Official UK procurement notice
Schools Information Management System (SIMS)
Authority: Powys County Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionTransition from existing contractual model of perpetual licence of SIMS to local authority with associated support services, to software as a service model contracting directly with individual schools to provide SIMS and associated support services.
CPV: Data services · Data-processing services · Database services · IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · Software supply services · Software support services · Software-related services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Prior to the award of these contracts, the current provider (ESS) had a contract with…Awarded
Prior to the award of these contracts, the current provider (ESS) had a contract with the local authority under which it provided a perpetual licence to the local authority for the purpose of providing SIMS to the schools in the local authority's area, with associated support services.
ESS has now served notice to terminate that contract and requires that, in order to continue provision of SIMS, individual schools must enter into direct contracts with ESS to receive SIMS as software as a service.
In order to bring about the transition, the local authority will enter into a Facilitation Agreement ("FA") with ESS under which nothing of value is received by ESS and no material services are provided to the local authority; it is purely an administrative arrangement to effect the transition. Each school in the local authority's area will enter into a School Contract ("SC") with ESS for the direct provision of SIMS as software as a service, at substantially the same cost as before.
The highest value SC is 16845 GBP (3 years) and the lowest value SC is 4845 GBP (3 years)
The schools in the local authority's area whose governing bodies will enter into contracts with ESS are as follows:
Brecon High School, Crickhowell High School, Gwernyfed High School, Llanidloes High School, Newtown High School, Welshpool High School, Ysgol Bro Hyddgen, Ysgol Calon Cymru, Ysgol, Llanfyllin, Ysgol Maesydderwen, Ysgol Uwchradd Caereinion High School.
The local authority publishes this notice on behalf of itself and the schools listed above but is not acting as a central purchasing body on behalf of the schools. Additional information: Contract duration 36 months
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record · publisher note attached- 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
- Services
- 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
- 7 Apr 2022, 15:19 BST
- Last source update
- 7 Apr 2022, 15:19 BST
- FTS notice number
2022/S 000-009398- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-032b51Find a Tender
- Why no open competition
- The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive
- Published justification
This contract award notice is intended to be a relevant contract award notice pursuant to Reg.93(2),(3)and(4) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. It is published on a wholly voluntary basis and without prejudice to the local authority's (LA) and the governing body of each individual school. No prior publication of a contract notice, and thus no competitive tender exercise was required in respect of the Facilitation Agreement (FA) and/or the individual Schools Contracts (SC) as neither are within the scope of application of Part 2 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended) due to the following reasons:- The FA has no "value" but simply puts in place an administrative mechanism to transition contracts from LA to schools. It is therefore below the threshold set out in Reg. 5 (as reviewed pursuant to Reg.5A) of the 2015 Regulations. -The governing body of each individual school is a separate contracting entity and each individual SC is a separate contract, each of the individual SCs in the LA's area ranging between 4845 GBP and 16845 GBP in total over the three-year duration of each SC. Each individual contract is therefore below the threshold set out in Reg.5 (as reviewed pursuant to Reg.5A) of the 2015 Regulations. Further or in the alternative, neither the FA nor individual SCs are subject to a requirement to carry out prior publication of a contract notice and/or any form of competitive tender, because; - the services can only be provided by one particular economic operator (ESS), because competition is absent for technical reasons pursuant to Reg. 32(2)(b)(ii) of the 2015 Regulations. All of the schools in the LA currently use ESS' SIMS product. It would take a minimum of 12mths to transition from ESS'SIMS product to another product. ESS served 90 days notice to terminate the current arrangements mid December 2021, therefore not possible in the timescales for schools to tender and purchase an alternative product and transition to it. - urgency pursuant to Reg. 32(2)(c) of the 2015 Regulations. The provision of SIMS is essential to the running of a school and a school cannot function without it. Due to the short notice given by ESS timescales did not allow for the open or restricted procedure, or competitive procedure with negotiation to be undertaken. It is intended to advertise a competitive tender for SIMS on an all-Wales basis. Award and transition of new contracts to coincide with the end of the 3yr term of the SCs with ESS.
Publisher note: (WA Ref:119282)
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education Software Solutions Ltd | — | — | Awarded |
Contracts
Contract 009398-2022-1 · Education Software Solutions Ltd
- Signed
- 28 Feb 2022
- Value
- —
- Status
- active
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Lot | Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prior to the award of these contracts, the current provider (ESS) had a contract with… | 1bids · 1 electronic | 0 | — | £4,845 – £16,845 |
| Whole notice | — | — | — | £4,845 – £16,845 |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Dispute resolution & review bodies
- High CourtReview body
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- Education Software Solutions LimitedAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.