Salesforce Platform Licensing and Support Services

The direct award is justified due to the operational criticality of Salesforce, which underpins NESO's customer-facing and regulatory-facing activities, including Connections and Market Registration services. Any disruption to the platform or associated services would materially impact the operational continuity of NESO's customer-facing services and NESO's ability to support key business and stakeholder activities.

Salesforce remains part of NESO's approved technology stack and the requirement relates to continuity of the existing platform and associated services rather than the selection of a new customer-facing solution. The proposed approach aligns with the TSA exit strategy and the principle of delivering a like-for-like transition from National Grid during the TSA dial-down period.

Alternative compliant routes to market were explored and assessed collaboratively across NESO. However, these options presented increased commercial cost, extended delivery timelines which could not be aligned to NESO's TSA exit requirements, and additional operational and governance risk. Based on the assessment undertaken, the direct award route represents the lowest operational risk and most commercially advantageous option in the short term, demonstrating a clear case for material value for public money. The risk of successful market challenge is considered low given the incumbent nature of the platform, the operational dependency on the existing services, and the disproportionate cost and delivery risk associated with transitioning to an alternative solution within the required timelines.

NESO has now entered the TSA transition period and requires continuity of service ahead of the expiry of the current arrangements. Failure to implement contractual arrangements within the required timelines would create material operational risk and potential disruption to business-critical services.

Value for money has been assessed through benchmarking against alternative compliant routes to market and existing commercial baselines. The proposed approach is considered proportionate and appropriate in the context of the current operational and transition requirements. A move to higher-cost alternative routes for equivalent capability would not represent efficient use of consumer funds and would introduce additional delivery and operational risk without corresponding service benefit.

The proposed arrangement is intended as a transitional one-year agreement to maintain continuity of service while, post-separation, NESO conducts licence optimisation, usage analysis, and validation of future business requirements. During the contract term, NESO will continue to assess the future commercial model and route to market while retaining Salesforce as part of the approved technology stack.

Please note is a single contract , the portal has asked us to fill both sections of Contract 1 and Contract 2 and therefore the information have been replicated.