Voice, Video and Integration (VVI) services

CPV: Telecommunications services

Procedure method

Negotiated without publication of a contract notice

Legal basis

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

Procurement category

Services

Notice status

Awarded

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

Regulatory regime

Standard

Commercial structure

Stand-alone contract (no framework)

Competition type

Competitive procedure

GPA / WTO covered

Unspecified in notice

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

19 Nov 2021, 22:45 GMT

Last source update

19 Nov 2021, 22:45 GMT

FTS notice number

2021/S 000-028986

Classification (CPV)

Telecommunications services

Delivery area

UK

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-02f8a9 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 (Vodafone Limited), who has been providing the services forming the subject matter of this contract under a contract with the authority for the last 7 years eleven months which is due to expire on 09.12.21, 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/experience to provide the services, because:

(i) video traffic between the authority and other government bodies traverses the public services network (PSN). The authority cannot migrate away from the PSN until these other bodies have also migrated to new solutions as it is a closed system. For another PSN provider to provide the PSN link, intercommunity firewall rules and 3rd party allowed lists would require updating. Previously it has taken a minimum of 12 months for all 3rd parties to update their allowed lists with these timescales being outside the authority’s control. Migrating the PSN IP address ranges to another supplier’s network would have to be done simultaneously because IP ranges can only be in one place, presenting significant and unacceptable risks to service continuity. As PSN is due to close by 2023 the authority would also incur significant wasted costs by changing supplier given the short remaining lifespan of PSN;

(ii) many of the hardware components that are core to the services are hosted in Vodafone’s datacentres. A new supplier would have to i) design/implement a new environment, ii) re-route sub-contracted solutions through their own datacentres or a combination of these options, which would introduce a high level of risk to service delivery and substantial duplication of costs given PSN is due to close and would not therefore be a reasonable alternative/substitute; and

(iii) Vodafone has knowledge of the environment and complexities of how it inter-operates with other parts of the authority’s ICT environment, i.e. the WAN/LAN service, developed over the past 13 years. The integration gateway was designed with separate security domains to satisfy information assurance requirements at the time. This segregated environment means WAN traffic must be routed via the gateway to communicate, and only Vodafone can provide this gateway with the existing WAN/LAN service, until the WAN/LAN service is replaced.

(b) Even if it was theoretically possible that another supplier did have the necessary technical knowledge/experience, which the authority does not consider to be the case, it is estimated to take around 12 months to procure a replacement supplier and a further 18 to 24 months to complete a managed transition, whereas the services are required from 10.12.2021.

Publisher note: The initial term of the contract is for twenty two (22) months, with an option to extend for a further period of twelve (12) months. The contract includes the ability for the authority to remove services from scope as and when required and therefore it is likely to have a reducing scope, although when and which services may be removed early has not yet been determined. It is currently envisaged that if the extension option is exercised this will be to cover the remaining Services that have not yet transitioned to a replacement supplier. The authority intends to commence competitive procurement processes for the services early on during the initial term. The first of a series of market engagement activities commenced on 7 October 2021. The estimated total value for this contract is between £80m - £105m depending on whether the 12 month extension option is exercised and the order and timing of services being removed from scope. The project work is entirely optional and is not guaranteed, the extension may not be necessary, and services may be removed from scope over the term, so the actual cost of this contract may be lower than the estimated maximum contract value.

• Vodafone LtdAwarded supplier Vodafone House, The Connection, Newbury, South East, RG142FN

No document links were published on the notice.