Page 37 - Procurement guidelines for smart sustainable cities - A U4SSC deliverable

Figure 7: The Scottish Government’s ICT Product portfolio, split into 7 categories © Scottish
Government

To prevent cupboards overflowing with unused keyboards and cables, flexible buying plans were
proposed, including the option to buy a PC without peripherals. For devices that could not be
upgraded such as tablets, suppliers looked into how they could recycle components.

As well as investigating the devices themselves, research was also carried out into how to make
government offices smarter – for example, allowing remote access to servers for home-workers
and switching to lightweight, scaled-down versions of traditional PCs, known as “thin clients”.

Shifting the risks and responsibilities around disposal, carbon reduction and supply chain monitoring
to suppliers would mean a considerable investment.

To compensate for this, the government offered providers the chance to compete for multiyear
contracts, worth up to GBP 250 million (USD 310 million). Each device would have its own framework,
awarded to a single supplier through open competition.

“There’s no point devising requirements without knowing the market can meet them. We have to
ask 'is this viable?' from a supplier point of view.”

Lee Rutherford, Scottish Procurement and Property Directorate

The results

In 2016, the new frameworks were published through the Scottish Government’s e-Procurement
platform. Contracts were offered on an initial two-year basis, with the option to extend a further two
years. The number of bidders varied by device, ranging from four to seven. Bids were evaluated
using a scoring system, with social, ethical and environmental factors making up 20 per cent of
the total.

Given the scale and length of the contracts, suppliers were able to offer devices significantly below
market rates, representing total savings of GBP 100 million (USD 124 million).

Procurement guidelines for smart sustainable cities | May 2023 23