Acceleration services for Internet of Things hardware businesses (IoT)

Innovate UK has a requirement for services to help accelerate the growth of early stage IoT hardware companies based in the UK.

IoT UK includes a Research Hub (University College London and partners), Smart City Demonstrator (Manchester), health demonstrators (West of England and Surrey) and other research, innovation and enterprise activity. For information please see IoTUK.org.uk

The procurement aims to help secure specialist provision of services in the UK to help early stage companies specialising in designing, developing and manufacturing hardware for the Internet of Things (IoT) to bring their products and services to market and grow their business. In particular, to help them overcome challenges that frequently arise between the development of a hardware prototype and minimum viable product (MVP) and manufacturing at scale.

The requirement is for two providers to undertake design to manufacture services for 10 start-up IoT companies over a period of 12 months (Jun-16 to May-17). Total funds of £754,582 plus VAT are to be split evenly between the two successful providers.

Contract progress will be monitored via regular Contractor reports and through use of the Innovate UK’s existing network of monitoring officers and monitoring liaison officers who will monitor the progress/success of the start-up companies.

Additional information: The section below will provide instructions on how to submit a bid for this procurement

The instructions are as follows;

UK Shared Business Services eSourcing as part of the strategic alliance between UK Shared Business Services Ltd (UK SBS) and Crown Commercial Service (CCS), UK SBS can use the CCS eSourcing Suite for future procurements.

If you have not yet registered on the eSourcing Suite, this can be done online at https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk by following the link ‘Register for CCS eSourcing’.

Please note that, to register, you must have a valid DUNS number (as provided by Dun and Bradstreet) for the organisation which you are registering, who will be entering into a contract if invited to do so.

Once you have registered on the eSourcing Suite, a registered user can express an interest for a specific procurement. This is done by emailing ExpressionOfInterest@ccs.gsi.gov.uk. Your email must clearly state: the name and reference for the procurement you wish to register for; the name of the registered Bidder; and the name and contact details for the registered individual sending the email.

Crown Commercial Service will process the email and then enable the Bidder to access the procurement online via the e-Sourcing Suite.

The registered user will receive a notification email to alert them once this has been done.

The Sourcing documents can then be accessed on the eSourcing Suite at: https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk using the instructions detailed in the Specification documents within Contracts Finder.

As a user of the e-Sourcing Suite you will have access to Emptoris email messaging service which facilitates all messages sent to you and from you in relation to any specific RFX event.

Please note it is your responsibility to access these emails on a regular basis to ensure you have sight of all relevant information.

For technical assistance on use of the e-Sourcing Suite please contact Crown Commercial Service Helpdesk : Telephone: 0345 010 3503 Training documents to support Bidders utilise Emptoris CCS eSourcing are available in the Contracts Finder Tender documents section.

Within the e-sourcing suite there are Questionnaires which will have a series of Questions that we require all Bidders to answer, within each question there is Bidder guidance on what the customer is looking for and how to answer the question.

Bidder Training documents are also available in each tender in the e-sourcing suite, you will be able to access these once you have registered etc.