Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2021-03-12
Buyer: The Common Services Agency (more commonly known as NHS National Services Scotland) (‘NSS’)
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 48000000 | 48430000 | 48490000 | 48517000 | 72000000
Estimated value: 5140415 GBP
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: This procurement was seeking to purchase software which will deliver a national inventory management solution in order to support the management, consumption, track and trace of critical care consumables acquired by or on behalf of NHS Scotland entities constituted pursuant to the national Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 (i.e. all NHS Scotland Health Boards and the authority or other NHS organisations established pursuant to the NHS (Scotland) Act 1978) and potentially all Integrated Joint Boards established pursuant to the Public Bodies (Joint Working) Scotland Act 2014 regardless of end user which may include health, social care, hospice care or care in the community.
The procurement project was seeking a service provider to provide a fully managed and hosted cloud based service for a national catalogue and inventory management solution in order to support the management, consumption, track and trace of critical care consumables across all areas of stock holdings within NHS Scotland and NHS Scotland partners in health and social care.
Real time operational management and real time management of all inventories: stock levels, recording usage, tracking demand/consumption, tracing product, automatic replenishment, goods returns;
Support for GS1 standards for data such as GTINs (‘single’ and ‘outer’ supply units), GLNs and GSRNs;
Interfaces/usable outputs to other systems supporting Theatre Management, Cath Labs, Patient Management, Equipment/Asset Management, Pharmacy prescribing/dispensing, Facilities Management and the National Catering System.
Important note: There is a hard deadline for system ‘go live’ of 31 March 2021. Contractors must ensure they detail in their tender response, how this hard deadline will be achieved. Please refer to the ITT document for further information on implementation of key milestones by this date.
Due to Covid-19 there is an urgent requirement for a National Inventory Management Solution in order to support the management, consumption, track and trace of critical care consumables across all entities constituted pursuant to the national health service.
Contract value of GBP 5 800 000 reflects the anticipated overall value of the contract. This includes first year purchase and implementation of the service including the recurring costs for the duration of the contract including potential extension periods. NSS expects the contract value to depend on the innovative solutions being tendered. No guarantees are given to either volume or value of spend.
The buyer is using PCS-Tender to conduct this ITT exercise. The Procurement Contract Reference is NP6046-20.
The buyer is using PCS-Tender to conduct this ITT exercise. The Project code is 16977. For more information see:
The authority will notify economic operators who submitted a tender or (where no deselection notification has previously been made) applied to be selected to tender, of its decision to award the framework agreement which notification will contain among other information, a summary of the reasons why the economic operator was unsuccessful. The notification will incorporate a ‘standstill period’ of a minimum of 10 clear calendar days (or a minimum of 15 if the communication method used is not electronic) between the date on which the authority despatches the notice(s) and the date on which the authority proposes to conclude the relevant framework agreement. The bringing of court proceedings against the authority during the standstill period will automatically continue the prohibition on entering into the framework agreement until the court proceedings are determined, discontinued or disposed of, or the court, by interim order, brings to an end the prohibition. The remedies that may be awarded by the courts before the framework agreement has been entered into include the setting aside of the decision to award the framework agreement to the winning tenderer(s). The bringing of court proceedings against the authority after the framework agreement has been entered into will not affect the framework agreement unless grounds for the imposition of special penalties under the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 can be established. Otherwise the remedies that may be awarded by the courts where the framework agreement has been entered into are limited to the award of damages. Economic operators are entitled to write to the authority after receipt of the notification should they require further clarification. The authority will respond within 15 days of such a written request, but it should be noted that receipt by the authority of such request during the standstill period may not prevent the authority from awarding the framework agreement following the expiry of the standstill period. Economic operators should approach the contracting authority in the first instance. However, the only formal remedy is to apply to the courts:
An economic operator that suffers or is at risk of suffering, loss or damage attributable to a breach of duty under the Public Contracts(Scotland) Regulations 2015 or the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, may bring proceedings in the Sheriff Court or the Court of Session.


Winner: Genesis Automation
Award value: 5140415
Number of bids: 4