Northern Ireland issues £350m schools ICT tender

The tender, from NI's Western Education and Library Board, appeared in the Official Journal of the European Union on 18 June 2010. It covers ICT services to replace the board's existing contracts for managed local area network services for post-primary and special schools, and managed wide area networks for all schools. The contract will cover the re-procurement of a management information system for all schools in Northern Ireland. The board, which responsible for the provision of education, library and youth services in the Omagh, Fermanagh, Derry, Strabane and Limavady council areas, says it wants the new contract to ensure the continuity of existing services and to transform these services over lifetime of the new contract. It says it needs a fully integrated end-to-end service to meet the management, administration, learning and teaching needs of schools and colleges. It wants to provide connectivity and a range of online services for all educational institutions. The services will cover some 1,300 institutions, 330,000 pupils and 40,000 staff. Its value is estimated as being between £250m and £350m.