mark tysom janet/jisc uk tf-msp meeting amsterdam, 18 march 2015 procuring services from another...
TRANSCRIPT
• I’m a Product Manager not a Procurement specialist…
• Please see previous TF-MSP presentations for information about the Vscene service:– https://www.terena.org/activities/tf-msp/meetings/
20141127/ – https://www.terena.org/activities/tf-msp/meetings/
20140916/
• There will be some repetition but hopefully not much
• This is not a sales pitch :-)
Warning!
• NRENs and Dante have been advocating “shared services” for years.
• Some great examples already in use: eg the GEANT network
• But, there are very few examples of inter-NREN business
• Why is this? – Not invented here?– Lack of trust/ability to meet SLA?– Geographic restrictions: language and time zones?– Procurement concerns?
• Probably all of the above
Introduction
• Aware that some NRENs had stopped or were planning to stop providing a VC service to their customers
• Gap in market for a bespoke VC solution for edu/research
• 20 years experience of operating a VC service for UK education and research customers
• Maybe we can share this by offering the service to NRENs?
• Conducted a full EU procurement with ability to re-sell to international education and research community
• Developed service with input from other NRENs
Rationale
How do NRENs subscribe to Vscene?
• Discuss and agree annual price with Janet
- from €35,000 per year for managed VC service
• There are three ways in which an NREN can subscribe
1) Buy directly from Janet if the tariff does not exceed the EU Procurement threshold.
2) Launch a mini competition procurement.
3) Make a direct award to Janet on the basis that Vscene represents a unique offering not obtainable elsewhere.
1. Buy direct from Janet
• If the tariff is less than €207,000 over four years, NRENs can buy direct from Janet without needing to conduct a procurement
• This equates to €52,000 per annum
• Approximately one third of NRENs fall into this tariff category
2. Mini competition
• Clear set of specific requirements to limit responses and increase likelihood of getting the desired outcome; for example:
- Designed to facilitate the delivery of education- ability to pre-book lecture rooms so tutors turn up and
teach- Designed to support a diverse community of users
- Supports multi-vendor MCUs- Supports multi-vendor VC hardware
- Federated and traditional login supported (eduGAIN accessible)- Wide variety of educational content providers connected- Single user directory facilitates collaboration among NRENs- Development roadmap tailored to the needs of education and research
• Janet will respond to tenders
3. Direct award
• Make a direct award to Janet on the basis that Vscene represents a unique service offering
• An OJEU process (Official Journal of the EU)
• Issue a Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency notice (VEAT)
- Advertises the intention to award a contract directly without call for competition- Can only award contract after 10 working days have passed without challenge- Contract signed by both parties and dispatched to OJEU within 48 days
• Janet have made several direct awards in the past 12 months
• Do NRENs feel comfortable with an approach like this?
• What are the perceived risks?
• How many NRENs have a dedicated Procurement Team?
• How many NRENs have services they’d be prepared to share for a fee?
• What have been the barriers of doing this to date?
• What other approaches might work?
Questions and feedback
v-scene NREN Tariff
• Uses the same calculation as the GEANT Cost Sharing Model
• Charges increase progressively as GDP increases
• Used to generate a starting price
• Additional services can be bolted on:
- MCU integration- User migration- Interface language translation- Branding
• Prices start from €35,000 p.a. for managed service