Content

Salford City Council – Record of
Decision
 
I Councillor Youd, Lead Member
for Finance and Support Services and chairman of the Procurement
Board, in exercise of the powers contained within the
Council Constitution
do hereby:
 
·     
approve the variation of Contract
forthe procurement of NEC Document
Management solution hosting and implementation, as detailed in the
table below:
 

Detail
required

Answers

Contract
Reference

Title/Description of Contracted
Service/Supply/Project

NEC’s Document Management
Solution associated Licensing, its hosting and implementation
costs

Name
of Contractor

NEC Software Solutions

Type of
organisation
(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Private Limited
Company

Status of
Organisation
(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Non-SME

Value of Contract Extension
(£)

£284,377 full
project

Existing Contract
Term

01/07/2021 to 30/06/2026

Extension
Period

01/07/2024 to 30/06/2026

Contact Officer (Name &
number)

Andrea Beaven / Nick
Wright

Lead Service
Group

Service Reform &
Development

Funding
Source

Combination of Above (please detail
below)

Ethical Contractor (EC):
Mayor’s Employment Charter

EC: Committed to sign the
Charter

EC: Accredited Living Wage
Employer

 
The reasons are:
 
Options considered and rejected were:
·     
SharePoint: Integration was not seamless, SharePoint
solution would have needed considerable development when compared
with NEC DMS solution with R&B integration.
 
·     
Indicative costs of upgrading Documentum or moving
to D2 (new version of Documentum) are expected to be far more than
the NEC solution.
 
·     
The NEC solution has been rolled out to 70 local
authorities and they have a mature pattern for implementation, this
not only offers better value for money but is less risky than the
bespoke SharePoint/ D2 solution.
 
Assessment of risk:
·     
Leaving Documentum ‘as is’ is
a considerable cyber risk.
·     
Staying with Documentum leaves us on
premise, this is not the corporate architecture that we ideally
want.
·     
A delay in implementing the NEC solution
means Customer Service would need to pick up the recharge for
Documentum in its entirety.
·     
This may also lead to a duplication of
costs if the NEC implementation is delayed.
·     
Several components of Documentum are a
single point of failure and a risk that needs to be
mitigated.
·     
The NEC solution is a proven solution/
patterned implementation.
·     
NEC solution is better value for money
and less risk.
 
Legal advice obtained:
Submitted by The Shared Legal Service:
The
main contract for Fixed Term Support and Maintenance Service for
Northgate (now NEC) to Host the Council services, Council Tax,
Business Rates, Housing Benefits and Council Tax Reduction was
awarded by Procurement Board in July 2021 for a period of 6-years
with the option to extend for two further periods of 12-months,
following a call-off exercise using the DAS Framework (Data and
Applications Solution).
 
For
the reasons set out in the report, the current Documentum system is
at “end of life” and no longer fit for purpose, and
presents several risks as outlined in the body of the report, both
financial and operational. It is not clear in the report how much
notice is required to terminate the Documentum supply, but that
sufficient notice should be given before modifying the contract to
include the new DMS.
 
The
proposal is to vary the NEC Document Management Solution associated
Licensing, its hosting and implementation costs into the existing
contract held with them, which is permissible under the Public
Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR) and Regulation 72 of the PCR provides exceptions where a
contract can be modified without having to re-procure that service.
This includes allowing a change of contractor in either of the
following:

(i) 
“Where there is an unequivocal
review clause or option to do so within the agreement”;
or

(ii)
“(b) for additional works, services or supplies by the
original contractor that have become necessary and were not
included in the initial procurement, where a change of
contractor:

(iii)  

1. (i)Cannot be made for economic or technical reasons such as
requirements of interchangeability or interoperability with
existing equipment, services or installations procured under the
initial procurement, or

(iv)  

2. (ii) Would cause significant inconvenience or
substantial duplication of costs for the contracting authority,
provided that any increase in price does not exceed 50% of the
value of the original contract.”
 
Financial advice obtained: Date 23.02.24 Submitted by Jo Garvin Ext
2873:
·     
It has been confirmed that there is sufficient
existing budget within the IT and C&DS revenue budgets to cover
the costs as set out in this report.
·     
£159,214 will be charged to C1061 5740 and the
remaining cost of £50,901 and Year 2’s £74,302
will be charged to C0113 5740.
 
Procurement advice obtained: Submitted by Emma Heyes, Category
Manager:
The Public Contracts
Regulations (PCR) 2015 provide clarity about the extent to which a
contract can be amended after award without the need to
re-advertise in OJEU. Permissible grounds for amendment include the
existence of suitable “clear, precise and unequivocal”
review clauses in the contract; a need for additional supplies or
services where a change of supplier is impossible and would cause
significant inconvenience.
 
Additional works, services or
supplies that have become necessary and a change of supplier would
not be practicable (for economic, technical or interoperability
reasons) and would involve substantial inconvenience/duplication of
costs are limited to 50% of original contract price.
 
In this case the value of the
modification is less than 50% of the original contract value over
its lifetime.
 
HR advice obtained: N/A.
 
Climate change implications obtained: N/A.
 
Contact
details:
Contact Officer: Andrea Beaven/ Nick Wright
Telephone number: 0161 521 9379
 
 

Signed:    Cllr J Youd
         Dated:
   27 March
2024.
           
   Lead Member
 

FOR DEMOCRATIC SERVICES USE
ONLY
 
*          
This decision was published on 27 March 2024  
*          
This decision will come in force at 4.00 p.m. on 5 April 2024
unless it is called-in in
accordance with the Decision Making Process Rules.