Direct Award for Finance System replacement

Summary

The requirement of this direct award is within the scope of Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act 2023, and in line with the Section 44 the same, Two Rivers Housing intends to award the contract for the provision of a Financial Cloud based, Software as a Service system (SAAS) incorporating a Purchase to Pay solution to MRI Software Limited.

This contract enables the organisation to transition from the current server-based OpenAccounts finance system to an integrated, modern, cloud-hosted platform with the same supplier. The cloud-hosted system is the replacement for the current server-based system, which is no longer being developed. The existing contract commenced in October 2021.

Contract Scope

Current Two Rivers Housing finance system is a suite of three standalone but interfaced modules consisting of: OpenAccounts, eBIS and Version One. All three products are owned by OneAdvanced and provided by MRI Software.

The replacement system will be one fully integrated system that is cloud based.

The move to the cloud-based system will also result in on-premises savings such as servers, backups, and disaster recovery costs.

Essentially, the contract being awarded, concerns the supply of goods and services by the existing supplier which are intended as an extension to, or partial replacement of, existing goods and services in circumstances where-

(a) a change in supplier would result in the contracting authority receiving goods, services or works that are different from, or incompatible with, the existing goods, services or works, and

(b) the difference or incompatibility would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation or maintenance.

The award will be for a period of 41 months commencing from December 2025, including a five-month implementation period at zero cost. The scope of the contract will include the implementation, licensing, and ongoing maintenance of the following components of the Financials suite:

• Core Financials base engine
• Project Management module
• Air Approvals (mobile approval workflow)
• Business Tax Portal
• Purchase Invoice Automation

The annual fee is £99,500 including VAT, subject to a 5.5% annual inflationary uplift for three years, bringing the total contract value to £315,218. Included within the contract is a Right to Use Licence for Open Accounts which would have otherwise incur a cost of £123,910 over 7 years.