- Id
- 710845451
- Status
- complete
- Procurement Method
- limited
- Main Procurement Category
- services
- Procurement Method Details
- Negotiated without publication of a contract notice
- Why this procedure was chosen
- The Communications & Situational Awareness (CSA) Project Team within Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), part of the UK Ministry of Defence, (“the Authority”) intends to place a new support contract with Total Integrated Solutions Limited (TIS Ltd) (the “Company”) for continued in-service support of a range of legacy master equipment encompassing CCTV, PABX, Flight Deck Comms, RICE 1&2, Main Broadcast and IR comms deployed on RN, RFA surface platforms as well as subsurface platforms.
In accordance with Regulation 4 of the Defence and Security Contracts (Amendment) (EU Exit) 2019 Regulations (SI 2019/697) this procurement is regulated under the provisions of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 as amended (by SI 2019/697 and SI 2020/1450). Prior publication of a contract notice in the official Journal of the European Union is no longer appropriate.
It is considered that the award of contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the UK e-notification service (as required by the relevant legislation) is lawful in accordance with regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 for technical reasons.
The replacement contract will provide continued in-service support of the systems and legacy equipment currently satisfied under the CSA/1097 Contract. There is a requirement for continuation of OEM spares, repairs and technical support for equipment covered by the extant CSA/1097 contract. CCTV, PABX, Flight Deck Comms, RICE 1&2, Main Broadcast and IR comms are deployed on RN, RFA surface platforms as well as subsurface platforms.
The replacement contract has an estimated value of up to £10 million (Ten Million Pounds Sterling, ex VAT) and will have a term of 5 (five) years with 2 (two) option years to align with the Authority’s obsolescence management plan and technical refreshes in respect of the equipment.
It is considered that for technical reasons this contract can be placed with TIS Limited as only TIS has the required technical knowledge, expertise and the specific know-how that is necessary to meet this requirement which they have gained over many years in order to support, manufacture, repair and maintain the legacy equipment’s that are within the end of life stage and will be taken out of service iaw the Fleet programme. TIS have produced and own the proprietary rights to their own drawings, procedures, job instructions, work instructions, wiring loom boards, test interfaces, casting patterns and jigs that have been produced and are necessary in order to fulfil the Authority’s requirements. The Authority does not have a right to obtain the necessary information/documentation from TIS Ltd. TIS Ltd are the only company with the capability to manufacture the majority of the internal communications as they are the Original Equipment Manufacturer and Design Authority for some equipment and the legacy drawings and technical documentation available to the authority is mostly out of date, incomplete and lacking in maturity.
In order to maintain continuity and support, TIS has procured drawings, jigs & tools from other OEMs who cease to exist to retain the Design Authority support to key components such as watertight communication units and own artworks for hundreds of PECs that require manufacture. TIS are the only company who can support the current PABX systems with the specific knowledge of the programming software and encryption to allow the ability to configure the systems and are in the middle of a technical refresh programme to overcome obsolescence to keep the existing platforms operational. TIS has the accumulated technical data and specific knowledge required to support aged and legacy communication technology, in accordance with the technical requirements of the contract. Placing the replacement contract with TIS is critical to ensure that support equipment is secure by design and safe to operate.