IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Tender description

Equiniti is the current supplier of GSOC’s Case Management System (CMS). GSOC intends to offer Equiniti a 3-year extension to the previous CMS Maintenance and Support (M&S) contract, which expired on 24 May 2020 and also a full upgrade and rebuild of the CMS software application, which is required to assure the future stability of the CMS and compatibility with modern system software. The extension of M&S will terminate no later than June 2023. Equiniti is the current supplier of GSOC’s Case Management System (CMS). GSOC intends to offer Equiniti a three-year extension to the previous CMS Maintenance and Support (M&S) contract, which expired on 24 May 2020 and also a full upgrade and rebuild of the CMS software application, which is required to assure the future stability of the CMS and compatibility with modern system software. The extension of M&S will terminate no later than June 2023. The GSOC CMS is a software application designed by GSOC and Equiniti, the original supplier, to meet the specific Case-handling requirements of GSOC. Those requirements are grounded in the legislation that governs GSOC's operations — the Garda Síochána Act, 2005 ('the Act'). The workflows implemented in software in the CMS closely reflect the sections of the Act that specify how GSOC must handle the various types of Cases that may arise in the normal course of its operation. The CMS application consists of Client and Server modules, which are entirely written by Equiniti. The CMS is a 'closed' system specifically designed for the GSOC use-cases. As such, its internals are known only to Equiniti, and the application can only be modified and built by Equiniti. The intellectual property for the complete CMS is split between Equiniti and GSOC, with GSOC having IP rights only over those parts of the client and Server modules designed and implemented specifically for GSOC. In practice, only Equiniti has the knowledge, software and infrastructure to support, modify, build, deploy and maintain the CMS. These cannot in practice be transferred to or assumed by any other supplier, at least not in any reasonable timeframe. For these reasons, GSOC has concluded an arrangement with Equiniti, on a non-tender basis, for the proposed 3-year extension of M&S and system upgrade.