Scotland launches £50m tablet framework tender

The Scottish government has issued a tender for a £50 million single supplier framework to provide tablet client devices and other associated services as part of a wider series of technology procurements.

Initially set to run for a two-year period with the option for an additional two-year extension, the agreement is open to the wider Scottish public sector, including emergency service organisations, the Scottish Police Authority and local authorities.

“The scope of the framework is for the provision of tablet client devices, accessories and all services associated with the deployment of these devices,” said the tender document.

The estimated £50 million value of the agreement relates to the full proposed four-year period.

Interested suppliers have until April 14 to express interest in the agreement. Devices will be subject to a “rigorous technical evaluation to ensure they meet the minimum requirements of the framework in terms of specification, functionality, performance and lifespan”.

The exercise is part of the National Client Device (NCD) strategy, with the Scottish government announcing earlier this month that it had awarded HP a £90 million framework agreement to provide desktop client devices and associated services.

Under the terms of that four-year contract, the single supplier framework will supply emergency service providers, ministries, non-departmental public bodies, local government agencies and Scottish healthcare organisations.

Scotland launched a number of other single supplier framework tenders last year including cloud computing and mobile devices.

The framework tenders fall under the Scottish government’s Digital Public Services Strategy, published in September 2012, which is designed to provide public sector organisations with “high-quality end point devices to help meet environmental and energy efficiency goals”.