BPA IT Managed Service

The British Parking Association is the professional body which represents the UK parking sector throughout the UK and Europe. It has more than 700 corporate members, ranging from local authorities to commercial providers and provides them with a range of benefits many delivered via IT.

To provide this service to its members the BPA has a small office in Haywards Heath with a number of servers running products from the Microsoft Server range. The Association is supported by 37 staff (27 office based and 10 home based) using a variety of desktop and laptop PCs all running Microsoft Windows (Windows 7 and later) and Microsoft Office plus other standard applications. Staff can also connect to the IT system via a variety of mobile and handheld devices.

In 2014 the Association moved from its in-house servers to a hosted IT service; unfortunately the provider did not deliver on its promises which resulted in the Association reverting to its in-house servers after only three months.

After reviewing its strategy the Association decided to implement a hybrid hosted solution and is in the process of migrating to Microsoft Office 365 which will be completed by the end of March 2015. It is then planned to review the finance and CRM systems with a view to moving them to a hosted service over the next two years.

The Association is looking for an IT service provider who can manage its existing IT infrastructure, develop a strategy for the future and assist in the implementation of that strategy, therefore, providers are invited to tender for providing this service for the next three years with an option to extend to five years (longer contracts will be considered but will need to have break points).

Scope of the work

IT service supporting existing hardware and software located at the BPA premises and remotely (home/field workers). Hardware and software owned by the BPA. This will include an offsite back up solution of all data, systems and applications. Consideration will be given to the BPA servers being hosted remotely by the service provider or their partner.