Equals Trust Provision of ICT Managed Service

Location

Nottingham:

Description

Equals Trust intends to procure a fully managed ICT managed service for the pupils and employees of all schools and the Trust. The Trust spans the county of Nottinghamshire and is made up of 19 primary academies, with the potential to grow further, and a central team. The aim of the future procurement to award a contract that delivers a consistent approach to IT both for the pupils and the staff, moving over to a Trust model approach rolled out to all schools. This will enable the Trust to maximise the effectiveness of the equipment and service, as well as helping to share resources and best practice across all sites. The purpose of this market engagement is to inform a future procurement process to award a contract for this service. Feedback received will inform the procurement procedure selected, development of the final service specification and procurement documentation. Through this engagement, the Trust aims to: Seek industry insight on the best methods of gathering the technical information required to support a robust, transparent procurement process which delivers best value to the Trust and achieves a standardised management model across the entire Trust; Gain feedback on the draft specification and information currently available to the Trust on ICT arrangements across the schools; Understand current market solutions; Explore implementation and transition approaches; Understand commercial and pricing models; Identify risks or other considerations prior to formal tender. To support these objectives, suppliers will be asked to respond to a structured set of thematic questions, as set out in Appendix 1 – Pre-Market Engagement Questionnaire.

CPV Codes

• 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Indicators

• Renewals are available.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. ** Update to Preliminary Market Engagement Arrangements As part of this review, the Trust has decided to cancel the preliminary market engagement sessions that were previously scheduled. Revised arrangements As part of this Pre-Market Engagement (PME), suppliers are invited to participate in an online structured discussion session designed to help the Trust better understand information requirements, current market capability, delivery approaches and innovation in relation to ICT Managed Services solutions for Equals Trust. Suppliers that are not able to attend the online discussion sessions are invited to submit their responses to Appendix 1 of the Pre Market Engagement document, for consideration by the Trust. This engagement is intended to support market understanding and inform future procurement planning. It does not form part of any formal evaluation process. Sessions will be allocated to those suppliers that request attendance via the procurement portal messaging function by 7th July 2026 at 17:00. Suppliers should have suitable education sector experience and track record. We politely request that no more than 3 attendees per supplier organisation attend the session. Once all meeting requests have been received, time slots and their respective dates will be allocated on an alphabetical basis and communicated to each supplier using the procurement portal. Activity Date PME Issued 24th June 2026 Deadline to request attendance at engagement session 7th July 2026 17:00 Pre-Market Engagement Sessions 22nd & 23rd July 2026 Reserve date (to be used only if all sessions on 22nd and 23rd are filled) 24th July 2026 Supplier Feedback Deadline (written responses to Appendix 1) 3rd August 2026 Procurement Launch (anticipated) Start of October 2026 Target Go-Live Start of January 2028