Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2017-10-28
Buyer: University Of Edinburgh
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Competitive dialogue
CPV classification: 48000000 | 48810000: Information systems | 64216200 | 72222300: Information technology services
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: The University of Edinburgh (the ‘University’) wishes to appoint a supplier to provide a Software as a Service (SaaS) based solution for the University's Finance (including Procurement) and HR (including Payroll) ‘Core Systems’. Please refer to Section II.2.4 of this Notice for further definition around the scope of this procurement.
In accordance with Regulation 27(4) of The Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, use of this procedure (competitive dialogue) is justified on the basis that the supplies and services cannot be sufficiently defined and require supplier technical design input. The complexity of this project and need to mitigate risk on technical, financial, legal and reputational dimensions, necessitates dialogue.
Bidders must self-certify adherence to selection and exclusion criteria via the ESPD on Public Contract Scotland — Tender (PCS-T). When completing the ESPD, bidders must have regard for the selection requirements detailed in Section III of this OJEU Notice.
The University will accept bids from suppliers who provide an end-to-end software and implementation solution as a single entity. The University will also accept bids from consortia (e.g. software suppliers and implementation partners working collaboratively) or any other bid comprising subcontractors or otherwise relying on the capacities of other entities. The University has identified that investment in a solution to deliver a new Finance and HR system is critical. Additional modules such as Estates Management, Customer Relationship Management, Student Lifecycle Management, Research Management Systems, Document Management are currently seen as out of the ‘Core Systems’ scope. However, the University retains the ability, at its sole discretion, to explore these modules with the Qualified Bidder(s), i.e. those organisations selected (following ESPD stage) and invited by the University to participate in the dialogue stage. This will enable the University to (i) obtain further understanding of the Qualified Bidder(s) pipeline towards future innovation of the solution, and (ii) consider whether or not to incorporate such modules within the solution during the lifespan of the contract. All bidders should therefore be willing to provide the Core System's scope together with the additional modules, if required.
Core Enterprise Business Systems, ‘Core Systems’, is defined as the central systems that support the HR, Finance, Payroll, and Procurement requirements of the University. However, the University would like to explore further modules, as outlined above. Such systems provide much of the core IT functionality to run the University's professional services and administrative functions. These systems have received very little investment over the last 20 years, which has in turn resulted in an excessive amount of application proliferation as individual areas of professional services, Colleges or Schools have added, created or purchased their own business system.
The estimated total order of magnitude of this contract is 9 000 000 GBP. This low accuracy estimation is based on: (i) the initial 5-year contract term; and (ii) annual renewal figures of the University's current Finance and HR systems. At this stage, the University does not have sufficient information of all the systems across the estate (including those in addition) which we are potentially looking to replace. The figure does not include the costs of implementation or integration as this information is not currently available to the University. The University also has insufficient information of what a solution might entail and consequently cannot form a meaningful contract value estimate. The competitive dialogue process is structured to determine such factors, however it is likely that the overall value of the opportunity will be higher.
Under no circumstances will the University or any of its respective advisers be liable for any costs or expenses incurred by bidders and/or its respective advisers 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. Any discussions and correspondence will be deemed strictly subject to contract until a formal contract is entered into. The formal contract shall not be binding until it has been signed and dated by the duly authorised representatives of both parties. This project will not be divided in to lots due to its complexity.
Information About Staff: With regards to part III.2.3, suppliers will only be required to submit this information upon request. Suppliers need not supply this information with their response to the ESPD.
Means of Proof: The University will require the certificates, statements and any other evidence of fulfilment of the selection criteria. It is envisaged that this documentation will be requested following down selection to 4 bidders and at any stage at the University's discretion. Should documentation not be forthcoming or satisfactory, e.g. certification out of date or incorrect certification held, the University reserves the right to disqualify any Qualified Bidder(s) and invite the highest scoring Qualified Bidder(s) from the previous round to participate in the next stage of dialogue.
Modern Slavery Act 2015 and ILO Conventions: The University of Edinburgh is committed to protecting and respecting human rights and has a zero tolerance approach to slavery and human trafficking in all its forms. Bidders and subcontractors engaged in the delivery of this contract may be excluded if they have not met applicable social, environmental and labour obligations under national, EU, and international law (ESPD section 3D). This includes obligations for certain organisations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (available online at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/30/contents/enacted), as well as obligations listed in Annex X of Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (available online at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32014L0024&from=EN).
Bidders and/or relevant subcontractors may be required to provide statements and means of proof demonstrating their compliance with these obligations, which may include a request for the annual statement as provided for by section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act for organisations with a turnover of 36 000 000 GBP or over.
Publication: Procurement documents will be held from publication in PCS-T for 48 hours from the time the OJEU Notice is sent to PCS. This will not affect project timescales.
All queries relating to this procurement MUST be made through the PCS-T messaging portal. For further instructions please refer to the ESPD Guidance document attached to this project in PCS-T.
— Change the basis, the procedures and the time-scales set out or referred to within the procurement documents;
— Require a bidder to clarify any submissions in writing and/or provide additional information (failure to respond adequately may result in disqualification);