it digital contracts

Digital Design and Authoring Software This PME is intended to understand market capability across digital design and authoring disciplines. Severn Trent does not assume that all disciplines or use cases must be served by a single product suite or vendor. Modular, mixed tool, and discipline specific solutions are explicitly in scope where they integrate effectively with the wider digital delivery environment. Suppliers are not required to demonstrate full coverage across all capability areas listed below. Responses should clearly indicate which capabilities are supported, for which disciplines, and under what operating assumptions. The organisation requires digital design and authoring software to support 2D drafting, civil engineering, building information modelling, and multidisciplinary coordination. The following high level capabilities describe the range of functions required across these disciplines: • Advanced 2D drafting including dynamic blocks, reusable components, x‑refs, annotation, layers, plot styles, batch publishing, and standards compliance, with dependable behaviour across full, browser‑based, and lite desktop variants • Civil engineering design capability, including terrain and surface modelling, survey data import, alignments, corridors, pipe networks, long sections, cross‑sections, swept path analysis, and automated plan/profile/section production with full associativity • Robust interoperability, supporting LandXML, IFC, DWG, GIS, survey formats, and reliable bi‑directional data exchange with other civil, building, and asset platforms • Model‑based authoring and coordination, including parameter‑driven components, multi‑user collaboration (native or integration-led), clash detection, design validation, and standards‑based classification (e.g. Uniclass) • Intelligent MEP and specialist design tools, where relevant, supporting system connectivity, metadata‑driven scheduling, diagrams, and discipline‑specific documentation • Automation and extensibility, including scripting, visual programming, custom toolsets, and configurable ribbons to enforce organisational standards and improve productivity • Integrated documentation production, with automated annotations, schedules, sheets, title blocks, and associative drawings that remain aligned with live model data • Point cloud and reality‑capture support, enabling registration, visualisation, interrogation, feature extraction, and modelling from large scan datasets • AI‑assisted capabilities, including feature extraction, automated checking, drafting assistance, and rule‑based model validation. AI assisted capabilities are not expected to be uniformly available across all disciplines and should be described in terms of current, production ready functionality rather than roadmap commitments. • Reliable CDE (Common Data Environment) integration, ensuring controlled publishing, metadata preservation, versioning, approvals, and traceable workflows across design and documentation outputs. Integration should support operation with an independent, vendor neutral CDE acting as the system of record for information management. Design and authoring tools should be capable of operating effectively without assuming ownership of information management, workflow control, or data persistence outside the CDE. • Visualisation and simulation, including high‑quality rendering and time‑based construction sequencing where required

Common Data Environment (CDE) This preliminary market engagement is intended to inform Severn Trent's approach to procuring a Common Data Environment (CDE) capability to support capital delivery across a large, multi party project portfolio. The purpose of this engagement is to understand current market capabilities, delivery models, and integration approaches, Modular and best of breed approaches are explicitly in scope, provided they can operate effectively at enterprise scale and integrate with adjacent systems including design authoring applications. This PME is focused solely on CDE capabilities. References to design tools or asset information are limited to integration and contextual use within the CDE and should not be interpreted as requirements for authoring functionality or full asset data management, which are being considered separately. We are interested in hearing about CDE platforms with the following key capabilities: • Multi-organisation and user management, including configurable roles, permissions, and access controls across programmes and projects • ISO 19650-aligned information management, including document-level quality assurance workflows, approvals, status codes, and controlled transitions between WIP, Shared, and Published states • Standards-compliant metadata and naming, with robust version control and auditability • Ability to capture and manage information against an asset or system hierarchy defined by project requirements, for contextual association and retrieval of documents and models within the CDE. • Comprehensive viewing and interrogation of industry-standard file formats (e.g. RVT, IFC, DWG, DWF), including measurement, inspection, and markup tools • Native or integration-led model federation and coordination capabilities • High performance and scalability to support a large portfolio (e.g. thousands of concurrent projects and large data volumes) • Support for either in-platform or integration-led document editing and collaborative authoring, beyond a simple file repository model • Ability to work with a range of file types, including common office formats and digital design files, noting that not all formats are expected to be edited natively • Compliance with organisational information security, data hosting, and residency policies (e.g. UK or EU-based hosting) • Open APIs and integration capabilities, including exposure of file metadata for downstream reporting and analytics platforms (e.g. Power BI) • Task, issue, and workflow management associated with documents and models • Mobile access via applications or equivalent interfaces • Support for digital design referencing mechanisms (e.g. external references, links, data shortcuts) • Native forms functionality to support structured data capture • Strong platform administration capabilities, including user management, licensing, and programme-wide configuration (via UI or APIs) • Comprehensive activity logging and audit trails linking user actions to file and data changes • Ability to synchronise file metadata with drawing and model title blocks, with bi-directional updates where applicable • Automated PDF rendition and publishing triggered by workflow status changes