Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2019-09-19
Buyer: Benelux Organisation for Intellectual Property (BOIP)
Country: NL
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Competitive procedure with negotiation
CPV classification: 72000000 | 72200000 | 72500000
Estimated value: 10000000 EUR
Submission deadline: 2019-10-17
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: Υπηρεσίες τεχνολογίας των πληροφοριών: παροχή συμβουλών, ανάπτυξη λογισμικού, Διαδίκτυο και υποστήριξη
The Benelux Organisation for Intellectual Property (‘BOIP’) is an international organisation which is responsible for the execution of the Benelux Convention for Intellectual Property (trademarks and designs) and the promotion of protection of trademarks and designs in the Benelux countries. BOIP is the owner of the Benelux Patent Platform (‘BPP’) which is put at the disposal of the National Offices of Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg to allow them to manage the patent related processes in their respective countries applying their national legislations. Each Office has a tailored BPP instance which offers them a fully integrated solution.
In February 2019 BOIP issued a prior information notice and an accompanying request for information to seek the views of suppliers on the future of the BPP services. This was published in OJ S: 2019/S 038-085637. These services are described in the sections below.
The current platform has generated a lot of benefits for the National Offices. The integrated platform has provided the National Offices with economies of scale; consistent service to external users and an ability to learn from each other’s developments and issues. A recent user consultation has shown that both the external and internal users are highly satisfied with the BPP functionality and the services provided. This has provided a direction for the future of the platform.
The vision of BOIP is a platform evolution in the future that makes improvements where necessary to functionality but also takes advantage of new technologies; such as cloud hosting; if appropriate, where impact to users is limited but could create large improvements to the platform and its services.
Through this procurement process BOIP is seeking to select an economic operator who will be responsible for support and maintenance services for the BPP, further evolution of the BPP and hosting infrastructure for the BPP. This is likely to include services as:
— a managed service for the current and future versions of BPP to continue the maintenance, support and service management of the BPP platform in its transitioned state and for the duration of the future contract,
— an evolution of the current BPP with amendments/adaptations to the applications that constitute the BPP to ensure a fully durable, supportable and sustainable platform for the duration of the contract,
— hosting infrastructure for the BPP including updates to the hosting requirements to create a resilient and cost-effective managed infrastructure services model.
It is anticipated that a maximum of five (5) and minimum of three (3) suitable Candidates will receive the invitation to tender (ITT) following the assessment of the responses to the selection questionnaire (SQ).
The initial term of forty eight (48) months may be extended for up to a further forty eight (48) months in periods of at least 12-months. Therefore, the total potential term of the contract is ninety six (96) months from the effective date. This allows the initial (transaction specific) investments to be recuperated over a longer term, resulting in a lower price and cost per year.
Criterion: the top ranking suitable candidates will be invited to participate in the next procurement stage.
Subject to the below, candidates will remain responsible for all costs and expenses incurred by them or by any third party acting under instructions from candidates in connection with taking part in this procurement, regardless of whether such costs arise as a consequence direct or indirect of any amendments made to the procurement documents by the contracting authority at any time. The contracting authority reserves the right at any time to:
(iii) require a candidate to clarify any submissions in writing and/or provide additional information (failure to respond adequately may result in disqualification);


Award value: 10000000