Contract notice – utilities
Section I: Contracting
entity
I.1) Name and addresses
NORTHUMBRIAN WATER LIMITED
366703
Northumbria House,Abbey Road, Pity Me
DURHAM
DH15FJ
UK
Contact person: Laura McMain
Telephone: +44 7805786518
E-mail: laura.mcmain@nwl.co.uk
NUTS: UKC
Internet address(es)
Main address: www.nwl.co.uk
I.3) Communication
The procurement documents are available for unrestricted and full direct access, free of charge at:
https://s1.ariba.com
Additional information can be obtained from the abovementioned address
Tenders or requests to participate must be sent electronically to:
https://s1.ariba.com
I.6) Main activity
Water
Section II: Object
II.1) Scope of the procurement
II.1.1) Title
Bill Printing
Reference number: NW2651
II.1.2) Main CPV code
79810000
II.1.3) Type of contract
Services
II.1.4) Short description
The scope of works includes, but is not limited to, a service provider for the provision of bill printing. The items that are to be provided include:
1. Printing of our customer bills and letters, including:
- Laser printing of bills and letters.
- Mailsorting our bill and letter files, including adding a Mailmark barcode on the documents.
- Enclosing ready for collection by downstream service provider to meet mailsort requirements.
- Provide or process controls tracking data from receipt of files to the despatch of mail.
- Procurement / provision of stationery including paper, envelopes and occasionally leaflets.
- Provision of stock storage, stock reports and stock re-order alerts when re-order levels are reached.
- Processing of returned mail, including providing a weekly file detailing mail returned.
2. PayPoint payment card production, including:
- Provision or sourcing of plastic payment cards, and paper for customer letters
- Encoding of magnetic strip
- Card attached to customer letter and mailed. Currently mailed using existing envelope stock from our main print files detailed above.
3. Hybrid Mail solution
- Providing a print solution for our colleagues working both in the office and at home
II.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots:
No
II.2) Description
II.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS code:
UKC
UKH14
UKH3
II.2.4) Description of the procurement
The initial contract will be for a period of three years with the option to extend for a further two years. The supplier must be able to manage the printing and fulfilment of 12 to 25,000 items on a daily
basis. In addition to daily files they should be able to manage the peak of annual billing. This will require a
phased mailing over a four week period during February and March where approximately 550,000 bills will be
produced . This is in addition to our daily file volumes.
Approximate annual volumes
- Daily bills 1.5m, Usually 2-4 sheets. Typically 4 sheets April to September when additional onserts are used and 2 sheets October to March.
- Daily Letters 2.4m, 1 to 3 page documents
- Annual bills 0.55m, Typically 4 sheet bills including selective onserts, a small number may have up to two additional onserts.
- Outer envelopes 4.5m 162mm x 235mm
- Return envelopes, 1.1m 102mm x 216mm
All bills and letters are printed on continuous plain white paper. In the 12 months up to end of November 2023 our continuous paper usage has totalled 10.255 million A4 sheets
Payment Cards - Approximately 30,000 cards are issued per year. Volumes are on average 115 per day
Hybrid Mail - Over the last 12 months our monthly volumes have been between around 4,000 and 11,000.
II.2.5) Award criteria
Price is not the only award criterion and all criteria are stated only in the procurement documents
II.2.7) Duration of the contract, framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system
Start:
01/12/2024
End:
30/11/2029
This contract is subject to renewal: No
II.2.10) Information about variants
Variants will be accepted:
No
II.2.11) Information about options
Options:
Yes
Description of options:
The initial contract term will run from 01/12/2024 for three years to 30/11/2027. The option will be available to extend the Contract from a further two years to 30/11/2029. The total maximum duration of the Contract being five years.
II.2.13) Information about European Union funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds:
No
Section III: Legal, economic, financial and technical information
III.1) Conditions for participation
III.1.1) Suitability to pursue the professional activity, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers
List and brief description of conditions:
The following requirements are mandatory for inclusion on the tender:
-APACS Registered.
-Already producing transactional mail at similar volumes and have the ability to provide a reference in the Prequalification questionnaire
-Ability to work with a downstream access provider.
-Ability to undertake Mailsort.
-Ability to hold mail securely on our behalf
-Offer a continuous white paper solution
-To have a Disaster recovery and peak capacity provision
-Provision of Payment Cards
-Offer a Hybrid Mailing solution
III.1.2) Economic and financial standing
Selection criteria as stated in the procurement documents
III.1.3) Technical and professional ability
List and brief description of selection criteria:
The following requirements are mandatory for inclusion on the tender:
Ability to deal with AFP files
Ability to identify flags in the AFP files to allow selective inserting
A secure FTP link
III.1.6) Deposits and guarantees required:
If the Dun and Bradstreet credit rating returns a rating of 'above average risk' or 'high risk', the contracting entity
will request further financial information for review and a parent company guarantee may be required.
III.2) Conditions related to the contract
Section IV: Procedure
IV.1) Description
IV.1.1) Type of procedure
Negotiated with call for competition
IV.1.8) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement:
No
IV.2) Administrative information
IV.2.2) Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate
Date:
30/01/2024
Local time: 16:00
IV.2.4) Languages in which tenders or requests to participate may be submitted
EN
IV.2.6) Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender
Tender must be valid until:
30/11/2024
Section VI: Complementary information
VI.1) Information about recurrence
This is a recurrent procurement:
No
VI.2) Information about electronic workflows
Electronic ordering will be used
Electronic invoicing will be accepted
Electronic payment will be used
VI.3) Additional information
Applicants are asked to note that this procurement process will be conduced electronically with all documents
and communication being managed through the Northumbrian Water e-Sourcing Spend Management portal called 'Ariba'.
Expressions of interest from this notice must be sent to the e-mail address laura.mcmain@nwl.co.uk before the deadline date
of the 30 January 2024 at 16:00hrs. Once expression of interest has been received that contains the details below, applicants
will be given access to the Ariba portal within 48 hours from request. This portal will contain all the tender
documents associated with this procurement that are available at the time. An email link will also be provided
to the email address you provide to access the portal. The deadline for return of the completed PQQ is the 5th Feburary 2024 at 12noon.
When sending expression of interest, applicants must provide the following information:
1) Full company name
2) Main contact details of the person who will be given access to the Ariba portal - Name, job title, E mail
address and telephone number
There are a number of mandatory requirements set out in this notice (section III Conditions for participation)
for inclusion in this tender process, please ensure you can meet these requirements before you express your
interest
VI.4) Procedures for review
VI.5) Date of dispatch of this notice
15/01/2024