Driving cost efficiency and innovation in a £200m data centre retender
Client context
A major UK public sector body needed to retender its £200 million data centre services contract. The programme had to meet stringent Cabinet Office tests, drive value for money, and ensure future-proofed capability in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.
Oaklin provided independent commercial advisory support to shape the retender strategy, engage effectively with the market, and deliver a compliant, competitive procurement – all under tight timescales and in a highly security-sensitive environment impacting critical national infrastructure.
What we did
Market Engagement and Requirements Definition
Oaklin developed a data-led market-engagement process that allowed the client to gain insights from the market within a tight four-week period. Insights from this process directly informed the refinement of technical and service requirements, ensuring they were ambitious, innovative, and commercially viable.
Impact: Highlighted market capabilities that uncovered innovative delivery and sharpened requirements to align with industry best-practice.
Commercial Strategy, Question Design and Evaluation Framework
Working closely with the client’s commercial and technical teams, Oaklin developed the commercial model, pricing structure, and evaluation methodology. This aimed to ensure balanced technical merit and cost over the full contract lifecycle, meet public-procurement and Cabinet Office regulations and support transparent decision-making. As part of this, Oaklin designed pre-qualification and tender questions to directly test technical capability, service quality, delivery approach and commercial robustness.
Impact: Delivered a clear framework – from bidder response to evaluation – that drove high-quality supplier responses, reduced evaluation complexity and ensured a robust, value-for-money outcome.
Tender Pack Development and Compliance Assurance
For tender release, Oaklin assisted in the development of the requirements catalogue, SLAs/KPIs, and wider scope of services document. Throughout, Oaklin balanced and mediated between stakeholder views integrating technical, commercial, and legal inputs for a balanced and compliant tender pack. Alongside this, all documents were stress-tested against Cabinet Office guidance and procurement best practice to mitigate longer-term risks.
Impact: Produced a high-quality tender pack aligned to industry best-practice that positioned the client to run an efficient, competitive process with minimal clarification overhead.
Client outcome
The procurement launched on schedule, attracted strong supplier participation, and passed all Cabinet Office tests – earning excellent feedback from the client team. As they entered the evaluation phase, the client was confident in a well-structured, competitive process designed to secure long-term value across the life of the contract.
