Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2019-07-16
Buyer: Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 32400000 | 32410000 | 32412000 | 32413000 | 32420000
Estimated value: 10000000 GBP

Technical requirements: Solihull Council led the procurement of WMPSN through the government procurement service national Framework Agreement RM860 (Public Services Network) in 2013, to drive down the costs of networking provision through economies of scale. 19 West Midlands public sector bodies (partners) have utilised the contract since then.
The current (WMPSN1) contract expires after a 7-year term in November 2020. As the number of partners in WMPSN is reducing and the contract value is decreasing as partners move away, Solihull Council is seeking to award a short term contract (WMPSN2) to Virgin Media Business to ensure continuity of supplies to the remaining partners.
SMBC is undertaking a negotiated procedure without prior publication to award the contract to the incumbent supplier, Virgin Media Business.
This procurement has been conducted pursuant to Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council. Article 32, 3(b) — Negotiated procedure without prior publication:
(b) for additional deliveries by the original supplier which are intended either as a partial replacement of supplies or installations or as the extension of existing supplies or installations where a change of supplier would oblige the contracting authority to acquire supplies having different technical characteristics which would result in incompatibility or disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and maintenance. The WMPSN2 contract will run for 3 years from 18.11.2020 to 17.11.2023.
Contract value provided is an estimate of the maximum contract value (for all current proposed WMPSN2 partners named in VI.3) to Virgin Media Business over the WMPSN2 contract period, and includes scope to cover any potential future purchases or upgrades over the contract period.
A large amount of resource has been invested by partners in implementing WAN and associated technology over the course of the WMPSN1 contract. The purpose of the new WMPSN2 contract is to secure the extension of existing supplies and installations from the incumbent supplier, for a reduced number of partners. A change of supplier at this stage would result in incompatibility and disproportionate technical difficulties for Solihull and the WMPSN partners. A significant number of circuits have been laid in the ground by VMB over the course of WMPSN and are in good working order. Changing supplier could involve current circuits being replaced by new circuits which would cause disproportionate technical difficulties for partners in a short term contract.
There is uncertainty in the market with the advent of Local Full Fibre Network and 5G, both of which make it difficult for partners to accurately forecast future connectivity requirements and such requirements will eventually need to be replaced or superseded by new technology. Therefore partners will only require a short term contract of no longer than 3 years, pursuant to the contract term allowed under Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 32, 3(b).
The total estimated contract value provided is an estimate of the value of the contract over 3 years for the proposed WMPSN2 partners named below. The quoted figure does not include any new public sector bodies that could join the contract at a later stage that are not currently part of WMPSN. Although the contract is potentially open to new public sector partners in the West Midlands, no new partners have joined WMPSN since 2016. The number of partners is decreasing from WMPSN1 to WMPSN2
As per the original WMPSN1 contract, the WMPSN2 contract can be utilised by other public bodies in the West Midlands (UKG NUTS region), including but not restricted to:
Local authority companies, education establishments, police services, fire and rescue services and NHS Bodies England, all within the boundary of partner organisations.


Winner: Virgin Media Business Ltd
Award value: 10000000