Maintenance of technical installations at the EPO’s Rijswijk premises

Item Description:

The European Patent Organisation is an intergovernmental organisation set up pursuant to the European Patent Convention which entered into force in 1977. At present it has 38 Member States (Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Republic of Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom). The executive body of the EPO is the European Patent Office which is charged with the searching and examination of European patent applications and the granting of European patents. It employs approximately 6700 staff at EPO headquarters in Munich, a branch at The Hague/Rijswijk (NL) and sub-offices in Berlin and Vienna (the number of Member States and staff members indicated may change).

Award procedure:

The EPO expects the Applicant to perform in a participative and flexible manner that improves the quality of services, knowhow and trust. The Applicant shall meet the requirements of a modern company with precise work procedures and shall satisfy the requirements of the corporate culture of the EPO. The Applicant shall offer all required maintenance and maintenance management of all technical equipment and installations in scope. The contract volume includes transfer of full responsibility and implementation of all processes related to the technical operations of the buildings, surfaces and infrastructure.

The EPO will follow a two-stage competitive procedure with negotiation with discretionary award of a General Maintenance Contract for all buildings at the EPO Rijswijk premises, preceded by a Pre-qualification procedure. Bids in the 2 stages of the Tender shall be submitted by email.

Negotiations/clarifications are foreseen to be done in 3 rounds (in the 2nd stage and in the final clarification meeting), after each round the Bidders are expected to confirm the results of the negotiations/clarifications and submit a revised Bid. Based on the assessment of the Applications received for the prequalification, all Applicants meeting the minimum requirements under point 7 will be invited to participate in the competitive procedure with negotiation. The selected Applicants are considered to be capable of delivering the requested services. Based on the score of all Bids submitted in the 1st stage the Award Committee will decide based on a recommendation made by the Technical Evaluation Committee which Bidders will be invited by Central Procurement to enter into the 2nd stage of the Tender, the so called negotiation/clarification round 1-2.The selection criteria for entering the 2nd stage will be published at a later stage.

After each negotiation/clarification round it is mandatory to receive a new Bid (amending whatever was negotiated) and the Bids are re-assessed, based always on the original award criteria. The Bid with the highest score after the final negotiation/clarification round in the 2nd stage is considered to be the ‘economically most advantageous bid’.

Description of the contract:

Purpose of the contract: Maintenance of technical installations at the EPO’s Rijswijk premises

Place and period of performance:

Place at which the contract is to be performed:

European Patent Office
Branch office in The Hague
Patentlaan 2
NL-2288 EE Rijswijk (ZH)
(NUTS-code NL332).

Duration of contract or time limit for delivery or completion of services/work:

Fixed term of 7,5 years (01 July 2020 – 31 December 2027)

Details of the procedure:

• The scope of negotiation:

Negotiations/clarifications are foreseen to be done in 3 rounds (in the 2nd stage and in the final clarification meeting), after each round the Bidders are expected to confirm the results of the negotiations/clarifications and submit a revised Bid.
Elements that will be subject to negotiation are the following, but not limited to:

• Total cost of ownership
  Detailed discussion on the final content of:
• Coordination and maintenance management
  (including quality management, documentation, reporting)
• Operations (i.e. execution of works and/or services)
• Warranty management
• Preventive maintenance
• Corrective maintenance
• Long term maintenance plan
• Asset Management
• Legal requirements
• Permits and other requirements concerning certifications and inspections
• The costs related to the above.

Information about successive stages of negotiation and reduction of number of bids:

Negotiations will take place in successive stages

Reservation of the possibility to award the contract without negotiation:

Negotiations have to take place on the initial bid and the revised bids in order to improve the content thereof.

Requests to participate in the competitive procedure with negotiation, language and receipt of Applications

Name and address of department from which the Procurement Documents and clarification of the Procurement Documents may be requested:

European Patent Office
Central Procurement PD4.8
CPN. 2677
Patentlaan 2, NL-2288 EE Rijswijk (ZH), the Netherlands
E-mail: mvdgraaf@epo.org

Procurement Documents will be forwarded upon email request and will be dispatched by email.

Final date for receipt of requests to participate in the competitive procedure with negotiation:

29.04.2019, 12.00 hrs (CET)

Final date for receipt by the EPO for requests for clarification:

13.05.2019, 12.00 hrs (CET)
Questions and answers shall be communicated by E-mail: mvdgraaf@epo.org

Final date for receipt of Applications:

31.05.2019, 12.00 hrs (CET)
Applications must be submitted by E-mail: mvdgraaf@epo.org.

E-mail address to which the requests for clarification and Applications must be sent:

As in point 6(a)
Applications must be submitted by e-mail only.

Language in which the request for participation, for clarification and Applications must be drawn up:

English; the Procurement Documents will be available in English only.

Pre-qualification questionnaire (Minimum requirements) for assessing Applicants’ know-how, capacity and reliability to fulfil the contract:

The exclusion criteria and minimum requirements have an exclusively nature. This means, an application which does not meet the minimum requirements will be excluded and not admitted for assessment. If an application does comply with both the exclusion criteria and the minimum requirements, it will be assessed on selection criteria explained in the Pre-qualification Guideline which will be submitted to all Applicants. This means, an application which does not meet the exclusion criteria (see point 8) will be excluded and not admitted for assessment).

The minimum requirements will be made available in the Pre-qualification Guideline.

Statement exclusion criteria for assessing Applicants’:

• is insolvent or bankrupt, or is in the process of liquidation, or who has entered into a composition agreement with creditors, or has ceased trading or is in any similar situation under the laws of the country in which he is domiciled,
• is the subject of a petition in bankruptcy, application for composition (or is himself making such an application) or of any similar proceedings under the laws of the country in which he is domiciled,
• has been convicted of an offence that puts his professional reliability in question,
• has failed to fulfil his obligations with regard to payment of taxes and levies under the laws of the country in which he is domiciled,
• has been found guilty of grave professional misconduct

Legal form of the grouping in the event of a joint bid:

The EPO intends to conclude only one contract with one Applicant being one legal entity having a seat in one of the EPO member states.
If several bidders submit a joint bid, one must be designated as Main Applicant responsible for performance of all the obligations under the contract. Members of that group shall be jointly and severally liable.

Criteria for the award of contract:

The contract shall be awarded (award criteria) to the bidder whose bid is to be preferred having regard to the bidder’s ability to meet the requirements of the EPO to be measured by:

Financial aspects: 40%
Technical and organisational features: 60%

Project planning

Pre-qualification

Publication of Published Notice: 18 April 2019
Final date to request Pre-qualification Guideline: 29 April 2019
Final date for receipt of requests for clarification: 13 May 2019
Clarification Notice: 20 May 2019
Final date for receipt of applications: 31 May2019
Assessment of the applications: June 2019
Announcement of the result of the assessment: June 2019
1^st stage of the Tender 5 Bidders: July-Oct 2019
2^nd stage of the Tender with the possibility to shortlist/reduce the number of bidders: Nov-Feb 2020

Final Negotiation/Clarification

Final clarification meeting with no.1 bidder: March 2020
Finalising the documents: March 2020
Recommendation Award of Contract: June 2020

Other information:

Applicants will receive the Pre-qualification Guideline as a separate document. The Pre-qualification Guideline contains information with regard to the pre-qualification procedure for admittance to the Tender for the award of a General Maintenance and the Maintenance management of the technical installations in and around the EPO buildings at the EPO Rijswijk premises, the Netherland.