Request to Participate - Qualification for Single Party Framework for the Design, Delivery and Support of IDA Ireland’s Property Management System on the Salesforce platform

AI-generated analysis of the documents. Check the official notice and any amendments for current submission details.

1. At a glance

2. Scope of Work

This procurement seeks to establish a single-party framework agreement for the design, delivery, and ongoing management of IDA Ireland's Property Management System (PMS). The system will be built on the Salesforce platform. The existing PMS, implemented in 2013, is no longer sufficient for IDA Ireland's current scale of operations, which includes significant growth in land acquisition, major infrastructure projects, advance building delivery, long-term leasing, and substantial annual income and expenditure management. A substantial portion of current property management activities are conducted manually using spreadsheets and email, leading to risks in data quality, auditability, and operational resilience.

The scope of work for the framework agreement and the initial call-off contract includes:

• Design and Configuration: Building a Salesforce-based Property Management System.
• Integration:
• Integration with the current Financial Management System (Centros API connection for finance visibility and outbound invoice/billing requests).
• Integration with the current GIS Mapping System (ArcGIS integration for map and boundary visibility).
• Integration with Docusign CLM for document generation, storage, versioning, and signature workflows.
• Use of Talend as middleware for orchestrating integrations between Salesforce PMS and external systems.
• Data Migration: Migrating existing data from the current Property Management System.
• Support and Maintenance: Ongoing support, maintenance, and platform updates for the Salesforce PMS.
• Training Services: Providing training to IDA Ireland staff.
• Property Maintenance: Implementing a lightweight PMS tracking process for property maintenance. The solution will not implement a heavy Field Service operating model unless a future phase changes this scope.
• System Scope: The solution will support both IDA-owned assets and selected third-party properties for sales and marketing use cases.
• Implementation Timeline: The anticipated time for the design and implementation of the proposed Property Management System is approximately one year.
• Subsequent Call-Off Contracts: May cover additional development projects, customisations, integrations, future support and maintenance, additional cloud hosting, and ancillary services or licenses.

3. Background & buyer context

IDA Ireland is the State agency responsible for attracting and developing foreign direct investment into Ireland, operating under the Industrial Development Acts 1986–2019. Its mandate is to encourage investment by foreign-owned companies, providing consultancy and support services free of charge. A core function involves managing and developing its property portfolio to support investment projects. The current Property Management System (PMS) was implemented in 2013 and is now considered outdated for the agency's increased scale and complexity. An independent assessment in 2025 confirmed that Salesforce is a viable platform for a new PMS. This procurement follows a high-level design phase, with the intention to build the system on IDA's existing Salesforce CRM platform. The procurement is being conducted using a Competitive Procedure with Negotiation due to the complexity and risk associated with the project.

4. Eligibility & selection criteria

To be considered for this procurement, candidates must meet the following minimum requirements:

• Turnover requirement: Confirmation that the candidate's sales turnover exceeded €5,000,000 per annum in each of the last three financial years.
• Insurance:
• Employer’s Liability: €12.7 million
• Public Liability: €6.5 million
• Professional Indemnity: €5 million
• Cyber Insurance: €5 million
• Certifications:
• Certified Information Security Management System (ISMS) in accordance with ISO/IEC 27001 (or equivalent).
• Evidence of independent security assurance through ISO/IEC 27001 certification (or equivalent) and a current SOC 2 Type II attestation.
• Past experience: Not specified for this tender at the Request to Participate stage. Further details will be provided in the Invitation to Tender.
• Personnel: Not specified for this tender at the Request to Participate stage. Further details will be provided in the Invitation to Tender.
• Geographic / facility constraints: Data must not be stored or processed outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) for the duration of the contract, unless an adequacy decision exists for the non-EU country. If data is processed in the UK, Standard Contractual Clauses will be required.

Candidates may rely on the resources of other entities to meet these requirements, provided they can prove these resources will be at their disposal.

5. Award criteria & scoring

The award criteria and scoring methodology will be detailed in the Invitation to Tender (ITT). However, the Request to Participate (RTP) stage focuses on assessing candidates' quality, legal, financial, and technical capacities. The overall procurement procedure is a Competitive Procedure with Negotiation. While the specific scoring weights are not provided at this RTP stage, the process involves an initial qualification based on meeting mandatory criteria and minimum scores. The top three scoring candidates from the qualification phase will be invited to the Tender Phase. The final award will be based on a combination of quality and price, following the principles of Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT).

6. Submission requirements

Candidates must submit a completed RTP Response Document using the provided template. Personalisation of the document, including adding branding or colours, is not permitted. The submission must adhere to the following:

• Method statement / response document: Use the provided RTP Response Document template.
• CVs: Not specified for this stage.
• Pricing schedule: Not specified for this stage.
• Case studies: Not specified for this stage.
• Declarations:
• Self-declaration (A5) regarding compliance with requirements.
• Tax Clearance Access Number and Tax Reference Number or equivalent statement of satisfaction with domestic tax law.
• Confirmation of data storage and processing locations outside the EEA (if applicable).
• Mandatory site visit: Not specified for this stage.
• Submission portal: Responses must be uploaded to eTenders. It is recommended to upload the response as a Zip file. Web links should not be embedded in submitted documents.

Clarification circulars issued by IDA Ireland during the qualification period form part of the RTP Response Document and must be monitored on eTenders.

7. Key dates & process

These dates are estimates and IDA Ireland cannot guarantee adherence to this timetable.

8. Contract terms that matter

• Term: The Framework Agreement will have a maximum duration of four (4) years, with an option to extend by up to three (3) years, subject to satisfactory annual performance reviews. Call-Off Contracts may extend beyond the Framework Agreement's expiry.
• Payment terms: Not specified at this stage.
• SLAs/KPIs: Not specified at this stage.
• Liquidated damages: Not specified at this stage.
• Termination clauses: Draft terms will be provided in the ITT.
• IP ownership: Not specified at this stage.
• Sub-contracting rules: Candidates may rely on the resources of other entities, provided they can prove these resources will be at their disposal. Further details will be in the ITT.
• Parent-company guarantee or bond: Not specified at this stage.

9. Risks, red flags & unusuals

• Single-party framework: This limits competition to one supplier for the duration of the framework, potentially reducing leverage for IDA Ireland if performance issues arise or market conditions change significantly.
• Competitive Procedure with Negotiation: While intended to manage complexity, this procedure can be lengthy and may involve significant effort from bidders without a guarantee of negotiation or award.
• Indicative Maximum Value: The €4m maximum value for the framework is stated as indicative, with no guaranteed expenditure. This could mean actual spend is significantly lower, impacting a supplier's return on investment.
• Tight Go-Live: The framework commencement is scheduled for February 12th, 2027, shortly after the award decision on January 18th, 2027. This leaves a minimal mobilisation period.
• Salesforce Platform Dependency: The requirement to build on Salesforce means only specialist Salesforce partners are eligible, narrowing the potential bidder pool.
• Data Residency: The strict requirement for data to remain within the EEA (or UK with SCCs) may exclude some providers with global cloud infrastructure.

10. SME fit assessment

This tender is structured as a single-party framework, meaning only one supplier will be appointed. The minimum annual turnover requirement of €5 million suggests that the tender is primarily aimed at established, medium-to-large sized IT service providers with significant experience in Salesforce implementations and property management solutions. Small businesses may find it challenging to meet the turnover and insurance requirements independently. However, the tender explicitly encourages firms to explore forming relationships with SMEs or other enterprises to meet capacity requirements. Therefore, SMEs could potentially participate as subcontractors to a prime contractor that meets the eligibility criteria. The bid preparation effort for the qualification stage is likely moderate, involving compilation of company information, financial data, and confirmation of compliance. The Pwin signal is moderate; while it's a single-party framework, the competitive procedure with negotiation and the specific platform requirement (Salesforce) mean that a well-prepared and experienced Salesforce partner could be successful.

11. Where to dig deeper

• Source RFT filename: [IDA Ireland - Request to Participate - Property Management System.pdf]
• eTenders CFT ID: Not specified in the provided text.
• Contact email or clarification portal: Monitor eTenders for clarification notices.
• Most important attachments:
• RTP Response Document (Appendix A)
• Mandatory Requirements Schedule (implied within RTP Response Document)
• Draft Framework Agreement and Initial Call-Off Contract (to be provided at Tender Stage)