Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2018-05-18
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, C&C, Other
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 72250000: System and support services
Estimated value: 1600000 GBP

Technical requirements: 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.
The Contract will cover all software elements that comprise the 1Spatial APS application, including the base software, 3rd party software, developed applications and databases that are currently installed. The Contract will be for 2 years with an option for a further 1 year period.
The additional 1 year option to the contract must be taken up at least 30 days before the expiry date of the contract.
The new Contract for Gothic APS (Aeronautical Production System) Support and Maintenance, will be for 1 year and 9 months with an option for a further 1 year.
1Spatial Group Ltd are the only company who can carry out the services of the Gothic APS Support and Maintenance Contract and therefore the contract is awarded to 1Spatial Group Ltd by using the negotiated procedure without prior call for competition for technical reasons under ‘The Defence and Security Public Regulations 2011’ (DSPCR) Clause 16(1)(a)(ii) and the ‘Defence and Security Procurement Directive 2009/81/EC Article 28(1)(e). The main justification for this is due to the complexity of the software, however there are also reasons in connection with the protection of exclusive rights.
The source code in Gothic itself consists of approximately six million lines of source code, including extensive comments. There is significant additional software in APS as well. Errors, updates and enhancements to the Gothic and APS code require modifications to be carried out which can only be undertaken by 1Spatial Group Ltd. 1Spatial own the IPR for the Gothic Code and 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.
The system includes many highly complex and specialised proprietary components including the topology engine, the rules language, the computational geometry engine, geodetic calculations, the Gothic database etc. It uses a very wide range of languages and technologies including Lull a proprietary language for which the byte code is not documented, C, Java, JavaScript, Swing, FORTRAN, Oracle Workflow, WebLogic, Oracle Database. The APS data model is maintained using a proprietary Model Driven Architecture. The tools used are not included in the APS product. The MOD considers that no other economic operator would have the specific technical expertise to provide this requirement.
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.
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-2018516-DCB-12430203.


Winner: 1Spatial Group Ltd
Award value: 1600000