Network Fire Service Partnership (NFSP) Joint Control WAN Project

The Network Fire Services Partnership (NFSP) provides a collaborative approach for the Fire Services of Devon and Somerset, Dorset & Wiltshire, Hampshire & IOW and Kent. The partnership covers a total area of 24,700 km2 with a population of 7.65m and works closely with the local control rooms located in Exeter, Eastleigh, Potterne and Maidstone.

The Partnership works to five strategic goals:
• Control - mobilising
• Response
• Seizing opportunities
• Our People
• Governance and leadership

These goals enable the Partnership to work collaboratively, support public safety and be at the forefront of developing, sharing and influencing best practice. Seizing opportunities enables the Partnership to be flexible and agile enough to make the most of innovative developments that offer value for money for all three partners.

Drawn from across the four services, with a range of skills and experience the Central Team are the go to people for any new opportunities.

The subject of this Prior Information Notice & Background to Engagement:

The Partnership is embarking on a number of major IT and business change projects. These include the replacement of their current shared Command and Control software solution and a new/upgraded Wide Area Network (WAN) to support this new system and each of the Partners specific needs. Both solutions are envisaged to have a life-span of between 8 and 10 years.

The Command and Control project is currently in the process of procuring a solution that will include the provision of the network hardware infrastructure – see diagram of scope attached. It is understood that the common Command and Control solution will be presented at 2 UK based Secure locations, these are yet to be determined and should be
known by August.

Therefore, the replacement of the Wide Area Network project will not have a full set of detailed requirements for the supplied hardware at the stage of this PIN. However, we have included an overview of the broader requirements for this engagement below (Annex A ).

Please also see supporting Scoping Diagram an Annex B.

Overview for this Preliminary Market Engagement

The NFSP requires a solution provider to work closely with their project team to provide the overall Design, to Build, Test and Implement the new Wide Area Network as well as providing an on-going support service over a period of between 8-10 years from start of contract. To this end, we wish to undertake some preliminary market engagement. The purpose of this is to assist the project team in:

(a) developing the requirements and approach to the procurement;
(b) designing a procedure, conditions of participation or award criteria;
(c) preparing the tender notice and associated tender documents;
(d) identifying suppliers that may be able to supply the goods, services or works required and the most appropriate route to market;
(e) identifying likely contractual terms;

It is likely that the route to market will be via further competition under the Crown Commercial Services Framework RM6116 Network Services 3 Lot 1a: Inter Site Connectivity (Wider Area Network) / Data Access Services, however, this decision will be informed by this preliminary market engagement exercise.

The NFSP will be hosting a supplier day at Dorset & Wiltshire Fire & Rescue headquarters in Salisbury on Thursday 20th June 2024. We would be keen to hear from suppliers who are interested in taking part in this preliminary market engagement and would like to come and visit the project team on the 20th June and discuss the requirements in more detail. In the first instance, please express interest in this opportunity via the Kent Business Portal and contact amanda.avron-cotton@kent.fire-uk.org to confirm your details and obtain further information and instructions.

Annex A – WAN Current Requirements subject to market engagement

1. The solution must be scalable to sites outside of the current Partnership, during the lifetime of the contract.
2. The supplier must detail their project approach, methodology and tools for delivering the project.
3. Testing must be undertaken/witnessed and signed off by representatives of the Partnership. The Partnership will not accept delivery of the solution without successful completion of testing.
4. All services/hardware and equipment provided by the supplier must be supported and maintained for the life of the contract including any contract extensions. Where equipment cannot fulfil the contract life, refresh costs must be included.
5. Where sites are identified as having multiple Points of connection supplied by the Command and control (CAD) provider (site name shown in RED) any WAN Network components must be configured in such a way that routine maintenance can be carried out without impacting the availability Figure.
6. The WAN solution must provide a solution that is performant, resilient, secure and meet an availability connection figure of 99.999% or greater for sites where the identifier is marked in diagram as RED.
7. The Solution must have a Availability figure for connection to ether one of the hosted solution sites of 99.999% or greater.
8. The supplier must manage, maintain and support all equipment supplied by them for the life of the contract, via 24/7/365 support.
9. All elements of the WAN solution must adhere to a SLA for fault resolution of
• Maximum Response Time - 2 hours from reporting
• Maximum Fix Time - 5 hours from reporting
• Hourly updates provided from the point of initial response until fixed
10. NFSP require a WAN solution to be designed and implemented to allow the following sites to communicate and share between sites HIWFRS - S050 9SJ, DWFRS SN10 5PP, DSFRS EX3 ONW and KFRS Control ME20 7SL , KFRS HQ ME15 6XB and the common hosted Command and Control System.
11. The LAN equipment shown in orange on the diagram will be supplied, configured and managed by the Command and Control Solution suppliers. The WAN provider must work with them to ensure connectivity is achieved as required by the Command and Control Solution providers to ensure that any network quality requirements and required bandwidths
are achieved across the WAN.