Section one: Contracting authority
one.1) Name and addresses
Department for the Economy Tourism NI
10-12 Linum Cambers, Bedford Street
BELFAST
BT2 7ES
Contact
ssdadmin.cpdfinance-ni.gov.uk
ssdadmin.cpd@finance-ni.gov.uk
Country
United Kingdom
Region code
UK - United Kingdom
Internet address(es)
Main address
https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps
Buyer's address
https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps
one.2) Information about joint procurement
The contract is awarded by a central purchasing body
one.4) Type of the contracting authority
Body governed by public law
one.5) Main activity
General public services
Section two: Object
two.1) Scope of the procurement
two.1.1) Title
DfE - Tourism NI - Concept Testing
two.1.2) Main CPV code
- 73000000 - Research and development services and related consultancy services
two.1.3) Type of contract
Services
two.1.4) Short description
DfE - Tourism NI - Concept Testing - Tourism NI wishes to appoint a Contractor to design and deliver a methodology for testing early stage and more developed product and experience concepts, appropriate to the Northern Ireland tourism proposition, as a decision support tool.
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: £585,000
two.2) Description
two.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
- 73300000 - Design and execution of research and development
- 79300000 - Market and economic research; polling and statistics
- 79310000 - Market research services
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UKN0 - Northern Ireland
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
DfE - Tourism NI - Concept Testing - Tourism NI wishes to appoint a Contractor to design and deliver a methodology for testing early stage and more developed product and experience concepts, appropriate to the Northern Ireland tourism proposition, as a decision support tool.
two.2.5) Award criteria
Quality criterion - Name: Qualitative Criteria / Weighting: 40
Cost criterion - Name: Quantitative Criteria / Weighting: 60
two.2.11) Information about options
Options: No
two.2.13) Information about European Union Funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: No
Section four. Procedure
four.1) Description
four.1.1) Type of procedure
Open procedure
four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes
four.2) Administrative information
four.2.1) Previous publication concerning this procedure
Notice number: 2024/S 000-012204
Section five. Award of contract
Contract No
1
Title
Contract
A contract/lot is awarded: Yes
five.2) Award of contract
five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract
1 July 2024
five.2.2) Information about tenders
Number of tenders received: 4
Number of tenders received from SMEs: 1
Number of tenders received from tenderers from other EU Member States: 0
Number of tenders received from tenderers from non-EU Member States: 1
Number of tenders received by electronic means: 4
The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No
five.2.3) Name and address of the contractor
COGNISENSE LTD
Adelaide House, 1 Falcon Rd
BELFAST
BT12 6SJ
Telephone
+44 2890387057
Fax
+44 2890387051
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
- UK - United Kingdom
Internet address
https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps
The contractor is an SME
Yes
five.2.4) Information on value of contract/lot (excluding VAT)
Initial estimated total value of the contract/lot: £585,000
Total value of the contract/lot: £585,000
Section six. Complementary information
six.3) Additional information
The figure indicated in Section II 1.5 represents an estimated contract value. This value reflects the potential scale of the contract, however, neither CPD nor the Authority can provide any guarantee as to the level of business under this contract. The successful contractor’s performance on the contract will be regularly monitored. Contractors not delivering on contract requirements is a serious matter. It means the public purse is not getting what it is paying for. If a contractor fails to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance they will be given a specified time to improve. If, after the specified time, they still fail to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance, the matter will be escalated to senior management in CPD for further action. If this occurs and their performance still does not improve to satisfactory levels within the specified period, it may be regarded as an act of grave professional misconduct and they may be issued with a Notice of Unsatisfactory Performance and the contract may be terminated. The issue of a Notice of unsatisfactory Performance will result in the contractor being excluded from all procurement competitions being undertaken by Centres of Procurement Expertise on behalf of bodies covered by the Northern Ireland Procurement Policy for a period of twelve months from the date of issue of the Notice.
six.4) Procedures for review
six.4.1) Review body
The UK does not have any special review body with responsibility for appeal/mediation procedures in public procurement competitions. Instead; any challenges are dealt with by the High Court, Commercial Division, to which proceedings may be issued regarding alleged breaches of the PCR 2015 as amended
United Kingdom
Country
United Kingdom
six.4.3) Review procedure
Precise information on deadline(s) for review procedures
CPD complied with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and incorporated a standstill period (i.e. a minimum of 10 calendar days) at the point information on the award of contract was communicated to tenderers. That notification provided full information on the award decision. This provided time for the unsuccessful tenderers to challenge the award decision before the contract was entered into..