Intelligent Transport Systems (Maintenance) - Soft Market Testing

This Soft Market Testing (SMT) exercise is being conducted on behalf of the following 6 local authorities: • Reading Borough Council • Wokingham Borough Council • West Berkshire Council • Bracknell Forest Council • Slough Borough Council • Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead The primary purpose of this contract will be to maintain the existing traffic signals and ITS asset in each authority area, in accordance with the set response standards and KPIs. In the spirit of generating further efficiencies, Councils are also seeking maintenance quotations for non-core equipment as listed within the specification.

Each of the Councils may request annual maintenance of this (additional) equipment by way of Task Order. The primary purpose of this SMT exercise is to 'sense check' the current service specification, and give potential bidders the opportunity to provide input / feedback, and in particular offer advice and/or alternative solutions to improve service delivery Contractors that believe they can contribute to this process should review the briefing document and draft specification, and respond to the questions included within the Brief.

The format of your response is open; however please ensure that your question responses can be clearly identified. The Council may choose to hold follow-up interviews to discuss responses with interested organisations, and these will be held on 11th & 12th April 2017; times to be confirmed following a review of the submissions.

The Council intends to use the information supplied to assess whether the current specified requirements are suitable / affordable, or whether further consideration is required to alternative operating models. The Council does not commit to enter into a formal procurement exercise at this stage.

Additional information: Councils Tendering Portal https://in-tendhost.co.uk/readingbc Organisations interested in expressing an interest should download the documents which are available on the Council's e-tendering system at: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/readingbc (Project Reference No. RBC 00000244 refers), and complete as instructed. The Portal is free of charge - to register please follow the supplier registration guidance which is available on the Portal.

Contractors wishing to be considered for this tendering opportunity must complete the tender documents and return them electronically via the Council's e-tendering portal. The deadline for return of the tender is Friday 24th March 2017 at 12.00 hours.

Please note: you must register your interest via the Council's e-tendering portal if you intend to submit a tender. Interested parties must log onto the Council's e-tendering portal at: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/readingbc, to express an interest and download the procurement documents.

All communications regarding this procurement exercise will be conducted through the Council's e-tendering portal including requests for clarifications or general enquiries. The procurement documents will be available for download up until the closing time and date for tender submissions, it is the organisation's responsibility to ensure that they download the documents in ample time to ensure that they can be completed and returned electronically, along with supporting documents, prior to the closing time and date stipulated.

Before completing the tender, potential providers/suppliers should ensure that the e-mail address that has been used to register their organisation will be checked regularly as the Council's e-tendering system will generate automatic notifications to this e-mail address when there are updates, changes or messages sent relating to the project. Potential bidders should also check that their organisation's details are correct and kept up to date.