Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2018-05-24
Buyer: Thames Water Utilities Limited
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 30000000 | 32400000 | 32441200 | 32500000 | 42961200
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: The original TTA Agreement was entered into under a contract notice reference 2015/S 187-340119 in order to deliver all of Thames’ core information technology/operational technology across its whole business until potentially the end of Asset Management Plan 8 (“AMP 8”) (31.3.2030). The TTA Agreement envisaged regular transformation and innovation in the way in which the services are to be delivered under an alliance/partnership arrangement. Considerable core and future scope was advertised as part of the original procurement.
This Deed of Variation follows a review of how the TTA Alliance operates in line with the key Alliance principle to seek continuous improvement. The following innovations and improvements, are being implemented by Thames Water and the Alliance Member (being the successful consortium entities collectively):
— Reallocation of responsibility for delivery of certain core IT services between Consortium Entities. The core IT “Run Order” with the Alliance Member to be separated into distinct “service towers” to be performed by specified Consortium Entities based on the Alliance principle of the “best person for the job”,
— The pricing schedule has been amended to reflect the reorganization of, and improvement to, the services,
— The agreement to various projects with the Alliance Member in order to carry out activities required to modernize Thames Water’s IT estate to account for technological and other improvements envisaged under the original TTA Agreement,
— the sourcing of new hardware, software and services from the Alliance Member as envisaged as a future scope within the original procurement and TTA Agreement and which will be procured by the Alliance Member from specified subcontractors,
— the improvement of the core IT services through reduced and simplified SLAs which reflects technology changes and industry norms,
Thames Water considers that the majority of the changes implemented in the Deed of Variation do not affect the nature or scope of the original TTA Agreements in respect of the basis upon which the they were originally procured or the value as originally advertised and therefore these changes are not substantial modifications as defined by Article 89(7) of EU Directive 2014/25/EU and Regulation 88(7) of the UK’s Public Contracts Regulations 2016; specifically:
1) the variations do not render the contract materially different in character from the one initially concluded as such TTA Agreement was envisaged to have considerable scope and value;
2) Thames Water has considered the original procurement and is satisfied that such changes do not introduce conditions which may have affected the outcome of the original procurement;
3) collectively the variations do not alter the economic balance of the contract in favour of the contractors as the overall expected value to the end of the term remains unchanged;
5) there is no change to the parties to the contract other than one party has left the Alliance as permitted and envisaged in clear, precise and unequivocal review clauses
The TTA Agreements envisaged that the Alliance (being Thames Water and the Alliance Member) would keep under review the way it operates and would revise the way it operates regularly in line with the key Alliance principle to seek continuous improvement and to foster innovation in the manner in which the technology services are provided. The original procurement appointed a long term alliance arrangement capable of encompassing a number of contractual changes to the technology services over the term. The TTA Agreement (and original procurement) envisages that Thames Water’s technology requirements would change over time (including as to scope and pricing) and Thames would work with its Alliance Member to implement such changes. It also provided that Consortium Entities may be replaced or removed by the Alliance Member at the Alliance Member’s instigation provided the services would not be effected.Therefore in the event that one or more of the changes are considered to be substantial, Thames Water also considers that Article 89(1) of EU Directive 2014/25/EU and Regulation 88(1) of the UK’s Public Contracts Regulations 2016 applies to such changes in any event.


Winner: Accenture (UK) Limited