Contract for the Provision of Health Research Authority Principal Operational Systems: Development, Maintenance and Support

Tender description

This Voluntary Ex-Ante Transparency (VEAT) notice is published by the Health Research Authority (HRA) for the purpose of extending an existing contract for the development, maintenance and support of two principal and six supplementary systems/portals/sites, pending completion of a transition by the HRA to a new microservices architecture for the systems/portals/sites. This notice does not constitute an award for a new contract. The HRA intends to rely upon Regulation 72(1)(b) for this extension on the basis that decommissioning and transition services cannot be provided by another provider and to appoint another provider would cause significant inconvenience and substantial duplication of costs to the HRA given the intricacies of the system and the procurement to appoint a new provider for the future provision of similar services. The value of the extension does not exceed 50% of the original value of the contract. Please see section II.2.4 and Annex D1 for more detail. Lot 1: The original procurement (see above reference) was for the provision of Development, Maintenance and Support services for the HRA’s Principal Operational Systems, including: • Custom software development • Technical architecture management, including software architecture design • Production, maintenance, and enhancement of Technical documentation • Software QA & QC • Software development process management • Software project management • Issue tracking and task management software (JIRA or equivalent) hosting • Development and testing environment provision and management • Software deployment management • 24/7 Windows server support and maintenance • Microsoft Internet Information Services administration. • Firewall management • Provision, management, and maintenance of source control (Microsoft TFS) infrastructure • 1st line help desk support • Helpdesk VoIP/telephony infrastructure • 2nd and 3rd line support • Systems availability monitoring • SQL Server database administration and performance tuning • Additional professional services as required The existing contract award was then published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) on 16 March 2016, reference number 2016/S 053-088027 (ITT60042), with a value of £3.7m + VAT. The existing contract was for an initial period of 3 years with the option to extend for a further period(s) of up to two years. The HRA further extended the contract from 1 April 2021 to 21 April 2023 with a financial increase of £1.03m for that extension period, to allow for the HRA to procure replacement services and allow time for crucial exit and transition services. The HRA considered that it could rely upon Regulation 72(1)(b) and/or 72(1)(e) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015) for this extension. A modification notice was not published for this extension and the HRA relied upon Regulation 72(1)(e). Due to significant challenges in the implementation of the replacement services, the HRA has changed its strategic approach to developing a microservices architecture for its systems/portals/sites. The HRA therefore intends to further extend the existing contract to 30 June 2025 to allow for a further exit/migration period and the decommissioning of the existing system and the appointment of a new delivery partner to build the new microservices architecture. The extension to 30 June 2025 will increase the existing contract value by up to £1.672m + VAT. The HRA intends to rely upon Regulation 72(1)(b) for this further extension on the basis that the decommissioning and transition services cannot be provided by another provider for technical and economic reasons and to appoint another provider would cause significant inconvenience and substantial duplication of costs to the HRA given the intricacies of the system and the planned procurement to appoint a new provider for the future provision of similar services. The value of the extension does not exceed 50% of the original value of the contract.