Public procurement notice: Modification Of A Contract/Concession During Its Term
Published: 2023-07-24
Buyer: Residential Tenancies Board (RTB)
Country: IE
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 72512000: Document management services | 75112000 | 75123000 | 79512000 | 79999100

Technical requirements: The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) undertook a project to outsource its requirements for data management and contact centre services. The intention was to provide an efficient, timely and customer centred services for the processing of registration and dispute applications, payment of associated fees and the interface with its customers to handle daily contact. The project required a number of services which were divided into three lots: Lot 1: Document Management Services; Lot 2: Contact Centre; and Lot 3: Scanning Services.
The contract was awarded for an initial period of three years, commencing 9 May 2013, with the option to extend for an additional two years. This option was exercised by the contracting authority. The value of the contract over the initial three-year period was EUR 2,803, 349 (excluding VAT). The value over the full five-year period was EUR 5 million (ex VAT).
The contract was extended on the same terms and conditions for twelve months from 9 May 2018 at an estimated value of €1.8 million (ex VAT).
The contract was further extended for a period of eighteen months from 20 May 2019 to 9 November 2020 with an estimated value of EUR 3.5 million (ex VAT). A new right to terminate for both parties on giving three months' notice was introduced, and an annual increase of 2.5% to the charges payable, to cater for inflationary increases, was agreed.
In May 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, further changes to the contract were implemented. These included changes to the scope of the services, a reduction in the overall volume of services, a change to the primary place of performance of the services (to allow for home-working), a reduction in the number of staff working on the contract, reduced hours of operation, changes to the data processing agreement and changes to SLAs/KPIs. A new commercial model (moving from a transaction-based charging model to a PTE model) was also implemented.
The contract was extended in November 2020 for a further twelve months (expiring 9 November 2021) at an estimated value of EUR 2 million (ex VAT).
The contract was subsequently extended from 10 November 2021 for a period of twelve months (expiring on 1 November 2022) and again on 1 November 2022 for a period short of six months (expiring on 10 April 2023).
The contract term indicated at II.2.7 (120 months) relates to the term of the contract to date, including all of the above extensions.
In May 2013, the RTB entered into a contract with Southwestern Business Process Services Limited (now Capita Customer Solutions Limited) for the provision of document management and contact centre services. The contract is for business-critical services and was awarded for an initial period of three years with the option to extend for a further two years. This option was exercised by the RTB. The contract has since been further extended and modified on a number of occasions (as described at Section VI.3 of this notice) and is due to expire in April 2023.
The RTB has been in the process of implementing its new tenancy management system, known as RTB360, since 2020. The RTB360 is an enterprise solution supporting all core business processes, information flows, reporting, and data analytics requirements of the RTB. In 2020, the RTB advertised a single-party framework agreement relating to the provision of contact centre and document management services (Ref 2020/S 069-164518). The intention was that the initial call-off contract awarded under this framework agreement would replace the current contract with Capita.
The competition for the framework agreement was predicated on the assumption that RTB360 would be in place and fully operational at contract commencement. Due to the impact of Covid-19 and the significant delays in implementing RTB360, the RTB was forced to abandon the competition in April 2021.
In November 2021, the system went live, followed by the introduction of Annual Registrations in April 2022. The Release 3.0 of RTB360 is currently underway and one module of the system is live with the remaining modules expected to go live in mid to late 2023. This release will implement technical revisions to improve customer experience. Any change in service provider in the interim, would result in the RTB facing substantial disruption due the high demand of crucial services and support currently being provided by the service provider. This would have a substantial and detrimental effect on the RTB’s ability to deliver its services. The RTB intends to commence the re-tendering process for these services in 2023 when the next release of the system will be in place to better support customers and will allow for registration services to be stabilised.
In the meantime, as the contract is for business-critical services, the RTB has no option but to extend the existing contract with Capita Customer Solutions Limited. The modification extends the contract for a further period of approximately 6 months from 10 April 2023. The value of the extension is estimated to be €2.5 million (ex VAT). The figure of €2.5 million as set out at VII.1.6 is the estimated value of the extension commencing in April 2023. The value of the modifications does not exceed 50% of the value of the original contract.
The term of the contract is being extended for an additional 5 months, from April 2023 to August 2023.
The Release 3.0 of RTB360 is underway, with one module live and the remaining modules expected to go live in mid to late 2023. The RTB intends to re-tender these services in 2023 where the next release of the system will be complete and registration services will be stabilised. In the meantime, as the existing contract is for business-critical services, it is not possible to allow it to expire. Any change in service provider in the interim, would result in substantial disruption to crucial services and support currently being provided. This would have a substantial and detrimental effect on the RTB’s ability to deliver its services. The extension will allow RTB time to complete and stabilise the next release of the system to better support customers and create the situation whereby RTB can tender a new contract. RTB cannot change contractor at this time without significant inconvenience & disruption to its business and without threatening its ability to deliver its core services.


Winner: Southwestern Business Process Services Limited (now Capita Customer Solutions Limited)