Provision of a Billback Service for accommodation and conference services

Location

Description

Provision of a billback service for accommodation and conference services, including the booking, payment, reconciliation and recharging of accommodation, meeting rooms and associated services to East Midlands Railway and its employees. The service will be provided on a call‑off basis as required, covering multiple locations, for the duration of the contract term. There is no guarantee of volume and services will be required on an ad‑hoc basis in line with operational requirements. Services may be required across multiple UK locations and the service includes the consolidation of supplier invoices and the provision of a single billback invoice to EMR.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• None found

Legal Justification

East Midlands Railway Limited (the Contracting Authority) requires the continued provision of hotel and conference billback services to support the booking, management, payment and reconciliation of accommodation and conference expenditure across its operations. These services are operationally critical to the Contracting Authority's day‑to‑day activities. The incumbent supplier currently provides these services and has established operational processes, systems integrations and payment arrangements that are embedded within the Contracting Authority's business operations. The Contracting Authority is undertaking a fully compliant competitive procurement exercise to establish a long‑term contractual solution for these services. However, a short‑term direct award is required to ensure continuity of service while that procurement is completed and the replacement contract is mobilised. Awarding an interim contract to an alternative supplier would require duplicate implementation and onboarding activity, including systems configuration, process changes and payment set‑up. This would result in additional cost, inefficiency and operational disruption that would be disproportionate given the limited duration of the interim requirement. The contract is therefore being awarded for a period of 12 months only, which is the minimum period considered necessary to complete the competitive procurement process and implement the replacement contractual arrangement. This direct award is made in accordance with Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act 2023, for the purpose of ensuring continuity of essential operational services and avoiding service disruption during the interim period. A fully regulated and competitive tendering process will be undertaken to appoint a long‑term supplier.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. **