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Contract for the Provision of a Digital Asset Management System to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London SW7 2RL Invitation To

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Contract for the Provision of a Digital Asset Management System to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London SW7 2RL Invitation To Contract for the Provision of a Digital Asset Management System to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London SW7 2RL Invitation to Participate – Volume 1 – Instructions to Applicants VA/CON/34/16 28 July 2016 Digital Asset Management System Contract Reference: VA/CON/34/16 INSTRUCTIONS TO APPLICANTS THE V&A MUSEUM The Victoria and Albert Museum (“V&A”) is the world’s leading museum of art and design with collections unrivalled in their scope and diversity. It was established to make works of art available to all and to inspire British designers and manufacturers. Today, the V&A’s collections, which span over 2000 years of human creativity in virtually every medium and from many parts of the world, continue to intrigue, inspire and inform. Combined with a world-class temporary exhibition programme, they attract over 3.5m visitors to the Museum every year. The collections encompass architecture, books, costume, jewellery, textiles, metalwork, glass, furniture, fashion, photographs, prints, drawings, paintings, water colours, sculpture and extensive materials relating to live performance and childhood. The V&A Museum is a “Non-Departmental Public Body” overseen by a Board of Trustees and its Chairman, and is also a charity exempt from registration. Its sponsor department is the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. INTRODUCTION TO THE V&A’s REQUIREMENT The V&A currently uses AssetIndex+ (known internally as VADAR; provided by System Simulation Ltd) as a Digital Asset Management System (“DAMS”). The system was introduced in 2005 as an image management system, and was managed by the Museum’s Photo Studio department. The Collections Management Department has since taken over the management of VADAR and the system is now used to manage and access assets across the entire organisation. The V&A requires a solution to the challenges it faces in the management of its diverse collection of digital assets and objects. The current system used has been in place for over 10 years, and the Museum’s requirements have changed significantly during this timeframe. The V&A has consistently embraced innovation in its collecting practices and systems development, and needs a digital asset management solution that will deliver current requirements and look ahead to future ambitions. The key aim of this procurement is to deliver a digital asset management solution that allows the V&A to address all areas of a digital asset’s lifecycle, from creation to publication. The DAMS must allow the Museum to pursue a flexible and adaptable approach to collecting digital objects & managing digital assets, support efficient publishing of content online and enable the use of digital assets for commercial purposes and be able to interact effectively with key museum systems such as the Collections Management System and website Content Management System. THE CONTRACT The initial Contract is for: • the supply, installation, and implementation of a Digital Asset Management System to the V&A to be hosted by the V&A; • the support and maintenance of the above system for three years. The Contract has the option for: • The extension of support and maintenance services any number of times up to a total of a further four years; • Additional hosting options (if available) DOCUMENTATION All relevant documents for this procurement process can be found in the Delta-eSourcing ‘tender box’. You will see: Document Purpose To be returned as part of the tender? Volume 1 – Instructions to Introduces the contract and No Applicants (this letter) sets out the process Volume 2 – Suitability Contains all the information Yes Questionnaire to be returned for the Request to Participate. The V&A to assess the Tender against the Suitability Criteria Volume 3 – Invitation to Contains the draft tender No Tender documents that will be issued to Applicants that are taken forward to the Tender stage. Includes the award criteria, the specification, and the minimum requirements to be met by all tenders. Provided for information only at this stage of the process DEFINITIONS “Applicant” is an organisation that submits a Request to Participate (whether it is a sole trader, single organisation, consortium or other type of legal body). “Invitation to Participate” (“ITP”) is Stage 1 of the process, and further defined below. “Request to Participate” (“RTP”) is an Applicant’s response to the Invitation to Participate. “Tenderer” is an organisation that submits an Initial Tender, Subsequent Tender or Final Tender (whether it is a sole trader, single organisation, consortium or other type of legal body). PROCUREMENT PROCESS The procurement process is being conducted using the Negotiated Procedure as set out in the Public Contracts Regulations (2015). At this stage of the process, you are only required to fully complete the questionnaire at Volume 2 and submit it along with any attachments via the Delta e-Sourcing portal to be considered for future stages of the process. The V&A has chosen to use the Negotiated Procedure based on its experience of tendering for software, where the number of options available mean that it proves useful to allow a discussion between the tenderer and the buyer. It is anticipated that the negotiation that takes place will centre on system functionality, in order for the parties to discuss the incorporation of any work-arounds, add-ons, integration, configuration and development required – and the costs associated with such options – to best meet the V&A’s Functional and Non Functional Requirements. A summary of the procurement process is shown in the diagram overleaf, with further detail set out below it. Please note that despite the potentially large number of steps in the process the V&A will ensure that the process is not any longer than is required to get clarity from tenderers. At this stage we do not anticipate more than one negotiation phase (i.e. we will probably skip stage 4) but we reserve the right to use additional stages if they are required. This intention is represented on the diagram by the route that follows the solid arrows, with options shown as dashed arrows. V&A Applicant/Tenderer Issue advert & Complete and submit Invitations to Request to Participate Stage Participate 1 Assess Requests to Ptiit Invite 3 – 5 RTP Complete & submit Initial Applicants to submit Tender an Initial Tender Assess Initial Tender Stage and potentially reduce 2 number of participants Decide whether to award immediately or begin Negotiation Phase Negotiation Stage Decide whether to 3 invite Final Tenders or invite Subsequent Tenders & negotiate Invite Subsequent Complete and submit Subsequent Tender Assess Subsequent Tenders and potentially reduce number of Stage applicants 4 Negotiation Decide whether to invite Final Tenders or invite Subsequent Tenders and negotiate Invite Final Tenders Complete and submit Final Stage Assess Final Tenders 5 Award Contract Stage 1: Invitation to Participate (“ITP”) 1. Applicants that are interested in participating are required to submit a Request to Participate by completing Volume 2 and submitting it to the Delta tendering system them along with any attachments. The ITP process will conclude with the selection of between three and five Participants to be invited to Tender. The Requests to Participate will be assessed based on the criteria set out in this document. Stage 2: Invitation to Submit an Initial Tender (“ITSIT”) 2. Those three to five Participants that are selected from Stage 1 shall be invited to submit an initial tender. This will then be reviewed by the V&A prior to the negotiation phase. 3. The V&A reserves the right to award a contract based on the initial tenders without negotiation. If this is the case, then the following steps will not apply. 4. The V&A will assess Tenders by applying the Award Criteria with a view to identifying which tenderers should be taken forward to the next stage. The criteria for the assessment are set out in this document. Once the assessment has taken place, the V&A will inform tenderers if they have been selected to continue with the Negotiation Phase. Those tenderers that are not selected to continue with the Negotiation Phase will be deemed unsuccessful and will not be considered any further, and will take no further part in any remaining steps in the process. Stage 3: Negotiation Phase (Optional) 5. The V&A will then negotiate with remaining tenderers the tenders submitted by them to improve their content. This will take place in the form of one or more meetings with the option for further discussion and/or correspondence. The initial meeting will be held at the V&A’s offices, and subsequent discussion and/or correspondence will be in the form of either meetings held at either the V&A’s offices, conference telephone calls, webinars, or emails. 6. The V&A may then choose to either issue tenderers with an Invitation to Submit a Subsequent Tender (“ITSST”), in which case it will proceed to Stage 4, or issue Tenderers with an Invitation to Submit a Final Tender (“ITSFT”), in which case it will proceed to Stage 5. Stage 4: Invitation to Submit a Subsequent Tender & Negotiation Phase (Optional) 7. If required, the V&A shall invite all remaining tenderers to submit a Subsequent Tender. Upon receipt of Subsequent Tenders, the V&A may choose to reduce the number of participants as set out in step 4 above. 8. Following any reduction in number, the V&A shall enter into a Negotiation Phase with the remaining tenderers as set out in steps 5 and 6 above. 9. The V&A may choose to repeat steps 6, 7 and 8 as many times as is required. Stage 5: Invitation to Submit a Final Tender 10. The V&A shall invite tenderers to submit a Final Tender.
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