Award

Unit4 Hosting

  • Northumbria Police

F15: Voluntary ex ante transparency notice

Notice identifier: 2025/S 000-005221

Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-04e21b

Published 14 February 2025, 3:56pm



Section one: Contracting authority/entity

one.1) Name and addresses

Northumbria Police

Forth Banks

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE13PH

Contact

John Bradford

Email

John.Bradford@northumbria.police.uk

Telephone

+44 7736193270

Country

United Kingdom

Region code

UKC22 - Tyneside

Justification for not providing organisation identifier

Not on any register

Internet address(es)

Main address

https://www.northumbria.police.uk/

one.4) Type of the contracting authority

Body governed by public law

one.5) Main activity

Public order and safety


Section two: Object

two.1) Scope of the procurement

two.1.1) Title

Unit4 Hosting

Reference number

NP0378

two.1.2) Main CPV code

  • 48000000 - Software package and information systems

two.1.3) Type of contract

Supplies

two.1.4) Short description

For the cloud hosting of Unit 4, to support Finance, HR and payroll functions.

two.1.6) Information about lots

This contract is divided into lots: No

two.1.7) Total value of the procurement (excluding VAT)

Value excluding VAT: £319,584

two.2) Description

two.2.3) Place of performance

NUTS codes
  • UK - United Kingdom

two.2.4) Description of the procurement

This notice covers the renewal of the cloud hosting for our ERP and HR/Payroll system.

Northumbria Police currently use the Unit4 Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP) system for the management of financial, HR and payroll processing. The application is essential IT infrastructure as it provides accounting functionality which enables budget allocation and management across the whole Force.

This contract covers the hosting services which support the Unit4 contract and is required for the system to operate.

For reasons of protection of exclusive rights and technical reasons, Northumbria Police can not currently transition away from Unit4 system. QTC are an Unit4 approved hosting partner and there is a high level of risk identified transferring data from one hosting provider to another.

two.2.11) Information about options

Options: No


Section four. Procedure

four.1) Description

four.1.1) Type of procedure

Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition in the cases listed below

  • The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the regulations

Explanation:

The award is lawful in accordance with regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) because the competition is absent for technical reasons. Northumbria Police has used the Unit4 application since the finance team was moved in-house. The system is an essential part of the force's infrastructure and any down time or system failure would have a detrimental effect on the running of the Force.

There is a high level of risk identified transferring data from one hosting provider to another, so the decision has been made to stay with the incumbent supplier. Furthermore, Northumbria Police do not have the resource to support such a transition, for the foreseeable future, if a transition to a new supplier was deemed possible.

four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes


Section five. Award of contract/concession

Contract No

NP0378

Title

Unit4 Hosting

A contract/lot is awarded: Yes

five.2) Award of contract/concession

five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract

20 December 2024

five.2.2) Information about tenders

The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No

five.2.3) Name and address of the contractor/concessionaire

QuickThink Cloud Limited

Bristol

Country

United Kingdom

NUTS code
  • UK - United Kingdom
Companies House

08783872

The contractor/concessionaire is an SME

No

five.2.4) Information on value of contract/lot/concession (excluding VAT)

Total value of the contract/lot/concession: £319,584


Section six. Complementary information

six.4) Procedures for review

six.4.1) Review body

Northumbria Police

Newcastle

Country

United Kingdom