Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2024-06-25
Buyer: Veterinærinstituttet
Country: NO
Region: NO081
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Competitive dialogue
CPV classification: 48000000 | 48100000 | 48180000 | 72000000 | 72200000
Submission deadline: 2024-08-12

Technical requirements: All exclusion grounds in article 57 of directive 2014/24/EU and the Norwegian Public Procurement Regulations § 24-2 apply. Reference is made to these provisions.
The procurement process will be conducted as a competitive dialogue, cf. Chapter 13 and 23 in The Public Procurement Regulation. 

The competitive dialogue procurement process consists of the qualification phase, the dialogue phase and the tendering phase. The purpose of the dialogue is to provide an arena where the Customer, through dialogue with Participants, can identify and define the means best suited to satisfy the Customer’s needs defined within the limits of what the market can deliver.  

All potential Participants may submit a qualification application, responding to the criteria set out in Section 4.1 “Selection criteria” of the Invitation to tender (ITD). Based on the applications the Customer will select 3 to 4 Participants for the dialogue phase, if a sufficient number of Participants are qualified. 

The qualified and selected Participants will be invited to the dialogue phase, whereby the Participants will prepare and submit a first proposal based upon the ITD (the Initial Proposal). The Customer will thereafter move on to a dialogue on the Initial Proposal with the selected Participants. All aspects of the ITD and its attachments may be discussed with the selected Participants during the dialogue phase, cf. Section 5 “Dialogue and tendering phase” of the ITD. 

The dialogue phase will be conducted in successive stages. The Customer reserves the right to reduce the number of proposals during the dialogue phase. A reduction of proposals during the dialogue phase will be based on the award criteria in Section 5.8 “Award criteria” of the ITD. 

The end point of the dialogue phase will be when the Customer and the Participants have reached a point where the Customer has found a solution that meets the Customer’s needs. 

The final tender must be submitted within a given deadline. The public procurement regulations do not permit negotiations about the best and final tender. It is only permitted to clarify, specify and optimise the tender, cf. the Public Procurement Regulation § 23-9.
In order to support the Customer’s primary role as a preparedness institution and the overall objectives of the strategic digitalization program, the Customer is now seeking the replacement of the PJS. The Customer is therefore procuring a commercial and standardized LIMS as a service (SaaS).

The Customer wants the LIMS to be delivered as one solution and with one contractual party also providing related services such as implementation, development, configuration, support, consulting, further development, training and the like (the Related Services). The LIMS and the Related Services will in the following be referred to as the LIMS-solution. 

The Participants should note that the Related Services are delivered in two different phases; 

1) the establishment and implementation (incl. training) of the LIMS (the Establishment Phase Part I), and 
2) the continued ongoing delivery of the LIMS, where the LIMS will be delivered as a SaaS to the Customer by the chosen Participant, including support. In this phase the delivery may also include services such as training, further development and consulting/advisory services based on work orders from the Customer (the Delivery Phase). 

The possibilities within a LIMS-solution are constantly evolving. This makes it difficult for the Customer to specify a complete list of requirements that the LIMS-solution must fulfil upfront. Thus, the final scope, the specification of the LIMS and integration with internal and external systems will be subject to clarifications throughout the competitive dialogue and may, within the boundaries of the procurement regulations, be adapted to best suit the Customer’s needs during the dialogue and during the term of the Contract. This entails that the listed requirements can be changed to being options during the dialogue. 

A new LIMS should cover:

• Integrated platform, data model and template structures providing support for end-to-end work flow in:
o Observations and consultations 
o Sample requisition and tracking
o Sample reception and distribution 
o Sample processing and analysis flow
o Result evaluation, conclusion and reporting  
o Sample depository and archiving

• Flexible self-service configuration and customization of data model/data structures, templates and workflows to ensure adaptability to the constantly evolving requirements of the Customer`s subject areas, technology, and laboratory development.

• Flexibility to configure and deliver a platform with the necessary capabilities to cover sample journeys in all of the Customer’s subject areas (listed in Section 1.2.) as follows:
o Structured and streamlined sample journeys with high volume and throughput with limited collaboration requiring functionalities covering rapid data entry, efficient automation, and high-volume processing. 
o Complex and collaborative sample journeys with high level of coordination and interdependencies in and between laboratories and disciplines requiring advanced collaborative capabilities. 
o Non-Structured research-based sample journeys with a high level of flexibility in process support, ELN and project management capabilities 

• Fully configurable user-friendly interface for easy entering and retrieval of data, with high data quality for use in different kind of laboratories with different set of analysis and user roles.

• Comprehensive case, sample and lab management capabilities covering: 
o Sample Identification, Tracking and Distribution
o Organizing, prioritizing, and scheduling work items 
o Sample-, inventory- and resource management
o Biobank and sample depository for temporal and permanent storage
o Master data Management for Directories and Registries 
o Analytics, Statistics, Reporting and Dashboards
o Document and Archive management 
o External Portal for customer requisitions and reporting 
o Integrated Audit and Compliance functionality to for all parts of the ensuring data integrity and Accreditation Management
o Chain of custody, validation, and electronic signatures
o Quality Control and Quality Assurance 

The Related services include inter alia: 
• Training support and development of “Help”-functions, user manuals, tutorials and user training  
• Support in establishment of the LIMS at the Customer’s six office locations across Norway.
• Support during and after implementation of the LIMS 
• Supporting integrations between the LIMS and adjacent systems, data sources (internal and external) as well as instruments and lab equipment
• Support in implementing recommended LIMS environments for i.e. production, development, and testing.
• Support in establishing internal operation and management models for governance.
• Continuous support in further development and configuration of the LIMS-solution after the delivery of the Establishment Phase Part I.

Some important features of the procurement: 

- The estimated value of the procurement, cf. section 2.1.3 of this notice, is highly uncertain, and may end up being significantly higher or lower. It is based on information that the Customer received as a response to their Request for Information (RFI), and calculated over a period of ten years. Please note, however, that the agreement covering the Management Phase (i.e. the Management Agreement), does not have a fixed contract term/duration. Participants are expected to assess the estimated value of the procurement themselves, based on the information provided in the Invitation to dialogue (ITD) and other procurement documents.

- All sides of the procurement, including the scope, will be the subject of dialogue.

- The Management Agreement does not have a fixed term.
The Participant shall have the necessary economic and financial standing to deliver the LIMS-solution, and to be a long-term partner for the Customer. 

Financial statement, including notes with the board of directors’ report and auditor’s report, from the last three years.  

If the accounts from the previous year are not available at the deadline for submission of the application to participate, the provisional annual accounts for the previous year may be enclosed.

A long-term credit rating from a recognised credit rating agency, e.g. Fitch, Moody’s or Standard & Poor’s, not older than 12 months calculated from the date set as deadline for delivery of the request to participate in the competition, be included to substantiate the Participant’s financial standing. If the operating income and/or net financial expenses were negative in any of the periods, please indicate this in the response.

The credit rating must as a minimum include financial performance measures such as:

- Gross profit margin
- Net profit margin
- Working capital
- Current ratio (liquidity ratio)
- Quick ratio
- Leverage
- Debt to equity ratio 
- Total asset turnover
- Return on equity
- Return on assets
- Operating cash flow

The financial performance measures must be provided for at least 3 years.

The Participant must assess its own financial viability and provide a short summary of the assessment

If, for any valid reason, the Participant is unable to provide the means of proof set out above, for instance because the candidate is a newly established entity, it may prove its economic and financial standing by any other means / through any other type of document(s) it considers appropriate.   

The Customer has a right to demand further information in order to assess the financial viability of a Participant.
The Participant shall have a sufficient quality management system.

The Participant shall give a description of its quality management/quality assurance system, including an overview of the quality assurance policy or measures, methods and tools for development, tests, work/project handover and deviation management.

If, however, the Participant has a certificate from an independent body documenting that the system is in accordance with ISO 9001 or an equivalent quality assurance standard, the Participant's provision of this certificate will be enough to prove that the Participant meets the selection criterion. 

Please note that the Participant may not rely on other entities, e.g. a parent company, to meet this selection criterion. The Participant may, however, prove that it has implemented the certified quality management system of its parent company in its own organization.

Eligibility requirements: other