Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2020-02-26
Buyer: University Of Edinburgh
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Restricted procedure
CPV classification: 48825000: Web servers | 72212200: Networking software programming services | 72212222 | 72415000: Website hosting services
Estimated value: 350000 GBP
Submission deadline: 2020-03-27
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: The University of Edinburgh (the University) wishes to appoint a supplier to provide a platform as a service (PaaS) based solution for the development of a website publishing platform. This platform needs to be flexible and improve iteratively to support the ongoing business and user demands. Please refer to Section II.2.4) of this notice for further definition around the scope of this procurement.
This procedure will be carried out in accordance with Regulation 29 of The Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.
Bidders must self-certify adherence to selection and exclusion criteria via the ESPD on Public Contracts Scotland Tender (PCS-T). When completing the ESPD, bidders must have regards for the selection requirements detailed in Section III of this OJEU notice.
The University is planning to launch a new corporate University Web publishing service, by November 2021, to replace the current provision of a central University Website and its underlying monolithic Web Content Management (CMS), EdWeb. This procurement exercise will ensure that the following components and relevant activities of this service will be provided by an external supplier in full alignment with the University's strategies:
— a cloud-hosted website publishing platform with the ability to successfully sustain the current University Website and have the scale-ability, capacity and performance capability to extend in hosting the wider University web estate,
— a modular website, including its underlying CMS solution to replace the current one. This solution should be developed in alignment with user-centred practices and would be fit for purpose for the University's core use cases. Additionally, it should easily allow its continuous improvement by the University Website Service Team and integrate feedback or code contributions from the wider University website community,
— migration of the current University website and its content to the web publishing platform in it entirety, using the developed solution as appropriate,
— close collaboration and knowledge sharing between the supplier and the central University's design, UX and development teams in required, to ensure decisions are made in partnership, support relevant skills development and enable the transition to a fully agile, continuous improvement model.
The University will accept bids from suppliers that intend to use subcontractors or otherwise relying on the capacities of other entities.
Under no circumstances will the University or any of its respective advisors be liable for any costs or expenses incurred by bidders and/or its respective advisors arising directly or indirectly from this procurement or termination thereof, including, without limitation, any changes or adjustments made to the procurement documentation, or the exclusion/disqualification of a bidder.
The contract duration is 3 years with the option to extend for an additional 3 years at 12-month intervals, at the discretion of the University.
The ESPD asks bidders general questions; when completing, bidders must have regard for the statements in this OJEU notice and the ESPD Guidance document that detail specific requirements. Please note that full statements are available in ESPD Guidance document. Bidders must:
(a) pass the minimum standards in ESPD Sections 4A, 4B, and 4D in the PCS-T Qualification envelope. Statements for these questions can be found in the ESPD Guidance document and Sections III.1.1), III.1.2) and III.1.3) (‘Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required’) of this notice;
(b) Complete the scored ESPD Section 4C found in the PCS-T Technical envelope. Statements for these questions can be found in the ESPD guidance document and Section III.1.3) (‘List and brief description of selection criteria’) of this notice. Section 4C will be scored as per the scoring methodology detailed below, we will take the highest scoring 10 qualified bidder(s) through to the invitation to tender (ITT) stage.
The University may disqualify any bidder who scores a 0 or 1 (Unacceptable or Poor) in any scored questions.


Award value: 350000