Award

ID 2434961 — DfE TNI — Destination Management System

  • Tourism NI

F15: Voluntary ex ante transparency notice

Notice identifier: 2023/S 000-030640

Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-040cc2

Published 17 October 2023, 3:55pm



Section one: Contracting authority/entity

one.1) Name and addresses

Tourism NI

Floor 10-12 Linum Chambers, Bedford Square, Bedford Street

BELFAST

BT2 7ES

Email

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.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

ID 2434961 — DfE TNI — Destination Management System

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

Tourism NI procured a contract to deliver a Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) eTourism solution to support its tourism development, including consumer, travel trade and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) markets. As the level of support for the original contract was severely underestimated, Tourism NI require a modification of the contract value to deliver the required additional development, required technical fixes or amends for the key consumer facing discovernorthernireland.com.

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: £1,836,060

two.2) Description

two.2.3) Place of performance

NUTS codes
  • UKN - Northern Ireland

two.2.4) Description of the procurement

Tourism NI procured a contract to deliver a Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) eTourism solution to support its tourism development, including consumer, travel trade and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) markets. As the level of support for the original contract was severely underestimated, Tourism NI require a modification of the Contract value to deliver the required additional development, required technical fixes or amends for the key consumer facing discovernorthernireland.com.

two.2.5) Award criteria

Quality criterion - Name: As per the tender documents / Weighting: 40

Cost criterion - Name: As per the tender documents / Weighting: 60

two.2.11) Information about options

Options: Yes

Description of options

Initial contract period: 2 years optional extension periods: + 1 year, +1 year, +1 year.

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

Negotiated without a prior call for competition

  • The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator for the following reason:
    • absence of competition for technical reasons

Explanation:

Tourism NI procured a contract to deliver a Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) eTourism solution to support its tourism development, including consumer, travel trade and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) markets. As the level of support for the original contract was severely underestimated, Tourism NI require a modification of the Contract value to deliver the required additional development, required technical fixes or amends for the key consumer facing discovernorthernireland.com. The modification value required is £918,030

In addition the supplier has built this website to allow for collaborative integration with local councils therefore there are technical reasons that the current Supplier would be the only supplier that could complete this work.

In accordance with Regulation 72(1) (b) Additional works, services or supplies “have become necessary” and were not included in the initial procurement and a change of supplier would not be practicable (for economic, technical or interoperability reasons) and would involve substantial inconvenience/duplication of costs - provided the change does not exceed 50% of the value of the original contract.

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: 2020/S 038-091220


Section five. Award of contract/concession

A contract/lot is awarded: Yes

five.2) Award of contract/concession

five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract

19 February 2020

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

New Mind Internet Consultancy Trading as Simpleview Europe Ltd

Suite 1.02 South Harrington Building 182 Sefton Street

Liverpool

L3 4BQ

Email

saleseurope@simpleviewinc.com

Country

United Kingdom

NUTS code
  • UKN - Northern Ireland
Internet address

https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps

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: £1,836,060


Section six. Complementary information

six.4) Procedures for review

six.4.1) Review body

The UK does not have any such bodies with responsibility for appeal/mediation procedures. 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.

Belfast

Country

United Kingdom

six.4.3) Review procedure

Precise information on deadline(s) for review procedures

CPD will comply with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended) and, where appropriate, will incorporate a standstill period (i.e. a minimum of 10 calendar days) at the point information on the award of contract is communicated to tenderers. That notification will provide full information on the award decision. This provides time for the unsuccessful tenderers to challenge the award decision before the contract is entered into