Norway - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support - Intention notice - Temporary contract for the procurement of an accounting system

Sandnes kommune (hereafter called the contracting authority) intends to enter into a temporary contract for the delivery of a cloud based financial system with Visma Enterprise AS. The temporary contract will be valid for 2 years, with an option for an extension for 1 year. The reason for the temporary agreement is that the contracting authority received an end-of-life notice for the current financial system, where the maintenance agreement would no longer be valid from 2026. The contracting authority tried, therefore, earlier this year to hold a competition for the procurement of a financial system in order to replace the current system. At the beginning of the procurement, the contracting authority received feedback from tenderers stating that it was too bad time to implement a proper competition and implementation of an accounting system. The contracting authority therefore checked this with other contracting authorities who had carried out such a procurement, and received the same feedback from the contracting authorities stating that there was not enough time to implement. This was based on the system being implemented so that it was ready in early 2026. At the same time, the contracting authority had relied on the fact that despite the end of the maintenance of the current financial system, it would be able to lean on the current solution for some processes into 2026 while the implementation of a new financial system was in progress. This turned out to be an error and the contracting authority would therefore not be able to allow the implementation to run over the originally planned time period. Furthermore, the consequences for the contracting authority would be disastrous if it does not have a functioning financial system by the time the current system stops functioning. The feedback that the contracting authority received also stated that tenderers would like an opener competition, with plenty of time to familiarise themselves with and evaluate the systems. Based on the new information on the time perspective of the procurement, the contracting authority therefore contacted suppliers who had registered interest in the procurement. It was informed that the contracting authority no longer believed there was sufficient time to implement a proper procurement and implementation, and that the contracting authority also had an understanding of the desire to open up several ways to solve the contracting authority ́s needs. The contracting authority further stated that it wanted to enter into a temporary agreement with the current supplier for a transition to their cloud system while a new procurement is being prepared and implemented. A progress plan was sketched for 6-8 months preparation, 6-8 months competition implementation and a 6-8 months implementation. Feedback was requested from tenderers on what the tenderers thought of such a postponement. The contracting authority received positive feedback from tenderers that they saw the need to enter into a temporary contract while a new competition is being prepared and implemented. The contracting authority therefore cancelled the ongoing procurement of the finance system and also informed in the notification of cancellation of its intention to enter into a temporary agreement with the current tenderer while the work on a new procurement of the finance system will be carried out. The temporary contract will cover the disciplines Wage, Accounts, Budget, Procurement (eCommerce), and negotiations. It will cover all functionality and all integrations that the contracting authority has in the current system and will therefore ensure that the contracting authority has a functioning finance system in the period in which the new procurement is implemented. The temporary contract was estimated to have a value of NOK 13,000,000 excluding VAT over 3 years at the time of the intention notice. This estimate proved not to include all the costs and the contract has, therefore, a total value of NOK 17,000,000 excluding VAT.