SPECIFICATIONS TO CANDIDATES October 2016

Transcription

1 SPECIFICATIONS TO CANDIDATES October 2016 Open procedure for web governance solution Aarhus University Procurement Fuglesangs Allé 26 DK-8210 Aarhus V Case no

2 CONTENTS CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CONTRACTING AUTHORITY Contact information CONTENTS OF THE CONTRACT DOCUMENTS ACCESS TO THE CONTRACT DOCUMENTS PURPOSE OF THE TENDERING PROCEDURE SCOPE PROCEDURES AND TERMS OF REFERENCE THE PROCUREMENT REQUIREMENTS AS TO FORM Submission of tenders Language SUITABILITY REQUIREMENTS SUPPORT AND GROUPS OF COMPANIES OWNERSHIP QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE CONTRACT DOCUMENTS RESERVATIONS OPENING OF TENDERS VALIDITY PERIOD VARIANTS GROUNDS FOR EXCLUSION AWARD CRITERION EVALUATION AWARD COMPLETION OF THE TENDERING PROCEDURE CONFIDENTIALITY TENDER OUTLINE DEADLINES...11 Case no

3 1. Introduction These contract documents contain a summary of the subject-matter of the conditions for tendering for the contract and a description of the procedure Contracting authority Aarhus University (AU) is in the top ten of universities worldwide founded within the past 100 years. It has a long tradition of partnerships with some of the world s best research institutions and university networks. AU has a strong commitment to the development of society as realised through its collaboration with government agencies and institutions and the business community. The university s goal is to contribute towards solving the complex global challenges facing the world. The university therefore strives to combine the high standards of its researchers with collaboration across disciplinary boundaries to combine research in new ways. This takes place in close contact with the world around us and creates the basis for the university to be internationally competitive within the areas of research, education, talent development and knowledge exchange. Aarhus University is an inspiring study and research environment for approx. 40,000 students and 11,000 staff Contact information Aarhus University Nordre Ringgade 1 DK-8000 Aarhus C Contact: Aarhus University Procurement Office Fuglesangs Allé 26 DK-8210 Aarhus V Attn.: Agnethe Toft Andresen mailto:ata@au.dk 1.2. Contents of the contract documents In addition to this Specifications to candidates, the contract documents comprise: Draft contract with the following appendices: o Appendix 1: Time schedule o Appendix 2: Requirements specification o Appendix 3: Schedule of payments o Appendix 5: Description of associated services, including prices. Case no

4 o o o o Appendix 6: The customer s participation Appendix 10: Service levels and incentives Appendix 11: Project organisation Appendix 12: Procedure for changes. Form A Solemn declaration Form B Economic and financial standing and technical and professional ability The tenderer is responsible for ensuring that the documents are filled in correctly. Except in Appendix 2, Form A and Form B, text to be completed by the tenderer is highlighted in yellow ( [ ] ). In addition to the above, the tenderer must submit an overall description/presentation of the solution offered for the purpose of the contracting authority s overall evaluation of the solution Access to the contract documents The contract documents will be published and made available at and at AU s website Purpose of the tendering procedure The purpose of this tendering procedure is to acquire a web governance solution for Aarhus University s websites. The contract will provide the contracting authority with an up-to-date web governance solution that supports the university s web governance. It is of decisive importance to the contracting authority that its future web governance solution is data-accurate, user-friendly, operationally reliable and up-to-date. In their tenders, tenderers are required to focus on how their solutions meet these requirements. Contract period The contracting authority wishes to enter into a two-year contract (with an option for extending the contract for one year twice) Scope Aarhus University requires a web governance solution that matches the size of the university s website and the related user organisation. The university s website (i.e. all pages in the university s CMS) consists of around 3,000,000 pages. The user organisation comprises around 1,200 editors and 50 administrators at different levels. Case no

5 Tenderers are asked to submit a description of the solution/product offered that will enable the contracting authority to select the most economically advantageous tender for the university. Solution owner: AU IT, Web and Digital Media Steffen Longfors, Division Manager Helsingforsgade 10 DK-8200 Aarhus N 2. Procedures and terms of reference 2.1. The procurement The procurement is published in accordance with section 191 of the Danish Public Procurement Act (Udbudsloven), as the contract has a total estimated value under the EU threshold, but a clear crossborder interest. The tender documents will be advertised at as well at Aarhus University s website Requirements as to form The tenderer should start by reading all of the contract documents thoroughly before preparing a tender Submission of tenders Tenders must be submitted electronically and sent via to: udbud@au.dk with the following text in the subject field: Tilbud annoncering af Webgovernance løsning til Aarhus Universitet. It will not be possible to submit a tender in any other way, neither on a CD-ROM nor by letter. The closing date for the submission of tenders is: Thursday, November 17, 2016 at 14:00 Tenders received after this time will not be accepted. Each tenderer may only submit one tender. If the same legal entity is part of several tenderers, e.g. if it submits its own tender and also forms part of a consortium submitting a joint tender, the tenderer must ensure that the participation of the same legal entity does not imply the possibility of mutually influencing the content of the tenders of the different tenderers. The contracting authority reserves the right to ask tenderers to document that the same legal entity s participation does not imply the possibility of mutually influencing the content of the tenders of the Case no

6 different tenderers, including that they do not follow practices that may undermine transparency and distort competition between the tenderers Language Tenders and all communication during the tendering and contract period must be in English or Danish. The tender may be submitted in English or Danish Suitability requirements With the tender, the tenderer must also submit Form A Solemn Declaration to confirm that the tenderer meets the suitability requirements, is not covered by any of the grounds for exclusion and has provided information on the use of any sub-contractors or other supporting companies. The following minimum suitability requirements apply: A. Economic and financial standing The tender must contain the following information regarding the tenderer s economic and financial standing: The tenderer must, as a minimum, have annual revenues within web governance of DKK 500,000. Annual reports from the past two financial years must be enclosed as documentation. B. Technical and professional ability The tender must contain the following information regarding the tenderer s technical and professional ability: A minimum of two references from similar customers within the field. Similar customers means customers of the same size and complexity. The tenderer must provide at least two relevant references for projects completed within the past three years from the publication of these contract documents. The reference list should contain information about contracting party, project period, project description and contact person for the reference. References must be described in Form B 2.4. Support and groups of companies When the tenderer relies on other companies abilities: Case no

7 A tenderer may rely on other companies economic/financial/technical abilities to be able to perform the contract or meet the suitability requirements. This applies regardless of the legal nature of the relationship between the companies. In that case, in addition to the above information about its own capacity and personal situation, the tenderer must document to the contracting authority that it really has the required resources at its disposal. It must be stated whether the support to be provided is economic or technical/professional, the exact nature and scope of such support must be described, just as it must be documented that the supporting company has a legal obligation to the tenderer. In case of technical or professional support, this must also be specified. In this connection, it should be noted that, if the tenderer relies on another company s professional ability, the supporting company is required to perform the relevant part of the contract. If the tenderer relies on other companies abilities, the tenderer must also document that such companies: 1) meet the relevant suitability requirements (i.e. in case of economic support, the economic minimum requirements etc.) 2) are not covered by the mandatory grounds for exclusion In addition to completing Form A Solemn Declaration, the supporting company must also enclose a supplementary declaration of support, confirming that a legal obligation exists between the tenderer and the supporting company. The declaration form attached to these tender documents must be used. Consortia (or other groups of companies): If the tenderer is a group of companies (consortium), all the participating companies must be indicated clearly and unambiguously, and it must be clearly stated who is authorised to submit the tender on behalf of the consortium. This will also be the person with whom the contracting authority will enter into binding agreements. The participants in a consortium or another type of group are jointly and severally liable for both the tender and any framework agreement. If a tender is submitted by a consortium, the requested material relating to the group s overall economic/financial standing and technical/professional abilities must be enclosed. However, it must be documented for each participating company that they are not covered by any of the mandatory grounds for exclusion, and each member of the consortium must fill in Form A Solemn Declaration Ownership The tender material with appendices are considered to be the property of the contracting authority and will not be returned or handed back. No payment will be made for the submission of tenders or for the preparation of tender material Questions concerning the contract documents Case no

8 The tenderer has the opportunity to receive supplementary information on the contract documents by submitting written questions.. In the event of doubts or ambiguities, the tenderer is requested to ask reasoned questions and possibly suggest an alternative wording. All inquiries and questions related to the tender documents must be submitted in writing and ed to: with the subject: Questions Procurement of Webgovernance Solution for Aarhus University by November, 8, 2016, at 12:00. Written questions and the answers to them will be uploaded to Aarhus University s website at in anonymised form on an ongoing basis. All questions must be in English or Danish. Replies will be made in the language in which the question is asked. The tenderer is responsible for keeping up-to-date with the material on the website Reservations Any reservations and the reason for them must be expressly stated in the tender. The tenderer is encouraged to clarify any ambiguities and uncertainties in the contract documents by asking questions about the contract documents (see clause 2.6 above) to avoid reservations as far as possible. It is specified that if reservations are made for any of the basic elements of the contract documents, including the Contract, the contracting authority will be obliged to exclude the tender. In case of reservations that do not relate to any of the basic elements, the contracting authority will be entitled to exclude the tender or alternatively seek to price the reservation, to the extent that this is deemed possible. The contracting authority is obliged to exclude tenders which contain reservations that cannot be priced. Professional reservations, such as industry standard reservations, will be treated as any other reservations Opening of tenders It will not be possible to attend the opening of the tenders. The contracting authority is not obliged to return the tenders to the tenderers Validity period The tender must be valid for three months from the closing date for tenders Variants No variants may be submitted. Only one tender may be submitted, and it is not possible to submit a tender for parts of the project. Case no

9 2.11. Grounds for exclusion The tenderer must use Form A to confirm that the tenderer is not covered by any of the mandatory grounds for exclusion Award criterion The tendering procedure must lead to the awarding of the contract to the best tenderer. The contract will be awarded on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender based on the following sub-criteria. The weighting in the table above shows the weighting of the individual criteria. Sub-criterion Weighting in per cent Price 55% Quality 45% Re Price The tender price will be the total contract sum, see Appendix 3. All prices must be stated in Danish kroner, exclusive of VAT, but including all other taxes. Quality, function and price will be considered. As a general rule, the contract will be awarded to the tenderer offering what is, in the contracting authority s opinion, the best combination of price and quality. The price is assessed based on the following criteria. Re Quality The evaluation of the Quality sub-criterion will be based on the tenderer s proposal in the response boxes in Appendix 2. In the evaluation, it will be considered positive if requirements related to the specific parts of the tender documents, cf. the criteria below, are fulfilled, as requirements marked with the highest priority (RX.1) weigh higher than requirements marked with a high priority (RX.2) and priority (RX.3). In its evaluation, the contracting authority will give importance to how the functions of the solution meet the needs of the organisation in order to introduce automatic work processes to replace the ones that are currently processed manually or in various other systems. Furthermore, it will be decisive to the contracting authority that the web governance solution can overall be considered to be data-accurate, user-friendly, operationally reliable and up-to-date. During the review process, emphasis is also placed on: The tenderer, by completion of Appendix 1 Time Schedule, presenting a realistic coherent delivery process, ensuring a timely structured and correct execution of the delivery with due consideration of the customer s requests for the time schedule, see Appendix 1. Case no

10 The extent to which the process (Appendix 1), the customer s participation (Appendix 6) and project organisation (Appendix 11) proposed for the specification and preparation of the solution appear to be safe and appropriate. The tenderer, by completion of Appendix 10, offering a solution with reasonable and usable response times Evaluation The purpose of this tendering procedure, as described in clause 1.4.1, is to acquire a web governance solution for Aarhus University s websites. The above award criteria and weightings have been determined based on this purpose. The tenders received will be evaluated as follows: 1. The contracting authority examines the tenders received in due time to confirm that they meet the requirements as to form 2. The contracting authority examines the tenders received in due time to verify that the individual tenderers are not covered by any grounds for exclusion 3. The contracting authority examines the tenders to identify reservations to basic or mandatory specifications or reservations that cannot be priced. 4. The contracting authority evaluates the tenders to find the most economically advantageous tender on the basis of the above sub-criteria Award When the contracting authority has evaluated all tenders, all tenderers will be notified of its decision as soon as possible and at the same time. No agreement or promise has been made before a contract has been signed by both parties. The award notice will be accompanied by a brief account of the relevant reasons for the decision. The contracting authority s submission of an award notice does not exempt the unsuccessful tenderers from their obligations, which will continue to apply until the expiry of the validity period, see clause Completion of the tendering procedure The contracting authority only considers the tendering procedure as completed once a contract has been signed. Regardless of whether the contract is awarded to another tenderer, the tenderers are bound by their tenders until the contracting authority has concluded the contract; however, only until the expiry of the validity period in clause 2.9. Case no

11 Costs incurred by the tenderer in connection with the tendering procedure are of no concern to the contracting authority, this applying also if the contracting authority is forced to cancel the tendering procedure on justified grounds without concluding a contract Confidentiality Tenderers must observe unconditional secrecy towards unauthorised persons in respect of matters which may come to their attention in connection with this tendering procedure. After the conclusion of the contract, the contracting authority reserves the right to publish a brief summary of the evaluation of the successful tenderer s tender. The contracting authority does not publish information that the company has designated as being confidential. However, the contracting authority is covered by the rules on access to documents, for which reason parts of the tender may be subject to the rules on access to documents. In all circumstances, the contracting authority is entitled and obliged to provide access to documents to the extent that this is stipulated by law. 3. Tender outline The tenderer is required to fill in the following documents: Appendix 1: Time schedule Appendix 2: Requirements specification Appendix 3: Schedule of payments Appendix 6: The customer s participation Appendix 10: Service levels and incentives Appendix 11: Project organisation Form A Solemn declaration Form B Economic and financial standing and technical and professional ability Except in Appendix 2, Form A and Form B, text to be completed by the tenderer is highlighted in yellow ( [ ] ). In addition to the above, the tenderer must submit an overall description/presentation of the solution offered for the purpose of the contracting authority s overall evaluation of the solution. Case no

12 4. Deadlines Action Date Publication of tender documents October 20, 2016 Questions November 8, 2016 Closing date for tenders November 17, 2016 at 14:00 Evaluation of tenders Week Award notice Week 48 Expected conclusion of contract Week 48 Case no