CONTRACT AWARD NOTICE – OFFICIAL JOURNAL

Section I: Contracting Authority

I.1)

Name, Address and Contact Point(s)

I.2)

Type of contracting Authority and Main Activity or Activities

Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local sub-divisions National or federal agency/Office Regional or local Authority Regional or local Agency/Office Body governed by public law European Institution/Agency or International Organisation

General public services Defence Public order and safety Environment Economic and financial affairs Health Housing and community amenities Social protection Recreation, culture and religion Education Other (Please specify): public procurement

Section II: Object of the Contract

II.1)

Description

II.1.1)

Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority

Quality Assurance (QA) and Testing for IT Systems.

II.1.2(a))

Type of works contract

II.1.2(b))

Type of supplies contract

II.1.2(c))

Type of service contract

II.1.2)

Main site or location of works, place of delivery or performance

Primarily in the UK with some limited requirements overseas.

II.1.3)

This notice involves a framework agreement

II.1.4)

Short description of the contract or purchase(s)

Crown Commercial Service as the Contracting Authority has put in place a Pan Government Collaborative Framework Agreement for use by UK public sector bodies (and any future successors to these organisations), which include Central Government Departments and their Arm's Length Bodies and Agencies, Non Departmental Public Bodies, NHS bodies and Local Authorities.

This Framework Agreement provides access to a range of services such as:

— QA & Test Delivery Ownership: responsibility for, and coordination of, all aspects of QA and Test across the business, programme and or project. Includes making QA and test rules, planning; choice of tools; and team leader.

— QA & Test Analysis: analysis, design and execution: covering a variety of test activities, test types and methods. For example, compatibility testing, accessibility testing, functional testing (including exploratory techniques).

— Test Engineering: developing and delivering test automation outlines and services. Typically working as part of a DevOps capability within an Agile development environment. Increasingly, QA & Test specialists are part of and co-located with the development and scrum teams.

— Non-Functional Testing: design and execution of tests to cover non-functional needs, including load & performance and operational acceptance.

— Integration testing: covering the strategy, planning and execution for complex, large scale technical integration testing.

— Assurance: to understand and mitigate risk during third party-led test activities, typically when working in waterfall delivery cycles or legacy contractual environments.

— Consultancy: to provide technical reviews at project, programme or departmental/business unit level to form best QA & Test practices.

Crown Commercial Service reserves the right for an electronic auction to be held by Public Sector bodies during further competition among the parties to the Framework Agreement(s).

II.1.5)

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

II.1.6)

Contract covered by the government procurement agreement (GPA)

II.2)

Total final value of the contract(s)

II.2.1)

Total final value of the contract(s)

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)

Type of procedure

IV.1.1)

Type of procedure

IV.2)

Award criteria

IV.2.1)

Award criteria

IV.2.2)

An electronic auction has been used

IV.3)

Administrative information

IV.3.1)

File reference number attributed by the contracting authority

RM3810

IV.3.2)

Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

Other previous publications

Section V: Award of contract

Contract No:

Title:

Lot No:

V.1)

Date of contract award:

V.2)

Numbers of offers received:

V.3)

Name and address of economic operator to whom the contract has been awarded

V.4)

Information on value of contract

V.5)

The contract is likely to be subcontracted

Short description of the value/proportion of the contract to be subcontracted

Section V: Award of contract

Contract No:

Title:

Lot No:

V.1)

Date of contract award:

V.2)

Numbers of offers received:

V.3)

Name and address of economic operator to whom the contract has been awarded

V.4)

Information on value of contract

V.5)

The contract is likely to be subcontracted

Short description of the value/proportion of the contract to be subcontracted

Section V: Award of contract

Contract No:

Title:

Lot No:

V.1)

Date of contract award:

V.2)

Numbers of offers received:

V.3)

Name and address of economic operator to whom the contract has been awarded

V.4)

Information on value of contract

V.5)

The contract is likely to be subcontracted

Short description of the value/proportion of the contract to be subcontracted

Section V: Award of contract

Contract No:

Title:

Lot No:

V.1)

Date of contract award:

V.2)

Numbers of offers received:

V.3)

Name and address of economic operator to whom the contract has been awarded

V.4)

Information on value of contract

V.5)

The contract is likely to be subcontracted

Short description of the value/proportion of the contract to be subcontracted

Section V: Award of contract

Contract No:

Title:

Lot No:

V.1)

Date of contract award:

V.2)

Numbers of offers received:

V.3)

Name and address of economic operator to whom the contract has been awarded

V.4)

Information on value of contract

V.5)

The contract is likely to be subcontracted

Short description of the value/proportion of the contract to be subcontracted

Section V: Award of contract

Contract No:

Title:

Lot No:

V.1)

Date of contract award:

V.2)

Numbers of offers received:

V.3)

Name and address of economic operator to whom the contract has been awarded

V.4)

Information on value of contract

V.5)

The contract is likely to be subcontracted

Short description of the value/proportion of the contract to be subcontracted

Section V: Award of contract

Contract No:

Title:

Lot No:

V.1)

Date of contract award:

V.2)

Numbers of offers received:

V.3)

Name and address of economic operator to whom the contract has been awarded

V.4)

Information on value of contract

V.5)

The contract is likely to be subcontracted

Short description of the value/proportion of the contract to be subcontracted

Section V: Award of contract

Contract No:

Title:

Lot No:

V.1)

Date of contract award:

V.2)

Numbers of offers received:

V.3)

Name and address of economic operator to whom the contract has been awarded

V.4)

Information on value of contract

V.5)

The contract is likely to be subcontracted

Short description of the value/proportion of the contract to be subcontracted

Section VI: Complementary Information

VI.1)

Contract related to a project and/or programme financed by community funds?

VI.2)

Additional Information

Framework term: The duration of the Framework Agreement is a maximum of 3 years, with the first term being 2 years, with a further possible multiple extensions up to a maximum of 3 years in total.

Suppliers should note that, in accordance with the UK Government's policies on transparency, Crown Commercial Service intends to publish the text of any Framework Agreement awarded, subject to possible redactions at the discretion of Crown Commercial Service. The terms of the proposed Framework Agreement will also permit a public sector contracting authority, awarding a contract under this Framework Agreement, to publish the text of that contract, subject to possible redactions at the discretion of the contracting authority. Further information on transparency can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-and-contracting-transparency-requirementsguidance

The Contracting Authority has awarded a place on this Framework Agreement to the successful suppliers, however this does not mean that there is any guarantee of subsequent contracts being awarded. Any expenditure, work or effort undertaken prior to contract award under this Framework Agreement is a matter solely for the commercial judgement of the successful suppliers. Any orders placed under this Framework Agreement will form a separate contract under the scope of this Framework between the supplier and the specific requesting other contracting body. The Contracting Authority and other contracting bodies utilising the Framework reserve the right to use any electronic portal during the life of the agreement.

The following information has been captured in accordance with the requirements of Regulation 59 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

The Authority received 1 tender from a group of economic operators.

The Authority received a total of 50 tenders in response to this procurement, all of which were received electronically via the Authority's eSourcing Suite.

The Authority received 32 tenders from SMEs.

The Authority received 1 tender from a non EU state.

The Authority received 0 tenders from EU states other than UK.

VI.3)

Procedures for appeal

VI.3.1)

Body responsible for appeal procedures

Body responsible for mediation procedures

VI.3.2)

Lodging of appeals

Precise information on deadline(s) for lodging appeals: There is no right of appeal in this procurement. If you have a complaint or seek to challenge the outcome, please seek your own legal advice.

VI.3.3)

Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained

VI.4)

Dispatch date of this Notice