Migration of an on-premises Unit 4 Milestone 7 ERP system (M7) to the cloud.

Description

The University of Strathclyde (UOS) is currently considering the option of migrating our on-premise ERP system (Unit 4 Milestone 7) to the cloud. To support this consideration and under the terms of Regulation 41 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 UOS, prior to commencing a live procurement process, is using this notice to undertake Preliminary market consultation on services that will be required to support the migration. The migration must include the conversion of the M7 data from on premise Oracle databases to Microsoft SQL server databases. UOS seeks notes of interests from suppliers able to offer these support services to participate in initial market consultation. The undernoted provides details in relation to the envisaged project. Interested parties are required to note their interest against this notice, thereafter UOS shall engage with interested parties in order to test, inform and develop the procurement strategy. Please note that UOS reserves the right to engage with all, or any ( a limited number of ) suppliers as is deemed necessary to support this process. Further note that any contract opportunity arising in relation to this project may be the subject of a future contract notice. Part of the market consultation shall be to consider the appropriateness of splitting this requirement into lots, this will be confirmed in future notices and whilst UOS has indicated that, at this time, the contract is envisaged to be split into lots, UOS reserves the right to alter that approach. The migration must include the conversion of the M7 data from on premise Oracle databases to Microsoft SQL server databases. This is a key part of a project to migrate M7 to Unit 4’s cloud. This is an intermediate step to enable that migration to take place as it is not possible to migrate an Oracle M7 to Unit 4’s cloud. That project will start in Jan 2025 and is due to end in Dec 2026. This intermediate step will start in Jan 2025 will end at some point (TBD) in 2026. Due to the pressing timescales, it is important that UOS select a reliable implementation partner with a track record of converting Unit 4 ERP systems, and experience of supporting Unit 4 ERP systems. Lot 1: Migrate the ERP data from Oracle Databases to Microsoft SQL Server The current on-premises Unit 4 ERP solution comprises Milestone 7.9 and ORACLE 19C. The tasks will include: Carrying out workshops to understand the University's various interface requirements, reviewing the universities use of AG16s, reviewing the use of Excelorator reports, reviewing the use of triggers, reviewing the use of Oracle database views, and reviewing ACT’s. All Excelorator reports and ACT’s will need converted to SQL Server and AG16 will be tested as part of the conversion. Recommending and/or remediating any issues discovered during the review process. Carrying out an initial conversion so that any issues can be discovered. During this phase, any issues identified with ARC, Excelerator reports, AG16s, views etc. Should be converted and supported Carrying out a second conversion implementing all the fixes from the first trial. Testing during this phase – lead by the University – will be more detailed than the Initial conversion. The supplier must work with the in-house finance support team to ensure the solution works with the on-premises M7 or a cloud based M7 based on Lot 2. The supplier must provide support during and after (for a defined period) the final conversion to ensure any issues are resolved. Lot 2: – Migrate the ERP to a cloud solution As the database is being converted from Oracle to Microsoft SQL Server the M7 system should be migrated to a cloud based solution The partner should have experience of running and supporting Unit 4 ERP systems in the cloud. It is anticipated the solution will preserve the same version of M7 and at least two environments Production and Test. But there should be an option for adding at least two more environments - Development and Train. The solution must be covered by a cyber security accreditation like ISO27001 The University must have at least read only access to the underlying database. Which should be provided via VPN or similar technology. If write access is possible then that should also be provided. The solution must allow for multiple data refreshes from the production environment into the non-production environments. The solution must have a disaster recovery plan detailing a detailed process for recovering the system. The solution must be scalable with no or minimum cost increase. This is to ensure a minimum level of performance is always met. The supplier must provide support for the solution via a helpdesk. The solution must have a way to deal with incidents including a list of key roles and responsibilities, and instructions for escalating to a higher level of incident response. The solution should clearly state the SLA for helpdesk calls. The solution should clearly state what type of support is and is not included. The solution has to be on SQL server data conversion supplied by lot 1