22-55 Student Records System

CPV: Database and operating software package · Industry specific software package

Procedure method

Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition

Legal basis

CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)

Procurement category

Goods

Notice status

Awarded without competition

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

Regulatory regime

Standard

Commercial structure

Stand-alone contract (no framework)

Competition type

Direct award (no call for competition)

GPA / WTO covered

Yes (GPA)

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

4 Nov 2022, 10:55 GMT

Last source update

4 Nov 2022, 10:55 GMT

Authority reference

22-55

FTS notice number

2022/S 000-031193

Classification (CPV)

Database and operating software packageIndustry specific software package

Delivery area

West Midlands (UKG)

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-037f15 Find a Tender

Why no open competition

The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator due to absence of competition for technical reasons

Published justification

Context:

We are implementing a contract renewal for our Student Record System, infrastructure and associated software. This facility is provided by Tribal Education Ltd. The Student Record System and infrastructure is a critical business system and is technically vital in delivering the University's core business of teaching, learning, and assessment.

Rationale for award:

University-specific implementation:

The University operates specific and unique business processes that are in the medium-term reliant on the operation of SITS due to its customisable nature. There are currently no other vendors offering a technical software solution that would support the University's unique processes without major upheaval and significant investment to the University, Processes, operating activities, staff and Students. The system is critical to the University's relationship with students; and any change will have considerable impact on the student experience. The University is going through a period of significant change at the current time, any further changes to systems and software whilst there are other uncertainties, would not be prudent at the present time especially as the University's priority is to ensure a reasonable level of stability for users across the board.

System integrations:

SITS integrates with a variety of key other systems that ensure operation of the organisation's business critical activities. Any change to the SITS provision will also impact the interoperability with other existing solutions. These complex integrations cover a range of service areas - such integrations would need entirely reconfiguring to avoid University operations ceasing and impacting on staff and the student experience. Integration failures will result in significant disruption to operations, and will directly impact the University's key stakeholders (both students and staffs) through a loss of service.

Staffing skills and knowledge:

The University has hundreds of active SITS users who, over a long period of time, have acquired extensive knowledge, skills, and expertise in its use. There is a considerable cost and risk implication of retraining staff in order to avoid significant disruption to business operations.

Maintaining University operations:

The migration to a new student record system is one of the most significant IT projects any university can undertake, and as such the timeline for doing so is envisaged as being a minimum of 3 years (from planning to implementation), the project will also involve considerable investment of human and financial resource. Given this, the cost of change and resource intensive complexity for the significantly embedded system would outweigh the service benefits and cost advantage of implementing a new solution at the present time.

• Tribal Education LtdAwarded supplierGB-COH: 04163300 Bristol, South West, BS2 0HQ

No document links were published on the notice.