Education Network for Northern Ireland — “Education Network (NI)”

Concepts

• northern ireland
• belfast
• software implementation
• education network
• education authority
• varying requirements of the education authority
• service arrangement
• anticipated modification increase
• maintenance services
• supply of a broad range of computer

Location

Belfast

Description

The Contracting Authority requires ICT services to replace its existing contracts for managed Local Area Network services for post primary and special schools in Northern Ireland (known as “Lot 3”) and managed Wide Area Network Services for all Northern Ireland schools (known as “Lot 5”), together with the re-procurement of the Management Information System for all schools in Northern Ireland. The services required pursuant to this procurement process are to take forward the service vision, by ensuring the continuity of existing services, covered in broad terms by the existing contracts, while transforming these services over the lifetime of the new contract term. The overall scope of the services can be summarised as follows: — a fully integrated end to end service to meet the management/administration and learning/teaching needs of educational establishments, — ICT infrastructure and associated services for post primary and special educational establishments, — connectivity to, and provision of a range of online services for all educational establishments. Prospective service providers should note that the intention is not simply to replace the outgoing services on a like for like basis and that the concepts of local area (or school-based) and wide area services, as previously understood and applied should not constrain the bidders thinking and proposals regarding the overall architecture in light of technology developments. The Contracting Authority will request proposals during the detailed dialogue stage for the transformation of the learning platform and management administration elements of the services but reserves the right to make a decision at that stage on the inclusion or otherwise of the transformation of these elements within the scope of the awarded contract.

Ammendments to Previous Notice

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 72263000 - Software implementation services

Indicators

• Contract modified due to additional needs.

Legal Justification

The modification will facilitate the continuation of the existing managed service arrangements, functionality changes to effectively meet schools’ requirements, overcome delays due to Covid-19 lockdowns, facilitate procurement and permit transition to a new contract. The anticipated modification increase equates to GBP 73 000 000. The overall new modified contract value is GBP 513 000 000. No aspect of the modification will alter the overall nature of the current contract as the scope of services will remain unaltered and any expenditure will not be permitted to exceed 50% of the value of the original contract agreement, this will be carefully monitored to ensure compliance. Regulation 72(1)(b) permits an amendment to an existing contract: for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor that have become necessary and were not included in the initial procurement, where a change of contractor - (i) cannot be made for economic or technical reasons such as requirements of interchangeability or interoperability with existing equipment, services or installations procured under the initial procurement; or (ii) would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs for the contracting authority, provided that any increase in price does not exceed 50% of the value of the original contract.