FCO Intranet Improvements for Tech Overhaul

Tender description

Summary of the work Conduct User Research to identify challenges, opportunties and potential barriers. Use the research to create an Intranet content improvement strategy. Review and rewrite core policy pages to make them more user friendly and accessible. Produce on line learning for publishers to do likewise with the remainder of their content. Expected Contract Length The expected timeframe for the project is 4 months. Latest start date 24/03/2017 Budget Range The estimated budget range of £80,000 to £99,000. Why the Work is Being Done The work is necessary to ensure the effective delivery of the FCO Intranet as it is replatformed in the Cloud and Office 365 as part of the FCO's Tech Overhaul project, and as the Intranet becomes more accessible via the new FCO smartphones. Problem to Be Solved Some intranet content is difficult to find with dense text and poor formatting which is not user friendly and cannot be easily accessed or viewed from mobile devices. The work will address these issues. The user research element of the work will help inform the design of the new Intranet including identifying challenges, opportunities and barriers to adoption. The findings will feed into the second element - content strategy and improvement - which will make Intranet content more user and mobile friendly - better written, more consistent, and easier to find. Who Are the Users As a user, I need to be able to access guidance to enable me to do my job. This could be HR guidance to help me recruit a new employee, Finance guidance to help me submit a claim, consular guidance to help me assist a British National in distress, or policy guidance to help me draft a submission for a Minister to take a decision on an aspect of UK foreign policy. The information needs to be easy to find, clear and concise, and easy to access and view including from my smartphone or other mobile device. Early Market Engagement As part of the Technology Overhaul project, we have identified a specific need to improve the Intranet. However, no formal market engagement has been carried out as yet. Work Already Done Not at present. Existing Team The supplier would be working primarily with the Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) Team in Knowledge and Technology Directorate (KTD) who will be managing the project. They would also be in contact with Intranet users (to conduct the User Research), and Intranet publishers and content owners (to re-write key guidance) as part of the Content Strategy and Improvement. Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Provide specific evidence and examples in conducting User Research on intranets through face to face interviews and focus groups - 10%. • Provide specific evidence and examples in analysing and evaluating User Research to create a content improvement plan - 10% • Provide specific evidence and examples in reviewing and rewriting intranet content to present it in a more user friendly format that can be accessed from mobile devices - 10% • Demonstrate how you can start delivering this project at speed, with immediate effect and outline what the key deliverables and timescales - 15% Nice to Haves Demonstrate your expertise (with specific examples) in working with SharePoint 2013 - 5% . Work Location It will be a mix of on-site and off-site working to deliver this work. If on-site, staff shall be working at: Main Building, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, King Charles Street, London. Working Arrangments The team would spend some of their time at the FCO to conduct User Research face to face and through focus groups, engage with Intranet publishers and content owners to rewrite and improve content, and for meetings with KIM Team to set the direction for the project and ensure it stays on track. For the remainder of the time the team would work in their usual workplace staying in touch with the KIM Team by phone and email. This would provide the right balance between being on site and seeing the relevant people, and completing the work offsite. Security Clearance The team would not have access to any classified information and would be escorted at all times so no security clearance is required. Additional T&Cs Not Applicable No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Timescales • Value for Money • Experience and expertise • Approach and methodology • Approach and solution meets organisations/ user needs Cultural Fit Criteria • Demonstrate evidence and expertise in working with public sector organisations - 10%. • Demonstrate knowledge of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and how it operates - 10% • Provide evidence and examples of your ability to add value - 10% Payment Approach Fixed price Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 20% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. We note that the submission date is 21st March and the work start date is 24th March. Please advise how you anticipate to evaluate all suppliers fairly, award the contract and give them enough time to mobilise teams to start. this start date seems incredibly unrealistic. We shall evaluate the bids on 22 March and notify the successful supplier that day or, at the latest, on the following day with the aim of starting work on the project on 24 March. As outlined in the opportunity, we are looking for the supplier to start delivering the project at speed and with immediate effect. We expect that the first days would cover fact finding activities. 2. Can the successful agency access the FCO intranet from outside the FCO offices? If so, would we need FCO laptops to do that? The successful supplier will be able to access most of the FCO Intranet pages via the Extranet portal from outside the FCO – a login and password would be provided for this. It will also be possible to work onsite from time to time to see the content that cannot be accessed via the Extranet portal. 3. How many content pages does the current FCO intranet have? It is not possible to get an exact count of pages but we estimate it to be in the region of 50,000. It is envisaged that the exercise to review and re-write pages would focus on a selection of core policy and/or popular pages with the requirement to produce on line learning for publishers and content owners to do likewise with the remaining pages. 4. Does the current FCO intranet have any kind of analytics package (eg Google Analytics) so that we can measure page views, bounce rates etc? There is currently no analytics package for content pages, however, the platform (SharePoint 2013) shows the number of Unique Visitors for individual pages and the most frequently used search terms. 5. How many intranet users, content owners and publishers (and any other key stakeholders) do you see the successful agency engaging with as part of the research? This will give us an idea of the number of workshops and user research sessions we need to run. There are approximately 14,000 users and 200 publishers. We are looking for as much information and analysis from the User Research as suppliers can provide within the constraints of the fixed price for the work. We would expect the supplier to engage with a sample of users, content owners and publishers. The sample would cover a cross section of job functions and locations eg, UK based staff, locally employed staff, and differing roles and groups, eg. communicators, policy officers, finance officers, line managers etc. 6. In 'Summary of the work' you mention "Review and rewrite core policy pages to make them more user friendly and accessible" - how many core policy pages need reviewing and rewriting as part of this project? There is no set figure for this but we are looking for a selection of pages that cover the different areas of core policy, guidance and corporate information , eg. Human Resources, Finance etc. 7. In 'Summary of the work' you mention "Produce on line learning for publishers to do likewise with the remainder of their content". Do you mean for us to produce guidance and templates for publishers to create their own content? The emphasis will be on editing existing content rather than creating new content. We expect the supplier to develop and provide on line learning for publishers and content owners to enable them to write for the web effectively and to re-write all of their pages. Although there is no technical requirement to develop new templates or wireframes, we would expect the supplier to provide expert advice and suggestions for formatting and layout within the existing templates. 8. Can you provide the successful agency with an inventory of pages on the FCO intranet in spreadsheet format (with page title, URL, page owner etc)? The successful supplier will be able to access the FCO Intranet via the extranet portal or whilst working on site. We will work with the supplier to help identify the key pages that should be focused on and included in an inventory. 9. We can see eight questions listed to answer with different percentage weightings. But the percentages only add up to 80%. Are there any questions missing? 5 of the 8 questions are criteria which will be used to evaluate the skills and experience for technical competence. These add up to 50% which is the overall weighting. The other 3 questions are the criteria used to evaluate the cultural fit and the overall weighting is 20%. Individual weightings for these criteria are incorrect and should state: • Demonstrate evidence and expertise in working with public sector organisations - 10%.• Demonstrate knowledge of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and how it operates - 5%.• Provide evidence and examples of your ability to add value - 5%. 10. Could you please update us on: Team Size (No. of resources required to deliver the work). There is no minimum or maximum limit on the size of the team – this is for suppliers to decide taking into account the expertise and resource required to deliver the project within the timescale and budget range stated. 11. Could you please update us on: What could be the 'Visa Status' of the candidates from this team Anyone working on the project must be eligible to do so. GOV.UK has more information on this. 12. I logged in to check which questions needed answering and it appears that only the 5 questions in the "Essential skills" and "Nice-to-have skills" sections require an answer. So how do we demonstrate the three parts of the "Cultural fit criteria"? (Working with public sector; FCO knowledge; adding value) The Cultural Fit requirements and weighting percentages are shown below: • Demonstrate evidence and expertise in working with public sector organisations - 10%.• Demonstrate knowledge of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and how it operates - 10%• Provide evidence and examples of your ability to add value - 10% 13. At what point in the application process do we enter our proposed price for doing the work? I logged in and started a dummy application to check which questions needed answering and got to the "Submit application" stage without a price being asked for. Please submit your pricing proposal with your response to the Eight questions which make up the Technical questions and Cultural Fit questions. 14. Amendment to response to Question 12 The percentages for the original answer to Question 12 were incorrect. Please use those figures stated in Question 9 which are shown below for an amendment to the initial response for Question 12. • Demonstrate evidence and expertise in working with public sector organisations - 10%.• Demonstrate knowledge of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and how it operates - 5%• Provide evidence and examples of your ability to add value - 5% 15. The closing date for the 100 word evidence answers is 21st March and you wish the project to start on 24th. However you are evaluating this via a written proposal. If you shortlist suppliers from the 100 word answers (evidence) on 22nd March, there is insufficient time for shortlisted suppliers to write a proposal for a start date 24th. Please could you advise how long you will give shortlisted suppliers to provide written proposals (this is usually 5 working days)? The FCO requests that suppliers provide their responses to the technical and cultural fit questions with their pricing proposal by Tuesday 21 March. This will enable the FCO evaluation team to evaluate all proposals at the same time (meaning that there will be no short listing of suppliers). This ensures that the FCO can start work with the preferred supplier on 24 March. 16. We would like to follow up on your response to Question 1. You quote “we shall evaluate the bids”. However, by the 21-Mar you will only have the suppliers’ technical evaluation responses (Skills and experience) – these are not bids. Your Assessment method quotes “Written proposal” and a Shortlist of 3 suppliers. Are you expecting the 3 (shortlisted) suppliers to be ready on the 22/23-Mar with written (and priced) proposals? Or do you wish for the suppliers to thread their written proposal into their evaluation response. See response to Question 15. 17. Following on from question 6. Will the supplier be responsible for writing the first draft of any changes or enhancements to content? or Will the content owner re-draft the content and the supplier will only be responsible for refining? We would expect the supplier to edit a cross section of pages covering different areas of key core policy, guidance and corporate information , eg. Human Resources, Finance etc. We would also expect the supplier to produce on line learning to enable publishers and content owners to re-write the rest of their pages following the same principles, ie. to write for the web effectively with content presented in a user friendly format that it accessible from mobile devices. 18. If this stage is an expression of interest (as the form suggests). when will shortlisted suppliers be invited to give full proposals, as this EoI submission closes on the 21st and work is to start by the 24th? If this is supposed to be a full proposal, how are suppliers meant to submit costs and other details, as the application only allows 100 word answers to each of the essential and desirable criteria, with no attachements? Please refer to our response to Question 15. 19. What research activities have already taken place for the intranet and are there previous learnings / research results available to the successful bidder? A Usability Evaluation of the FCO Intranet was conducted in August 2016 and most of the recommendations have been, or are in the process of being implemented. The aim of the User Research and Content Improvement in this project is to make further improvements to the Intranet. 20. Is there a list of users of the intranet with contact details that will be made available to the successful bidder? We shall work with the successful supplier to identify a sample of users, content owners and publishers covering a cross section of job functions and locations eg, UK based staff, locally employed staff, and differing roles and groups, eg. communicators, policy officers, finance officers, line managers etc. 21. The response to question 13 suggests that suppliers will need to submit a proposal alongside the skills and evidence responses? Please could advise on how this can be done? The current application process for the skills and evidence criteria does not allow for this within the submission? Please can you also confirm whether you would like suppliers to provide a proposal using the proposal template from the below: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/digital-outcomes-and-specialists-templates-and-legal-documents. In terms of format, please provide responses of up to 200 words for each response related to your technical and cultural fit. 22. When you say ‘Produce on line learning for publishers’, we assume you are asking to produce a guideline (in documents, presentations, excel sheets etc.) that is stored at a common place for publishers to refer. We assume it is not about developing an on line learning platform. Kindly clarify. The on line learning should be in the form of documents/powerpoint/excel/videos which can be loaded onto the FCO Intranet so it can be accessed easily by publishers and content owners. 23. Can we start on a Monday i.e. 27th March? We aim for work to begin on the project on 24 March if this is possible 24. Under which question should be give our pricing proposal? Does this budget include VAT? We refer to our response to Clarification Question 15. For further clarity, we are happy for you to submit your pricing details with your responses to the technical and cultural fit (so you can either provide all responses in one document, or if you would prefer, you can submit two documents – one for technical and cultural fit questions; the other with your pricing proposal). The budget range does include VAT. 25. Can you list the name of all departments that access the intranet to do their day-to-day job? The majority of users of the FCO Intranet are Foreign Office employees, either in the UK or at posts overseas. Staff from other Government Departments also use the FCO Intranet, particularly when they are posted overseas and working on the FCO platform. 26. Does the scope of work include the implementation of findings and content strategy on the intranet via Sharepoint? Also, Will there be any involvement in Cloud & Office 365 implementation? We don’t expect there to be any involvement in Cloud and Office 365 implementation. The aim of the User Research is to help inform the design of the new Intranet. The findings could be quite wide ranging and we expect that some of them may relate to improving the content in which case we would expect these to be included in the content improvement strategy, and in the exercise to review and re-write the core policy pages to make them more user friendly and accessible. 27. Is the process of content writing, reviewing and publishing same or different across the various departments? This project is focusing on the FCO Intranet only. The process of content writing, reviewing and publishing is the same across the various Directorates within the FCO though the type of content varies, eg. from Finance and HR guidance, to guidance on developing policy on foreign affairs. 28. As part of the second element ‘content strategy and improvement’ – Do we also have to look at aligning the different ways of writing, reviewing & publishing content into a unified process across the team? Content owners and publishers are spread across the FCO Directorates and ‘own’ the Intranet guidance for their areas. This means that the different ways of writing have to be aligned so that all of the guidance has a common format which is user friendly and mobile accessible. 29. Could you share a few roles in the KIM team, so that we are aware of the skill sets available to leverage in this project? E.g. Product manager, Business Analyst, Content designer, Share point developer etc. The KIM team covers many other areas apart from the Intranet. Those working on the Intranet include the Intranet Manager, the Intranet Content Policy Officer and the Intranet Content Policy Support Officer who are engaged in this project in addition to their business as usual activities. There is also a technical support team who we can draw on for advice and expertise. 30. Will we be able to leverage (share a few project responsibilities & tasks) with the internal FCO team for e.g. Publishers, Content owners, KIM team members? For e.g. test the content on mobile device that FCO will be using or Cross-browser testing of intranet pages. There will be a limited number of staff working alongside the supplier in addition to their business as usual activities. However, it may be possible for some project related tasks to be shared with the FCO team though this will depend on the nature of the tasks and will have to be decided on a case by case basis. 31. Please can you provide an email address for submitting the pricing proposal and responses to the cultural fit questions as requested? The portal/application process will only allow us to answer the 5 skills and experience questions and we cannot upload documents or answer any additional questions (e.g the 3 cultural fit questions). Please forward your responses and pricing proposals to Mark Froud (email address: mark.froud@fco.gov.uk). 32. Referencing your response to Question 21 - suppliers do not have the facility to submit answers longer than 100 words in this portal. Could you suggest another way for us to get our more detailed proposals/answers to you? Linked to our response to Question 15. Please provide your responses (in PDF format) to the email address shown in response to mark.froud@fco.gov.uk.