The first contract (out of 35 total) of Syzefxis 2, a project with a total budget of 620 million euro, of which 170 million is EU funding, is to be signed in July and it is expected to lead to significant savings to the State’s telecommunications expenditure.
Dimitris Giantsis, General Manager of the Directorate-General of Projects of Information Society S.A. – the organization that executes the ICT projects – pointed out to “Naftemporiki”: “including Syzefxis 2, IS S.A. currently has in its portfolio over 60 state aid projects and actions, in different stages of maturity, with a total budget of approximately 1 billion euro for the next three years”.
The first contract
According to Mr Giantsis, “the first contract of Syzefxis 2, which is expected to be signed in July, is derived from the framework agreement of the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) infrastructure project, it concerns the central security system of Syzefxis 2 and it amounts to 2.4 million euro. It is of great importance that Syzefxis 2 is finally going to be implemented, leading significant resource savings for the State, especially considering that the project’s design started in 2011 and it was announced in 2013. Gradually, all its contracts are expected to be signed during autumn and in any case to be implemented by the end of the year”.
It is noted that the contractor for the first contract of Syzefxis 2 to be implemented is the consortium between OTE (OTE-0.26%), Space Hellas (SPACE +0.20%) and Unisystems.
Through Syzefxis 2, fixed telephony services, internet access (with symmetrical speeds of 10Mbps to 1Gbps), mobile telephony services, data packages, teleconferencing, as well as infrastructure, telephones, call centres, cabling, etc. will be provided to 34,000 public bodies for three years.
35 contracts in total
The entire project will be carried out through 35 tenders – contracts. Two thereof were international tenders and the projects are currently in the implementation phase: The first project is entitled “Central Interconnection Infrastructure and Data Centre Infrastructure”, with a budget of €7.5 million, being carried out by Telecom Italia Sparkle. The second project is entitled “Central ISP & SLA services”, with a budget of €20 million, implemented by the consortium of OTE, Space Hellas, Unisystems and Intrasoft.
31 contracts out of the 33 contracts (not taking into account the two mentioned above) have been put out to tender. The remaining two will be put out to tender within July (these are contracts for mobile telephony services). Next week (until June 26), the bidding cycle for all 31 calls to tender will be completed, corresponding to approximately €550 million (budget). The results for all these contracts are expected to come out by mid-July, when the financial bids will have been reviewed.
There are seven contracts in the infrastructure sector – “Telephony security, teleconferencing and cabling” project –, with a budget amounting to €130 million (out of €550 million in total). They are awarded by way of framework agreements, the two contractors who were selected and submitted bids being Logicom and the consortium of OTE, Space Hellas and Unisystems.
For internet access and fixed telephony services, the contractors on the eight divisions (the country has been divided into eight sections) are OTE, Vodafone, Wind and Forthnet, and for mobile telephony services the contractors are Cosmote, Vodafone and Wind.
The first three contracts will reportedly be awarded to OTE and Wind (two to OTE and one to Wind) for the procurement of 33,000 mobile telephones and connections (financial bids were recently opened). These are derived from the Wireless Division framework agreement, which contains a total of six contracts. Two more concern mobile phones and data packages (the two out of the 35 which have not yet been put out to tender) and one to bulk SMS. For SMS, bids were submitted last Friday.
Cost savings
“It is estimated that the cost reduction for the State from Syzefxis 2 will be particularly significant, as total demand will be concentrated and prices will be negotiated in a centralised manner in relation to the services provided, contrary to what is the case now, where each operator has their own contract for their telecommunications services, except for those belonging to Syzefxis 1 (about 4,500 bodies)”, the General Manager of the Directorate-General of Projects of IS S.A noted, and he concluded: “This is essentially a flagship project, creating, so to speak, a closed telecommunications network for the State, which will provide additional, more modern and safer services through advanced equipment and new infrastructure.”
Remaining ICT projects in progress
When it comes to the remaining ICT projects in the portfolio of IS S.A., their progress is as follows:
* The tender for the Procurement of Software Licenses through an Enterprise Agreement – purchase of software and operating system licenses, provision of consulting and support services – for the replacement of the obsolete software in public administration, with a budget of approximately 39 million euro, is almost completed. The best bid was submitted by OTE and the project will be assigned thereto when the process of checking the supporting documents has been completed and the contract has been approved by the Court of Auditors.
* The “Integrated Human Resources Management System (HRMS)” project for the entire public administration, with a budget of 12.320 million euro, is scheduled to be put out to tender in early July.
* Financial System Reform (ERP), with a budget of approximately 30 million euro, for general and central government bodies: It pertains to the modernization of the budget preparation, execution and payment procedures, as well as accounting and procurement procedures, and the implementation of a unified monitoring and reporting mechanism for the general government budget. The goal is to put it out to tender within the year. At the end of September, the tender notice is expected to be completed, while the issue of its financing is being considered (whether it will be only national terms or a combination of national and community terms).
* The next generation of the government computing cloud (G-Cloud next generation), on which the majority of the State’s IT systems will be installed in order to provide new advanced digital services, such as Platform as a Service (PaaS) and automations that will allow, in addition to the existing ones, the hosting of critical public administration information systems being designed. Until recently, a project with a budget of 15 million euro was being planned; however the needs have multiplied and the planning is now for a larger project, with a budget of 25 million euro, pursuant to law 4623/19 which requires that all State systems must be transferred to the G-Cloud by 2022. The project is designed by the General Secretariat of Information Systems (developer and operator) in collaboration with Information Society S.A., which will be the contracting authority, and it is in the phase of completion of the technical data sheet, while the issue of funding is under discussion. The goal is to put it out to tender at the end of the year.
* For the Transparency 3 project (“Diavgeia”), with a budget of 1.5 million euro, a technical data sheet has been submitted and the invitation to tender will be published within the next few months.
* Regarding the project of the Ministry of Shipping and Island Policy for a Safe Access Network for the operational vehicles of the Coast Guard, with a budget of 7.5 million euro, the invitation to tender is expected to be published within the next few months.
* Regarding the Digital Information Centre project – electronic indexing for the entire public sector on behalf of the General Secretariat of Information, with a budget of 4 million euro, the invitation to tender is expected within the year.
* The invitation to tender for the project “Modernization of the Integrated Information System of the Legal Council of the State and Upgrade of its Digital Services”, with a budget of 8 million euro, is also expected to be published within the year.
* Finally, the invitation for the project “Expansion – Upgrading of OSPA (Integrated Fishing Operations Monitoring and Recording System)”, with a budget of 4.5 million euro, is expected to be published in July.
Syzefxis II to be implemented starting July (naftemporiki.gr)
