Request for Quotation (RFQ)

For: The provision of IT Support Services for the British Council, Kingston, Jamaica

Deadline: June 30, 2020

Overview of the British Council

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.

We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body

The British Council employs over 10,500 staff worldwide. It has its headquarters in the UK, with offices in London, Manchester, Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh. Further information can be viewed at www.britishcouncil.org.

The British Council office in Kingston, Jamaica, is co-located with the British High Commission. We have a team of 6 members of staff.

Introduction and Specification

The British Council would like to request a quotation for the provision of IT support services for the British Council Office in Kingston, Jamaica for a two-year period. We require the services of an IT Consultant(s) to perform preventative maintenance and ad hoc repairs to ensure the smooth running of the IT infrastructure and assets of the British Council Jamaica staff, office and projects. This is not an exclusive list of requirements and full overview of Support Responsibilities will be agreed on the signing of a contract.

Preventative maintenance will be performed quarterly, and repairs as needed and requested via Purchase Order. Generally, these relate to the monitoring and maintaining of the optimum working of devices and IT infrastructure to enable the normal working of the office. It would also include the roll out of new hardware or software as required or defined by the British Council globally.

These duties would normally be carried out on scheduled visits as pre-agreed. There would generally be no requirement to be on site at British Council offices for periods of time to monitor ongoing IT related activity. Exceptions to this would include the installation of IT related equipment – including power backup solutions, VOIP and door entry and internet related services.

The IT Consultant(s) will be required to always perform a full diagnostic of every system tendered to us for repair and only fix those things that have failed or are past their service life. They will never perform an upgrade or repair to a customer’s system that is not needed. They will always strive to provide the lowest cost solution to any given situation, and they will never sell parts or services that are not needed or are in anyway unnecessary to the repair and or upgrade of the system.

The IT Consultant(s) will:

Will provide a written estimate on any work required to be carried out and how long it will take to undertake the work
Will strive to provide the best and fastest service possible
Will only enter server rooms and facilities with the permission of the British Council and British High Commission
Will provide support availability during critical and security incidents (e.g. Connectivity outage and data breaches)
Will provide monthly management reports around IT performance
Support monthly scheduled preventative maintenance activities for all hardware devices
Will maintain IT hardware and software inventory
Will support availability during GIS projects rollout
Will support IT Audit requirements from compliance point of view
Will support local projects from an IT perspective
To maintain, update and upgrade servers and test computers software as instructed
Ensure to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
Assume any risk ownership for any IT system under their support

The Consultant(s) will be a fully qualified Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), who meets the following criteria:

Required criteria

Microsoft Certified Professional
A minimum of two (2) years of work experience in IT maintenance, and support.
3-4 years’ experience in desktop user support
Network Skills (computer, server, WIFI) Microsoft certified professional (MCP) 2008/2012/2016 version
ITIL V3/V4 Foundation (this cover basic processes we follow like incident, change, problem, release management etc.)
Basic physical Server management
Accepts British Council Payment Global 30 Day Payment terms

Optional Criteria

Knowledge of Microsoft platforms and software (Win10, O365 (optional), Server 2008/2016)
Cisco platforms (switches, WIFI access points)

Quotation Validity

Your quotation must remain open for acceptance by the British Council for a minimum of thirty days from the date that it is issued to the British Council in response to this requirement.

Payment and Invoicing

The British Council will pay correctly addressed and undisputed invoices within 30 days of the Invoice Date. General requirements for an invoice for the British Council include:

A description of the good/services supplied is included.
The British Council reference (i.e. Purchase Order number) is included.
It is sent electronically via email in PDF format to george.young@britishcouncil.org or by post to: The British Council, 28 Trafalgar Road, Kingston, Jamaica

Instructions for Responding

Your response must be submitted to george.young@britishcouncil.org by June 30 at 23:59 EST. Please complete Annex 1 of this document to provide evidence as to how you meet the Specification and Criteria outlined in Section 2. In your response, please provide a quotation for two-year support services contract with a detailed cost breakdown by year, month or service as applicable.

Responses from potential suppliers will be assessed and awarded based on the lowest cost.

By issuing this RFQ, the British Council is not bound in any way to enter into any contractual or other arrangement with you or any other potential supplier.