Official UK procurement notice
Provision of a Research Enterprise Management System
Authority: University of Southampton (Charity / VCSE)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe proposed contract enables a radical new approach to applications and awards management, an end-to-end Research Enterprise Management System (REMS) will provide researchers, Professional Services staff and School/Faculty and University senior management, with a suite of easily accessible tools within one platform to manage, track progress and monitor our pipeline and portfolio of research and enterprise activities.
CPV: Industry specific software package
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1The provision of a Research Enterprise Management system comprising; research…
The provision of a Research Enterprise Management system comprising; research pre-award, post-award and contracts modules.
Research and Enterprise projects from external funding accounts for approximately £200m annually. There is a need to equip our researchers and professional staff with the tools that will enable them to compete effectively for external funding and to manage their awards - whilst giving the University effective oversight of its performance and the risks associated with research and enterprise activities. Currently there is considerable inefficiency in costing, pricing and approvals of bids as well as contracting and accessible post-award information. We mainly rely on people-driven processes, email communications and siloed information systems, as well as on individuals' knowledge and memory to ensure all necessary steps are taken. Procuring an 'end to end' best of breed integrated solution for applications and awards management will transform the way we manage our research and enterprise portfolio at all levels of the institution.
Contract Period: The University proposes to enter into a Contract for 10 years
This will comprise of an initial contract period of five years with an option to extend by a further five years subject to satisfactory performance and at the sole discretion of the University. Additional information: If you have any queries regarding this notice please contact e.raddon@soton.ac.uk and copy in procurement@soton.ac.uk.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- 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
- Goods
- 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
- 31 Mar 2021, 16:15 BST
- Last source update
- 31 Mar 2021, 16:15 BST
- Authority reference
2020UoS-0029- FTS notice number
2021/S 000-006699- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-02a19cFind a Tender
- Why no open competition
- The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive
- Published justification
Negotiated procedure without prior publication
The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator for the following reason: absence of competition for technical reasons
Explanation: Following thorough examination of the market and discussions with staff and other institutions with similar complexity and volumes of research and enterprise funding portfolio, only one vendor has proven able to provide the end to end functionality required by the University. Products from several vendors were tested during soft market testing. Only the Worktribe platform was confirmed as able to bring all the relevant functionalities and information together through an appropriate interface enabling users to utilise the information and applications relevant to their roles. Further vendor research into other solutions again showed that only the Worktribe system was able to provide the end to end, fully integrated workflows for Pre-award, post-Award and Contract Management at the scale and complexity required by the University. Concerns raised with other systems included:
- Not being able to manage the contracts elements of the requirement
- Only managing the ethics elements which are outside of scope of this project
- Not managing the full economic costing elements of the requirement
- Complex integrations would be required with other systems to provide the requirement
- Poor user experience in having to use multiple systems would remain for users
- Not able to manage the scale and complexity of our portfolio
Having conducted extensive market research and based on the complexity and size of the University's portfolio we have concluded that the Worktribe pre-award, post-award and contracts single platform is the only practical solution to meet our requirements.
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecastContracting authority & participating public bodies
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- WorkTribe LtdAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.