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To waive the request for waiver and award the
contract to Codestone Solutions Limited in relation to the purchase
of a web application firewall

Reasons for the decision

The Fortinet FortiWeb 400F is a
high-performance Web Application Firewall (WAF) designed to protect
web applications and APIs from both known and unknown threats The
procurement is both for hardware and software licences and will
cover a term of 3 years.

I can also confirm that the contract terms which will be used for
this contract will be the Council’s standard terms and
conditions for goods and services or (where relevant) works or,
where this is not the case, I have sought the approval of Legal
Services to the alternative terms and conditions that I propose to
use for this contract.

In accordance with paragraph 12 of the Council’s Contract
Procedures Rules, quotations should be obtained from more than one
supplier using a request for quotation (RFQ) and the quote
evaluated as successful, in compliance with the evaluation criteria
in the RFQ, should be accepted. In the alternative officers may
consider running an open tender process in accordance with
paragraph 13 of the Contract Procedure Rules.

I can confirm that I have sought all relevant procurement advice
and consider that it is appropriate that this requirement be waived
for the following reason: It is not appropriate in the
circumstances for quotes to be obtained from more than one
supplier

Alternative options considered

I can confirm that, despite non-compliance
with the requirements of paragraph 12.1 of the Contract Procedure
Rules the award of this contract to the above supplier will be best
value for the Council for the following reason(s):

The council secured a total discount of £29,162 off the 3
year bundle. These discounts were time-sensitive and negotiated
specifically for North Devon Council, making the offer highly
competitive. A move to an alternate vendor would have involved a
complete reconfiguration of the existing infrastructure and incur
additional training and support costs. Codestone are a trusted
supplier and provide consistent configuration and streamlines our
vendor management responsibilities.