IMS3 Contract for the Provision of Information Management Services

Concepts

• information technology
• provision of information management services
• service continuity
• negotiation procurement exercise
• dhsc
• ims3 contract term
• transition
• replacement provider of the ims
• track
• timeframe

Location

39 Victoria Street, Westminster, London, SW1H 0EU<br/><br/>This contract also services DHSC office locations across England

Description

Total Quantity or Scope

In February 2021, DHSC launched a competitive procedure with negotiation procurement exercise for a replacement provider of the IMS3 service. This exercise is on track and DHSC expect to award the Contract within expected timescales (with the assumption that the negotiation phase is not invoked). Whilst the transition to the new supplier is feasible under the IMS3 Contract term there remain risks that it may not be complete in this timeframe which would impact on service continuity and cause significant disruption for the authority.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

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

Legal Justification

The Department has undertaken a procurement exercise to replace this service (with IMS4) and as a contingency is now further extending the agreement by 9 months for the purposes of orderly transition and exit.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. ** (i) Whilst the transition to the new supplier is feasible under the IMS3 Contract term as extended to 30 April 2022, there is a risk that it may not be complete in time due to approvals needed for the new service taking longer than expected, the scale of service being provided due to reorganisations of ALBs and test and trace as well as other current consuming organisations transition plans taking longer than expected. As well as; (ii) The level of technical transformation and remediation required of the services under the contract in order to transition to the new provider is not feasible within the current term.(iii) A change of supplier cannot be made from Atos to another supplier prior to the previous expiry date for both technical and economic reasons. This is due to the nature and complexity of the current IMS3 IT infrastructure and estate, the necessary transitional activities and the significant service disruption and cost that will arise in the event of a premature transition. For example, it is not possible to migrate data such as unstructured files without Atos’ support and knowledge of the IMS3 data-center infrastructure and configuration, because Atos’ support and knowledge is needed to ensure access is made available and legacy identities are matched to new cloud identities;(iv) a change of supplier to migrate to an interim supplier from Atos and then to the IMS4 supplier would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs for the DHSC and the UK Government as a whole. Among the anticipated complications are: costs related to transition periods; exit costs; termination assistance costs; procurement costs; further stranded costs for which DHSC would retain liability; TUPE costs and pension liabilities; costs in recreating data in the event of data loss in migration; and knowledge transfer costs particularly around a number of Atos built assets and other systems which cannot be transitioned safely (either to an interim supplier or a TOM supplier) without a detailed and expensive handover; and(v) As set out above, DHSC considers the intended further extension to be necessary for both technical and economic reasons; a change of supplier would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs for the DHSC and the UK Government as a whole; and the price to be paid during the further 9-month extension will not exceed 50% of the value of the original Contract and therefore this modification is permitted under Regulation 72(1)(b) of the PCR 2015: