IT specialist procedures of the Berlin music schools

The Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion (SenKultGZ), Division I D, is formally responsible for the specialized IT system of the 12 (twelve) Berlin music schools for managing lessons, courses, rental instruments, as well as student and teacher contracts. The “servicezentrum musikschulen” (szm) is an operational unit of the Stiftung für Kulturelle Weiterbildung und Kulturberatung (SKWK). The SKWK is a grant-funded foundation in the State of Berlin within the portfolio of SenKultGZ.

The szm is responsible for the support and operation of the specialized IT system. With the aim of modernization, a new specialized IT system (hereinafter referred to as the 'System') is being tendered under a public contract. In this context, SKWK acts as the contracting authority and, upon contract award, as the future contracting party; it is designated in the procurement documents as the Contracting Authority (Auftraggeberin – AG).

The market vendor to be awarded the contract in this procurement procedure is hereinafter referred to as the Contractor (Auftragnehmer – AN). Prior to this procurement procedure, the Contracting Authority was advised by PD – Berater der öffentlichen Hand GmbH on the preparation and conceptual design of the procurement. PD also supports the Contracting Authority as the procurement body in conducting the ongoing procurement procedure.

Each year, across all 12 Berlin music schools, approximately 350 subjects are offered as individual, small-group, or large-group lessons and/or as courses. A total of approximately 60,000 student contracts and around 2,000 teacher contracts are maintained.

The Berlin music schools currently use the 'MS-IT' system from Advellence Solutions AG for this purpose. 'MS-IT' is a custom development consisting of two modules: the standard software 'Information Manager' and the 'Contract Management' add-in specifically developed for the music schools. Further general details regarding the Berlin music school landscape can be accessed on the associated website: https://www.berlin.de/sen/kultur/kultureinrichtungen/musikschulen/.

The current specialized IT system is operated on-premises by the external service provider sqlXpert in a private data center. For the future system, SKWK is seeking a solution under the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) operating model, with system operations hosted by the vendor or an affiliated data center.

For the project phase of replacing the legacy system, apart from the information provided in the (non-)functional requirements in Annex B.1_Requirements Catalogue, the following framework conditions apply: * For project planning regarding the replacement of the legacy system, including data migration, the Contractor may budget for support services totaling 1.25 full-time equivalents (FTE) from the szm throughout the entire project period, whose expertise includes project management, documentation, testing, and business process optimization. * For the migration of legacy data, the Contractor should review a total of approximately 20 database tables with various relationships and assume a total data volume of around 10 GB. * For ongoing operations, the Contractor should take into account in their solution outline and cost calculation that all first-level support inquiries will be processed by the szm, meaning that only second-level or higher support requests will reach the Contractor.

The scope of procurement essentially comprises the following components: * Software licensing and maintenance, as well as operations under the Software-as-a-Service model * Associated services in the areas of architecture and process consulting, development, testing, system integration, training, etc. (details in Annex C_Price Sheet) * Customer support (2nd and 3rd-level) * Transition project for replacing the legacy system, including data migration. The scope of procurement is described in detail through functional and non-functional requirements in Annex B.1_Requirements Catalogue. A…