£4bn hunt is on for public sector IT suppliers

The government has kicked off a search for IT suppliers to provide £4bn in IT products and services to the public sector over four years.

OGCbuying.solutions, the government agency which oversees public sector procurement, said it plans to reopen the bidding on parts of the contract for the Government IT Catalogue, known as GCat.

It estimates that the total value of orders placed under the agreement will reach £4bn if the framework runs over a four-year term.

The catalogue is used by public sector bodies such as government departments, hospitals, local authorities and police to buy IT products and services at better prices than they may be able to negotiate on their own.

Suppliers are being encouraged to bid on six different lots, the contract notice reveals. Under lot one, OGCbuying.solutions is looking for around five value-added resellers to provide a 'one-stop shop' of all IT products and services.

The second lot covers suppliers of network infrastructures: servers and equipment, while in lot three the government is looking for around 12 suppliers of PCs, laptops and PDAs. Lot four covers peripherals including printers and scanners and database software.

In lot five the government is looking for 12 suppliers of PCs and computer supplies including security software and antivirus software.

The final lot - for which 12 suppliers are sought - covers software including applications, project management software, mainframe software and operating systems.

Each of the contracts is expected to be awarded in February 2006 and will run for four years.