Application Maintenance and Support services

CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Procedure method

Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition

Legal basis

CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)

Procurement category

Services

Notice status

Awarded without competition

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

Regulatory regime

Standard

Commercial structure

Stand-alone contract (no framework)

Competition type

Direct award (no call for competition)

GPA / WTO covered

Unspecified in notice

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

10 Aug 2023, 16:18 BST

Last source update

26 Sept 2023, 14:58 BST

FTS notice number

2023/S 000-028381

Classification (CPV)

IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Delivery area

UK

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-03eed0 Find a Tender

Why no open competition

The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator due to absence of competition for technical reasons

Published justification

The authority relies on Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) (Use of negotiated procedure without prior

publication) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 namely: the services can only be

provided by a particular economic operator, the incumbent supplier (CGI IT UK Limited), who

has been providing the services forming the subject matter of this contract under a contract

with the authority for the last 8 years three months which is due to expire on 31.08.23,

because competition is absent for technical reasons, and no reasonable alternative

substitute exists and the absence of competition is not the result of an artificial narrowing

down of the parameters of the procurement for the following reasons.

(a) no other supplier has the necessary technical knowledge and experience to provide the

services, because:

i) most of the applications are bespoke and 'heritage applications' with many over 18 years

old. The heritage applications are difficult to maintain because of their age and complexity

and the extent to which they have been changed over the years and require very specialist

technical knowledge and experience, e.g. skills/experience in using aged programming

languages such as Fortran, COBOL, Pascal and C. The number of people with the skills,

knowledge and experience to maintain and/or enhance them is limited outside CGI, which

has developed significant knowledge and experience of how the applications were built and

developed and how they operate and interface with each other; and

ii) delivering the services relies on non-live development and test environments, and

management access to the live environments, both to provide ongoing support and to

undertake application development/enhancement. For a replacement supplier to provide

the services, they would need access to the same/equivalent existing non-live development

and test environments. To build and implement equivalent development and test

environments would take around 12 months and be challenging, expensive and risky without

the necessary application knowledge/experience. A replacement supplier would additionally

need to establish infrastructure, connectivity and processes to allow secure management

access to the live environments, e.g. to investigate maintenance issues or for boarding

purposes i.e. to deploy new applications/code.

(b) even if it was theoretically possible that another supplier(s) did have the necessary

technical knowledge/experience, which the authority does not consider to be the case, it is

estimated to take a minimum of 18-24 months for a procurement to be run and any

replacement supplier(s) to be able to deliver the services (6 to 12 months to run a

competition to award to another supplier depending on the route/process and around 12

months to transition) whereas the services are required from 01.09.2023.

Publisher note: The initial term of the contract is for 12 months with an option to extend for a further period of 12 months. The contract enables the authority to terminate services at its convenience and partially and it is envisaged that a number of applications will be removed from scope over the term as they are retired/replaced and as in-house software delivery capability is developed. The authority intends to commence a competitive procurement process for the maintenance/support of the remaining applications during the initial term. The estimated maximum contract value for this contract (£60,340,000 GBP) is based on estimated service charges of £31,200,000 GBP with the remaining value discretionary spend on potential project work, and assumes the option to extend the term is exercised. The project work is optional and is not guaranteed, the extension may not be necessary, and applications may be removed from scope over the term, so the actual cost of this contract may be lower than the estimated maximum contract value.

• CGI UK LtdAwarded supplier 20 Fenchurch Street, 14th Floor, London, UK, EC3M 3BYContact emailShow contact details
• CGI Uk ltdAwarded supplier00947968 20 Fenchurch Street, 14th Floor, London, UK, EC3M 3BY

No document links were published on the notice.