Software support services

Description

This is a voluntary ex ante transparency (VEAT) notice. Crown Estate Scotland has awarded a contract to Grosvenor Systems to supply software support to their existing Propman Property Management System which has been used by current property management agents on our behalf and has been transferred to Crown Estate Scotland. This is to ensure continuous operation of the property management system during insourcing of the system and deployment across our network of property management agents following conclusion of a separate tender exercise. It is a business critical system and licenses and associated services are only available from the stated supplier. Crown Estate Scotland operates an outsourced business model for a significant part of its property management functions across its rural, coastal, urban/built development, minerals and mines royal and some of its marine, energy and infrastructure activities. Currently we have a series of contracts in place with firms of Managing Agents (MA’s) with specialist property management skills, capacity and experience all of which are due to end in March 2021. These are being replaced as part of a separate procurement exercise. Current Managing Agents maintain Property Management data on our behalf on PMS systems including Grosvenor Systems Propman. Crown Estate Scotland is in the process of bringing control and responsibility for property management systems and our property data assets in-house. This is a voluntary ex ante transparency (VEAT) notice. Crown Estate Scotland has awarded a contract to Grosvenor Systems to supply software support to their existing Propman Property Management System which has been used by a current property management agent on our behalf and has been transferred to Crown Estate Scotland. This is to ensure continuous operation of the property management system during insourcing of the system and data and deployment across our existing network of property management agents and (following conclusion of a separate procurement exercise) for future Management Agent services. This is a business-critical system available only from the stated supplier. Grosvenor Systems own the IPR and licensing rights in the software. The required licenses and support to operate the system can only be provided by Grosvenor Systems for technical reasons. During the term of the contract and any extensions, Crown Estate Scotland will investigate alternative systems to support the Property Management requirements. Migration to a new system at this point involves significant time and resource and requires alignment with longer-term property management system development planning and funding during a period of uncertainty specific to other ongoing procurements.