- Id
- DN276708
- Status
- complete
- Procurement Method
- limited
- Main Procurement Category
- goods
- Procurement Method Details
- Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
- Why this procedure was chosen
- The original call off contract was awarded following a further competition under the Hampshire County Supplies Framework (Ref HSY17035) from July 2017 - 2020. A further 12m extension was taken, 7/21 and until 07/22 the Council continued to lease the machines on a monthly basis. In 7/22 - 4/24, the Council extended the contract under the framework for a further 2 yrs with no new devices. The original contract award notice and subsequent award notice were not published, and so a VEAT was published on 30 /4/24 to address this (ref 2024/S 000-013904).
A further continuation of the call off contract will be put in place from 1/2/26 - 31/7/27. This is for a number of reasons:
The public contract concerns the supply of goods, services, or works by the existing supplier which are intended as an extension to, or partial replacement of, existing goods, services, or works in circumstances where-
(a) A change in supplier would result in the contracting authority receiving goods, services, or works that are different from, or incompatible with, the existing goods, services, or works. Specifically, moving to another provider would incur huge additional costs and require significant resources. The retention of the existing fleet of machines means that the service to IWC employees is retained with no gap & there will be no additional costs to the fleet, nor any onboarding costs or disruption of new machines, training requirements etc. If we were to re-tender at this point, all machines would need to be replaced with an implementation process to consider, additional licensing & configuration costs, re-training and a short timeframe in which to do it. There is a very real risk that there are not enough resources to re-tender at this stage.
Additionally, retention of island-based 3rd party support and maintenance from Sandham Office Services. Retaining Ricoh as our supplier means that the Council will continue to have local support and maintenance as required with no gap in service. If this wasn't in place there would be risks associated with this element of service provision.
(b) The difference or incompatibility would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation or maintenance. Staying with the current provider ensures continuity and compatibility, allowing us the necessary time to make a decision on the future of the MFD contract longer term.
This is especially key given the uncertainty around the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) which won't be known until the end February 2026 at the earliest. The Council is therefore not keen to be tied into a long term contract whilst this is uncertain, which consequently means we know we wouldn't be receiving value for money with a shorter term period. The Council has invested in the 'Follow Me Print' solution which is bespoke to Ricoh. This means that staff can print in any Council location. If we had an alternative provider, this would need to be replaced which would have cost implications but also implications on the training of staff.
This approach also supports the strategy to reduce printing which has an impact on the environment and supports the Council's wider Corporate Plan regarding Climate Change ("every decision we take will not only need to have regard to our climate change strategy but must also have regard to supporting, sustaining, and enhancing our biosphere status. based on existing usage and reports" p6, Corporate Plan). This further applies to not wishing to be in contract for any longer than 18 months so that the Council can review its requirements in view of the LGR, and with a view to reduce the fleet further if we re-tender in 2027.
This relates to the previous VEAT ref 2024/S 000-013904 of 30/4/24. The intention is to set out clearly what our position has been and will be until 31 July 2027.
Whole life cost includes the values set out in the previous VEAT notice-£1,089,915.95.
The Dec 25 VEAT started the standstill which concluded at midnight on 15/12/25.