Provision of a Research Enterprise Management System

Concepts

• research enterprise management system
• southampton
• software package
• professional services staff and school/faculty and university
• provision of a research enterprise management system
• awards management
• end research enterprise management system
• senior management
• portfolio of research
• researchers

Location

SOUTHAMPTON

Description

The proposed contract enables a radical new approach to applications and awards management, an end-to-end Research Enterprise Management System (REMS) will provide researchers, Professional Services staff and School/Faculty and University senior management, with a suite of easily accessible tools within one platform to manage, track progress and monitor our pipeline and portfolio of research and enterprise activities.

Total Quantity or Scope

The provision of a Research Enterprise Management system comprising; research pre-award, post-award and contracts modules. Research and Enterprise projects from external funding accounts for approximately £200m annually. There is a need to equip our researchers and professional staff with the tools that will enable them to compete effectively for external funding and to manage their awards - whilst giving the University effective oversight of its performance and the risks associated with research and enterprise activities. Currently there is considerable inefficiency in costing, pricing and approvals of bids as well as contracting and accessible post-award information. We mainly rely on people-driven processes, email communications and siloed information systems, as well as on individuals' knowledge and memory to ensure all necessary steps are taken. Procuring an 'end to end' best of breed integrated solution for applications and awards management will transform the way we manage our research and enterprise portfolio at all levels of the institution. Contract Period: The University proposes to enter into a Contract for 10 years This will comprise of an initial contract period of five years with an option to extend by a further five years subject to satisfactory performance and at the sole discretion of the University.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 48100000 - Industry specific software package

Indicators

Legal Justification

Negotiated procedure without prior publication 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: Following thorough examination of the market and discussions with staff and other institutions with similar complexity and volumes of research and enterprise funding portfolio, only one vendor has proven able to provide the end to end functionality required by the University. Products from several vendors were tested during soft market testing. Only the Worktribe platform was confirmed as able to bring all the relevant functionalities and information together through an appropriate interface enabling users to utilise the information and applications relevant to their roles. Further vendor research into other solutions again showed that only the Worktribe system was able to provide the end to end, fully integrated workflows for Pre-award, post-Award and Contract Management at the scale and complexity required by the University. Concerns raised with other systems included: - Not being able to manage the contracts elements of the requirement - Only managing the ethics elements which are outside of scope of this project - Not managing the full economic costing elements of the requirement - Complex integrations would be required with other systems to provide the requirement - Poor user experience in having to use multiple systems would remain for users - Not able to manage the scale and complexity of our portfolio Having conducted extensive market research and based on the complexity and size of the University's portfolio we have concluded that the Worktribe pre-award, post-award and contracts single platform is the only practical solution to meet our requirements.

Other Information

If you have any queries regarding this notice please contact e.raddon@soton.ac.uk and copy in procurement@soton.ac.uk.