Ireland – Software support services – Award of Contract to Cornerstone OnDemand Limited for Fixed Maintenance contract and Provision of Managed Services contract for the Cyborg Payroll system together with a further Managed Service Contract for Bespoke Maintenance

Dublin City Council relied on Article 32.2 (b) for the award of this contract. A VEAT notice in this regard was published in this regard on 2/10/2024. Article 32.2(b) states 'The negotiated procedure without prior publication may be used for public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts in any of the following cases: that where the works, supplies or services can be supplied only by a particular economic operator for any of the following reasons: ii) competition is absent for technical reasons; (iii) the protection of exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights. Dublin City Council has awarded a contract to Cornerstone OnDemand for 2 years until the end of December 2026. The maximum value of of this contract is £450,000 ex VAT. or the equivalent of €540,000. Dublin City Council, the largest local authority in Ireland, uses Cyborg software supported by Cornerstone OnDemand Limited, a UK company who recently acquired Sum Total Systems Ltd. and are continuing to support their products until December, 2026. The software is heavily customised in the areas of payroll and costing to meet the complex needs of a large local authority employer with multiple types of work arrangements, directorates, departments, and projects. The system is COBOL based, running on a UNIX platform and supported by a small key group of experts who are knowledgeable on the bespoke code. This contract will include between now and the end of 2026, decommissioning a large archive of data spanning over the past twenty-five years. By December, 2026 the Council will have completed the move to CorePay/PeopleXD software, the standard software in use throughout the local authority sector and on which Salaries and Pensions are already running. The application specified is exceptionally customised to meet the specific complex needs of Dublin City Council’s payroll and costing functions. It is licenced by Cornerstone OnDemand Limited, formerly Sum Total Systems, UK and has bespoke code, developed and managed over many years, and regularly modified in line with change. Due to the extent of custom code, a specialised additional Managed Service Contract for Bespoke Maintenance is necessary. There are no other licenced operators licenced or authorised to provide this service which is critical to Dublin City Council until such time as this software is retired at the end of 2026 and replaced by the software procured and in place for the Local Authority Sector and the Shared Payroll Service MyPay.