESA Member States and Canada. The ITT will be made available through the Agency's electronic tendering online system, known as EMITS. The Intended ITT is already published (ref no. 04.185.01).
Companies who have not previously worked with ESA may find out more about the Agency and its tendering process at: "How to do Business with ESA" and in ESA's electronic ITT system, EMITS.
