FCO Posts Hub

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done The FCO has data about its offices around the world (known as 'posts') which it publishes in locations inside and outside the FCO: egs consulate addresses, opening hours, and services provided. There is no single source of truth, so when opening hours change, an officer needs to update this in several places. Data is both public and private. This work is: collate and structure the data make it available via an API and other appropriate views - for examples, maps or SVG. We have guaranteed funding until March 31; if we are able to get funding the work will continue Problem to Be Solved The work will increase the productivity of our staff who will only have to edit the data in one place, and increase the quality of information available to users. There are around 15 separate data stores including documents like 'Post reports' and 'post factsheets.'. We don't expect all sources to be ingested and availble before March 31 so expect a continuing backlog which will tackle if funds are available. Who Are the Users As a user of GOV.UK, I need to have accurate information about when a consulate it open so I know when I can arrive there. As an FCO staff member, I need to update information about my post just once so that I can do more productive things with my life. As a diplomat looking for my next job, I need a searchable database of posts so that I judge the quality of education available. As an manager, I need to see which posts offer a particular consular service so I can cover a post which is temporarily unavailable. Early Market Engagement We have spoken to one company which has previously worked on our preexisting software Crisis Hub (see below). We have used this to develop these requirements and to get a ballpark figure of costs. Work Already Done The FCO has some pre-existing software, Crisis Hub and some linked software Contact Hub, which we would like to use as the basis for this development. This contains a database and uses an internal API for displaying data, but does not yet have an external API. We have already completed a discovery phase which has produced this Schedule of Works. Existing Team The FCO will supply a service owner and product manager and we invite suppliers to suggest the correct team to fulfill the requirements. The FCO has an incumbent supplier of dev ops to the Crisis Hub software, and this work will need to be handed over to them at the end of the project. Current Phase Beta Work Location The majority of the work will take place in King Charles Street, London. The role is likely to involve some travel to the FCO's office in Milton Keynes. Working Arrangments Ideally the team will be colocated with the FCO so that we can have a fully functioning agile team: some members of the FCO team will be able to visit suppliers premises, but the Service Owner is unlikely to be able to. We will consider some workers not being on site if suppliers can convince us of how this will work. However, we have a preference for colocation. Security Clearance All staff on site will need Security Clearance. We are still checking the details but understand that any staff members who will see live data will need Direct Vetting. Additional T&Cs We would like to be billed on a per-sprint basis, at the end of each sprint. All intellectual property will be retained by the FCO and all code should be stored and developed on FCO repositories. Skills & Experience Provide details of your experience in delivering different Presentation layer's - e.g: CSS for responsive design) - 10% Provide details of your experience in delivering different Application layer's - e.g. Java - Jboss/Tomcat, SOLR - search platform - 10% Provide details of your experience in delivering different Data layer's - e.g. PostGreSQL, NoSQL - MongoDB - 10% Provide details of your experience in delivering different Deployment Services - e.g. Puppet - Config management - 10% Provide details of your experience in delivering different Continuous integration technologies - e.g. GitHub - code repository and Jira/Confluence - Agile scrum board and backlog management/ Project Wiki - 10% Nice to Haves No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria Technical Solution Cultural Fit Value for Money Meet timescales Approach and methodology Cultural Fit Criteria Provide evidence of how you meet customers requirements in working on site - 8% Demonstrate experience of working as a team with our/other organisations and other suppliers in an Agile manner - in helping clients with backlog refinement and prioritisation decisions - 7% Demonstrate ability to add value - we welcome good ideas from our suppliers (5%) Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method Written proposal Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 20% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers Budget range this is a medium-sized piece of work and we expect a limit will be in how quickly a supplier can spin up a team this financial year. we would therefore like suppliers to tell us how many sprints work they can realistically do before the end of the financial year and how much that will cost. please also supply a cost / sprint of the team proposed, in case we are able to continue the work into the next financial year. we will give you as much notice as possible of what the situation next fy is.