Monmouthshire County Council Schools Information Management System (SIMS)

CPV: Data services · Data-processing services · Database services · IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · Software supply services · Software support services · Software-related services

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

Yes (GPA)

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

13 Apr 2022, 09:03 BST

Last source update

13 Apr 2022, 09:03 BST

FTS notice number

2022/S 000-009834

Classification (CPV)

Data servicesData-processing servicesDatabase servicesIT services: consulting, software development, Internet and supportSoftware supply servicesSoftware support servicesSoftware-related services

Delivery area

Wales (UKL21)

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-032d07 Find a Tender

Why no open competition

The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive

Published justification

This contract award notice is intended to be a relevant contract award notice pursuant to Reg. 93 - 2, 3 and 4 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. It is published on a wholly voluntary basis and without prejudice to the local authority's and the governing body of each individual school's position that no prior publication of a contract notice, and thus no competitive tender exercise, was required in respect of the Facilitation Agreement - FA and/or the individual Schools Contracts - SC.

Publisher note: Continued Explanation from IV.1.1 Further or in the alternative, neither the FA nor the individual SCs are subject to a requirement to carry out prior publication of a contract notice and/or any form of competitive tender, because the services can only be provided by one particular economic operator ESS, because competition is absent for technical reasons pursuant to Reg. 32 -2bii of the 2015 Regulations. This is because all of the schools in the local authority's area currently use ESS' SIMS product. It would take a minimum of 1 year to transition from ESS' SIMS product to another product, including implementation, testing, training staff and migration of data. To avoid serious disruption to the school's functions, that transition has to take place over the long summer holidays. ESS served 90 days' notice to terminate the current arrangements, shortly before Christmas 2021. It would therefore not be possible, in the timescales imposed by ESS, for schools to tender for and purchase an alternative product and transition to it, without suffering serious disruption to essential services which would affect the ability of schools to continue to function and which may require schools to close. Further or in the alternative, neither the FA nor the individual SCs are subject to a requirement to carry out prior publication of a contract notice and/or any form of competitive tender, because of urgency pursuant to Reg. 32 - 2c of the 2015 Regulations. The provision of an information management system is essential to the running of a school and a school cannot function without it. The notice to terminate the current contracts and the short timescale imposed by ESS were unforeseen by the local authority and the schools. Due to the short notice given by ESS, together with the time it would take to prepare and agree a specification and following a tender exercise to transition to a new product, the timescales for the open or restricted procedure, or competitive procedure with negotiation, cannot be complied with in the time available. It is intended in the future to advertise a competitive tender exercise for SIMS on an all-Wales basis, with award and transition to the new contracts resulting from such tender to coincide with the end of the 3-year term of the SCs entered into with ESS. Pre-tender market testing is likely to commence in the near future. (WA Ref:120512)

• Education Software Solutions LimitedAwarded supplier 11 Kingsley Lodge, 13 New Cavendish Street, London, London, W1G9UGContact phoneShow contact details

No document links were published on the notice.