Agenda item

Consideration was given to a report by the Senior Commercial and Procurement Officer which invited the Board to consider a report regarding the approval to award a contract for Lincolnshire County Council's Mobile Voice and Data Services which was due to be considered by the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT between 1^st and 5^th November 2021.

The Board was advised that the Council had now concluded evaluations of tenders received for the Mobile Voice and Data Contract and the preferred tenderer, based on the Council's chosen award criteria, was Vodafone.

The total cost of the contract to the Council over the three year contract duration was £978,614 assuming mobile device purchases remained at the current levels. The current total contract cost  was £1,528,596, meaning a saving of approximately £549,982. 

Service requirements for the contract largely remained the same, with the main change being the removal of a technical fund due to there being no plans to refresh the current devices.

If the decision was not approved, the Council would revert to a standard tariff of  £5.00 for 250MB of data per connection with a data sharer agreement, in comparison to a more favourable tariff as tendered as part of the proposed contract.

Other benefits of awarding the contract included minimal disruption to change SIM cards; the network coverage for Vodafone being one of the best in the county;  the service level targets were the same for the new contract; and less resources and disruption in changing to a new provider.

It was therefore proposed that the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT approved the award of a contract to Vodafone Ltd through the CCS Network Services 2 Framework for Mobile Voice and Data Services for Lincolnshire County Council and Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue and delegated to the Executive Director – Commercial authority to determine the final form and approve the entering into of the contract.

The Board welcomed the report and as part of the Board's consideration of the item, the following points were noted:

·         Vodafone was the only provider who submitted a bid for the contract. However, the Council would have been open to moving to an alternative provider if a better offer had been submitted, regardless of the challenges this would have presented.

·         The contract would be administered by Serco irrespective of who the provider was.

·         The proposed contract was a significant improvement on the current contract with a saving of £549,982 and would ensure business continuity across the county.

·         The Board welcomed savings of £549,982 that would be made as a result of the contract.

·         The Board was reassured that Vodafone was one of the leading providers for network coverage across the county, including where roaming was available. This was evidenced by the network coverage information that providers published to Ofcom. For Lincolnshire, the coverage provided by Vodafone and O2 was approximately the same. Good coverage was important for emergency services who would want the assurance that they could get coverage wherever they were in the county, and Vodafone would provide that assurance. 

RESOLVED:

1)      That the recommendations to the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT be supported;

2)    That a summary of the comments made be passed on to the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT for his consideration.