Primary Authority Register Alpha Phase

Tender description

Summary of the work Regulatory Delivery (part of BEIS) requires a team to work with the service manager to deliver the Alpha phase of the Primary Authority Register. Expected Contract Length 8 weeks Latest start date 01/02/2017 Budget Range £160,000 to £200,000 Why the Work is Being Done Primary Authority (PA) offers businesses the opportunity to form a legally recognised partnership with one local authority, which then provides robust and reliable regulatory advice for other councils to take into account when carrying out inspections or dealing with non-compliance. The PA Register is the biggest point of contact for stakeholders, and regulators are required to use the Register for many of their transactions concerning businesses participating in PA. PA will be expanded and simplified through the Enterprise Act (due to come into force on 1/10/2017). The Register must support any new processes associated with the legislative changes to PA. Problem to Be Solved The existing digital service is not compliant with the GDS Digital Service Standard and cannot support the upcoming legislative changes to Primary Authority. A replacement, user-centred service is required which complies with the legislative changes. Who Are the Users Enforcement officers need to be able to quickly and easily find out if a business has a PA arrangement. Primary Authority Officers, businesses and trade associations need to be able to register with ease. Users need to be able to view assured advice given to businesses. Users need to be able to navigate the site to find advice and guidance. Work Already Done 5 week Discovery phase completed to produce a series of user stories and a prioritised list of user journeys for the MVP. Existing Team The existing team consists of a Service Manager, helpdesk support, and internal staff with expertise in subject areas and knowledge of user communities. Current Phase Alpha Skills & Experience • Have experience delivering digital services that meet the GDS Digital Service Standard criteria • Have experience assessing legacy systems • Have experience migrating data from legacy systems to new digital services • Have experience developing prototypes (wire frames/coded prototypes/etc.) iteratively via user testing • Have experience developing digital services using agile methodologies • Have experience developing prototypes from Discovery findings • Have experience using metrics, analytics, data and user feedback to prioritise key content and features • Demonstrate experience of effective estimation and sizing techniques to prioritise product and programme delivery Nice to Haves • Demonstrate experience of successful delivery of digital services from Discovery to Live, involving retirement of legacy services • Have experience upskilling client staff Work Location 1 Victoria Street, London. Working Arrangments Co-located at 1 Victoria Street, London. Adhering to BEIS normal working hours (09:00 - 17:00). Suppliers must comply with BEIS travel and subsistence policy. There is a possibility of travel for user research purposes, which could be anywhere in the United Kingdom. (BEIS will meet any additional travel costs incurred away from the London office for the purposes of user research or attendance at other BEIS sites). Travel to Birmingham should be expected. Security Clearance Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) clearance required. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 6 Proposal Criteria • Approach and methodology • Technical solution • How the approach or solution meets user needs • Estimated timeframes to complete the work • Team structure (with roles and responsibilities) • Value for money • How risks and dependencies are identified and approaches to manage them • Approach to maintaining control, transparency and quality Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers • Transparent and collaborative when making decisions Payment Approach Fixed price Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 55% Cultural fit 15% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. Does the whole team need to be co-located? e.g. could some of the development be done remotely? Also does the team need to be co-located for the entire time? We expect the team to be co-located for the entire time, however some development can be done off site where access to specialist equipment is required. 2. Please can you supply additional background as to the timetable of events that you expect this opportunity to undergo? We expect the Alpha to last 8 weeks running from February to March 2017. There will be a short break for Beta procurement, then we expect Beta development to start May 2017, with a private Beta ready by August 2017. We then expect a further 4 weeks development with the public Beta live by September 2017. 3. Please can you supply additional information about the existing digital service, together with an indication of the re-useablity of any of the same? The existing service is available here: https://primaryauthorityregister.info/par/index.php/homeThe existing service is not compliant with GDS Service Standards. 4. The notice indicates a team is required but does not define the make-up or size of the team needed. Can you please provide some guidance as to your expectations of individual roles with the team? At the evaluation stage suppliers are expected to provide details of the team they think most suitable to fulfil the requirements. We expect the team to include a delivery manager, developer, user researcher, technical architect, content designer, and business analyst. 5. Your mention that the supplier team will work with the existing service manager, is this individual experienced in working within an Agile team and environment? The service manager is familiar with Agile principles, but new to working in Agile environments. 6. If more than 6 suppliers express an interest in this competition, could you please advise how they will then be shortlisted? e.g. expected number of questions, whether there will be a proposal document and associated maximum word limits. Suppliers will be shortlisted via a request for evidence against each of essential/nice-to-have skills and experience criteria. 7. What team profile is required from the supplier for the Alpha phase? At the evaluation stage suppliers are expected to provide details of the team they think most suitable to fulfil the requirements. We expect the team to include a delivery manager, developer, user researcher, technical architect, content designer, and business analyst. 8. Does the statement "Additional terms and conditions" mean that there are additional terms, if so what are these? There are no additional terms and conditions. 9. Has the Discovery determined a probable team profile and set of roles required to conduct Alpha? Will any of these roles be fulfilled by BEIS? Are there specific roles that BEIS require a supplier to fulfil? At the evaluation stage suppliers are expected to provide details of the team they think most suitable to fulfil the requirements. We expect the team to include a delivery manager, developer, user researcher, technical architect, content designer, and business analyst. These roles will not be fulfilled by BEIS. 10. Could you please advise whether any technological decisions have been made about the future platform? e.g. a preference for a particular COTS solution, cloud platform or software development stack. No technological decisions have been made yet as we will be exploring our options throughout Alpha. 11. Could any of the outputs from the Discovery phase be shared at this point? e.g. the stories & journeys expected to form the MVP. Outputs from the Discovery phase will be shared with shortlisted suppliers at the written proposal stage. 12. Is there an existing supplier who has done the Discovery for/with you and if so who is the existing supplier? Transform (Engine Partners UK LLP) 13. Are there any outputs from the current Discovery phase that can be shared? In particular any information with respect 1) candidate technical architecture thinking 2) characterisation of data sources Outputs from the Discovery phase will be shared with shortlisted suppliers at the written proposal stage. 14. Do you have any preffered technologies already in use by the existing team i.e. R and Shiny and Tableau? No current preference of technologies - options will be explored throughout Alpha. 15. Do you have any preference on tools/tech stack for the prototyping work to be done in? No preference. Options/tools to be explored throughout Alpha. 16. Please clarify the role responsibilities of the Service Manager? i.e. Does the Service Manager take lead responsibility for Delivery Management for Alpha, or is this a Product Owner role The product owner will be taking lead responsibility for the delivery of the service with the service manager providing support/direction on a day-to-day basis. 17. Why are you seeking to change supplier between Discovery and Alpha? Due to the way our spend is approved we must complete a full procurement exercise for each phase. 18. Could you please provide information about the legacy systems to be assessed and migrated? e.g. the technologies in place, the type and scale of data to be migrated. The existing digital service can be accessed here: https://primaryauthorityregister.info/par/index.php/homeThe type of data includes names and addresses of business, trade associations, and local authorities. There is 7 years worth of data and we will be working with stakeholders and the supplier to agree an appropriate strategy for data migration including retention policies. 19. Please characterise the number and type of data sets, including from any external sources outside BEIS that may be ingested? i.e. Are there near real-time data feeds, or reasonably static data sets. The type of data includes names and addresses of business, trade associations, and local authorities. This data comes from sources outside BEIS (business, trade associations, local authorities). The data is reasonably static. 20. As you are procuring because of spend control, will you genuinely consider other suppliers or are you happy with your existing one? It takes us many man days to respond to these and if you are highly likely to re-procure your existing supplier (assuming their prices are competitive) then, as an SME with limited resources, we would prefer to focus our efforts elsewhere. We will consider all responses seriously and all evidence will be scored fairly, without bias. The supplier who scores the highest at the evaluation stage wins the contract. 21. What is your timeline for the procurement process? If there are more than 6 suppliers suitable for shortlisting, when will you need the required evidence by? When do you plan to make the final decision on the supplier by? If we receive more than 6 applicants we will be requesting evidence w/c 02/01, with a closing date of 5 working days later.Shortlisted suppliers will then be notified and proposals will be requested with a deadline w/c 16/01. Presentations will be held w/c 23/01 and suppliers will be notified the following week. 22. We have found that fixed price commercial models inhibit effective Agile delivery, especially at Alpha stage where prototyping is required and detailed requirements and acceptance criteria can not be known up front. Is it possible to propose time and materials, within a set budget limit instead? We require proposals to contain fixed price quotes so that comparisons can be made.