Public procurement notice: Modification Of A Contract/Concession During Its Term
Published: 2019-07-16
Buyer: Translink
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated procedure
CPV classification: 48000000 | 48450000 | 48810000: Information systems

Technical requirements: In October 2013, following completion of a competitive tender exercise conducted in accordance with the Utilities Contracts Regulations 2006, Translink awarded a contract for supply of a human resources system and related services (including support and maintenance) to Core Computer Consultants Ltd, trading as Core International of Westpoint Business Park, Cork, Ireland (Core HR) (Contract). The contract was for implementation of a system to securely centralise all employee records (personnel data; absence; medical history; training/competency records; performance management etc) and to enable flexible recruitment, workflow, self-service and reporting features. The contract was entered into on 20.1.2014 for an initial period of 3 years with options for Translink to extend for further periods of up to an additional 6 years in total (3+2+2+1+1) and was awarded on the basis of an on premise hosted solution.
— employee records – lifecycle changes such as new job, change of location, disciplinary records, grievance records,
— reporting to include generating sickness absence records, equality monitoring reports which meet legislative requirements, system interface reporting, KPI reports,
— recruitment – scalable to cope with high volume applications, able to facilitate online applications, capable of generating online staff requisitions,
System environment: hosting arrangements and integration with the existing secure environment which was hosted within a local data centre in Belfast.
Systems support and maintenance — database and application performance required to be within acceptable tolerance. Database performance tuning and patching also required.
UK and Northern Ireland HR Legislation — system to keep up-to-date with both UK and Northern Ireland legislative requirements.
The Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016 provide for aggrieved parties who have been harmed or are at risk of harm by a breach of the rules to take action in the High Court.
Translink requires core international to continue to supply the human resources system and related services that were procured under the original tender exercise, for a slightly shorter contract duration than was originally advertised. The parties have agreed however to make certain changes to the contract and the manner in which the services are provided (which are summarised in Section VII.2.1 below) for the reasons specified in Section VIII.2.2 below.
The parties have agreed the following changes, which have been incorporated in a Variation Agreement entered into between the parties on 21.6.2019 (Variation Agreement):
(a) revised licensing and ‘premium’ support terms (including revised and improved service levels and service credits) to reflect the transition of the system from an on premise hosted solution to a ‘software as a service’ model with effect from 21.6.2019. The service is based on user licences with independent availability monitoring. Disaster recovery and business continuity are included and the parties have also agreed to enter into an escrow agreement for the source code of the software;
(b) as above, the original Contract allowed for an extension of the contract on up to 4 occasions and a maximum possible duration of 9 years. The contract therefore had a potential final termination date (assuming that all extension options were exercised by Translink) of 19.1.2023.
Prior to the date of this modification notice and following expiry of the initial 3 year contract period, Translink exercised its first option to extend for 2 years to 19.1.2019. Translink then agreed with Core HR to extend for a further 1 year period (rather than the originally advertised 2 years) to 20.1.2020.
(a) to vary the duration of the previously agreed 1 year extension (such extension instead terminating earlier, on 20.6.2019);
(b) amend the frequency and duration of the options to extend originally advertised, to provide instead for a final, single 3-year fixed extension to the contract (effective from 21.6.2019); and as a result;


Winner: Core Computer Consultants Ltd trading as Core International