Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2017-08-19
Buyer: United Utilities Water Limited (‘UU’)
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Innovation partnership
CPV classification: 34152000 | 35113000: Safety equipment | 35113100 | 35125100: Sensors | 38421100
Submission deadline: 2017-09-18
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: This procurement follows the Innovation Partnership procedure and seeks innovative businesses to help UU tackle key industry challenges in innovative ways.
The top applicants will win places in UU's Innovation Lab. The Lab is a 10-week programme and participants will co-locate and work with UU to develop, improve, test and demonstrate their idea, potentially in live environments. A supply arrangement may follow.
Those meeting the published selection criteria will be invited to put forward ideas in the 5 categories, each a separate lot as described below. A single idea may be submitted only for a single lot. See www.unitedutilities.com/innovation for more detail.
Our day to day lives and homes will become more connected, and we're constantly collecting and sharing information that can make us more efficient. How can Internet of Things (IoT) in the home in the form of smart meters, IoT appliances, and sensors work together to ensure we catch water issues before they become a burden to the customer? And, of equal importance, how can we use these tools to find new ways of managing water and help customers manage their water spend better?
At Application Stage, candidates will only pass through to the Ideas Stage if they are of good standing and are willing to agree to one of a range of commercial relationship options detailed in the application form.
At Ideas Stage, the top 3 scoring candidates from each lot will pass through to Pitch Day along with the next 10 top scoring candidates from any lot.
At Pitch Day, the top scoring candidate in each lot will be awarded a place in the Innovation Lab along with the 3 next highest scoring candidates from all lots providing there is no greater gap than 10 % between that candidate and the highest scoring candidate in their lot.
At both Ideas Stage and Pitch Day, candidates can be rejected if their idea has no innovative aspects to it, is not likely to be of benefit or relevance to UU or it would be not possible to develop the idea substantially during the time available in the lab.
United Utilities want to be more efficient so they can do more for their customers, for less. How can new technology, particularly predictive or monitoring solutions that can be applied to our water and wastewater networks, enable United Utilities to pre-emptively fix issues before a customer notices or complains — and give their customers a positive experience by informing them of this preventative action? What technologies have the potential to help the customer save money, reduce local flooding or protect the environment via enabling self-control of their water usage or wastewater disposal?
At Application Stage, candidates will only pass through to the Ideas Stage if they are of good standing and are willing to agree to one of a range of commercial relationship options detailed in the application form.
At Ideas Stage, the top 3 scoring candidates from each lot will pass through to Pitch Day along with the next 10 top scoring candidates from any lot.
At Pitch Day, the top scoring candidate in each lot will be awarded a place in the Innovation Lab along with the 3 next highest scoring candidates from all lots providing there is no greater gap than 10 % between that candidate and the highest scoring candidate in their lot.
At both Ideas Stage and Pitch Day, candidates can be rejected if their idea has no innovative aspects to it, is not likely to be of benefit or relevance to UU or it would be not possible to develop the idea substantially during the time available in the lab.
United Utilities has over 5 000 employees working across the business and many more in their supply chain — undertaking tasks such as asset repair, maintenance, visiting customers and moving from job to job. Many of these are lone workers, working remotely from the central team. United Utilities has recently introduced mobile devices to many of their employees and these could be enabled with new technologies or solutions to help with coordination and performance. How can United Utilities better collect, learn from and distribute knowledge? Help ensure the safety of team members in the field? Or maximise time on jobs by prioritising workloads in real-time? Solutions here could come from many fields, including wearable technology, connected transport or tools distributed via mobile devices.
At Application Stage, candidates will only pass through to the Ideas Stage if they are of good standing and are willing to agree to one of a range of commercial relationship options detailed in the application form.

Eligibility requirements: Interested economic operators must be of good standing to pass through to the Ideas Stage.