Prior information notice

Information

Published

Date of dispatch of this notice: 09/02/2018

Expire date: 08/02/2019

External Reference: 2018-326535

TED Reference: 2018/S 030-065197

Prior information notice

Prior information notice

Services

Directive 2014/24/EU

This notice is for prior information only

Section I: Contracting authority

I.1)

Name and addresses

The Office of Government Procurement
N/A
3A Mayor Street Upper
Dublin 1. D01 PF72.
Dublin
IE
Contact person: Tender Operations
Telephone: +353 0761008000
NUTS code:  IE -  IRELAND
Internet address(es):
I.2)

Joint procurement

The contract is awarded by a central purchasing body
I.3)

Communication

Additional information can be obtained from
the abovementioned address:  
I.4)

Type of the contracting authority

Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local subdivisions
I.5)

Main activity

General public services

Section II: Object

II.1)

Scope of the procurement

II.1.1)

Title

Prior Information Notice for the provision of a National eProcurement Platform (NEP) managed and hosted by a third party on their premises as a Software as a Service (SaaS).
Reference number:  19756
II.1.2)

Main CPV code

48490000  -  Procurement software package
II.1.3)

Type of contract

Services
II.1.4)

Short description

Prior Information Notice for the provision of a National eProcurement Platform (NEP) managed and hosted by a third party on their premises as a Software as a Service (SaaS).
II.1.5)

Estimated total value

Value excluding VAT: 1.00  EUR
II.1.6)

Information about lots

This contract is divided into lots: no
II.2)

Description

II.2.2)

Additional CPV code(s)

48732000  -  Data security software package
72212222  -  Web server software development services
72212224  -  Web page editing software development services
72212470  -  Auction software development services
79132100  -  Electronic signature certification services
II.2.3)

Place of performance

NUTS code:  IE -  IRELAND
Main site or place of performance:  
Dublin 1
II.2.4)

Description of the procurement

The Irish Government’s electronic tendering platform www.eTenders.gov.ie (eTenders) is a national facility for all public sector Contracting Authorities (CAs) to publish procurement opportunities (tenders) and contract award notices for goods, services and works. The eTenders platform is managed by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) with day-to-day operations performed by a third party service provider on a Software as a Service (SaaS) basis. The platform is used by the public service including the OGP and its sourcing partners in the Health, Defence, Education and Local Government sectors; central government departments and agencies; local government and health sector organisations and by the wider public sector comprising semi-state organisations, both commercial and non-commercial, and voluntary and community groups that are funded by EU or State bodies. eTenders also provides an eSender service for all CAs where notices above the OJEU thresholds are transmitted automatically to the Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) system managed by the European Commission’s Publications Office. There is no charge to contracting CAs or EOs for use of the eTenders platform which is also freely available to the public to view notices published by public sector contracting authorities.
Economic Operators (EOs) use eTenders to access public sector tender opportunities. They register their company details and profiles on the system, receive automatic alerts on potential opportunities and submit and manage tender responses online.
There are new mandatory rules outlined in the EU Directives 2014/23/EC, 2014/24/EC and 2014/25/EC covering the use of electronic communications between CAs and EOs. These new rules include accessibility to Request for Tender (RFT) documents and response submissions. For the first time, electronic submission of tender responses will be mandatory with effect from October 2018.
The eTenders platform currently has approximatly 147,000 registered entities – which is currently split as follows- 5,700 CAs and 141, 300 EOs. Each entity can have multiple users. All tender and contract award notices are classified as either OJEU (above the thresholds that require publication in the Official Journal of the European Union) or as Non-OJEU (below those thresholds and subject to national procurement rules). eTenders displays, on a daily basis, all Irish public sector procurement opportunities currently advertised in the OJEU as well as below OJEU threshold tenders. In 2015, 5000 tender notices with a contract value of €7.3 billion were published on eTenders
The current service provider carries out the maintenance, support and development functions required by the OGP on the eTenders platform and provides a helpdesk on system functionality for users. The contract with the current service provider was put in place in 2012 and expires in May 2020. The OGP intends to publish a contract notice in 2018 for the provision of a National eProcurement Platform (NEP) (‘the NEP Competition’) by a single service provider on a SaaS basis. This contract notice will have a requirement for a change control protocol allowing for additional services during the term of the contract as a consequence of new legislative, regulatory and policy requirements in relation to Public Procurement.
II.2.14)

Additional information

This is not a Contract Notice or call for competition.
II.3)

Estimated date of publication of contract notice:

08/02/2019

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)

Description

IV.1.8)

Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement : yes
IV.2)

Administrative information

Section VI: Complementary information

VI.3)

Additional information

This is a Prior Information Notice only. This is not a Contract Notice or call for competition.