Information systems

Tender description

The University of Edinburgh (the ‘University’) wishes to appoint a supplier to provide a Software as a Service (SaaS) based solution for the University’s Finance (including procurement) and HR (including Payroll) ‘Core Systems’. Please refer to Section II.2.4 of this notice for further definition around the scope of this procurement. In accordance with Regulation 27(4) of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, use of this procedure (competitive dialogue) is justified on the basis that the supplies and services cannot be sufficiently defined and require supplier technical design input. The complexity of this project and need to mitigate risk on technical, financial, legal and reputational dimensions, necessitates dialogue. Bidders must self-certify adherence to selection and exclusion criteria via the ESPD on Public Contract Scotland – Tender (PCS-T). When completing the ESPD, bidders must have regard for the selection requirements detailed in Section III of this OJEU Notice. The University will accept bids from suppliers who provide an end-to-end software and implementation solution as a single entity. The University will also accept bids from consortia (e.g. software suppliers and implementation partners working collaboratively) or any other bid comprising sub-contractors or otherwise relying on the capacities of other entities. The University has identified that investment in a solution to deliver a new finance and HR system is critical. Additional modules such as estates management, customer relationship management, student lifecycle management, research management systems, document management are currently seen as out of the ‘Core Systems’ scope. However, the University retains the ability, at its sole discretion, to explore these modules with the qualified bidder(s), i.e. those organisations selected (following ESPD stage) and invited by the University to participate in the dialogue stage. This will enable the University to: (i) obtain further understanding of the qualified bidder(s) pipeline towards future innovation of the solution; and (ii) consider whether or not to incorporate such modules within the solution during the lifespan of the contract. All bidders should therefore be willing to provide the core system's scope together with the additional modules, if required. Core enterprise business systems, ‘Core Systems’, is defined as the central systems that support the HR, finance, payroll, and procurement requirements of the University. However, the University would like to explore further modules, as outlined above. Such systems provide much of the core IT functionality to run the University’s professional services and administrative functions. These systems have received very little investment over the last 20 years, which has in turn resulted in an excessive amount of application proliferation as individual areas of professional services, Colleges or Schools have added, created or purchased their own business system. As a result, we have a number of difficulties, e.g.: — inconsistent data, — widely differing user interfaces, — high cost of maintenance, — weak processes or missing processes, — an inability to produce consistent cross functional area management information, and — old systems with high and growing maintenance needs. The estimated total order of magnitude of this contract is 14 000 000 GBP. This low accuracy estimation is based on: i) the total 17-year contract term; (ii) annual renewal figures of the University’s current Finance and HR systems; and (iii) estimated implementation costs. At this stage, the University does not have sufficient information of all the systems across the estate (including those in addition to the core systems) which we are potentially looking to replace. The University has insufficient information of what a solution might entail, what the pricing structure would be and consequently cannot form a meaningful contract value estimate. It is therefore likely that the overall value of the opportunity will be higher than this estimate provided. Under no circumstances will the University or any of its respective advisors be liable for any costs or expenses incurred by bidders and/or its respective advisors arising directly or indirectly from this procurement or termination thereof, including, without limitation, any changes or adjustments made to the procurement documentation, or the exclusion/disqualification of a bidder. Any discussions and correspondence will be deemed strictly subject to contract until a formal contract is entered into. The formal contract shall not be binding until it has been signed and dated by the duly authorised representatives of both parties. This project will not be divided in to lots due to its complexity.