New Style of IT Deployed (NSoIT(D)) Technical Design Support

Tender description

Summary of the work Technical Design Support to the NSoIT(D) in-house design team. This is to support design and development of Information and Communication Systems (ICS) platforms. Support is required to design features such as software-defined datacentres, cloud-services, electronic cyber-security, minimised size/weight/power, resilience, ruggerdisation, open-source exploitation, full orchestration. Expected Contract Length 6 months Latest start date 17/05/2016 Budget Range <£500000 Why the Work is Being Done The delivery of a unified Systems of Systems to provide Information and Communications Systems (ICS) and Services to the Deployed Environment across security domains. These will be provisioned onto maritime platforms and into air/land environments. Problem to Be Solved The current and legacy platforms used in the Deployed Environment need to be updated or replaced. Designs exist for one system operating within one security domain; this work needs to be coherently spread across several other domains in order to create a single system-of-systems for deployed Information Services. To achieve this an uplift in design effort is required. Who Are the Users As a member of the armed forces, I need to access/manipulate/generate/communicate information, so that I can perform my military function in the deployed environment Work Already Done Initial design for one security domain. Initial scoping and concepts for other security domains. Existing Team The existing team is MOD's in-house design team augmented by a range of external support Current Phase Not started Skills & Experience • Designing and implementing operating system security settings • Development and implementation of Microsoft Windows products • Designing and establishing Cloud services management • Implementing, configuring, and exploiting VMware products • Undertaking system design of information systems Nice to Haves • Development with Full Stack products • Establishing and undertaking spiral development • Development with Solaris • Development with Linux • Implementation and exploitation of orchestration products e.g. Ansible, Puppet • Employing security separation techniques to information systems • Designing and implementing security logging and audit • Designing and implementing virtual and physical networking • Computer science and/or software engineering to graduate level • Security documentation production to meet ISO27000 or similar • Design and build of rack layouts • Designing and implementing maritime integration of information systems • Developing technical architectures • Identifying and addressing airworthiness dependencies on application sets Work Location MOD Corsham, Westwells Road, CORSHAM, Wilts, SN13 9NR Working Arrangments The contracted team will work closely and full-time at MOD's Corsham site with the MOD's in-house design team. This is due to both the security classification of the work and to work as an integrated and responsive joint team. Security Clearance All members of the team shall be SC cleared. This clearance is required in advance of the work due to required start-date. Additional T&Cs The following MOD Specific terms and conditions shall apply: DEFCON 5J (Edn 03/15) - Unique Order Identifiers DEFCON 129J (Edn 07/08 - Use of Electronic Business Delivery Form DEFCON 522J (Edn 05/03) - Payment Under P2P DEFFORM 30 (Edn 04/15) Electronic Transactions Agreement DEFFORM 129J (Edn 07/08) – Use of the P2P Delivery Label/Form The Authority reserves the right to terminate the contract for convenience with four weeks notice without compensation. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Robust evidence that people with the relevant skills will be provided • The skills and experience of the organisation • Team structure and organisational makeup • Value for money of the proposal • How the approach or solution meets user needs • How the approach or solution meets your organisation’s policy or goal Cultural Fit Criteria • Working as part of a joint design-team • Working within a Defence and Security environment • Working within a spiral development and DevOps environment • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers • Transparent and collaborative when making decisions • Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes Payment Approach Time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 70% Cultural fit 10% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. The latest start date is in the past - 17/05/2016. Please can you advise of the start date that you require. This is an error. The latest start for this requirement is the 4th July 2016. 2. Is there a current incumbent doing this work? The MOD is currently conducting this work in conjunction with Actica Consulting. This requirement is an opportunity to augment and uplift this technical design team. 3. Can you confirm which supplier has undertaken the initial design work? NSoIT(D) design is conducted in-house within ISS, and is MOD owned but contractor supported. Initial work has been through JACKDAW supported by Actica. Actica continues to lead the JACKDAW work, however the team capacity isn’t sufficient; a significant uplift is required to work alongside.JACKDAW is the MOD designed and owned deployable IS for UK and multinational missions. The system of systems will provide services in the security domains from SUKEO to OFFICIAL, but was developed with a design at MISSION SECRET. NSoIT(D) sees JACKDAW being used in all domains: this is the relationship between JACKDAW and NSoIT(D). 4. This opportunity has been raised under Lot 1 (Digital Outcomes) and we are thus assuming the questions relate to the capability of the supplier in achieving the required outcomes. We notice, however that one question seems to relate to the competence of an individual (Computer science and/or software engineering to graduate level). Please advise how we are to respond to this question. The requirement is to provide a digital outcome for which we are expecting prospective suppliers to put forward a team of people to acheive such outcome. As indicated assessment methods will include case study, work history and presentations, and therefore likely to evaluate individual candidates put forward by suppliers as part of their proposed team. However the capability of the supplier as a whole will also be evaluated at this stage.