Fellner Wratzfeld & Partner has advised Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft m.b.H. on the structuring and procurement of an "innovation partnership" with several enterprises in Austria, which the firm described as the first in the country.
According to FWP, "innovation partnerships were introduced in 2018 as a new kind of procurement procedure; what sets them apart is that once the actual procurement procedure for commissioning a contract partner is completed, innovative services are developed together with one or more enterprises to be used directly by the public contracting authority without the need to conduct a new procurement procedure."
"The innovation partnership of BIG in the field of software development which FWP provided advice on," the firm explained, "was concluded with several enterprises. The goal is to create an innovative electronic administration tool for the object and facility management department of BIG with a view to ensuring better networking between the different levels of stakeholders. In addition, a key aspect of this innovation partnership is the joint further development of functionalities and the potential joint distribution of the developed software to third parties within the scope of a joint venture.
“We are very happy to support another Austrian pilot project with our expertise," said FWP Partner Rudolf Pekar, who led the firm's team, "and to have been able to successfully complete the procurement phase of the innovation partnership. The greater flexibility in procurement offered by the innovation partnership is what makes it an important procurement tool in particular with regard to the development of innovative IT and software solutions.
