Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2016-01-09
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, ISTAR, Joint Sensor and Engagement Networks Team (JSENS)
Country: UK
Region: Surrey
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 72250000: System and support services
Estimated value: 2544741 GBP

Technical requirements: The Joint Sensors and Engagement Networks (JSENs) Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (the Authority), intends to make a contract amendment to JSENs/00106 (Provision of In-Service Support and Software Licences to Ground Based Air Defence Battlefield Information System Application (GBAD BISA)) with BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies Limited (the Contractor) for the provision of 2 separate tasks.
Firstly a study into the GBAD BISA Mapping Options for Bowman Legacy System Update (LSU). The Bowman LSU includes a new Geographic Information System (GIS) Application Programme Interface (API). The Authority proposes to task the Contractor to undertake a study to understand the implications or otherwise of adopting the proposed Bowman GIS API for GBAD BISA.
Secondly the Authority proposes to task the Contractor for the provision of GBAD BISA Laptop Equipment for joint GBAD, loaded, configured, tested and certified with GBAD BISA software.
It is considered that this requirement can be placed using the negotiated procedure without prior publication pursuant to Article 28 (1) (e) of Directive 2009/81/EC (Regulation 16 (1) (a) (ii) of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011) and Article 28 (3) (a) of Directive 2009/81/EC (Regulation 16 (1) (b) (i) of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011) for technical reasons and on the grounds that a change of supplier would oblige the Authority to acquire supplies having different technical characteristics which would result in incompatability or disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and maintenance.
It is not possible to view the different software elements in isolation as the existing GBAD BISA software is a single application which is subsequently incorporated onto the Bowman platform. The software elements are integrated into a seamless software build and as such, it is not possible to split out the elements, isolate them and support them individually.
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From 2.4.2014, the Government is introducing its new Government Security Classifications Policy (GSC) to replace the current Government Protective Marking Scheme. A key aspect of this is the reduction in the number of security classifications used. All suppliers to the Department are encouraged to make themselves aware of the changes as it may impact on this Requirement. The link below to the Gov.uk website provides information on the new GSC.
The Authority reserves the right to amend any condition related to security of information to reflect any changes in national law or government policy. If any contract documents are accompanied by instructions on safeguarding classified information (e.g. a Security Aspects Letter), the Authority reserves the right to amend the terms of these instructions to reflect any changes in national law or government policy, whether in respect of the applicable protective marking scheme, specific protective markings given, the aspects to which any protective marking applies or otherwise.
This contract opportunity is published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), the MoD Defence Contracts Bulletin and www.contracts.mod.uk