(VEAT) Procurement of Support, Maintenance, and Continued Development to the Risk Attribution and Field Based Tool + (RAFT+)

CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Procedure method

Negotiated without publication of a contract notice

Legal basis

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

Procurement category

Services

Notice status

Awarded

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

Regulatory regime

Standard

Commercial structure

Stand-alone contract (no framework)

Competition type

Competitive procedure

GPA / WTO covered

Unspecified in notice

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

5 Feb 2025, 16:01 GMT

Last source update

5 Feb 2025, 16:01 GMT

FTS notice number

2025/S 000-003855

Classification (CPV)

IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Delivery area

UK

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-04dbf5 Find a Tender

Why no open competition

The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator due to protection of exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights

Published justification

The justification under the Public Contracting Regulations 2015 for this Single Tender Action is against regulation 32 (2) (b) of the PCR 2015 for use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication where (ii) competition is absent for technical reasons, and also (iii) where exclusive rights, including IP rights, meaning that services can only be supplied by one economic operator – this is for the following reasons:<br/>

• HR Wallingford have developed the RAFT+ tool with the EA to meet all of the requirements of the EA and the need to analyse fragility curves. No other equivalent tool is available, either immediately or in a form that could be readily adapted along with IP Rights to elements of the tool that the EA is unable to purchase at this moment.<br/>
• Due to the ownership of elements of the RAFT+ tool (and the resultant IP Rights), no other supplier could be onboarded and use the tool, supporting this and developing it for the EA. The tool contains an element known as HR Reliable; this is a key aspect of the tool that is owned by HR Wallingford and is not available for third parties. Without this element, the tool would not be effective and would not meet the objectives of the EA. This would therefore result in a new system needing to be built, supported and maintained from another Supplier; this goes against value for money principles (as the EA would be paying twice for two systems), but also would create an operational risk as no system would be in place for a period of time (likely to be a minimum of six months). As Flood Coast and Risk Management is one of the Government’s key area of focus and a DEFRA mission, This creates an unacceptable operational risk to the EA, if flooding were to effect areas that this tool could have been used to protect. <br/>
• The EA will look to analyse the future market and the need for this requirement going forward past the proposed contract term, to understand whether this requirement should be tendered on the open market for future implementation. <br/>
• The tool is more than simply the front-end element of RAFT+; the integration with HR Reliable, which is proprietary to HR Wallingford [and not available for licensing to third parties], is crucial to the successful operation of this tool. An alternative supplier would need to be able to deliver both an equivalent to the RAFT+ front-end of the tool and the underpinning software.<br/><br/>The whole life cost for the proposed contract is a maximum of £484,840 for a two year period with a one year optional year.<br/><br/>If any provider has concerns with the Authority’s intentions outlined within the published documentation, please raise this to the DEFRA point of contact within ten days of the date of this notice.<br/>The closing date for this VEAT notice is 0900hrs on the 17th February 2024.

• HR Wallingford LtdAwarded supplierWallingford Howbery Park, Wallingford, UK, OX10 8BAContact phoneShow contact details

No document links were published on the notice.