Provision of Revenue & Benefits Solution

Description

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (BMBC) intends to enter into a further contract with MRI Software LLC for the provision of a Software as a Service (SaaS) Revenues and Benefits solution, including hosting, maintenance, upgrades and ongoing support. These services are already embedded within the Council’s existing infrastructure and form a critical component of its delivery and supporting of statutory revenues, benefits administration and income collection services. Standstill Period End: 23 March 2026 8 working days Direct Award Justification · Additional or repeat goods, services or works - extension or partial replacement · Single supplier - technical reasons - 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 - the difference or incompatibility would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation or maintenance. The contract is being awarded directly under Section 41 and Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act 2023. - The existing Revenues and Benefits solution is an established, business critical system that underpins the Council’s statutory delivery of taxation, benefits administration and income collection. The solution is embedded within the Council’s digital ecosystem and is linked to multiple internal systems and datasets. - A change of supplier would result in goods or services that are initially incompatible with the Council’s existing systems and integrations. Transitioning to an alternative supplier would require extensive system replacement, complex data migration and significant reengineering of systems, increasing the likelihood of disproportionate technical, operational and service delivery risks. - Such incompatibility would present a risk to service continuity and create unacceptable operational risk in the delivery of statutory services. The Council therefore considers that the conditions for a direct award under Section 41 and Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act 2023 are fully satisfied. - The Council considered whether a wider market exercise would be proportionate but concluded that, given the scale of transition required and statutory risk involved, this would not represent an efficient or responsible use of public resources. Operational Continuity Current solution supports critical services with proven reliability. It has been in long term operational use and has demonstrated reliability and stability within the Council’s digital environment. Maintaining continuity of this proven solution reduces operational risk and supports consistent service delivery to residents. A change of supplier would require significant retraining for operational, technical and finance staff, alongside the redesign of established business processes that have been embedded over many years. This would place additional resource demands on services, increase the risk of user error during transition, and divert staff capacity away from frontline statutory duties. Transitioning to an alternative solution would introduce a risk of disruption during system migration, including delays to benefit payments, billing and income collection. Any interruption to these functions could impact the Council’s ability to meet its statutory obligations and could have adverse consequences for service users who rely on timely payments and accurate financial processing. Financial Impact Integrations with other systems across the Council would require detailed requirements gathering, implementation work, thorough testing, and ongoing support through third party/ external support. The Council explicitly compared the cost of procuring the solution through a compliant reseller framework against a direct award to the software provider. These findings showed that a direct award would result in a lower total contract cost over the proposed term, delivering demonstrable cost avoidance of approx. £23,000 per annum compared to the reseller option. Selecting the lower cost option ensures that public funds are spent efficiently and economically. The cost comparison focused on available compliant procurement routes for the incumbent solution, as alternative solutions would require full system replacement and transition costs materially exceeding the scope of this renewal. ## Contract award Title: Provision of Revenue & Benefits Solution