Provision of Digital Support Services for Rural Payments and Support

The primary requirement of the procurement is to appoint a supplier to work in partnership and supplement in-house resources and other specialist services in blended teams to ensure efficient and effective system maintenance, support, modernisation and enhancement.  There will be scope for completely new developments that will require to be integrated with existing services. Working in blended teams in recent years has been successful so ARE wishes to retain this practice and continue to drive flexibility and efficiencies in our ways of working. However, there may also be a requirement for the supplier to deliver end-to-end projects during the life of the contract, working to Scottish Government agreed standards and practices. Capability, flexibility and responsiveness are key in terms of the resources and services that are required. The ability to scale up, scale down and potentially swap out based on emerging requirements and technology is vital.  Support will not only cover support for our existing services, but also the services that are under development during the lifetime of the contract.