Contract to Upgrade Minster Compass to Minster Edge WMS

Herts FullStop (HFS), part of Hertfordshire County Council's Resources Directorate, has undertaken extensive and repeated market engagement over several years to identify and procure a replacement core business management platform for its Educational Resources operation. Despite significant effort and investment of time and resources, these procurement activities have not resulted in a viable and deliverable replacement solution that met the Council's operational, commercial and financial requirements.

Three separate procurement exercises have been undertaken. The first competitive procurement exercise did not result in any bids that were capable of meeting the Council's requirements and consequently no contract could be awarded. A second procurement exercise successfully identified a supplier and a contract was awarded; however, during the discovery phase the supplier elected to terminate the arrangement through the contractual break provisions because agreement could not be reached regarding intellectual property ownership, and allocation of liabilities without materially altering the procured contract and creating procurement compliance concerns. Subsequently, a third procurement exercise undertaken through an approved Crown Commercial Service framework reached the stage of contract negotiations and agreement on terms and conditions. However, following executive consideration, the Council determined that the scale of investment required to implement and deliver the proposed solution could not be supported within the available funding envelope due to wider cost pressures and therefore the procurement could not proceed.

These repeated procurement exercises have demonstrated that there is currently no reasonable alternative solution available to HFS which satisfies the Council's operational requirements, implementation timescales and affordability constraints. Previous replacement programmes required estimated capital investment of c. £1.6 million, with approximately £1.1 million directly attributable to software acquisition and implementation costs being paid to the main contractor. Following a review of priorities and available funding, the Council has established a revised project budget of approximately £800,000 for the business transformation programme. Within this revised affordability envelope, a full market replacement of the existing core platform is no longer deliverable.

HFS currently operates critical business processes through Minster Computer Systems Limited's Compass platform. Minster Computer Systems Limited is the proprietor of the existing software, associated intellectual property, underlying data structures, interfaces, integrations, workflows and technical architecture. The proposed solution is an upgrade and migration from the existing Compass platform to Minster Edge WMS, together with associated implementation, integration and transition services. Only Minster Computer Systems Limited possesses the necessary proprietary rights, technical knowledge, source systems expertise and software licensing authority required to undertake this migration and provide the associated implementation services. No third party supplier is able to provide the Minster Edge WMS software, nor undertake the upgrade of the existing Compass environment, without the consent, involvement and intellectual property rights held exclusively by Minster Computer Systems Limited.

The proposed award therefore satisfies the grounds contained within Regulation 6.4.3, as only one supplier can provide the required goods and services due to proprietary intellectual property rights, exclusive licensing arrangements and technical reasons, and there are no reasonable alternatives capable of achieving the required outcome within the Council's financial and delivery constraints.

In addition, the proposed award satisfies Regulation 6.4.5. The project represents the replacement and modernisation of an existing solution provided by the incumbent.