For companies competing in European institutional procurement, winning a framework contract is only the first hurdle. The real pressure starts right after signature, when experts have to be proposed against strict client templates and tight compliance deadlines. The ITOMS25 framework contract, awarded by the European Parliament for ICT infrastructure and hosting services, shows exactly how demanding that process can be. This post walks through the goals of the contract, the bidding rules, the award criteria, and the consortia that won each lot, along with what the CV compliance requirement now means for the companies delivering on it.
TL;DR
- The ITOMS25 framework contract (reference EP-ITEC/LUX/2025/OP/0001) is worth an estimated €204,000,000 excluding VAT and covers ICT infrastructure and hosting services for the European Parliament over a 72 month contract.
- The tender is split into Lot 1, worth €132,000,000 for fundamental infrastructure operations, and Lot 2, worth €72,000,000 for specialized and advanced services.
- Bidders had to prove specific technical certifications across Nutanix, NetApp, PostgreSQL, cybersecurity and networking, generating more than 200 questions in the official Q&A log.
- Award criteria weighted Technical Quality at 60% and Financial Price at 40%, with a mandatory quality threshold of 150 out of 200 points for Lot 1.
- Lot 1 was won by Consortium 4YOU, led by Cronos Europa alongside DEEP by POST, Fujitsu and CTG.
- Lot 2 was awarded to a three rank cascade led by Sogeti Luxembourg SA, followed by Deloitte Tax & Consulting and PwC EU Services.
- ITOMS25 requires every contractor to submit expert CVs in a specific mandatory template, on top of the technical and financial obligations.
- That template is already supported inside Sprint CV, which integrated the exact format in under two hours of receiving it.
What Is the ITOMS25 Framework Contract?
The ITOMS25 framework contract, officially titled “ICT Infrastructure and Hosting Services” and referenced EP-ITEC/LUX/2025/OP/0001, was launched by the European Parliament’s Directorate-General for Innovation and Technological Support, known as ITEC. Its estimated total value is €204,000,000 excluding VAT, making it one of the largest single investments in EU institutional cybersecurity, cloud transition and digital sovereignty to date.
The goal of the contract is to ensure the robust and optimal functioning of the Parliament’s ICT infrastructure and hosting services, while preparing that infrastructure for a flexible, sustainable and cloud driven digital future. The Parliament needs a stable, secure and scalable digital environment to support the democratic functioning of the EU, and ITOMS25 is the vehicle built to deliver it.
How long does the ITOMS25 contract run?
Direct answer: 72 months, six years in total.
The contracting authority structured it as an initial 24 month period, renewable up to four times. To manage this scale, the tender was split into two distinct lots, each serving a specific operational purpose.
How the Contract Is Structured: Lot 1 and Lot 2
Lot 1, Fundamental ICT Infrastructure and Hosting Services, is valued at an estimated €132,000,000 and represents the operational backbone of the Parliament’s IT estate. Its goal is the seamless end to end operation, management and continuous support of the fundamental infrastructure.
Lot 1 covers daily “Basic Services” typically delivered through a hybrid model of 50% on-site and 50% remote work, either off-site or near-site. It is primarily a driver of technological change, requiring the selected contractors to implement a flexible operating model and introduce new services built around the strategic shift toward cloud computing and container hosting, both on-premises and in the cloud.
Lot 1 also incorporates a “project basket” concept to absorb ad hoc needs and infrastructure scaling. Over the last three years, this basket has averaged around 1,900 man-days per year, a clear sign of the ongoing scale of operational updates the Parliament requires. The contract further mandates strict Take-Over, or phase-in, and Hand-Over, or phase-out, periods. Take-Over requires a full review of existing training and documentation, the implementation of a new organizational structure and the rapid onboarding of new staff.
Lot 2, ICT Infrastructure and Hosting Specialized and Advanced Services, is valued at €72,000,000 and focuses on agility, customization and highly specialized professional expertise. Where Lot 1 keeps daily operations running, Lot 2 exists to carry out specific, advanced infrastructure and hosting projects and assignments.
The Parliament uses Lot 2 to secure immediate operational flexibility and manage variations in scope. When a project needs highly targeted resources, niche technical skills or specific execution modalities outside the daily fundamental operations, including cutting-edge security deployments and infrastructure modernization tasks, the winners of Lot 2 are called on.
| Lot 1 | Lot 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Estimated value | €132,000,000 | €72,000,000 |
| Core purpose | Fundamental infrastructure operations | Specialized, advanced projects |
| Delivery model | 50% on-site / 50% remote Basic Services | Targeted resources for specific assignments |
| Ad hoc capacity | Project basket, around 1,900 man-days per year | Single indicative project pricing |
Both lots are tied to the same service governance model. The Parliament runs ServiceNow, currently the Xanadu version with an upgrade to Yokohama planned for Q3 2025, as its key tool for IT Service Management and Strategic Portfolio Management, with plans to add IT Operations Management. Service management stays centralized by design: no integration is planned between the Parliament’s internal tools and the contractors’ proprietary tools. Automation and workflows are in use, but request fulfillment and incident resolution both currently require strict manual validation.
The Bidding Process: Deadlines and Submission Rules
Securing a piece of a €204 million framework contract is no easy feat. The bidding rules for ITOMS25 followed an Open Procedure governed by Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046. Because the project is partially or fully financed with EU funds, every submission had to go through the European Commission’s eProcurement ecosystem.
The tender was published in mid-May 2025, and all responses had to be submitted electronically through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. Physical or catalog-based tenders were strictly prohibited.
Why was the ITOMS25 submission deadline extended?
Direct answer: because of the sheer complexity of the tender.
The original deadline was set for June 24, 2025, but the tender comprised more than 70 separate annexes and documents, and the Parliament extended it to July 1, 2025, at 16:00. The electronic public opening of tenders took place the next day, on July 2, 2025. Once submitted, tenders had to remain valid for nine months.
The Certification Bar: What Bidders Had to Prove
The core of the bidding rules revolved around the Selection Criteria, which assessed both the economic and financial standing and the technical and professional ability of each bidding consortium. Tenderers operating as joint consortia could rely on the cumulative capacities of all their members, provided they correctly completed their “Declaration on honor,” Form 5.
The Parliament set an unusually high bar for technical capability, generating more than 200 questions in the official Q&A log from bidders trying to get the requirements right. To even be considered, bidders had to prove they employed staff holding specific, highly technical vendor certifications, with a small number of accepted equivalencies along the way.
- ✓Nutanix: initially Nutanix Certified Master or Expert status, later amended to require “Nutanix Certified Master or Expert – Multicloud Infrastructure” (NCM-MCI or NCX-MCI) alongside “Nutanix Certified Professional” (NCP-MCI). Certifications for version 5.5 and newer were accepted, and at least one active Master or Expert certification was mandatory.
- ✓Storage and backup: NetApp NAS certifications for three certified permanent employees, with the “NetApp Certified Data Administrator, ONTAP” (NS0-162) explicitly accepted. The previously requested Veritas Netbackup 10.x Administrator certification was removed from the requirements during the bidding phase.
- ✓Database management: PostgreSQL certifications on version 12 or newer, such as EDB PostgreSQL Associate or Dalibo Advanced PostgreSQL, were accepted.
- ✓Cybersecurity and identity management: the Parliament demanded the IAM IMI Certified Access Management Specialist certification, but formally confirmed in the Q&A that CISSP, the Certified Information Systems Security Professional certification, would be accepted as an equivalent.
- ✓Networking: bidders proposing CCNP Data Center were rejected. The Parliament strictly required CCNP Enterprise and CCNP Security instead.
- ✓Data center experts: CompTIA Linux was rejected as a qualifying certification, while the Accredited Tier Specialist (ATS) certification was accepted.
- ✓Expired certifications: generally accepted without a specific time limit, provided the certified technology version was not considered completely obsolete compared to the Parliament’s actual running infrastructure.
For Lot 2 specifically, bidders also had to submit project references demonstrating how they handled innovation during the execution of a previous contract. Across both lots, the contracting authority made clear that if a contractor breaches its obligations or causes damage to the Parliament’s infrastructure, the Parliament holds the right to claim compensation for direct or consequential losses.
How Winners Were Chosen: The Award Criteria
Passing the selection criteria only qualifies a consortium to compete. For ITOMS25, the Parliament chose not to award the contract on price alone, opting instead for the Best Price-Quality Ratio. For both Lot 1 and Lot 2, the weighting was identical: Technical Quality counted for 60% of the score, and Financial Price for the remaining 40%.
Technical proposals were scrutinized against tender specifications, staffing profiles, environmental policies and the Service Level Agreements set out in the annexes.
What happens if a bidder’s technical score falls below the threshold?
Direct answer: automatic disqualification, regardless of price.
For Lot 1, a technical proposal had to score at least 150 out of a maximum 200 points just to pass the quality evaluation. A score of 149 or below disqualified the tenderer entirely, no matter how competitive their financial proposal was. The Parliament noted this quality threshold sits as a separate mechanism from the baseline minimum requirements of the selection phase.
The financial evaluation made up the remaining 40% of the score, using a protected “Price Evaluation Form,” Form 9. This evaluation captured the total cost of ownership for the Parliament, including the costs of the Take-Over and Hand-Over phases, which forced bidders to price their onboarding and offboarding strategies competitively. For Lot 2, the financial proposal was based on pricing a single indicative project rather than the ongoing project basket metric used in Lot 1. Once technical and financial scores were combined, the consortia with the highest totals were selected as winners.
Lot 1 Winners: Consortium 4YOU
Given the scale of the Parliament’s IT needs, awarding mega-tenders like this to a group of companies rather than a single entity is standard practice. ITOMS25 was awarded as a Framework Agreement without reopening of competition, using a Ranked Cascade system: the Parliament is legally obligated to approach the Rank 1 consortium first, and only moves down the cascade if that consortium cannot fulfill the request, declines the work, or fails to meet the time constraints. A total of five electronic tenders were received across the tender.
For Lot 1, the primary winner is Consortium 4YOU, led by the Belgian IT company Cronos Europa, alongside DEEP by POST, the Luxembourgish telecom and ICT specialist, Fujitsu and CTG. The consortium announced it had secured a six-year framework agreement worth up to €113 million for its portion of the operations.
“The European Parliament’s mission is central to the democratic functioning of the EU, and securing its core IT infrastructure is a task we take very seriously. Our combined expertise and commitment to excellence will ensure a stable, secure and scalable digital environment for the Parliament’s operations over the next six years.”
According to the official TED award notices, the companies awarded a place on Lot 1 include the members of Consortium 4YOU alongside several other major European integrators:
- ✓Fujitsu Technology Solutions (Belgium) NV/SA
- ✓Netcompany S.A.
- ✓POST Telecom S.A. (DEEP by POST)
- ✓Cosmote GS
- ✓Fujitsu Technology Solutions (Luxembourg)
- ✓Engineering International Belgium S.A.
- ✓CTG IT Solutions SA
- ✓Cronos Europa Luxembourg SA
- ✓Sogeti Luxembourg SA
The specific cascading ranks for Lot 1 are not detailed in the same granular format as Lot 2 in the official documentation. The presence of these large companies on the same list points to a highly competitive process, with multiple overlapping consortia securing framework positions to manage the €132 million fundamental infrastructure operations.
Lot 2 Winners: The Three Rank Cascade
For Lot 2, the cascade mechanism and rankings are explicitly detailed in the contract award results. The maximum actualized value of the framework agreements signed for Lot 2 concluded at €42,488,000.00, awarded across three distinctly ranked consortia. This ranking determines who gets the first right of refusal for advanced ICT projects over the next six years.
| Rank | Leader | Partners | Sub-contracting | Contract signed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank 1 | Sogeti Luxembourg SA (Luxembourg) | Netcompany S.A. (Luxembourg), Cosmote GS (Belgium), Engineering International Belgium S.A. (Belgium) | 24% | January 16, 2026 |
| Rank 2 | Deloitte Tax & Consulting (Luxembourg) | NRB (Belgium), Leonardo (Italy) | 18% | January 16, 2026 |
| Rank 3 | PwC EU Services (Belgium) | Unisystems Luxembourg Sarl (Luxembourg), Eviden Luxembourg SA (Luxembourg) | 25% | January 27, 2026 |
The Rank 1 consortium, led by Sogeti Luxembourg SA, achieved the highest combined technical and financial score. Its contract, referenced EP-ITEC/LUX/2025/OP/0001-ITOMS25 Lot 2 Rank_1, was officially signed on January 16, 2026, and the consortium declared that 24% of its contracted work will be sub-contracted to third parties. As Rank 1, it becomes the first point of contact for all specialized infrastructure projects.
If the Sogeti-led consortium is unavailable, the Parliament turns to Rank 2, led by Deloitte Tax & Consulting, with a contract signed the same day, January 16, 2026, and a declared sub-contracting percentage of 18%, the lowest reliance on external support among the three. The Rank 3 consortium, led by PwC EU Services, had its contract finalized on January 27, 2026, and declared the highest reliance on external support among the winners, with a sub-contracting percentage of 25%.
What ITOMS25 Means for the Winning Consortia
ITOMS25 is a good example of modern European public procurement in practice. By dividing the €204 million budget into two lots, the Parliament separated the need for stable, fundamental day-to-day operations under Lot 1 from the need for highly specialized, innovative project execution under Lot 2.
The bidding rules ensured that only consortia holding the highest tier of vendor certifications, from Nutanix and NetApp to specific cybersecurity benchmarks like CISSP, could even compete. The strict 60/40 award criteria, backed by a demanding 150 out of 200 point quality threshold, put quality ahead of simple cost-cutting.
The cascading framework ultimately rewards large, multinational IT alliances. Consortium 4YOU, made up of Cronos, DEEP by POST, Fujitsu and CTG, steps up to manage the core infrastructure, while the Sogeti-led alliance takes the Rank 1 spot for specialized services, closely backed by Deloitte and PwC. Over the next six years, these consortia are responsible for bringing the Parliament’s IT estate fully into the cloud era.
Meeting the ITOMS25 CV Template Requirement
Navigating a framework contract as large as ITOMS25 is not only a matter of proving technical prowess. It is also an exercise in extreme administrative compliance. For the winning consortia, whether managing the €132 million of fundamental operations under Lot 1 or executing advanced IT projects under the €72 million Lot 2 budget, proposing the right experts requires strict adherence to the Parliament’s exact standards.
Specifically, ITOMS25 imposes a rigid, highly specific CV template that every contractor must use when submitting experts for assignments. Manually formatting hundreds of expert resumes to match that exact template can become a significant operational bottleneck, draining both time and resources from consulting companies and IT integrators alike.
This is where a platform like Sprint CV becomes genuinely useful for companies operating within European institutional framework contracts. Sprint CV already fully supports the specific ITOMS25 CV template, having uploaded and integrated the exact format into the system in less than two hours after it was shared.
Companies operating within the ITOMS25 framework can use the platform to automate their CV generation entirely. Instead of manually wrestling with document formatting, vendors can transform candidates’ existing resumes into the mandatory layout, so every submitted expert profile applies industry best practices and passes the full compliance procedure imposed by the framework contract. Automating that transformation lets IT integrators stay compliant while focusing on what matters most: deploying the right talent to deliver on the EU’s digital future.
Companies working on similar European institutional tenders can see how the platform handles CV standardization and compliance across the CV management for consulting companies page, or explore the CV templates already supported. For teams still formatting resumes by hand, the AI CV Parser shows how existing resumes get converted into a client-mandated layout automatically. Results from other enterprise clients are documented on the enterprise testimonials page.
See how Sprint CV handles mandatory CV templates like ITOMS25 for consulting and IT companies bidding on EU institutional contracts.
Book a DemoFrequently Asked Questions
What is the ITOMS25 framework contract?
ITOMS25 is the European Parliament’s ICT Infrastructure and Hosting Services framework contract, reference EP-ITEC/LUX/2025/OP/0001, estimated at €204,000,000 excluding VAT over a 72 month duration.
What is the difference between Lot 1 and Lot 2 in ITOMS25?
Lot 1, worth €132,000,000, covers the fundamental day-to-day operation and support of the Parliament’s ICT infrastructure. Lot 2, worth €72,000,000, covers specialized and advanced ICT infrastructure projects that require niche technical skills or specific execution modalities.
Who won Lot 2 of the ITOMS25 tender?
Lot 2 was awarded to a three rank cascade: Sogeti Luxembourg SA leads Rank 1 with Netcompany, Cosmote GS and Engineering International Belgium as partners, Deloitte Tax & Consulting leads Rank 2 with NRB and Leonardo, and PwC EU Services leads Rank 3 with Unisystems Luxembourg and Eviden Luxembourg.
How does a ranked cascade framework agreement work?
The contracting authority ranks the winning consortia in order. When a service is needed, it must approach the Rank 1 consortium first. Only if Rank 1 cannot fulfill the request, declines the work, or fails to meet the time constraints does the authority move down the cascade to Rank 2, and then Rank 3.
What certifications were required to bid on ITOMS25?
Bidders needed staff holding certifications across Nutanix (Master, Expert or Professional level), NetApp NAS, PostgreSQL 12 or newer, cybersecurity credentials such as CISSP, and networking certifications including CCNP Enterprise and CCNP Security, among others.
Does Sprint CV support the ITOMS25 CV template?
Yes. The ITOMS25 CV template was uploaded and integrated in under two hours of being shared, so companies operating within the framework can generate compliant CVs directly from the platform.
Final Thought
ITOMS25 is a reminder that winning a European framework contract is only step one. The certification bar, the 60/40 scoring model and the cascade structure all demand precision before the contract is even signed. Once it is signed, that same precision extends to every CV a consortium submits, and that is exactly the kind of administrative load that should never slow down a team of qualified experts.
Marco Pincho has spent seven years building automation for how recruitment, consulting and IT companies manage CV data at scale, from candidate profile to client-ready, tender-compliant document. He founded Sprint CV in 2018 after seeing how much operational time was lost to manual CV formatting inside enterprise and institutional bids. He holds an Executive Master in IT Management from Solvay Brussels School and speaks daily with recruitment leaders, HR directors and consulting executives navigating exactly this kind of compliance pressure.
