Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2023-03-24
Buyer: Digitaliseringsdirektoratet
Country: NO
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 48312000 | 72212224 | 72268000: Software supply services
Estimated value: 9700000 NOK

Technical requirements: Digdir needs, for security and technical reasons, to move the information portal in Altinn from Eiserver on premise to a cloud service, named Optimizely DXP, Digital experience platform. This will contribute to stable and secure operation and better protection against cyber attacks.
Digdir plans to enter into a contract with Optimizely AB for 24 months with an option for an extension. The contract will include the establishment, operation, security mechanisms, and monitoring of, as well as support for the cloud service.
The procurement of Optimizely DXP is covered by the exemption provision in the procurement regulations (PPR), § 13-4 letter b no. 2. The provision can be used when it is not possible to have competition, and it will be an efficient use of society's resources not to hold a contest.
According to § 13-4, letter b no. 2, a contracting authority can make a procurement without a contest if only 'one specific supplier' can provide the service required by the contracting authority, as 'competitions is impossible due to technical reasons...'. The prerequisite is that 'there are no reasonable alternatives' and 'the lack of competition is not due to the contracting authority having adapted the procurement documents for a specific supplier'
The terms for 'technical reasons' is fulfilled. Only Optimizely DXP can be used to move the operation of the current system as it is - with integrations with and dependencies on the rest of the Altinn infrastructure - from on-premise to cloud. The Altinn Information Portal has been on the Episerver/Optimizely platform since 2007. There have been major development projects over these 15-16 years, and a number of smaller releases have code changes and improvements that together amount to several million NOK. Due to integrations with and dependencies on the rest of the Altinn infrastructure, it would be very technically demanding and costly to procure and build up a new system.
Altinn Information Portal and the logon system are completely different applications that however appear as an integrated whole for users. Amongst other things, headers in the information portal are changed for logged on users and the user can choose which role they represent in Altinn via header i Optimizely. There are also integrations between the form and service catalogue in Optimizely and Altinn Inbox behind the logon, joint functionality for language choice, etc.
Altinn is an advanced website with more than 100 million hits a year. It includes, amongst other things, a form and service catalogue with more than 1200 service description pages that are maintained by editors and contributors from a number of cooperating departments and editorial staff. Competence and routines have been built up on the current system, which will be both time consuming and cumbersome to build up again on another technological platform. Systems and reports have been made in Optimizely that are used for periodic quality assurance of content from content owners.
There are no reasonable alternatives and the lack of competition is not due to the contracting authority having adapted the procurement documents for a specific supplier.
As mentioned, it will be very demanding, costly, and time consuming to build up the website again in another system. Digdir has used many million NOK to build up the current website in Episerver (Optimizely). This would require so much of the Altinn management that we would risk derailing the schedule for the modernisation project in Altinn - where the current system has an end-of-life in June 2025. A replacement of the current system would have an estimated development cost of NOK 5 million to NOK 7 million on top of the costs required for the administration and operation, which would be approx. NOK 2.0 million excluding VAT a year.
Moving to another technological platform in the current situation would increase the risk of unstable operation and security events. Digdir therefore believes that the disadvantages are greater than the damage of not holding a contest. Digdir believes that the terms in the provision are met.


Winner: Optimizely AB
Award value: 9700000