Section one: Contracting authority
one.1) Name and addresses
UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX(THE)
Sussex House,Falmer
BRIGHTON
BN19RH
Contact
Julian Blankson
Telephone
+44 1273876934
Country
United Kingdom
Region code
UKJ21 - Brighton and Hove
Companies House
RC000672
Internet address(es)
Main address
one.4) Type of the contracting authority
Body governed by public law
one.5) Main activity
Education
Section two: Object
two.1) Scope of the procurement
two.1.1) Title
Posit R-Studio Cloud
two.1.2) Main CPV code
- 72200000 - Software programming and consultancy services
two.1.3) Type of contract
Services
two.1.4) Short description
System used for feedback between staff and students in Psychology.
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: 215,184.08 USD
two.2) Description
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UKJ2 - Surrey, East and West Sussex
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
System used for feedback between staff and students in Psychology.
two.2.5) Award criteria
Price
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 services can be provided only by a particular economic operator for the following reason:
- absence of competition for technical reasons
Explanation:
This contract is essential for students and staff in our Psychology School. The service has been used for the last year and has been highly beneficial to the school and been central to teaching.
Posit's services are not available through any Frameworks and are below the price for a mandatory open procedure . Other suppliers in the market were explored, namely Noteable, but cannot provide the specific service that Posit does.
Using Noteable the School of Psychology would have no direct control over how servers are set up. For example if they want to install a package for students at short notice it would be impossible. They would have to ask the Noteable team to do this for them. This was a dealbreaker as you sometimes need to update things at very short notice. Posit cloud gives complete control over the student's environment. Individual module leads have direct control over their module workspaces on the cloud.
It was felt that the overall user interface would not serve our specific aim of reducing the technical load (and associated anxiety) on students. In contrast Posit could is simply organised, students just log in and see RStudio (no set up). Our Psychology staff are able to control their environments to keep everything as simple as possible (e.g. pre-install everything they need for particular modules). With posit cloud students can also be organised into groups, have projects/infomration easily shared with them and staff can set up template projects as assignments. It eliminates some term 1 technical material that puts many students off. Posit cloud is purpose-built for making RStudio accessible and easy to use with zero barriers to getting started with the software.
For this reason we are siting the Public Contracts Regulation 32 (b) - "where the works, supplies or services can be supplied only by a particular economic operator for any of the following reasons: (ii)competition is absent for technical reasons".
four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: No
Section five. Award of contract
A contract/lot is awarded: Yes
five.2) Award of contract
five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract
29 September 2023
five.2.2) Information about tenders
Number of tenders received: 1
The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No
five.2.3) Name and address of the contractor
Posit Software PBC, 250 Northern Avenue Suite 410 Boston Suffolk 02210 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Boston
Country
United States
NUTS code
- US - United States
Justification for not providing organisation identifier
Not on any register
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: 215,184.08 USD
Total value of the contract/lot: 215,184.08 USD
Section six. Complementary information
six.4) Procedures for review
six.4.1) Review body
Public Procurement Review Service (PPRS)
London
Country
United Kingdom