---
title: "Schools Information Management System (SIMS)"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-032b51"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-032b51"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-032b51.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-032b51.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "POWYS COUNTY COUNCIL"
published: "2022-04-07"
---

# Schools Information Management System (SIMS)

Buyer: POWYS COUNTY COUNCIL  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-032b51

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## Summary

The Powys County Council has completed the procurement process for the Schools Information Management System (SIMS) under the industry category of IT services. This transition involves moving from a perpetual licence agreement with the existing provider, Education Software Solutions Limited (ESS), to a software as a service model directly with individual schools. The contracts have a duration of 36 months, with values ranging between £4,845 and £16,845. This procurement was conducted through a limited procedure without prior publication of a call for competition, given the urgent need to secure ongoing software support for schools in the area. The process was initiated on 7 April 2022 and the award took place on 28 February 2022.

This procurement presents an opportunity for businesses specialising in educational software and IT services to engage with individual schools across Powys. Businesses that provide software development, support services, or data management solutions would be particularly well-suited to compete in this market. With the planned competitive tender for SIMS anticipated to be advertised on an all-Wales basis, this could open further avenues for growth as schools seek reliable and efficient solutions to manage their information systems.

## Notice

Transition from existing contractual model of perpetual licence of SIMS to local authority with associated support services, to software as a service model contracting directly with individual schools to provide SIMS and associated support services.

### Lot Information

Lot 1

Prior to the award of these contracts, the current provider (ESS) had a contract with the local authority under which it provided a perpetual licence to the local authority for the purpose of providing SIMS to the schools in the local authority's area, with associated support services. ESS has now served notice to terminate that contract and requires that, in order to continue provision of SIMS, individual schools must enter into direct contracts with ESS to receive SIMS as software as a service. In order to bring about the transition, the local authority will enter into a Facilitation Agreement ("FA") with ESS under which nothing of value is received by ESS and no material services are provided to the local authority; it is purely an administrative arrangement to effect the transition. Each school in the local authority's area will enter into a School Contract ("SC") with ESS for the direct provision of SIMS as software as a service, at substantially the same cost as before. The highest value SC is 16845 GBP (3 years) and the lowest value SC is 4845 GBP (3 years) The schools in the local authority's area whose governing bodies will enter into contracts with ESS are as follows: Brecon High School, Crickhowell High School, Gwernyfed High School, Llanidloes High School, Newtown High School, Welshpool High School, Ysgol Bro Hyddgen, Ysgol Calon Cymru, Ysgol, Llanfyllin, Ysgol Maesydderwen, Ysgol Uwchradd Caereinion High School. The local authority publishes this notice on behalf of itself and the schools listed above but is not acting as a central purchasing body on behalf of the schools. Additional information: Contract duration 36 months

### Procurement Information

This contract award notice is intended to be a relevant contract award notice pursuant to Reg.93(2),(3)and(4) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. It is published on a wholly voluntary basis and without prejudice to the local authority's (LA) and the governing body of each individual school. No prior publication of a contract notice, and thus no competitive tender exercise was required in respect of the Facilitation Agreement (FA) and/or the individual Schools Contracts (SC) as neither are within the scope of application of Part 2 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended) due to the following reasons:- The FA has no "value" but simply puts in place an administrative mechanism to transition contracts from LA to schools. It is therefore below the threshold set out in Reg. 5 (as reviewed pursuant to Reg.5A) of the 2015 Regulations. -The governing body of each individual school is a separate contracting entity and each individual SC is a separate contract, each of the individual SCs in the LA's area ranging between 4845 GBP and 16845 GBP in total over the three-year duration of each SC. Each individual contract is therefore below the threshold set out in Reg.5 (as reviewed pursuant to Reg.5A) of the 2015 Regulations. Further or in the alternative, neither the FA nor individual SCs are subject to a requirement to carry out prior publication of a contract notice and/or any form of competitive tender, because; - the services can only be provided by one particular economic operator (ESS), because competition is absent for technical reasons pursuant to Reg. 32(2)(b)(ii) of the 2015 Regulations. All of the schools in the LA currently use ESS' SIMS product. It would take a minimum of 12mths to transition from ESS'SIMS product to another product. ESS served 90 days notice to terminate the current arrangements mid December 2021, therefore not possible in the timescales for schools to tender and purchase an alternative product and transition to it. - urgency pursuant to Reg. 32(2)(c) of the 2015 Regulations. The provision of SIMS is essential to the running of a school and a school cannot function without it. Due to the short notice given by ESS timescales did not allow for the open or restricted procedure, or competitive procedure with negotiation to be undertaken. It is intended to advertise a competitive tender for SIMS on an all-Wales basis. Award and transition of new contracts to coincide with the end of the 3yr term of the SCs with ESS.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/009398-2022 |
| Notice type | Award Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Limited |
| Procurement method details | Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | Large |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 7 Apr 2022 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 28 Feb 2022 |
| Contract period | Not specified |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | Not specified |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Cancelled |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Active |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | POWYS COUNTY COUNCIL |
| Locality | LLANDRINDOD WELLS |
| Post town | Llandrindod Wells |
| Postcode | LD1 5LG |
| Country | Wales |
| ITL 1 | TLL Wales |
| ITL 2 | TLL4 Mid and South West Wales |
| ITL 3 | TLL41 Mid Wales |
| Local authority | Powys |
| Electoral ward | Llandrindod South |
| Westminster constituency | Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe |
| Delivery location | TLL24 Powys |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | EDUCATION SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

### Codes

- 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
- 72260000 - Software-related services
- 72261000 - Software support services
- 72268000 - Software supply services
- 72300000 - Data services
- 72310000 - Data-processing services
- 72320000 - Database services

## Release History

- 7 Apr 2022 at 14:19 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/009398-2022

## Notice URLs

- https://en.powys.go.uk/
- https://www.educationsoftwaresolutions.co.uk/
- https://www.sell2wales.gov.wales/search/Search_AuthProfile.aspx?ID=AA0354

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-032b51. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-032b51.json.