Services - 646451-2022
21/11/2022    S224

France-Strasbourg: World wide web (www) site operation host services

2022/S 224-646451

Contract notice

Services

Legal Basis:
Directive 2014/24/EU

Section I: Contracting authority

I.1)Name and addresses
Official name: ARTE GEIE
Postal address: 4 Quai du Chanoine Winterer
Town: Strasbourg Cedex
NUTS code: FRF11 Bas-Rhin
Postal code: 67080
Country: France
Contact person: Secteur Appels d'offres - Bereich Ausschreibungen
E-mail: appelsdoffres@arte.tv
Telephone: +33 390142222
Fax: +33 390142040
Internet address(es):
Main address: www.arte.tv
Address of the buyer profile: https://alsacemarchespublics.eu
I.1)Name and addresses
Official name: ARTE GEIE
Postal address: 4 Quai du Chanoine Winterer
Town: Strasbourg Cedex
NUTS code: FRF11 Bas-Rhin
Postal code: 67080
Country: France
Contact person: Secteur Appels d'offres - Bereich Ausschreibungen
E-mail: appelsdoffres@arte.tv
Telephone: +33 390142222
Fax: +33 390142040
Internet address(es):
Main address: www.arte.tv
Address of the buyer profile: https://alsacemarchespublics.eu
I.2)Information about joint procurement
The contract involves joint procurement
I.3)Communication
The procurement documents are available for unrestricted and full direct access, free of charge, at: https://alsacemarchespublics.eu/
Additional information can be obtained from the abovementioned address
Tenders or requests to participate must be submitted electronically via: https://alsacemarchespublics.eu/
Tenders or requests to participate must be submitted to the abovementioned address
I.4)Type of the contracting authority
Other type: European economic interest grouping
I.5)Main activity
Other activity: Broadcasting

Section II: Object

II.1)Scope of the procurement
II.1.1)Title:

Web hosting for ARTE

Reference number: 22134000
II.1.2)Main CPV code
72415000 World wide web (www) site operation host services
II.1.3)Type of contract
Services
II.1.4)Short description:

ARTE is a European cultural TV Channel and platform broadcasting its programmes in French, German, English, Spanish, Italian and Polish.

ARTE is made up of three entities - the head office based in Strasbourg (named ARTE GEIE), and the two structures responsible for producing and designing the programmes (ARTE France based in Paris and ARTE Deutschland based in Baden-Baden).

This procedure focuses on the web hosting for ARTE websites.

As a brief overview, ARTE websites can currently be considered as a set made up of the following applications:

— the main ARTE website, www.arte.tv, including the television catch-up service (replay) on a NodeJS server, behind a CDN/Varnish proxy-cache infrastructure,

— API to structure content delivery on the various platforms in PHP/Symfony, MongoDB, and Elasticsearch,

— a Wordpress Site Factory,

— a range of professional websites on Java/Tomcat/MySQL/S3.

II.1.5)Estimated total value
Value excluding VAT: 2 320 000.00 EUR
II.1.6)Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots: no
II.2)Description
II.2.3)Place of performance
NUTS code: FR1 Ile-de-France
NUTS code: FRF11 Bas-Rhin
Main site or place of performance:

ARTE GEIE, 4 quai du Chanoine Winterer, 67080 Strasbourg Cedex, France.

ARTE France, 8 rue Marceau, 92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux Cedex, France.

II.2.4)Description of the procurement:

Currently, ARTE’s Internet content is watched primarily on the web (50%), but ARTE is experiencing strong growth in traffic through mobile technology apps (smartphone and tablet-35%), smart TVs and other OTT apps. As a whole, 85% of visitors to its websites are French or German and 12% come from the rest of Europe. ARTE intends to broaden its audience following the successful launch of its programmes in English, Spanish, Italian and Polish.

Up to 200 ARTE contributors upload content to the various systems. Around 10 different teams, from both within ARTE and externally, undertake the technical projects for the range of platforms under the supervision of ARTE GEIE, ARTE France or ARTE Deutschland.

This represents over 100 production and pre-production servers, 95th percentile bandwidth of around 500 Mb/s High traffic websites are placed behind a CDN acceleration system.

Websites operate mainly using open source software bricks based on Linux CentOS or containers hosted on kubbernetes.

The chosen operator must be able to manage the website hosting within the agreed constraints relating to security, (access control and logging, network partitioning, patch updates, backups, firewall protection, antivirus, anti-DDoS protection, etc.) responsiveness and scalability required of media sites.

The service provider will have to provide managed systems, for which it will validate and provide the basic elements of the application (operating system "OS" and software bricks "runtimes") and will ensure the supervision, maintenance, technical management and proper functioning within the limits of the application codes delivered by ARTE:

- “IaaS / Infrastructure as a Service" systems, which can also be considered as a set of basic PaaS, allowing the hosting of complex projects.

- A range of SaaS software solutions for use in projects.

- Managed Kubbernetes platforms, allowing storage, monitoring and automatic scalability according to application criteria, and containerisation platforms.

On the other hand, the service provider will have to provide unmanaged "IaaS / Infrastructure as a Service" systems, allowing the hosting of complex projects, for which the ARTE teams will ensure the administration and maintenance (physical or virtual "bare" servers).

The web host will supervise the systems and the proper functioning of part of the infrastructure.

ARTE wishes to benefit from support and guidance in open source technology and “DevOPS” methods that will help scale up the online deployment of its various projects.

Currently, the infrastructure is built using “Ansible” technology a "Helm" and a "Terraform" infrastructure is underway. The service provider will have to be able to create and maintain this entire infrastructure code base, to allow ARTE greater flexibility in its CI/CD development validation processes and their operation in production.

Finally, depending on the technical or legal constraints of the project, ARTE is also seeking to replace or duplicate part of its infrastructure by using "Cloud" services, chosen and ordered by ARTE ("Hybrid Cloud" solution). The chosen service provider will have to be able to accompany ARTE in these projects, to be a force for proposals and solutions, and to be able to ensure the correct configuration, monitoring and maintenance in operational condition within the limits of the application codes delivered by ARTE and the constraints of the ARTE contract with the chosen operator.

II.2.5)Award criteria
Price is not the only award criterion and all criteria are stated only in the procurement documents
II.2.6)Estimated value
Value excluding VAT: 2 320 000.00 EUR
II.2.7)Duration of the contract, framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system
Duration in months: 24
This contract is subject to renewal: yes
Description of renewals:

The contract will be concluded for an initial period of Twenty-four months from the effective start date indicated in the notification. The contract may be renewed by express decisions on the part of ARTE GEIE, three times for a period of 1 year.

II.2.9)Information about the limits on the number of candidates to be invited
Envisaged minimum number: 3
Maximum number: 5
Objective criteria for choosing the limited number of candidates:

Financial, economical and technical capacities.

II.2.10)Information about variants
Variants will be accepted: yes
II.2.11)Information about options
Options: no
II.2.13)Information about European Union funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: no
II.2.14)Additional information

ARTE chose the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) solution.

This procedure does not concern the distribution of videos and location-based acceleration, which is handled by a CDN (Content Delivery Network) Akamaï in parallel to the website hosting.

Section III: Legal, economic, financial and technical information

III.1)Conditions for participation
III.1.1)Suitability to pursue the professional activity, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers
List and brief description of conditions:

1) The completed European Single Procurement Document (ESPD), which can be accessed via the following link: https://uea.publicprocurement.be/

The XML file attached to the tender documents must be uploaded on this service.

Select ‘I am an economic operator’ and ‘Import an ESPD (request or response)’, then upload the XML file attached to the tender documents.

The completed ESPD must be attached to the application documents in XML and PDF format.

2) An extract from the commercial and company’s registry;

3) If the candidate is in receivership, a copy of the judgment or judgments to that effect.

III.1.2)Economic and financial standing
List and brief description of selection criteria:

1) certificate of insurance covering the bidder’s civil professional liability;

2) an indication of workforce and turnover excluding VAT in the last three years together with the proportion corresponding to the services the subject of the contract.

III.1.3)Technical and professional ability
List and brief description of selection criteria:

Technical capabilities

The bidder must provide the following information:

— An Internet service provider Autonomous System Number,

— A macro description of the network (exchange points, bandwidth, etc.),

— The number of servers hosted,

— IP address ranges (IPv4 and IPv6),

— The various certifications or supplier partnerships relating to the subject of the contract.

If a bidder submits a bid as part of a consortium or as a contract to be outsourced, details of the technical capabilities of their partner(s) must be given.

References

The bidder must provide:

— A maximum of five references similar to the present tender that are either ongoing or have been completed within the last 3 years.

The references must demonstrate the bidder’s experience in web hosting of, in particular, high-traffic websites in ARTE’s circulation zone (France, Germany, French- and German-speaking Europe, Europe).

The list of references must include:

— The name of the client (with his area of activity, and the name and telephone number of a main contact),

— The type of service,

— The Period of completion of the reference (ongoing or completed within the last 3 years),

— A description of the uploaded components (website address, screenshots, etc.),

— The service volume capacity (number of servers, bandwidth, number of pages viewed per month)

— The technical setup (operating systems, programming languages, database management system – DBMS and content management system – CMS, cloud-platform…),

— The list of software and technical systems used,

— Service quality (SLA).

The bidder will complete the reference presentation document provided on ARTE GEIE buyer profile (see article I.3).

If the references mentioned were projects carried out as part of a consortium or contracts that were outsourced, the following information should also be included:

— The name of the partner,

— The type of service,

— The interoperable services provided by the bidder.

III.2)Conditions related to the contract
III.2.2)Contract performance conditions:

The solution must comply with GDPR requirements (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/? uri=CELEX:32016R0679&from=EN) and adhere to the clauses in ARTE’s “Confidentiality and Security Agreement”, available in the tender documents.

In this respect, all personal data collected will be stored on servers exclusively located within the European Union.

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)Description
IV.1.1)Type of procedure
Competitive procedure with negotiation
IV.1.3)Information about a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system
The procurement involves the establishment of a framework agreement
Framework agreement with a single operator
IV.1.4)Information about reduction of the number of solutions or tenders during negotiation or dialogue
Recourse to staged procedure to gradually reduce the number of solutions to be discussed or tenders to be negotiated
IV.1.5)Information about negotiation
The contracting authority reserves the right to award the contract on the basis of the initial tenders without conducting negotiations
IV.1.8)Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: yes
IV.2)Administrative information
IV.2.2)Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate
Date: 19/12/2022
Local time: 12:00
IV.2.3)Estimated date of dispatch of invitations to tender or to participate to selected candidates
IV.2.4)Languages in which tenders or requests to participate may be submitted:
German, French, English

Section VI: Complementary information

VI.1)Information about recurrence
This is a recurrent procurement: yes
Estimated timing for further notices to be published:

2027

VI.3)Additional information:

Applications must be submitted electronically, exclusively on the following platform: https:// alsacemarchespublics.eu.

Registration on the electronic platform is free of charge and is necessary to respond to tenders electronically. The procedure for submitting responses and additional information relating to electronic procedures for the conclusion and performance of public procurement contracts are detailed in the document attached to the tender document. (the documents are available in French and German, entitled ‘Mode d'emploi/Nutzungsanleitung — Alsace Marchés publics’).

Hearings can be scheduled for the week of 13 March 2023.They will be hold by videoconference. The purpose of these hearings will be to enable the bidders and ARTE to discuss the bids. The details of the conduct will be communicated to the bidders invited for this purpose at a later date.

-------------------

In accordance with the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 17 June 2021 in Simonsen & Weel A/S v Region Nordjylland and Region Syddanmark, the maximum value of the services under this contract is indicated in Article II.1.5). This value is based on a high estimate of the volume of services and does not represent a commitment to consumption for ARTE GEIE.

VI.4)Procedures for review
VI.4.1)Review body
Official name: Tribunal Judiciaire
Postal address: Rue Général Fabvier
Town: Nancy
Postal code: 54035
Country: France
Telephone: +33 383908500
Fax: +33 383274984
VI.4.3)Review procedure
Precise information on deadline(s) for review procedures:

Reviews may be lodged on the basis:

— of Article 2 of the Order No 2009-515 (7 May 2009), relating to appeal procedures applicable to public procurement contracts, before the conclusion of the contract (urgent pre-contractual application); or

— of Article 11 of that order (urgent contractual application), no later than the 31st day following publication of the notice of award of the contract, or, in the absence of publication of such a notice, until the expiry of 6 months period counting from the day after the date of notification of the contract.

VI.4.4)Service from which information about the review procedure may be obtained
Official name: Tribunal Judiciaire
Postal address: Rue Général Fabvier
Town: Nancy
Postal code: 54035
Country: France
Telephone: +33 383908500
Fax: +33 383274984
VI.5)Date of dispatch of this notice:
16/11/2022