Digital Inclusion - Tenant Participation

Reading Borough Council provides housing for local residents and as such acts as the landlord for these tenants. As part of the Councils legal duty the Council runs 3 main tenant participation groups to enable two-way communication with tenants on service delivery, receiving feedback and budgetary challenges. These meetings have historically been booked face to face, however given the covid-19 social distancing measures this is no longer practical and so the Council is exploring technical solutions in place of in person meetings I.e. video calls and applicable software.

The Council is looking to procure the following IT services and solutions: o End user managed (encryption software) laptops with end user support & associated domain o 4G Sims/Routers with unlimited Data o Office 365 subscription with MS Teams and SharePoint o End user training and support for Office 365 including MS Teams and SharePoint o Staff training and support for Office 365 including MS Teams and SharePoint o Home Printers

These services will be key as tenants who participate in these groups will require IT support on these provided devices to log into the O365 environment and participate in video meetings, read and print documentation, participate in workshops and live chats. This support needs to be provided as the housing officers cannot act as a help desk and as such the support element will be crucial. This includes log in issues, 4G connectivity, OS support and application support I.e. MS Teams and SharePoint.

The supplier should be able to deal inclusively with the needs of a diverse range of tenants, be committed to equal opportunities and be willing to present to a group of involved tenants and answer their questions. Our key provider requirements are that they have recent experience (within the last three years) of providing similar equipment set-up and follow up support services to a network of community organisations to facilitate remote collaborative working

Additional information: This is an early engagement exercise as part of the development of a planned procurement. Organisations interested in responding to the consultation should download the documents which are available on the Council`s e-tendering system at: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/readingbc/aspx/Home and complete as instructed.

The Portal is free of charge - to register please follow the supplier registration guidance which is available on the Portal.

Please note: you must register your interest via the Council`s e-tendering portal if you intend to submit a response. 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.

Technical questions and assistance regarding the use and operation of the Portal should be addressed to the In-Tend Help Desk - e-mail: [email protected], telephone number +44 8442728810.

Is a Recurrent Procurement Type? : No