Mark Tysom Janet/Jisc UK TF-MSP Meeting Amsterdam, 18 March 2015 Procuring services from another NREN

I’m a Product Manager not a Procurement specialist… Please see previous TF-MSP presentations for information about the Vscene service: – – There will be some repetition but hopefully not much This is not a sales pitch :-) Warning!

NRENs and Dante have been advocating “shared services” for years. Some great examples already in use: eg the GEANT network But, there are very few examples of inter-NREN business Why is this? – Not invented here? – Lack of trust/ability to meet SLA? – Geographic restrictions: language and time zones? – Procurement concerns? Probably all of the above Introduction

Aware that some NRENs had stopped or were planning to stop providing a VC service to their customers Gap in market for a bespoke VC solution for edu/research 20 years experience of operating a VC service for UK education and research customers Maybe we can share this by offering the service to NRENs? Conducted a full EU procurement with ability to re-sell to international education and research community Developed service with input from other NRENs Rationale

How do NRENs subscribe to Vscene? Discuss and agree annual price with Janet -from €35,000 per year for managed VC service There are three ways in which an NREN can subscribe 1)Buy directly from Janet if the tariff does not exceed the EU Procurement threshold. 2)Launch a mini competition procurement. 3)Make a direct award to Janet on the basis that Vscene represents a unique offering not obtainable elsewhere.

1. Buy direct from Janet If the tariff is less than €207,000 over four years, NRENs can buy direct from Janet without needing to conduct a procurement This equates to €52,000 per annum Approximately one third of NRENs fall into this tariff category

2. Mini competition Clear set of specific requirements to limit responses and increase likelihood of getting the desired outcome; for example: - Designed to facilitate the delivery of education - ability to pre-book lecture rooms so tutors turn up and teach - Designed to support a diverse community of users - Supports multi-vendor MCUs - Supports multi-vendor VC hardware - Federated and traditional login supported (eduGAIN accessible) - Wide variety of educational content providers connected - Single user directory facilitates collaboration among NRENs - Development roadmap tailored to the needs of education and research Janet will respond to tenders

3. Direct award Make a direct award to Janet on the basis that Vscene represents a unique service offering An OJEU process (Official Journal of the EU) Issue a Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency notice (VEAT) -Advertises the intention to award a contract directly without call for competition -Can only award contract after 10 working days have passed without challenge -Contract signed by both parties and dispatched to OJEU within 48 days Janet have made several direct awards in the past 12 months

Voluntary ex ante transparency notice (VEAT)

VEAT continued

Award notice following VEAT procedure

Do NRENs feel comfortable with an approach like this? What are the perceived risks? How many NRENs have a dedicated Procurement Team? How many NRENs have services they’d be prepared to share for a fee? What have been the barriers of doing this to date? What other approaches might work? Questions and feedback

Thanks Questions? Mark Tysom Product Manager /03/15

v-scene NREN Tariff Uses the same calculation as the GEANT Cost Sharing Model Charges increase progressively as GDP increases Used to generate a starting price Additional services can be bolted on: -MCU integration -User migration -Interface language translation -Branding Prices start from €35,000 p.a. for managed service