Gothic Aps Support and Maintenance Contract

Official notice

Authority: Ministry of Defence (Central government)

ServicesAward procedure without prior publication of a call for competition

Sectors: IT Services & Software (72) Delivery: East of England (UKH12)

Awarded value£3,987,4762 contracts · exc. VAT

Awarded 30 Mar 2021no call for competition

Awarded to 1Spatial plc, 1Spatial Group Ltd2 awards

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The UK Ministry of Defence intends to place a contract with 1Spatial Group Ltd on a Single Source basis for a duration of 2 years, with options of up to an additional 2 years. The Contract is for software maintenance and repair services and will provide support and maintenance for the bespoke software and applications that make up the GOTHIC Aeronautical Production Systems (APS). Justification for Single Source is made on Technical grounds due to the requirement for 1Spatial Group Ltd to undertake modifications and upgrades to the Gothic code.

CPV: System and support services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

Lot #1The UK Ministry of Defence intends to place a contract with 1Spatial Group Ltd on a…Awarded

The UK Ministry of Defence intends to place a contract with 1Spatial Group Ltd on a Single Source basis for a duration of 2 years plus a further 1 year option. The Contract is for software maintenance and repair services and will

provide support and maintenance for the bespoke software and applications that make up the GOTHIC Aeronautical Production

Systems (APS). Justification for Single Source is made on Technical grounds due to 1Spatial Group Ltd having to undertake

modifications and upgrades to the Gothic code.

Delivery: East of England · Cambridgeshire CC

Extensions: The requirement will be for two years with options of up to two further years let via sixth month options to a maximum duration of four years. The first six month option will be invoked three months prior to expiry of the initial two year period, with all subsequent options to be invoked under a minimum thirty day notice period.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record · publisher note attached

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: 15 Apr 2021, 14:25 BST
Last source update: 15 Apr 2021, 14:25 BST
Authority reference: 701165378
FTS notice number: 2021/S 000-007922
Classification (CPV): System and support services
Delivery area: East of England (UKH12)
Official registry OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-02a663 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: 1Spatial Group Ltd are the only company who can carry out the services relating to the Gothic APS Support and Maintenance Contract on technical grounds under the DSPCR regulations Clause 16(1)(a)(ii). This is due to the complexity of the software: No1 AIDU relies on the Gothic APS software to produce Aeronautical Information (AI) products for UK Defence aviation activities on an Internationally mandated legislative cycle of 28 days known as Aeronautical Information Regulation And Control (AIRAC).
1Spatial Group Ltd own the IPR for the Gothic (source code). The MOD own the IPR for APS. The APS code is dependent on the Gothic proprietary core technology, the two are integrated and the bespoke software will not function without the proprietary software underpinning it. Gothic consists of approximately six million lines of source code, including extensive comments. Bugs in the Gothic or APS code are required to be fixed and enhancements provided as a result of changes to the specification or new requirements from front line users. It would be prohibitively expensive and virtually impossible to fix bugs or enhance the software based on decompiled versions of this volume of code.
The Gothic APS system includes many highly complex and specialised proprietary components including the topology engine, the rules language, the computational geometry, geodetic calculations, the Gothic database etc. Furthermore, a very wide range of languages and technologies are utilised. It is not possible for another supplier to do the work because of the complexity of the software and the linkages between what is owned by MOD and 1Spatial, which would mean opening up both areas of code to fix bugs or provide a change request.

Publisher note: The Authority reserves the right to amend any condition related to security of information to reflect any changes in national law or government policy. If any contract documents are accompanied by instructions on safeguarding classified information (e.g. a Security Aspects Letter), the Authority reserves the right to amend the terms of these instructions to reflect any changes in national law or government policy, whether in respect of the applicable protective marking scheme, specific protective markings given, the aspects to which any protective marking applies, or otherwise. The link below to the Gov.uk website provides information on the Government Security Classification. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-security-classifications Advertising Regime OJEU:- This contract opportunity is published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU),the MoD Defence Contracts Bulletin and www.contracts.mod.uk GO Reference: GO-2021415-DCB-18083577

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast

Awards 2

Awarded value £3,987,4762 contracts exc. VAT

Bids received 1

Contracts signed 2latest 30 Mar 2021

Awarded to	Value	Date	Status
1Spatial plcGothic Aps	£1,993,738 †	—	Awarded
1Spatial Group LtdGothic APS Support and Maintenance	£1,993,738 †	—	Awarded

Contracts

Gothic Aps · 1Spatial plc
Signed
30 Mar 2021
Value
£1,993,738
Status
active
Gothic APS Support and Maintenance · 1Spatial Group Ltd
Signed
7 Dec 2020
Value
£1,993,738
Status
active

Bid statistics published by the authority

Bids	SME	VCSE	Valid bid range
1bids	—	—	—

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Ministry of Defence, C&C, C&C

Contracting authorityCentral GovernmentMinistry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local subdivisionsDefence Strategic Command Commercial, Spur B2, Building 405, MOD Corsham, Westwells Road, Corsham, South West, SN13 9NRContact email, phone

Bidders & participating suppliers

2 commercial parties on the notice

1SpatialAwarded supplier Tennyson House, Cowley Road, Cambridge, East of England, CB4 0WZContact email, phone
1Spatial Group LimitedAwarded supplier Tennyson House, Cowley Road, Cambridge, East of England, CB4 0WZContact email, phone

Official documents & specifications

Official links; attachments are not copied

No document links were published on the notice.