Service Unit ICT & Business Support

Seguential number 224

Project ManagerMike Hiscock

Project Title Renewal of Authorities

Disaster Recovery Contract

Background Information

Since October 2002 the Borough of Poole has had a contract with Network Disaster Recovery Limited (NDR) for the supply of Disaster Recovery Services.

The Borough has defined its business critical server hardware and NDR are contracted to supply replacement hardware, to the required specification, should an unforeseen disaster render the existing hardware useless (i.e. fire, flood, specific hardware failure e.g. hard disk failure).

NDR are contracted to commence delivery of the replacement hardware within 2 hours of their notification. Once delivered Borough of Poole ICT support staff use locally held tape backups to restore the server(s) and resume service delivery.

Budget

£69,190 (from existing budget - price confirmed, through existing supplier, for 1 year extension)

Date Approved Amount Spent to Date

Proposal for Approval

It is requested that we continue with the existing supplier, NDR, for provision of a Disaster Recovery service for a further year to allow enough time to complete, in a competent fashion, a full EU tender process. It is the intention of ICT and Business Support to start this process immediately.

Reason(s) for not tendering

It has always been the intention of ICT and Business Support to re-tender for the supply of this contract. However, due to discussions at the start of the year around a corporate approach to Business Continuity Planning (which is linked closely to 'Disaster Recovery' for server hardware) the decision was taken to hold off on the tendering process should further requirements be established at a corporate level (for example, the decision to pursue a joint Business Resumption and Disaster Recovery contract through one supplier). An extension of 1 year should give us adequate time to gather definitive requirements both for the DR contract and of the business continuity requirements of the Council.

Once it became apparent that such decisions would not be made before the contract renewal date it was decided to go ahead with the re-tendering. However, at the start of the tendering work it became clear that recent changes to the EU tendering process, meant this could take up to 8 months to complete. It is now not possible to complete the process before the current contract is due to expire on September 30th 2006.

and exception souqht (see StandingOrders for full text)

Approval is sought to waive the requirement for competitive tendering under Standing Order 23 by applying the following exception referred to in Standing Order 24 summarised as follows:

L8J a) Negotiated tender with existing contractor.

In addition to initial approval by Head of Service Unit and Head of Financial Services approval by the Portfolio Holder or Cabinet is required. Please return this form to Legal Democratic Services to obtain approval by the Portfolio Holder or Cabinet.

Db) Supply of goods/materials/services if:

D (i) sold only at fixed price;

D (ii) prices controlled by trade organisations or government order;

D (iii) limited number of contractors but reasonable number of these invited to submit tenders;

D (iv) set up by other organisations (contracting procedures equivalent to Borough of Poole).

Requires approval from Head of Service Unit and Head of Financial Services.

D c) Unforeseeable and required urgently.

Requires approval of Portfolio Holder or Cabinet after approval is sought from Head of Service Unit and Head of Financial Services. Please return this form to Legal Democratic Services to obtain approval by the Portfolio Holder or Cabinet.

D d) Repairs, supply of parts or updates for existing machinery, computers etc.

Requires approval from Head of Service Unit and Head of Financial Services.

D e) Original estimate less than £25,000 (quotation procedure followed).

Requires approval from Head of Service Unit and Head of Financial Services.

AQQroval

!-lead of Service Unit

Head of Financial Services

Portfolio Holder (only under 24a and 24c)

Date25/9/06 Date26/9/06

Date