Website Re-Design and Development

Tender description

Summary of the work Complete redevelopment of London Fire Brigade’s website. Working with the Brigade’s digital team from wide reaching discovery phase through to live. Expected Contract Length Maximum time frame is 18 months from initation. Latest start date We would like to appoint a supplier by the end of August. Why the Work is Being Done The way people consume their information online had changed. The London Fire Brigade website does not currently meet the expectations or needs of its online audience. We are seeking to provide a new online platform that allows our audiences to perform any Brigade related task - find information on smoke alarms, book a Home Fire Safety Visit, talk to a fire safety officer about your business etc. Problem to Be Solved Performing tasks such as booking Home Fire Safety visits, or finding key information is not easy on the current website. Performing any task should be easy to do whereever you are and using any device. Who Are the Users As a Londoner: I need to be able to access information and book services that will make me more safe from fire. I also want to be able to see how the fire service operates and allocates resources in my area. I need this so that I can be safer in my home, adhere to laws relating to fire regulations in my business and educate young people about the work of the Brigade and how to stay safe. Existing Team The supplier will work with a small team of digital professionals from the Brigade. We are looking to work with one supplier for all the work in the project, but there is a possibility that more than one supplier will be involved. Current Phase Not started Skills & Experience • Extensive, proven experience of working on complex, successful website development projects • Strong foundation in User-Centred Design • Excellent knowledge of integrating new with existing systems • Good working knowledge of the Government Service Design • CMS agnostic • Exceptional audience and stakeholder research skills • Exceptional experience and practical knowledge of accessibility standards and trends Nice to Haves • Have experience of working on public sector and charity projects • Ability to present findings and interim reports through the Project to varied Audiences Work Location The work will all take place in London. Working Arrangments Reporting to the Digital Manager, the supplier will work with a small internal team of communications/ digital professionals. We would like to work closely with the supplier, so there is the possibility of some onsite working. Additional T&Cs To ensure the project continues be effective, we would like to include review and breakpoint at miles stones of the contract. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Technical Solution • Approach and methodology • How the approach or solution meets user needs • How the approach or solution meets your organisation’s policy or goal • Estimated timeframes for the work • How they’ve identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them • Team structure • Approach to equality and diversity • Value for money Cultural Fit Criteria • 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 • Understanding of the Brigade’s culture and the length of decision making Payment Approach Fixed price Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. In your brief you state that the working arrangements will be on site in London working with a small internal team. Would you consider the possibility of the supplier working off site with frequent site visits as well as video/telephone conference meetings? In addition to this, would you consider the option of the supplier providing 1 or 2 consultants to work on site full time with an additional team collaboratively working off site with frequent site visits? Ideally we would like to work very closely with the chosen supplier, so onsite working would be ideal. However, we do understand this might present limitations, so we are happy to look at alternatives. After the discovery phase of the project we would be in a better position to determine, along with the supplier, how much time on site per week would be needed. 2. The opportunity mentions the program should be delivered to a fixed price. At what point in the process are you be expecting a potential supplier to give an indication of overall cost? The first of the project will be the discovery phase. After this we would define the scope of the project at which point we would expect the supplier to give an indication of cost. 3. Have you performed a discovery or any user research in context to the design and functional requirements for the new website? Not yet. The first part the project will be an extensive discovery phase to properly define business and more user need. We would like the chosen agency to help with this process. So experience in this type of work would be very beneficial. 4. Could you please provide a breakdown of the skills and roles within your digital team? Team of three Digital Manager - project manager, Snr Digital Officer - project support and Digital OfficerSkills within the teamWebsite development - project management and user experienceDigital Marketing techniques - email, PPC, social mediaGood understanding of GA and GTMContent design and strategyVideo production 5. How important is on-site working for your team? How many days per week would you like a supplier on-site? Ideally we would like to work very closely with the chosen supplier, so onsite working would be ideal. However, we do understand this might present limitations, so we are happy to look at alternatives. After the discovery phase of the project we would be in a better position to determine, along with the supplier, how much time on site per week would be needed. 6. Could you please share the high level budget range you have available for this project? This project has a budget of 200-250K 7. Would LFB be interested in a shared services model, i.e. sharing a platform with other bluelight organisations? If this meets the needs of the user it is something we might consider. Our key focus is defining and meeting the user need. 8. The criteria "Understanding of the Brigade’s culture and the length of decision making" appears that an existing working knowledge is needed. Is this the case or do you intend a next stage to share the culture to assist suppliers new to the Fire Brigade? No prior knowledge of the Brigade is required. As part of the discovery phase the supplier will gather and understanding of the Brigade 9. You mention integrating new with existing systems. Could you provide a little more detail regarding the existing technologies in place and any specific integration requirements? The Brigade has a huge amount of systems it uses to gather and report on incidents etc. During the discovery phase of the project we would want to look at how the external site might be able to make inputting into some of those systems more effective. We can only really provide more information once these options have been explored. The chosen supplier would need to have experience of integrating existing systems. 10. One of the essential supplier skills is ‘CMS agnostic’. Does this mean you will require an evaluation of CMS options by the supplier during discovery? Is there a current CMS preference within London Fire Brigade or are you open to suggestions? Yes. There are a huge amount of CMS on the market. We do not intend to use our current CMS, so we would like to find the CMS that would best serve our needs. 11. You mention that the work will take place in London but that there is the possibility of some onsite working. Could you clarify how much time the supplier would be expected to spend in London and whether remote working from the supplier offices is possible, if so how much? Ideally we would like to work very closely with the chosen supplier, so onsite working would be preferred. However, we do understand this might present limitations, so we are happy to look at alternatives. After the discovery phase of the project we would be in a better position to determine, along with the supplier, how much time on site per week would be needed. 12. Do you have existing analytics about the types of devices people are using to visit the existing site? Yes. In the last 12 months 42.70% mobile, 42.22% desktop, 15.08% tablet 13. Will you require a long term support arrangement once the website has been developed? We would discuss a service level agreement as part of the contract. In the future the Brigade plans to have more development skills in-house, so would be more interested in building a site that we can support in-house. 14. Will you require the supplier to provide hosting for the website? The current site is hosted in-house, but we would like to look at options that provide the safest and most reliable hosting. 15. Please can you expand upon how will any price be evaluated? The first phase of the project will be the discovery phase. We will evaluate based on quotes for this stage. 16. Payment Approach per requirements is Fixed Price. We would like to propose a Capped Time and Materials model, based on team size and duration, with outcome to be determined by the Service Manager / Product Owner. Is this acceptable to the client? The first phase of the project will be an extensive discovery phase. From this we will move to develop the site based on the insights from phase one. We would look to agree a fixed price for each phase at the beginning of the phase. Capped Time and Materials model is something we would consider. 17. In the Working Arrangements you state that there "may be a need for some on-site working". If we were to propose that our entire team work on your site for the duration (which is what we think would be best) could you accommodate that? We would definitely do our best to accommodate the entire team. We’re very keen to work as closely as possible with the supplier on this project. We would need to establish: • size of the team • network requirements – we have a protected environment, but have wi-fi for external use • hardware needed – you would need to bring your own hardware to guarantee you could use programmes needed. 18. Brief - Will you be providing a formal brief to the successful shortlisted agencies The first phase of the project will be a wide ranging discovery. The results of this phase will inform the brief. There will certainly be more detailed information for shortlisted agencies. 19. Features - Will you be providing a definitive list of the features required? The first phase of the project will be a wide ranging discovery. The results of this phase will inform the brief and any functionality/ features required. There are a number of existing functionalities that will be redeveloped for the new site, but we expect new functionality requirements to come out of the discovery phase. 20. Integration - Can you provide a breakdown of the back office systems the new site will need to integrate with; or do you anticipate providing a description of this in a formal brief. There are over a hundred different systems currently being used. The website will not need to integrate all of these systems. During the discovery phase we will determine what new functionality to develop at this stage we will identify which systems need to be integrated. The existing site doesn’t integrate with any systems. 21. Timelines - Do you have an expectation of the timelines you would like to work to following selection of the successful bidder? We would like to see a live site by July 2017. 22. You have a number of Flash games / activities on the site. Are you planning to dispense with these? You also have an extensive archive of old news stories and the benefit of keeping these isn't immediately obvious. Are you planning to migrate these to the new platform? Currently there aren’t any plans not to take the educational games and activities over, but we are auditing our content at the moment. On the news stories we would be taking over the more recent stories and look to archive older stories – possibly with public access, definitely with internal access. 23. Do you have a target budget and outline scope for at least the first phase of this work? This project has a budget of 200-250K. The first phase of the work will be a wide ranging discovery phase from which we would distil the scope of the development. 24. Do you have a list of the 'existing systems' the website will need to integrate with? There are over a hundred different systems currently being used. The website will not need to integrate all of these systems. During the discovery phase we will determine what new functionality to develop at this stage we will identify which systems need to be integrated. The existing site doesn’t integrate with any systems. 25. Location of work i.e. can the work be done from offsite for the development activities and user facing work at onsite location in London or is it expected that the development is also done at client location? Can some of the work be done from Offshore? From the title of redesign and development, we understand that a Complete Redevelopment of the website is expected – Is there any specific technologies to be considered for redevelopment? Ideally we would like to work very closely with the chosen supplier, so onsite working would be ideal. However, we do understand this might present limitations, so we are happy to look at alternatives. Yes a complete redevelopment is required. Need for specific technologies will come from the discovery phase of the project – none specified yet. 26. We understand the new website has to integrate with London Fire Brigade internal systems, what are they and what technologies would they be and where are they located? Is there any integration with payment services, other government websites? Role of Brigade’s digital / communications team? Which CMS is being used by Brigade? Are we expected to use the same or open for suggestions? There are over a hundred different systems currently being used. The website will not need to integrate all of these. During the discovery phase we will determine what new functionality to develop at this stage & identify which systems to be integrated. The existing site doesn’t integrate with any systems. Current CMS is Reddot. Very keen to move to a new system, and open to options. The role of the Digital Team is website management, content design, digital marketing, video production, intranet development; not a technical team, but have knowledge of coding. The team has strong website development project experience.