Tender

Technical Toolkits – Support, Maintenance and Development Framework

  • Radioactive Waste Management

F02: Contract notice

Notice identifier: 2021/S 000-026632

Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-02ef75

Published 25 October 2021, 12:12pm



Section one: Contracting authority

one.1) Name and addresses

Radioactive Waste Management

Building 329, Thomson Avenue

Didcot

OX11 0GD

Contact

Wesley Pearson

Email

Wesley.pearson@nda.gov.uk

Telephone

+44 1925802820

Country

United Kingdom

NUTS code

UKJ - South East (England)

National registration number

8920190

Internet address(es)

Main address

https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/shared-services-alliance-ssa-for-nuclear-decommissioning-estate

Buyer's address

https://sharedsystems.eu-supply.com/ctm/Company/CompanyInformation/Index/3510

one.3) Communication

The procurement documents are available for unrestricted and full direct access, free of charge, at

https://sharedsystems.eu-supply.com/app/rfq/edittransaction.asp?TID=13778

Additional information can be obtained from the above-mentioned address

Tenders or requests to participate must be submitted electronically via

https://sharedsystems.eu-supply.com/app/rfq/edittransaction.asp?TID=13778

Tenders or requests to participate must be submitted to the above-mentioned address

one.4) Type of the contracting authority

Body governed by public law

one.5) Main activity

Other activity

Nuclear Decommissioning


Section two: Object

two.1) Scope of the procurement

two.1.1) Title

Technical Toolkits – Support, Maintenance and Development Framework

Reference number

RWM176

two.1.2) Main CPV code

  • 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

two.1.3) Type of contract

Services

two.1.4) Short description

RWM requires third party contract support to develop, support and maintain the Safety Case Management System (Lot 1) which references the outputs of other toolkits developed under the Inventory toolkit (Lot 2) and the Nuclear Safety Toolkit (Lot 3). All are underpinned by DIG Client (Lot 4) which is designed to allow users to create and update a number of XML-based electronic forms which store data and information on its use. All Lots in part, share Common Services (Lot 5) whilst requiring discreet services tailored to their system.

All these systems are supporting the location identification, design and construction of a GDF (Geological Disposal Facility) which is the first facility of its type in the UK.

two.1.5) Estimated total value

Value excluding VAT: £4,000,000

two.1.6) Information about lots

This contract is divided into lots: Yes

Tenders may be submitted for all lots

The contracting authority reserves the right to award contracts combining the following lots or groups of lots:

Lot 1/2/3/4

However, bidders have the opportunity to submit bids for all or any combination of lots.

two.2) Description

two.2.1) Title

Safety Case Management System (ViSI) Toolkit seeks to appoint a single contracting organisation/ consortium

Lot No

1

two.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)

  • 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
  • 48000000 - Software package and information systems

two.2.3) Place of performance

NUTS codes
  • UKK - South West (England)
  • UKJ14 - Oxfordshire
  • UK - United Kingdom

two.2.4) Description of the procurement

The primary objectives of Lot 1 Safety Case Management System Toolkit are:

ViSI (Visualisation of System Information) is a toolkit which RWM has developed internally to manage (including its evidence base) and facilitate the demonstration of a robust safety case for a Geological Disposal Facility.

In a detailed document, such as an environmental safety case, it can be difficult to follow how each claim relates to underlying arguments and associated evidence as a result of the volume of information which is relevant. This may lead to loss of clarity regarding whether the safety case is robust or whether there may be gaps in claims, safety arguments, or evidence.

The extant VISI system is written in several programming languages. RWM requires a development team to undertake tasks as directed by the RWM in-house team. RWM has an agreed vision and strategy for the development of ViSI, through the ViSI roadmap. While the ViSI system has a roadmap, it is not possible to define the precise functional requirements of the system.

Therefore, RWM will use the agile software development methodology as recommended by Government Digital Service guidelines to replicate successful working arrangements previously used.

The successful bidder for Lot 1 will be expected to provide both support, maintenance, along with the development of the VISI system, and associated components that are required for, or compliment, the system (e.g.: tools for editing, updating, and managing content).

It is anticipated that the Services (as called off from the Framework Agreement) are required to fix bugs (or other issues) and to develop and or improve the VISI system (e.g.: by addressing feature requests). Queries or critical fixes are likely to need fixing at short notice (however, the time to develop a fix or workaround itself is likely to be small) while improvements are likely to take a greater level of effort but have less urgency. The scope of Services shall include all developments of VISI over the period, including code development, testing, documentation, installation/deployment, and technical/architectural advice, together with any other support needed.

two.2.5) Award criteria

Price is not the only award criterion and all criteria are stated only in the procurement documents

two.2.6) Estimated value

Value excluding VAT: £350,000

two.2.7) Duration of the contract, framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system

Duration in months

60

This contract is subject to renewal

Yes

Description of renewals

Based on anticipated start date of contract period January 2022 – March 2024 there will be a possible 3+1yr extensions to March 2027

two.2.10) Information about variants

Variants will be accepted: No

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

two.2) Description

two.2.1) Title

Inventory Toolkit seeks to appoint a single contracting organisation/ consortium

Lot No

2

two.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)

  • 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

two.2.3) Place of performance

NUTS codes
  • UKJ14 - Oxfordshire
  • UKJ1 - Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire
  • UK - United Kingdom

two.2.4) Description of the procurement

The primary objectives of Lot 2 Inventory Toolkit

The inventory toolkits have been developed independently since the 1990s. Data routinely needs to be manually copied between them and there are overlaps in the stored data and code.

There are two main issues that this has introduced: -

• Data management: each toolkit has its own data store and can use different underpinning data or different code to achieve the same purpose, potentially leading to inconsistencies. Manually copying data between toolkits is error-prone and time consuming. The inability to control who uses the toolkits, or which version of the toolkit they use introduces the potential for further errors.

• Efficiency: because of the technology choices and lack of integration the toolkits are costly to maintain and time-consuming to use when data needs to be moved between them

Data and toolkit management issues in other areas have previously had a significant detrimental impact on our reputation (e.g.: thermal modelling errors). Inventory data is an important input to the GDF designs and safety cases, as well as disposability assessments. Hence any errors in the inventory data could impact on our safety cases and disposability assessment advice. As we move through the siting process, there is a risk that such errors would have a significant impact on our attempt to find a willing host community. It is important to minimise this risk.

The successful bidder for Lot 2 will be expected to provide all aspects of software development for the inventory toolkits including backlog management, development of user stories, version control, test plans, bug fixing and deployment. Additionally, the successful bidder will be expected to provide support to users and maintenance to the existing inventory toolkits.

two.2.5) Award criteria

Price is not the only award criterion and all criteria are stated only in the procurement documents

two.2.6) Estimated value

Value excluding VAT: £250,000

two.2.7) Duration of the contract, framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system

Duration in months

60

This contract is subject to renewal

Yes

Description of renewals

Based on anticipated start date of contract period January 2022 – March 2024 there will be a possible 3+1yr extensions to March 2027

two.2.10) Information about variants

Variants will be accepted: No

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

two.2) Description

two.2.1) Title

Nuclear Safety Case Toolkit seeks to appoint a single contracting organisation/ consortium

Lot No

3

two.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)

  • 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

two.2.3) Place of performance

NUTS codes
  • UKJ14 - Oxfordshire
  • UKJ1 - Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire
  • UKJ - South East (England)
  • UK - United Kingdom

two.2.4) Description of the procurement

The primary objectives of Lot 3 Nuclear Safety Case Toolkit:

RWM is developing its capability to undertake operational safety assessments in support of site evaluation and waste management. A digital capability has been chosen to align with the function’s broader aim of implementing Building Information Modelling (BIM) as mandated by government. The objective of the OSSS project is to provide the software tools that will facilitate this approach. These are primarily database and configuration management tools that will ease the production of a reliable, consistent, and auditable safety case; calculations are only one part of the total capability.

The scope of this procurement is to build, test and deploy the software such that it delivers the capability defined in the specifications

The successful bidder for Lot 3 will be expected to provide all aspects of software development including backlog management, capture of user needs, version control, test plans, documentation, bug fixing and deployment

two.2.5) Award criteria

Price is not the only award criterion and all criteria are stated only in the procurement documents

two.2.6) Estimated value

Value excluding VAT: £400,000

two.2.7) Duration of the contract, framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system

Duration in months

60

This contract is subject to renewal

Yes

Description of renewals

Based on anticipated start date of contract period January 2022 – March 2024 there will be a possible 3+1yr extensions to March 2027

two.2.10) Information about variants

Variants will be accepted: No

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

two.2) Description

two.2.1) Title

Dig Client seeks to appoint a single contracting organisation/ consortium

Lot No

4

two.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)

  • 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

two.2.3) Place of performance

NUTS codes
  • UKJ1 - Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire
  • UKJ - South East (England)
  • UK - United Kingdom

two.2.4) Description of the procurement

The primary objectives of Lot 4 Dig Client:

DIG is a bespoke suite of client applications used to create and edit a number of XML-based electronic forms to record numerical data and its associated uses. The suite includes capabilities to convert units and import/export data into a number of different formats for use in RWM’s modelling and reporting workflows.

The successful bidder for Lot 4 will be expected to provide:

Support, maintenance and development of the DIG suite as required by RWM over the period. This includes the provision of bug fixes, maintenance (to ensure compatibility with RWM’s current and future systems) and new developments (including the migration of functionality, or ability to interface with, any future Common Data Environment commissioned by RWM). The suite is largely written in .NET with C# with a number of elements written in other languages (e.g. Python, C).

Lot 5 Common Shared Services: will be formed by the successful bidders for the above. The successful bidders will be invited to mini tender under this framework for common services associated with all the Technical Toolkits named as described in the specifications. RWM reserves the right to direct award work under Lot 5 up to the value of £50k per task.

two.2.5) Award criteria

Price is not the only award criterion and all criteria are stated only in the procurement documents

two.2.6) Estimated value

Value excluding VAT: £150,000

two.2.7) Duration of the contract, framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system

Duration in months

60

This contract is subject to renewal

Yes

Description of renewals

Based on anticipated start date of contract period January 2022 – March 2024 there will be a possible 3+1yr extensions to March 2027

two.2.10) Information about variants

Variants will be accepted: No

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 three. Legal, economic, financial and technical information

three.1) Conditions for participation

three.1.1) Suitability to pursue the professional activity, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers

List and brief description of conditions

List and brief description of conditions: Bidders will be assessed in accordance with Section 5 of the 2015 Public Contract Regulations (implementing the Directive) on the basis of information provided in response to an Invitation to Tender (“ITT”).

Registering for access.

This procurement will be managed electronically via the CTM eSourcing portal. This will be the primary route for sharing all information and communicating with bidders.

If not alreadt registered, you will first need to register your organisation on the portal.

To register, you will need to:

1. Go to the URL: https://

sharedsystems.eu-supply.com/app/rfq/rwlentrance_s.asp?PID=12954&B=SELLAFIELD

three.1.2) Economic and financial standing

Selection criteria as stated in the procurement documents

three.1.3) Technical and professional ability

Selection criteria as stated in the procurement documents


Section four. Procedure

four.1) Description

four.1.1) Type of procedure

Open procedure

four.1.3) Information about a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system

The procurement involves the establishment of a framework agreement

Framework agreement with several operators

Envisaged maximum number of participants to the framework agreement: 4

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.2.2) Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate

Date

15 November 2021

Local time

12:00pm

four.2.4) Languages in which tenders or requests to participate may be submitted

English

four.2.7) Conditions for opening of tenders

Date

15 November 2021

Local time

12:00pm


Section six. Complementary information

six.1) Information about recurrence

This is a recurrent procurement: No

six.4) Procedures for review

six.4.1) Review body

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand

London

London

Country

United Kingdom

Internet address

http://www.justice.gov.uk

six.4.2) Body responsible for mediation procedures

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand

London

London

Country

United Kingdom

Internet address

http://www.justice.gov.uk

six.4.3) Review procedure

Precise information on deadline(s) for review procedures

Precise information on deadline(s) for review procedures:

Any appeals should be promptly brought to the attention of the contact specified in Section I above, and will be dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Any appeals must be brought within the timescales specified by the applicable law, including without limitation, the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. In accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, the Contracting Authority will also incorporate a minimum 10 calendar day standstill period from the date information on award of contract is communicated to tenderers.

six.4.4) Service from which information about the review procedure may be obtained

Radioactive Waste Management Ltd

Didcot

Country

United Kingdom