General terms and conditions and contract templates
Digital Public Services Switzerland (DPSS) supports the participating local authorities in the area of digitalisation and information and communication technology (ICT) by providing advice, coordination and recommendations as well as by representing their interests vis-à-vis ICT providers, in particular with regard to joint framework agreements.
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General terms and conditions
Digital Public Services Switzerland draws up and negotiates the general terms and conditions until the contract is signed.
The General Terms and Conditions for ICT Services are suitable for ICT activities of public administrations and private companies. They can be used as a basis for operational services, new developments and consultancy services or cloud services (XaaS).
The general terms and conditions provide public procurement offices with standardised, easy to understand and fair conditions for awarding contracts. In this way, it can be ensured that tenders, especially in public procurements, are comparable, including from a contract perspective.
2025 edition of the general terms and conditions for ICT services
For contracts concluded from 17 March 2025, the 2025 edition of the general terms and conditions for ICT services shall apply.
It is recommended that the general terms and conditions be used as the basis for all ICT contracts. As a rule, this means that acceptance of the general terms and conditions is a condition for participation in public procurement processes. In many public administrations, the use of the general terms and conditions is required by legislation or directives. The general terms and conditions for ICT services are a supplement to the individually concluded contracts.
Explanations of the general terms and conditions for ICT services, 2025 edition
The explanations summarise the changes made to the 2020 version of the General Terms and Conditions.
2020 edition of the general terms and conditions for ICT services
The January 2020 edition of the General Terms and Conditions for ICT Services applies for contracts concluded after 1 January 2020. This version of the general terms and conditions was approved by the SIK/CSI working conference in November 2019.
2015 edition of the general terms and conditions
The 2015 edition of the SIK/CSI general terms and conditions applies for contracts concluded up to 31 December 2019. It was approved by the SIK working conference in November 2014.
Contract templates for ICT services
When drawing up new framework contracts, the DPSS Office performs the preparatory work up to signature of the contract.
These contract templates are aimed at both service procurers and service providers. They are aligned with the current SIK/CSI general terms and conditions. The offer includes guidelines and checklists, as well as contract templates for contracts for works and services, ICT services, hardware purchases, software licences, and hardware and software maintenance.
The guidelines describe how the contract templates can be used and further adapted. Checklist I explains which contract template is recommended for each planned ICT-related legal transaction. This document makes it easier to choose the appropriate contract template.
Checklist II allows the selection of additional clauses and special provisions that are not already covered by the contract templates. The suggestions are limited to important clauses and special provisions that are already mentioned as possible add-ons or deviations in the SIK/CSI general terms and conditions.
Contract templates (sample contracts), aligned with the SIK/CSI general terms and conditions, 2020 edition
The contract templates and the guidelines will be adapted to the 2025 edition of the general terms and consitions for ICT services in the next step and will be published here in the next few weeks.
These contract templates and general terms and conditions are available (former contract templates of the SIK/CSI or general terms and conditions of the SIK/CSI):
2020 contract templates: