Marketing automation solution for VR Group - Invitation to participate

VR-Yhtymä Oyj / VR-Group Plc (hereinafter also "VR" or "contracting entity") is starting a public tendering process to procure a marketing automation and customer communications system. The system handles automated marketing processes and customer communications such as newsletters and application messaging and loyalty program events. The goal of this procurement is to acquire a modern marketing automation/customer engagement system for VR’s passenger traffic operations in Nordics. The procurement includes the system license, possible other licenses required for system add-ons (such as email gateways etc.), support, monitoring and maintenance services to ensure the system remains operational throughout the contract period. The supplier will also be responsible for managing the hardware, software, and security required for the system. This procurement focuses on providing the system as a service (SaaS). This does not include implementation and ongoing services for operational tasks. The preliminary description of the procurement is attached to this invitation to participate (Annex 1). The description and related documentation will be specified during negotiations and the final subject-matter will be described in the final invitation to tender. This procurement is made for VR-Group Plc and VR Snabbtåg Sverige AB. The agreement can be extended to other VR-Group's subsidiaries during the contract period. The aim is that the procurement process would end in Q1/2026. The schedule of the procurement may however change during the procurement procedure. VR is looking for partner which has a capacity to meet VR’s future needs in effectively managing customer engagement, personalized marketing, and communication strategies.

Requirements will be specified during the negotiation phase and the final requirements regarding the whole procurement will be described in the final invitation to tender. More detailed information regarding the content and schedules of the negotiations will be provided to the selected tenderers. Functional and non-functional requirements as well as system architecture and information flow requirements will be provided later during the procurement procedure. The Finnish Act on Procurements and Concession Contracts of Entities Operating in the Water and Energy Supply, Transport and Postal Services Sector 1398/2016 (later "Act on Public Contracts in the Utilities sector") applies to the procurement. The procurement will be carried out by means of negotiated procedure. All requirements for the procurement, as well as the contract terms, will be defined during the procurement procedure. All final requirements will be presented in the final invitation to tender. This procurement is a joint procurement of VR-Group Plc and VR Snabbtåg Sverige AB as referred to in Article 57 point 4 of the Utilities Directive (25/2014/EU), section 32 subsection 3 of the Finnish Act on Procurement Contracts in the Utilities Sector (1398 /2016) and chapter 7, sections 9, 12, 13 and 14 of the Swedish Act on Procurement in the Utilities Sectors (2016:1146). VR-Group Plc will conduct the procurement procedure on behalf of both VR-Group Plc and VR Snabbtåg Sverige AB. VR-Group Plc will be responsible for the entire procurement procedure including all stages of the procurement procedure and possible appeal and rectification procedures. All of these processes will be entirely conducted according to Finnish law according to applicable legislation. The Finnish Act on Procurement Contracts in the Utilities Sector (1398/2016) is applied to the procurement. A candidate must fulfil all suitability requirements set in the contract notice and its appendices in order to be qualified as a tenderer to the procurement procedure. Due to the need to manage the procurement process, the number of selected tenderers has been limited to four (4). Suitability requirements are presented in the ESPD form (European Single Procurement Document) attached to the contract notice. If more than four (4) requests to participate are received from candidates fulfilling the suitability requirements, the number of candidates will have to be reduced. In this case, VR will compare the additional references provided by the candidates as described in section "Grounds for decision" and annex 2 "Reference Form" in the invitation to participate. If there are four (4) or fewer candidates fulfilling the suitability requirements, references will not be scored and compared. If there are more than four (4) suitable candidates and if the scoring of the additional references leads to a tie situation, all candidates with the same points as with candidate ranked number 4 will be selected to the procurement procedure (i.e. in this case the number of selected tenderers may be more than four (4)).