24-36 ERP and HR/Payroll System

Details copied from the VEAT Notice (2024/S 000-030072) and FTS Contract Award Notice (2024/S 000-031439) :

Unit4's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is currently being used by the entire University for the management of all financial activity, HR records, absence administration, pension and payroll management. Unit4 also provides support and maintenance under this contract. Unit4's system has integrations with other existing University systems such as the Student Records System (Tribal SITS) and the Accommodation Management System (StarRez). The ERP application is business critical IT infrastructure linked to both staff and student facing activities.

Unit4 is migrating its on-premise ERP solution to the Cloud. Given the critical nature of this software package and interdependencies across the University it is not currently viable to change the provider of the system. In addition, existing systems, which have separate contracts to the ERP system, were procured on the basis of their integration abilities with the Unit4 ERP application. A project of this nature would take a considerable amount of both personnel resource and financial budget, any issues with this role out would negatively affect the experience of both staff and student at the University.

The University's award of this contract directly to Unit4 is duly justified in accordance with regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. On the basis of the above facts, the University is of the view that competition is absent for technical reasons. The Unit4 System is an essential part of the University's infrastructure, such that any down time or system failure would have a detrimental effect on critical operations of the University.

At the present time it would be impossible for the University to procure an alternative economic operator to implement the solution, provide the full range of services and train all University users, within a suitable timeframe and without detrimentally impacting the operations of the University.

The Contract term is 3 years with optional 1 + 1 year extension provisions. The award date was 30th September 2024.