Software package and information systems

Tender description

‘This is not a Call for Competition’ This is a notice for expressions of interest for a supplier day. Since its inception in 2007, Innovate UK has established itself as a driving force for innovation in the UK. This success has ultimately led to a significant increase in the number of grants awarded. As such, the systems originally implemented to support the processes associated with these activities have become increasingly unable to meet the business needs, both from a transactional perspective and in terms of data capture, management and reporting. A project to tackle some of these shortcomings relating to the pre-award process is close to delivery but this will not address the administration issues in the post-award phase, leaving multiple business problems still in place. Issues already identified with the current systems — such as high costs, poor user experience and compromised data quality — are expected to become further exacerbated by planned changes to award funding models and increased levels of funding. As a result, a number of new improvements have been identified which need to be implemented in order to address issues with post-award business operations and support Innovate UK strategy. These improvements will be delivered through a new Award Compliance and Commercialisation (ACC) solution. The scope of the proposed solution is constrained to the administration and management of funding which has been awarded to successful applicants — commonly referred to as the ‘post-award’ phase. This is predominantly concerned with making payments against eligible claims and monitoring the financial performance of recipients in their utilisation of that funding. This has 2 objectives: To ensure compliance with funding rules and regulations and also to assess the commercial benefits realised as a consequence of those awards. The administration of funding for an award is managed through a project with planned activities, most significantly a pre-defined schedule of claims for payment of funding against eligible costs. Note that a successful award is often made to a consortium of parties, each of whom will each receive individual funding from the award. Claims are subject to validation against financial and eligibility criteria and, if approved, result in a funding payment being made to the claimant. Participants are expected to submit regular financial forecasts against which claims can be validated. This role is partly fulfilled by Monitoring Officers, who are assigned to projects by Innovate UK and submit reports against which project performance can be assessed and issues identified. Participants may request changes to a project, which may impact have a financial. These are subject to validation and approval processes in a similar way to claims. When all scheduled payments have been claimed the project can be closed-down. Various reporting and validation activities take place at this point before a project is deemed to be ‘closed’. However, this does not mark the end of post-award activities — regular impact reporting will subsequently be performed over a defined period in order to assess the commercial effectiveness of the funding which has been provided. The anticipated contract term is for an initial duration of one year with the option to extend for up to an additional 2 years on an annual basis, subject to agreement between both parties. This is subject to change. The estimated budget range in between 300 000 GBP and 1 000 000 GBP.