Facilities management software package and software package suite

Tender description

This Voluntary ex ante transparency (VEAT) notice acknowledges that Trinity College Dublin proposes to renew a contract with kinetic solutions. This will ensure continuation of support and maintenance services for Kx, a hospitality management software package. The current solution has been developed incrementally since 2009 and delivers a cross campus integrated solution for: Residential accommodation management for the academic year for staff and student residents, catering reservations for both internal and external clients handling all business (except cash at the till business), commercial accommodation management outside of the academic year for group and individual business with interfaces to online travel agencies, housekeeping management, marketing information and financial functions. This is a voluntary ex ante transparency (VEAT) notice. This notice acknowledges that Trinity College Dublin proposes to contract with Kinetic Solutions for the continued provision of support and maintenance services for Kx, a hospitality management software package. The current solution has been developed over the past decade and delivers a cross-campus integrated solution for the following services: — residential accommodation management for the academic year for staff and student residents including financial management. This includes online application and request features, — catering reservations for both internal and external clients handling all business except cash at the till business, — commercial accommodation management outside of the academic year for group and individual business with interfaces to online travel agencies, housekeeping management, marketing information and financial functions, — group and conference management. The software has interfaces to other university systems including: — SITS for student import and residential charge output, — Oracle in FSD for the transfer of all commercial invoicing undertaken within Kx, — CMIS for the coordination of reservations within Kx for lecture theatres and classrooms. Since 2009, Trinity College Dublin has developed internal processes around Kx to create efficiencies that have yielded budgetary savings. Examples include: optimised workflows through a custom interface to an Oracle records management system. Accurate and streamlined accommodation charges based on occupancy reports from the system. Staff within the accommodation and facilities teams have been trained and developed expertise in using this product. Consequently, service standards have improved and resourcing levels optimised in line with efficiencies achieved. The organisational and administrative burden of any change to the current system is highly likely to require enhancing staffing levels i.e. creating a new team to plan for and implement a new product, resulting in additional costs at a time when opportunities for further savings are being explored. Given the number of interfaces to other Enterprise Systems, there are no financially or administratively reasonable or viable alternative or substitute systems or products, other than the existing installed Kx product, that can meet Trinity College Dublin’s needs during the period of the proposed contract.