Highways England Web Estate Review

Tender description

Summary of the work An opportunity to review the existing public facing digital estate of Highways England, to analyse its effectiveness and customer satisfaction, to establish user needs, opportunities and issues so that we can improve our service offering. Expected Contract Length 2-3 months Latest start date 23 January 2017 Budget Range Up to £50,000 – this should include all expenses. Why the Work is Being Done We communicate extensively with the public using a range of digital channels and we need to ensure that these services are continuing to meet the needs of our users. We require an independent specialist(s) to provide the business with insight into our public facing digital services, including primarily GOV.UK, our road improvement programme website, traffic england, mobile applications, social media and other public digital channels. We need to analyse the effectiveness and customer satisfaction of our digital services, establish user needs, opportunities which will support our digital roadmap. This work needs to be delivered by the end of March 2017. Problem to Be Solved We need to establish user needs for both current and potential users of our digital services. We need to know if our current digital offering meets those needs and if not what we need to change to achieve this. We need to know if our range of digital services is sufficient or if we need to add or close any channels. We need a report that gives us a prioritised user needs list, an understanding of how we can improve our services and offers solutions. We also need to make sure we understand any assisted digital requirements of our customers. Who Are the Users As a user of the road network I need to find information about current road conditions so I can plan my journey or prepare for congestion. As a citizen, I need to find out about who Highways England are so I can understand their role in maintaining and improving the road network. As an employee of Highways England, I need to understand what services customers want from us so we can provide them with valuable information As a public body, we need to understand what our regulators require us to provide to our customers online to meet our statutory obligations. Work Already Done We have done some extensive research provided by Customer Experience group about our road users and on driver segmentation. Our Customer Research team has produced a major piece of work to look at how our work affects communities. Both papers will be made available. Existing Team They will work primarily with the existing digital team in Highways England. This would involve the Digital Services team in Leeds and the User Researcher and User Experience Designer in Birmingham. There will also be some interaction with our team of Digital Editors and Social Media Manager. It may also require some interaction with our National Incident Liaison Officers, Our Customer Contact Centre and Traffic Information Service Providers in Birmingham. Primary interaction though will be with the public. Current Phase Live Skills & Experience • Have 3+ years experience analyzing the effectiveness of digital channels. • Have 3+ years experience conducting user experience research • Have 3+ years experience establishing and validating user needs for digital services • Have In-depth understanding of user-centered research, design principles, methods and tools • Experience of identifying users of digital services in the public domain and securing their participation in user research. • Experience of effective engagement with current and potential users, including assisted digital users. • Have excellent analytical, problem solving, written and verbal communication skills • Proven experience of organizing, managing, executing and analysing usability test sessions Nice to Haves • Experience working with local or national government • Knowledge of Government Digital Service design principles • Have demonstrable experience of working in a culture of continuous delivery and improvement • Experience of Online roads and traffic information services. Work Location As we want the provider to assess our online digital services the majority of this work can take place off site. However, it may require some time to be spent at our office in Leeds, and our two offices in Birmingham where our Digital team are based. Working Arrangments We want the provider to communicate with our users and potential users so they can do this in whatever way they feel is most appropriate and we would not require them to be on site for any specific amount of time. We would expect them to visit our teams in Leeds and Birmingham as required for meetings and workshops as well as be available for regular tele-conferences. They may need to visit our offices more in the initial phase of work as we plan and agree the scope of the project. Expenses should be covered within budget for the project. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Approach and methodology • Estimated timeframes for the work • How the approach or solution meets our goals • Value for money Cultural Fit Criteria • Work with us as part of a team • Work well in a collaborative agile team and be confident at communicating and demonstrating developments and ideas • Demonstrate courage and challenge the status quo (e.g. can express controversial views, confront reality, make tough decisions,) • Demonstrate responsibility (e.g. act like a leader, provide solutions to problems, seek the best for the organisation beyond your team) • Be respectful of different opinions and constructive in feedback • Can work with users with low technical expertise • Share knowledge and experience • Have proven experience of stakeholder management and strong negotiation skills Payment Approach Capped time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 65% Cultural fit 10% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers 1. How do HE see "Primary interaction with the public” working - are the consultants to be given access to the HE Customer Experience group? The consultants will interact with customers who contact the HE’s contact centre channels. There won’t necessarily be any direct contact with the HE customer experience group. 2. Does the scope include analysis of the live digital services which use information from different supplier info to provide the complete live information? Analysis of alternative traffic information channels is in scope in order to provide a gap analysis and an understanding of where HE add value to wider traffic information services in the online marketplace, to help define our USP and to identify where our focus on delivering digital services needs to be. 3. What are the proposed dates for the next stages of assessment please? Can you please elaborate on what you mean by next assessment phase? Do you mean the assessment and interviewing stage? If so Digital Marketplace website gives the details of how selection is carried out. 4. Please can you advise if user recruitment would be conducted by HE or is this the responsibility of the supplier? This is the responsibility of the supplier. 5. Regarding budget - is the Max £50k budget indicated inclusive or exclusive of VAT? Exclusive of VAT 6. Please can you advise if analytics for existing HE digital services would be made available to the chosen supplier? Yes, all analytics will be made available to the chosen supplier. 7. Regarding the work already done - how extensive are the 2 existing papers? They are extensive enough to provide some useful background to this work. 8. We note working style will require close collaboration with the Digital Services team in Leeds and the User Researcher and User Experience Designer in Birmingham. Do these teams involve only HE staff or other suppliers who we should interface with during the course of the work? Which other suppliers are involved, if any? In researching assisted digital requirements, should we engage just with existing users through the current channels? The project involves liaison with only HE staff and no other suppliers are involved. Just engage with existing users through current channels but also seek to understand why some users are not using our channels, but alternatives. 9. Please can you provide a list of the channels in scope in more detail (or some scale/numbers) as referenced in “About the work - Why the work is being done”? Do the in scope digital channels include transactional services on gov.uk which are operated by third parties on behalf of Highways England? Was the earlier work (two reports referenced) conducted by Highways England, or have you engaged consultants previously to support in this area? The channels that are in scope are • Our presence on gov.uk - www.gov.uk/highways• Our mobile site – https://m.highways.gov.uk • the Highways “Live Traffic Info” iPhone and Android apps available through the iTunes store and Digital Marketplace• The Dartcharge service - https://www.gov.uk/pay-dartford-crossing-charge• Traffic England• www.Highways.gov.uk/roads and www.highways.gov.uk/traffic • Lowerthamescrossing - http://www.lower-thames-crossing.co.uk/ The earlier reports were conducted by Highways England