Home Office Information Digitisation Programme - Digitise, Store & View project

Tender description

Summary of the work Delivery and support into live of an extensible digital storage platform, integration with external suppliers and other internal Home Office systems and processes. The goal is to deliver the capabilities the Home Office requires to enable it to transform services for citizens and customers and break its dependency on paper. Expected Contract Length Up to 2 years Latest start date 12/12/16 Why the Work is Being Done The Information Digitisation Programme is a business transformation programme that will replace paper based transactions with digital ones. It will do this by: • providing a mechanism by which paper documents become digital and can be stored (along with other media), accessed and interrogated; and • removing the need for those documents entirely via a document reduction strategy and directly verifying data. The Digitise, Store & View project is a key enabler of this vision, by providing the secure, reliable document management solution. Enhancement of the Beta build is required by March 2017. Problem to Be Solved Outcomes required: 1) Storage platform monitoring enhancement 2) Performance Tuning 3) Extend scanning integration component to be bi-directional 4) Create a daily renamed documents report 5) Create a set of Alfresco configuration (folders, users, groups, permissions) and apply to each environment, using existing tools. 6) Facilitate relevant security audits, governance and launch platform into live 7) Caseworking integration – create a bi-directional integration between Alfresco and a bespoke caseworking system 8) Create/deploy a bespoke front-end viewer; consistent with GOV.UK style 9) Live service performance monitoring capability 10) Open source for non-sensitive portions of code base 11) Private Beta Service Assessment Who Are the Users As a Home Office user, I need to; *have effective, reliable and secure access to customers' digital evidence so that I can make a robust decision *be able to easily view and manage digital evidence so that I am efficient in my role As an external customer, I need the ability to upload evidence so that my application is supported. As the IDP project, I need; *the service to provide the capabilities to meet our user's needs so that we deliver our goals *the supplier to collaborate with us to align plans and designs so that we deliver our goals. Early Market Engagement Not applicable Work Already Done Beta: • Alfresco One deployed onto an AWS infrastructure, in a load balanced configuration (HA Proxy). Infrastructure builds and deployments are automated, using tools such as Terraform and Ansible, and Amazon services including Elasticache, S3 and EFS. A bespoke Java-based component watches for files deposited by the scanning supplier in an FTPS server (deployed/hosted on AWS) and automatically deposits in Alfresco. Live: • A software-as-a-service digital storage platform (Box.com) has been delivered, providing standard document management features. It provides an FTPS server for the upload/download of documents. This is a tactical, but reuseable, solution prior to our strategic build. Existing Team The supplier will mainly be working with a team of civil servants on this project but you will be expected to engage and build relationships with key technical and delivery leads across other parts of the Home Office, including other suppliers. It is anticipated that you will work collaboratively with this team for the benefit of the project and the Home Office. Current Phase Beta Skills & Experience • Demonstrable experience in successful use of the technologies used to build the current solution (see "Any work that's been done so far") • Demonstrable experience of successful platform rollout, with a focus on steering design to minimise customisation but inclusive of different user needs • Demonstrable experience of successful collaborative working as part of a multi-supplier delivery team • Demonstrable experience of successful release planning with agile delivery teams to articulate detailed delivery plans • Demonstrable experience in bug resolution across the delivery lifecycle and in Live support • Demonstrable experience of successful dependency management between scrum delivery teams within the project and supporting management of dependencies both internal and external to the project • Demonstrable experience of passing GDS service assessments Nice to Haves • Experience of on-boarding mid-delivery and effective handovers from incumbent suppliers • Experience of designing tools consistent with GOV.UK styles • Experience of GaaP products Work Location Main location for the work will be central London (moving to Croydon within next 12 months) but with other key locations of Liverpool and Sheffield which the supplier will need to consider flexible working arrangements for, in order to support delivery. Travel to other Home Office sites dispersed around the UK may also be required. Working Arrangments We expect a supplier to be flexible to our needs and be able to genuinely make working with a mixed team across multiple sites effective, high performing and inclusive. This would include some minimum on-site working (duration to be confirmed) at the different locations and demonstration of innovative ways to facilitate true collaborative working. Contract value will exclude travel and expense costs and be based on capped time and material charges. Security Clearance All staff must be security cleared to minimum CTC level with some requiring SC level (or be prepared to undergo clearance process prior to being engaged). We will ask bidders for details of key personnel who would be assigned if successful, and initiate the clearance process; suspending for unsuccessful bidders. Additional T&Cs In addition to the standard terms and conditions, Clause 13.23 first bullet amended as follows: “by the Supplier, where the Malicious Software originates from the Supplier Software, Buyer Software or the Buyer Data while the Buyer Software ad or Buyer Data” Additional Clause: "Subject to the provisions under Clause 13 for the avoidance of doubt the Supplier will be indemnify the Buyer against any actions of the Supplier Staff in accessing Buyer Software that breach the licensing conditions of a third party supplier of the Buyer’s Software resulting in increased licensing costs or claim for breach of licensing conditions”. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 4 Proposal Criteria • Technical solution (include a brief overview in your presentation) • Approach and methodology - how the approach meets user needs and project goals (include a brief overview in your presentation) • Estimated timeframes for the work • Team structure - availability of suitable resources from the required date and guaranteed provision of resources for specified lengths of the contract; mitigating high turnover of resource and time/cost impact • Essential skills and experience, including quality of submitted CVs • Innovation (any alternative proposals to deliver the services or to improve the quality of the services delivered) • Value for Money/competitive whole life costs • Ability to adopt methodology and technical solution developed so far, gain a detailed understanding to allow ongoing support, further development and enhancement (Presentations should focus on this requirement) • Identification of risks and dependencies that might impact deliverability of the project, and suggested approaches to manage them (Presentations should focus on this requirement) Cultural Fit Criteria • Collaborative working with Civil Servants and other suppliers • Transparent and collaborative decision making • Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes • Ability to add value • Skills transfer to Civil Servant team • Work effectively as part of a multi-disciplinary team with split-site working Payment Approach Capped time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 10% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. Was the work already completed deemed to be successful? If so are you looking to extend the existing team or looking to onboard a new team? An internal GDS service assessment was passed for the Alpha phase, however we require a new team to onboard to complete the remaining build. 2. " A bespoke Java-based component watches for files deposited by the scanning supplier in an FTPS server (deployed/hosted on AWS) and automatically deposits in Alfresco". Why was a bespoke component built, as Alfresco provides an FTPS server capability out-of-the-box and your stated aim is to "focus on steering design to minimise customisation"? This design principle would normally prevail, however in this instance a bespoke component was the right choice as we needed more advanced functionality including; validation checks prior to ingestion and the ability to apply metadata at the point of ingestion. The scanning supplier outputs ZIP files, with each one containing one or more documents and a CSV file containing the metadata captured during scanning. The out-of-the-box Alfresco FTPS server would limit our ability to scale up. 3. Does the team require Alfresco or AWS Certification or both? If so, what level of certification is required? See Essential skills and experience. We are looking for demonstrable experience in the technologies used from suppliers, but are not mandating certification. 4. Does the supplier organisation need to be an Alfresco Certified Partner or AWS Public Sector Partner; or both? See Essential skills and experience. We are looking for demonstrable experience in the technologies used from suppliers, but are not mandating certification. 5. To what extent are you committed to using Alfresco as part of your overall end-to-end solution? We are Drupal specialists but have experience working on a project involving a complex Alfresco integration, using Drupal as the middleware between Alfresco and several additional systems. Given that we're not actually Alfresco developers though, would this put us out of the running? Or would you even consider losing Alfresco altogether if we could potentially recommend a better solution using Drupal? Alfresco is our chosen technology and this choice has been validated by the Home Office technology community. We are looking for suppliers with demonstrable experience in Alfresco and the other technologies used in the build so far. 6. Hi, We'd like to amend start date to 12/12/16. We've managed to rearrange some other projects and are able to provide the team. The published latest start date is 12/12/16. 7. Would you consider using off-shore teams based out of Asia? We can provide an ISO 27001 certificate and provide BPS equivalent security checks for all the off-shore team members. They can work with our on-shore SC cleared team who can review the code and run them within a secure production environment. We are flexible in having a dispersed supplier team, as long as they can demonstrate flexible working arrangements in order to support delivery and build key relationships; and this includes some minimum on-site time with us at various Home Office sites in the UK. However, off-shore teams would not be suitable for this project. 8. What is the total volume of data to be migrated and the classification? The outcomes we require focus on the enhancement of our Beta build, any data migration of live data from our tactical platform is a future backlog item. 9. Does the necessary connectivity between on-premises/legacy applications and the AWS estate exist? Prior to production data being used this will be via public internet, once we start using production data then it will be via a VPN. 10. Is the preservation of metadata important? Yes, this is key design principle. 11. Will the box.com implementation remain or does it form part of the tactical solution? It will remain for current users for the short term, as it was intended to be a tactical solution however as we onboard future customers we would assess what the right solution is for their needs and may continue the use of Box.com for some users. 12. What services have been accredited for use on AWS? The ITT lists services we would typically associate with an IaaS style of deployment VS using PaaS and SaaS. Aside from the standard terms and conditions of use, we do not require specific accreditation to use services on AWS. We are predominantly using an IaaS approach but with some platform components. 13. Hello Can you provide some information on the procurement timetable? i.e., once the initial application is received on 25th November indicating whether suppliers have the required Skills and Experience via the Yes/No answers, what are your anticipated timelines for receiving evidence of the Skills and Experience for shortlisting, and then a subsequent written proposal and presentation for the shortlisted suppliers? Many thanks Shortlisting will take place on 28th November; we may request further evidence to complete this dependent on the volume of responses received. Suppliers will be notified shortly after of the outcome and the shortlisted suppliers will invited to submit proposals and deliver a presentation week beginning 5th December. Templates to be used are the standard Digital Marketplace templates, and shortlisted suppliers will be given the exact details of presentation locations/timings etc. 14. For the front-end viewer, is there any existing service? Are there any requirements/expectations as to how this will be developed (e.g. restrictions on language/platform)? Are there user stories or acceptance criteria? A prototype of the front-end viewer has been built. This design has been iterated following user research feedback and it will also undergo accessibility testing. Our expectations are that the output of this will form the backlog to take this design into live, including adhering to the GOV.uk style it has been designed in. 15. For the caseworking system to be integrated with Alfresco: what language/platform is it written in? The technology stack to be used will be determined by the programme delivering the case management system, but is likely to be either JSON or CMIS interface.