Supply of Archive Grade RFID Tags

Tender description

For transparency, Trinity College Dublin issues this notice addressing a contract with a value below EU threshold that is awarded to Interleaf Technology Ltd. for supply of Archival RFID Tags and associated encoding services. The contract has been awarded through a wholly owned subsidiary responsible for the library project. This requirement was previously addressed under a Framework agreement, established under Lot 4 of tender reference RFT 152970, published on 23 June 2019. The framework agreement is approaching the advertised budget due to changes in scope of the library RFID project and therefore Trinity College Dublin openly declares the award of a further contract for technical reasons as specified in II.2.4) below. Lot 1: Trinity College Dublin issues this notice addressing a contract with a value below EU threshold that is awarded to Interleaf Technology Ltd. for supply of archive grade RFID tags. The direct award is conducted with reference to Article 32(5)b of Directive 2014/24/EU. Specifically, the negotiated procedure without prior publication for public supply contracts for additional deliveries which constitute the extension of existing supplies or installations where a change of supplier would oblige the contracting authority to acquire supplies having different technical characteristics which would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and maintenance. It is noted that the length of this contract will not exceed 3 years. Interleaf Technology Ltd. were awarded the tender for Lot 4 of previous RFT 152970 based on: • a proposal which provided full assurance regarding knowledge of the product, product deployment and related service delivery. This extended to the adhesive method used for the RFID tags given the sensitive nature of archive items. • the product proposed could be configured as requested by the Library of Trinity College Dublin to achieve customisation. This customisation has been implemented and the product is also delivered pre-encoded, and pre-printed with both branding and barcode. • the ability to guarantee provision of services to achieve an uninterrupted supply chain, with agreed lead times. After extensive testing, Interleaf’s initial delivered supply of archival-grade HF RFID tags have been approved for use with TCD’s collections by TCD Library’s Preservation and Conservation Department. For the reasons outlined above, Trinity College Dublin has awarded a contract to Interleaf Technology Ltd. to ensure the extension of existing supplies and eliminate the disproportionate technical difficulties in operation of a contract with an alternative supplier. Furthermore, any delay in the purchase of tags arising from the requirement to approve alternative technical solutions is highly likely to result in a minimum lead time of 6 months to design, approve, manufacture and deliver the tags.