Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2020-06-04
Buyer: Sykehuspartner HF
Country: NO
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 72261000: Software support services | 72268000: Software supply services | 72310000: Data processing services | 72416000: Application service providers
Estimated value: 5270000 NOK
Award criteria: Lowest price

Technical requirements: Sykehuspartner has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft that lasts from 1 December 2018 to 30 November 2021. The MS Office package (Office Pro Plus) is part of the EA. Sykehuspartner HF procured security updates as an additional procurement in the contract in December 2019 that were connected to a number of Office 365 licences. Sykehuspartner HF would now like to use these licences.
Sykehuspartner has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft that lasts from 1 December 2018 to 30 November 2021. The EA includes all products that Sykehuspartner HF procures from Microsoft. Sykehuspartner HF runs the computer systems for the health trusts in Helse Sør-Øst, and the EA products are used in all the health trusts.
The MS Office package (Office Pro Plus), which all employees in Helse Sør-Øst use, is part of the EA. The package includes, amongst other things Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access, and Skype for Business.
In order to ensure the operation of clients (PCs) with the Windows 7 operative system and servers with the Windows 2008 operativ system, Sykehuspartner signed a contract in December 2019 with Microsoft for security updates (ESU) in 2020 for longer the ordinary support period. Direct procurements of ESU from Microsoft comply with the Public Procurement Regulations Section 13-4 letter b, which states that the contracting authority can make a direct procurement from a supplier when only one supplier can provide the service in question.
Microsoft connected the sale of ESU with 8 000 Office 365 licences in such a way that, in commercial terms, it made an indivisible package.
Sykehuspartner has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft that lasts from 1 December 2018 to 30 November 2021. The EA includes all products that Sykehuspartner HF procures from Microsoft. Sykehuspartner HF runs the computer systems for the health trusts in Helse Sør-Øst, and the EA products are used in all the health trusts.
The MS Office package (Office Pro Plus), which all employees in Helse Sør-Øst use, is part of the EA. The package includes, amongst other things Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access, and Skype for Business.
In order to ensure the operation of clients (PCs) with the Windows 7 operative system and servers with the Windows 2008 operative system, Sykehuspartner signed a contract in December 2019 with Microsoft for security updates (ESU) in 2020 for longer the ordinary support period. Direct procurements of ESU from Microsoft comply with the Public Procurement Regulations Section 13-4 letter b, which states that the contracting authority can make a direct procurement from a supplier when only one supplier can provide the service in question.
Microsoft connected the sale of ESU with 8 000 Office 365 licences in such a way that, in commercial terms, it made an indivisible package.
Sykehuspartner would now like to use these licences. Sykehuspartner HF believes that this can be justified in the rules on mixed procurements, cf. the Public Procurement Regulations, chapter 6. The gist of these rules is that when a procurement partly falls within and partly falls outside a specific set of rules, the procurement must be made in accordance with the set of rules that apply for the service that makes up the main object of the contract, if the services cannot be split from each other in an objective way, cf., amongst other things, Kofa-2015-77. Thus, the procurement of ESU updates (that can procured directly due to monopoly rights) and Office 365 can be seen as a mixed procurement. ESU updates make up the main object of the contract, as they make up approx. 4/5 of the value of the procurement.
Sykehuspartner believes that the contract elements cannot be split from each other in a practical way. This is discussed in more detail in the preface to the procurement directive, premise 11, which states that the necessity of entering into a total contract can be justified by financial reasons.
In addition, compatibility (interoperability) with existing software gives the right to make a direct procurement of Office 365, cf. the Public Procurement Regulations Section 13-4 letter b. It is also clarified in section 50 of the preface of the EU's procurement directive for the classical sector, (directive 2014/24/EU). The Office 365 licences, together with the existing software, give total functionality and a seamless user experience that other separate licences cannot offer. The Office 365 licence also give interoperability with an existing platform that is important for the security level.


Winner: Microsoft ireland Operations Ltd
Award value: 5270000