ICT-12-2022 - Intention to Extend Contract with Equiniti ICS

Descriptions

Equiniti ICS is the current supplier of GSOC’s Case Management System (CMS). GSOC intends to offer Equiniti ICS a two year extension to the previous CMS Maintenance and Support (M&S) contract, due to expire in May 2023, also includes a software component upgrade, which is required to assure the future stability of the CMS and ensure compatibility with modern system software. The extension of the M&S will terminate no later than June 2025.The GSOC CMS is a software application designed but GSOC and Equiniti ICS, the original supplier, to meet the specific case- handling requirements of GSOC. Those requirements are grounded in the legislation that governs GSOC’s current operations, namely the Garda Síochána Act, 2005 (‘the Act’). The workflows implemented in the software in the CMS reflect the sections within the Act on how GSOC must handle the various types of cases that may arise in the normal course of the operation. The CMS application consists of Client and Server modules, which are entirely written by Equiniti ICS. The CMS is a ‘closed’ systems specifically designed for the GSOC uses cases and as such, it’s internal configurations are known only to Equiniti ICS, and the application can only be modified and built by Equiniti ICS. The intellectual Property (IP) for the complete CMS is split between Equiniti ICS and GSOC, with GSOC having IP rights only over those parts of the Client and Server modules designed and implemented specifically for GSOC. In practice, only Equiniti ICS has the knowledge, software and infrastructure to support, modify, build, deploy and maintain the CMS. These cannot in practice be transferred to or assumed by any other supplier, at least not in any reasonable timeframe. For those reasons, GSOC has concluded an arrangement with Equiniti ICS, on a non- tender basis, for the proposed two years extension of the M&S and system upgrade.