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Official procurement procedure
DDSFTW/060 - Microsoft Unified Support & Design Services
Software support services
Published value
Not published
Submission deadline Not published
Lots published1
Procurement Executive Summary
AI & Search Synopsis
Generated from official OCDS record
Tenderline Synopsis: Ministry of Defence, Defence Digital Commercial Sourcing Team: "DDSFTW/060 - Microsoft Unified Support & Design Services". Published status: complete. Published value: Value not published. 1 published lot. Submission deadline not published. See the official notice for participation instructions.
| Contracting Authority | Ministry of Defence, Defence Digital Commercial Sourcing Team | Scope & Categories | Not published | Submission Window | complete No deadline published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Submission Gateway | Direct notice route | Legal Basis & Regime | Standard procurement | Estimated Value (exc. VAT) | Not published |
Bidder Intelligence · Authority Profile: Ministry of Defence, Defence Digital Commercial Sourcing Team
Market Analytics
Derived from OCDS awards & bid statistics
Published history for Ministry of Defence, Defence Digital Commercial Sourcing Team. These figures describe retained records, not a forecast of bids or a measure of buyer bias.
Published-to-award variance
Not availableInsufficient comparable data
Competition Density
Not availableNo published reports
Supplier ConcentrationNo estimate
Insufficient attributable awardsNo concentration estimate availablePayment Terms
Check noticePublished terms
Coverage: 1 active published awards; 0 bid reports (which may be per lot). Supplier values exclude multi-supplier awards, frameworks and DPS, and use GBP only. They are published award values, not payments. Published-to-award variance compares single-lot, single-award, single-supplier GBP procedures with explicitly non-framework/non-DPS status; increases remain in the average. Unpublished data stays unknown. Awarded suppliers are winners, not all bidders.
Procedure terms
Contracting AuthorityMinistry of Defence, Defence Digital Commercial Sourcing Team | Procedure methodNot published | Procurement categoryNot published |
Statuscomplete | Framework / DPSNot published | CompetitionNot published |
Above thresholdNot published | Legal basisNot published | Tender period startsNot published |
Clarification deadlineNot published | Electronic submissionNot published | Submission languagesNot published |
Published20 May 2022, 15:58 BST | Last source update20 May 2022, 15:58 BST | Recurring procurementNot published |
ClassificationSoftware support services | ||
Delivery area | ||
OCIDocds-h6vhtk-033bf7 | ||
What is being bought
Single source for the provision of Unified Support, Maintenance and Consultancy Service for 36 months from 1 June 22 through to 30 April 2025.
What changed
From the official release history
- Status changed to complete
20 May 2022, 15:58 BST - Official notice release published
20 May 2022, 15:58 BST - Buyer information updated
20 May 2022, 15:58 BST
Lots and requirements (1)
Published by the contracting authority
- Lot 1 · #1Individual lot title not publishedStatus not publishedPublished valueNot publishedThe Defence Digital Commercial Sourcing Team, part of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (the Authority), intends to award a contract to Microsoft Ltd (the Contractor) for software (including Microsoft Office 365 E5) consultancy, support and maintenance (including updates) services. The duration of the contract will be for 36 months from 1 June 2022 to 30 April 2025 and has an estimated value of £31,000,000 (ex VAT). It is considered that this contract can be placed using the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice pursuant to Article 32(2)(b)(ii) of Directive 2014/24/EU and Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (SI 102) on the basis that the services provided for in the contract can be supplied only by the Contractor, and that competition is absent, for technical reasons. The Contractor alone has the specific technical knowledge and skills necessary to undertake the services as they own and have developed the relevant software products and applications used by the Authority in connection with its operations Please note this contract is yet to be awarded, this VTN remains open until 12.00 on the 30 May 2022.Contract periodNot publishedEligibilityNot publishedOptions / renewalNot published
Timeline
- Procedure published
20 May 2022, 15:58 BST - Award active
Not published · Not published - Contract active
Signed 20 May 2022, 00:00 BST · £31,000,000
Commercial outcome and competition
Awards Microsoft UK PLC Not published · Not published · active |
Contracts Contract £31,000,000 · signed 20 May 2022, 00:00 BST · active |
Bid statisticsNo aggregate bid statistics published |
Buyer and organisations in this procedure
Ministry of Defence, Defence Digital Commercial Sourcing Team
Contracting authority GB-FTS-53357Documents (0)
Official links; attachments are not copied
No linked documents are published
Related procedures (0)
No related procedures published
Planning and rationale
Planning budgetNot published |
No-engagement rationaleNot published |
Procedure rationaleThe MOD utilises a large volume of the Microsoft product set to support its business and military operations and relies upon the Microsoft Support services for support and assistance at all security tiers. Not being able to access these Microsoft specific services would represent a risk to national security in the event of an issue with the software. This includes the necessity to deploy Microsoft specialists on short notice to wherever is required, including overseas Bases and Theatre.
MOD is also a significant Customer in the UK who continue to run UK hosted Azure services in the cloud. The MOD requirement mandates data sovereignty and reliability and this non-negotiable requirement can only be supported by Microsoft for these services at this scale. Previously where MOD moved to O365 Cloud service, required regular and extensive access to the Microsoft product developers in the US in liaison with security cleared Microsoft Consultants in the UK was essential considering the critical and complexity which MOD represents as a customer.
The current requirements cannot be delivered without the direct access to Microsoft Support with the scale of the MOD’s product exploitation and the level of expertise required will not be available if we contract with a 3rd party consultancy. Furthermore, we have the evidence that by having direct links to product developers, we have been able to solve issues with the service that are unique to MOD’s future requirements & maintain national security. Direct connection to Microsoft product engineers is required to allow this to continue.
This contract also ensures the MOD is part of the Microsoft preview pilots for all Microsoft cloud offerings and only a handful of organisations around the world get early access to products before they are released. Having this early exposure gives the MOD the opportunity to influence and shape the products to suit our future defence needs: we will not get this access without a direct relationship with Microsoft.
Without Microsoft direct support the level of technical risk to MOD’s transition from existing monolithic contract arrangements would be too high to be appropriate for Defence. MOD is already using Microsoft expertise to mitigate these risks, in particular when leveraging expertise in the US product groups to assist us with this activity, again coupled with our on-site SMEs who provide the context of the often non-standard deployment of Microsoft technologies across Defence.
Latterly having one less commercial interface between the Microsoft Premier support and design consultancy has proven to deliver seamless interoperability, reduce risk and ensures that critical high-quality design work is delivered at pace and right first time.
Microsoft is the largest software provider to Defence; this support and design service is integral to supporting our business and military operations worldwide at all security tiers. In the case of a deployed we have previously used this contract to deploy Microsoft specialists to Operational theatres at short notice, Op HERRICK in Afghanistan, being an example. |