This is a contract modification notice for Document Management and Contact Centre Services

The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) undertook a project to outsource its requirements for data management and contact centre services. The intention was to provide an efficient, timely and customer centred services for the processing of registration and dispute applications, payment of associated fees and the interface with its customers to handle daily contact. The project required a number of services which were divided into three lots: Lot 1: Document Management Services; Lot 2: Contact Centre; and Lot 3: Scanning Services. The contract was awarded for an initial period of three years, commencing 9 May 2013, with the option to extend for an additional two years which was exercised by the contracting authority. The value of the contract over the initial three-year period was EUR 2,803,349 (excluding VAT). The value over the full five-year period was EUR 5 million (ex VAT). Due to the complexity and essential nature of the services required and a changing landscape within RTB and the everchanging nature of the requirements, a number of contract modifications have been implemented as detailed below. The contract was further extended on the same terms and conditions for twelve months from 9 May 2018 with an estimated value of €1.8 million (ex VAT). The contract was further extended for a period of eighteen months from 20 May 2019 to 9 November 2020 with an estimated value of EUR 3.5 million (ex VAT). A new right to terminate for both parties on giving three months' notice was introduced, and an annual increase of 2.5 per cent to the charges payable, to cater for inflationary increases, was agreed. In May 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, further changes to the contract were implemented. These included changes to the scope of the services, a reduction in the overall volume of services, a change to the primary place of performance of the services (to allow for home-working), a reduction in the number of staff working on the contract, reduced hours of operation, changes to the data processing agreement and changes to SLAs/KPIs. A new commercial model (moving from a transaction-based charging model to a PTE model) was also implemented. The contract was extended in November 2020 for twelve months at an estimated value of EUR 2 million (ex VAT). The contract was subsequently extended to ensure continuity of essential services from 10 November 2021 for twelve months; from 1 November 2022 for six months; from 10 April 2023 for a period of five months; from 11 September 2023 for five months; and from 11 February 2024 for five months. The contract term of 129 months relates to the term of the contract to date, including all of the above extensions. The current modification notice relates to a further extension from 1st August 2024 until 31st March 2025. Reasons for modification: Need for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor/concessionaire (Art. 72(1)(b) of Directive 2014/24/EU). Description of the economic or technical reasons and the inconvenience or duplication of cost preventing a change of contractor: the RTB has commenced a public procurement process for the purpose of putting in place a replacement contract in respect of the services. It published a pre-qualification questionnaire on 11 January 2024 and received responses on 12 February 2024. The RTB is now in the process of completing the Invitation to Tender (ITT) for the public procurement process and are aiming to complete the process as soon as possible. The contract with Capita Customer Solutions Limited is for business critical services. In such circumstances, the RTB is not in a position to change the service provider at this time. On 14th August 2024 the RTB published a modification notice extending the existing contract to provide cover until the new contract award procedure had been completed. The RTB have moved onto the tender and negotiation stage. Given that the tender competition is still ongoing and that the contract with Capita Customer Solutions Limited is for business critical services, the RTB is not in a position to change the service provider at this time. Therefore, the RTB is extending the current contract further, from 1st August 2024 until 31st March 2025. The value of the current contract extension is for €2,500,000.