Slide Scanner

Tender description

The molecular histology and digital slide scanning SRF runs a suite of 4 digital slide scanners to meet user demand on the Bioquarter campus. The SRF work to a FEC (full economic cost) full cost recovery model, now employing 9 dedicated staff, posting an operating surplus in excess of 170K last Financial Year (CMVM (College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine) finance dept estimate). For heavily utilised mission critical capital equipment of this nature there is a 10-year cycle of renewal which we would normally purchase from operating surplus (this now goes to the CMVM capital fund) or via managed deficit to be repaid. The original scanner is now 10 years old and is in need of replacement (the original is being taken away by the supplier and being recycled), at a minimum it will require a 20K computer and software upgrade to maintain “fit for purpose” status given age of system this isn’t sustainable and new enhanced capabilities a newer model would provide. The nature of these systems means that they are designed to operate 24/7 and therefor have had an extremely hard life which is starting to result in recuring breakdowns or operating issues. Due to the high demand any downtime on one scanner means that a bottleneck on the remaining slide scanners quickly forms as slides produced by staining robots (5) and multiple researcher studies being finished at the same time result in complaints received from users regarding the low availability of the scanners. Lot 1: The molecular histology and digital slide scanning SRF runs a suite of 4 digital slide scanners to meet user demand on the Bioquarter campus. The SRF work to a FEC (full economic cost) full cost recovery model, now employing 9 dedicated staff, posting an operating surplus in excess of 170K last Financial Year (CMVM (College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine) finance dept estimate). For heavily utilised mission critical capital equipment of this nature there is a 10-year cycle of renewal which we would normally purchase from operating surplus (this now goes to the CMVM capital fund) or via managed deficit to be repaid. The original scanner is now 10 years old and is in need of replacement (the original is being taken away by the supplier and being recycled), at a minimum it will require a 20K computer and software upgrade to maintain “fit for purpose” status given age of system this isn’t sustainable and new enhanced capabilities a newer model would provide. The nature of these systems means that they are designed to operate 24/7 and therefor have had an extremely hard life which is starting to result in recuring breakdowns or operating issues. Due to the high demand any downtime on one scanner means that a bottleneck on the remaining slide scanners quickly forms as slides produced by staining robots (5) and multiple researcher studies being finished at the same time result in complaints received from users regarding the low availability of the scanners.