1.2 The EA's Estates department is responsible for managing the EA's property, these responsibilities vary significantly depending on the property.

To facilitate the requirements of the large and varied property portfolio, thousands of documents have been generated.

Further information on our responsibilities and how we are structured can be found on our website.

1.3 Estates seeks to overhaul how the department stores critical documents to support current and future needs.

The work carried out in this project will affect the delivery and integration of Estates new Asset Management system.

The new Asset Management system underpins all the department's output, therefore the digitisation timeline of physical documents laid out below is essential for Estates to operate.

1.4 Estates stores c.32,000 Deeds and Active Case Files documents physically at either EA owned sites or through third parties.

These documents are either business critical or support day to day operations of the organisation and therefore must be stored in a secure and accessible format to ensure BAU.

As part of the EA's Digital Strategy, digitisation of these documents is seen as critical step in meeting the organisation's requirements.

3.

The Requirement - please note this is a request for information at this time and not a notice of opportunity.

3.1 We are potentially seeking a third-party market leader support to Estates Digitisation Project to ensure all physical Deeds and Active Case Files documents are stored virtually on to the chosen Document Management System.

3.2 All EA department requirements will need to include both Active Case Files and Deeds.

In addition to digitisation of the documents and to adhere to data protection guidelines, a fraction of the 10,000 Active Case File documents will be disposed of by the selected Supplier on-site.

3.3 The destruction will lead to a gradual decrease of storage area requirements throughout the EA.

Greater efficiencies will be achieved through making data more accessible and easier to locate.

Other efficiencies will be achieved by appending virtual documents with metadata to make the documents discoverable, allowing internal diagnostics and greater interactivity with other platforms.

If you are interested in responding to this RFI please email Defra Group Commercial at dgcofficesolutions@defra.gov.uk.

The closing date for submission is Friday 22nd March 2024 at 12 noon.

Market Engagement Event We are holding a market engagement event on Thursday 7th March 2024 10:00 - 10:45.

This will be a virtual event via MS Teams and will be an opportunity for the market to meet the team who are leading on this area and to ask further questions about the RFI.

If you wish to attend, please contact Defra Group Commercial on dgcofficesolutions@defra.gov.uk .

Please identify 2 persons from your organisation to dial into the event and we will share the dial in details with those individuals.