Development and Support for Data Analytics Hub

Tender description

Summary of the work NHSI is looking for a supplier to provide a flexible resource pool for new developments and continues support for its Data Analytics Hub platform from the 1st July 2017 until 30 June 2019 (240 days) Expected Contract Length 2 Years Latest start date Saturday 1 July 2017 Budget Range Up to £3.5 Million Subject to approvals and expectation of call off up to – not commitment to spend the numbers Why the Work is Being Done The Data Analytics Hub has been built to provide a single source of truth (sourced from internally and externally sourced datasets) which has been quality assured to support internal and nationwide programs. The current support provided by a development partner will end the 31st Aug 2017. This procurement will select the next development partner to provide support to The Data Analytics Hub from 1st July 2017 to 30 June 2019 (with two months of overlap for KT and Handover taken into account). Problem to Be Solved New development and BAU support to ensure a responsive service to critical data driven programmes including, but not limited to,: Model Hospital, Cost Transformation Program (PLICS), NRLS, Single Oversight Framework and other analytical products developed and used by NHSI such as operational performance & quality dashboards, financial and performance monitoring and benchmarking and improvement services. Rapid, scalable and automated data collection, extraction, processing and presentation are critical deliverables to reduce burden, improve responsiveness and manage significant and increasing load. Solutions developed must build on the core to managed scaled data marts underpinning multiple self-serve and central analytics services. Who Are the Users “As users of the single data store, variant user types need to view, retrieve, process, interrogate and interpret data so that they can better understand operating activities within the NHS and support improvement in service delivery and financial sustainability. As Director of Data Warehousing and Development I need a flexible team to provide new development and technical support to enhance and maintain the Data Analytics Hub from the 1st July 2017 until 30 June 2019 so NHSI can comply its regulatory obligations and support programs covered in the NHS Five Year Forward View” Existing Team The supplier will be working closely with a Product Manager (Data Warehousing), one analyst, data architect and the enterprise architect. The supplier will be part of other already formed teams according to demand. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • At least two years of experience of Microsoft SQL Server development on APS platform (20 Points) • At least two years in software development with NHS datasets (10 Points) • At least one year Development, performance management and troubleshooting experience on Microsoft APS platform (10 Points) • At least one live project using Data Vault as data model running on Microsoft APS technology (15 points) • At least one year experience in Data Load Optimization using Data Vault and Microsoft APS (5 points) • At least one live project implementing Master Data Management Solutions using Microsoft MDS (5 points) • At least two years of solid experience in BIML framework (25 points) • Use of source control and PBI planning using TFS (10 points) • Experience with BI visualization tools Tableau (10 points) • Experience using Alteryx or similar tools for data blending (10 points) • At least two live projects using Python (20 Points) Work Location Wellington House 133-155 Waterloo Road London SE18UG Onsite / Offshore model will be ideal. Working Arrangments The current team supporting the platform for the last year includes: Fifteen (15) Offshore and twelve (12) onsite resources as follows: (Skill, Offshore, Onsite): .Net Developer 1 1 BI Developer 8 2 Business Analyst 0 1 DevOps 0 1 Project Manager 0 1 Python Developer 2 1 Scrum Master 0 2 Tableau Developer 0 1 Technical Analyst 0 2 Tester 4 0 Grand Total 15 12 No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Technical Solution (30 Points) • Approach and methodology (30 Points) • Team Structure and Mobilisation time (30) • Value for money (10) Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers (30) • Share knowledge and experience with other team members (30) • Challenge the status quo (30) • Can work with clients with low technical expertise (10) Payment Approach Time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 20% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. Do you have a more specific list of the resource pool that will be required and approximate dates and duration's they will be needed please? The contract duration is 2 Years and the Skills / Resources include (not limited to) :.Net Developer (MVC)BI Developer (SQL Sever)Business AnalystDevOpsProject ManagerPython Developer (Django)Scrum MasterTableau DeveloperTechnical AnalystTester (ETL - Manual) 2. Is the current development partner bidding for this contract or will NHSI be selecting a new partner only and based in the UK? The opportunity is open to any supplier that fulfill the required criteria. 3. If the resources shown in “Working Arrangements” are the current team supporting the platform, by how much are these numbers expected to grow within the 2 year budget under a call-off arrangement, and in which of the professions Resources will flex up or down depending of NHSI project demand. 4. Would an equivalent of the existing offshore and onshore team mentioned in the working arrangements be expected to be in place at the start of this contract? In terms of the skills yes, it will be done gradually within the two months allocated of handover from the current to the winning supplier. 5. Is there any expectation that offshore resources involved would need to attend site onshore at any point during the life of the contract? Yes, offshore resources (if any) will need to be available to attend site onshore meetings or projects on short notice. 6. In terms of adding new people to the team what kind of notice would be provided regarding the roles and specific skill sets required? Resource mobilisation (time, location) will be a distinct advantage to any supplier. 7. In terms of offshore roles are there any restrictions that apply to the offshore capabilities e.g. regarding access to data etc? Indeed, strict data governance will apply to offshore/onsite teams alike. 8. While we appreciate you may not be able to predict project requirements any information that can be provided would be helpful in determining how we would meet requirements. Is there a view currently on how the role requirements might change over the two years, both with regard to specific roles and offshore/onshore mix? We do not expect a mayor variation to the skills (roles) of the resources, the numbers will vary depending on demand but we aim to keep a 30/70 onsite/offshore ratio. 9. Is it all possible to get more detail on the technology skills required for each specialist please?? i.e. development tools, Project management experience etc. Please refer to "Essential skills and experience" section where a comprehensive list of currently used technologies and tools are listed. 10. Is this engagement in or outside IR35 compliance? This is an outcome opportunity and it will be handled by Statements of Work and Work packages, therefore is outside IR35 11. If your requirements during the contract include some shorter term role needs would such resources be in or out of scope of IR35? The commercial arrangement will be between NHS Improvement and the winner supplier outside IR35. The supplier needs to ensure compliance with contractors and other third parties. 12. Is the incumbent resource provider contract continuing in parallel to this new DOS contract? There are two months of handover between the current and the winning supplier. 13. Is the contract that was awarded last October (for two years) being terminated or running in parallel to this? Please refer to the answer above. 14. With regard to offshore resources do you have any restrictions regarding where, geographically, they are based? No geographic restrictions. 15. With regard to question 5 bringing offshore resources onto site can obviously have cost/price implications. Where offshore resources are involved in a project would their dealing into meetings via voice or video link be acceptable in most instances? Indeed, video calls will be acceptable, in particular occasions members of the team need to travel to the London offices (generally for the duration of a project) due to the nature of it. 16. Is each phase an independent phase for evaluation or Will the points from the Essential skills experience phase carried over to the next phase of evaluation? Shortlisting point will be use to select the best three suppliers, Award will be based on: 50% Technical Competence, 20% Cultural Fit and 30% Price 17. What is the submission time on the 22nd May for the response? Deadline is 22th May at 11:59 pm 18. Could you please share lessons learnt of the current engagement? Keep a close control on the internal architecture to avoid deviationsEncourage the supplier to challenge the status quoAutomation is the centre of what we do DevOps as chosen operational model of development. 19. What is the percentage of BAU work vs Projects? BAU 40%, Projects 60% (DEvOps efforts, as projects deliver, the percentage of operations may increase over the life of the contract) 20. We understand that NHS Improvement is moving away from a traditional Dev and OPS environment to operating in a Dev/Ops method of working. How will staff under this contract be impacted by these changes? We would expect that any staff working on a product set would do so , on the understanding that their role will be to provide operational support to existing product sets as well as undertake pure development. Also as part of this role any staff that are no longer engaged on a particular product set would undertake a support handover to other members of the team. It is also expected that part of the contract exit any support would knowledge would be transferred to the in house or successor support team. 21. How does a period of 1st July 2017 until 30 June 2019 constitute 240 days? 2. Is the duration of 240 days across 2 years? The contract duration is two (2) years. Please ignore the 240 days, it was a typo 22. You mention that you would like to keep split of 30/70 onsite/offshore ratio and the current the team is 12/15 onsite/offshore. Do you have preference for roles which might be more suitable to be executed from offshore? Historically, Analysts, DevOps specialist and Scrum masters have been working onsite, but any other role depending on the project could be called onsite. 23. What are the current challenges? Have you collected any feedback for the current service? Please refer answer 18. 24. Would it be possible to get the following information in regard to your current development partner? - Company Name - Duration of relationship - Contracting vehicle - Annual Spend Company Name: Mastek Ltd. Contract Vehicle: DOS FrameworkAnnual Spend: We deemed our budget as commercial sensitive information and will not be disclose 25. Who are the current vendors that you are working with and what are the key-drivers for this procurement exercise? Please refer to previews answers. To make sure we partner with a supplier that provides NHS Improvement the best value for money. 26. You seek an experience of “At least two years in software development with NHS datasets”. Is this requirement at a team-member level or is it a requirement at organisational level? Essential requirements should be based on the team (or arrangement) you are proposing to put forward to NHS Improvement. It is important that NHSI are confident of the ability to supply capability generally and scale at speed. 27. You seek an experience of “two live projects using Python”. Is this requirement at a team-member level or is it a requirement at organisational level? Please refer answer above 28. How did you arrive at the budget? Is it the last year spend? We deemed our budget as commercial sensitive information and will not be disclose 29. Can you share a recording of the conference held on 15th May for this procurement? The recording is for internal audit purposes only. 30. What kind of evaluation are you considering for offshore team and infrastructure? 2. What kind of offshore infrastructure do you currently have? The offshore team connects via cisco VPN using RSA token authentication. 31. Where do you use Tableau? There are a few features which overlap in Microsoft APS and Tableau. Would it be correct to assume that tableau development would be limited and most features would be handled by APS; as there is only one developer in the current team? Tableau is our strategic visualisation tool. Hence it is an essential component of our development pipeline. Our architecture team assess which components of the stack should be utilised for each purpose 32. Where do you use Alteryx? Does the current team have Alteryx developers? We use Alteryx for data blending and data preparation in some of our projects. There are Alteryx developers in the current team. 33. Do you envisage the need of a data scientist in this project? Data science is an important concept moving forward. However, this procurement is primarily to provide a robust operational service to be used by data scientists who may reside elsewhere in the organisation. The core focus is engineering. 34. What activities does BAU support consist of? What skill-sets of your existing team support BAU? Please refer to Working arrangements and skills and experience sections. 35. How does the current off-shore team access the resources at NHS? Do they use VPN or a dedicated line? Is the infrastructure costs included in the price? Access via Cisco VPN using RSA token authentication 36. 26. In the light of the recent NHS cyber attack, does it have any implications on this procurement? No 37. Would the complete team be required for full-time? Can the idling resources be billed? 2. What are your existing resource on-boarding and off-boarding SLAs? Do you expect the complete team to be available from day 1. The team(s) will be assembling via Statements of Works and Work Packages, We don’t envision having any idle resources. The project funds outcomes. We would anticipate on-boarding and off-boarding of staff to be rapid and manged by the supplier as required. Teams should be able to scale within days. A two months handover period is in place for the transition. 38. 28. Hi team, Please clarify below queries: 1 On the opportunity details "overview" section, the contract dates (July 2017 to June 2019) refers to a 2 year period but the expected workdays (240 days) suggests a single year effort. Is this the effort per year or estimated effort over the assumed two year contract term? 2 Is the budget range (£3.5 M) referring to the complete contract (over 2 years) or is the value per year? 3 What are the handover arrangements with the incumbent, for example, will the handover be solely in UK? Please ignore the 240 days, this engagement is for 2 years. The value is up to £3.5m for two years, please refer to “Budget Range“ section. Handover will be in the UK. 39. Hi team, Please clarify below queries: 4 Can you advise what the indicative volume of work required might be in the first 60 days, in order to anticipate immediate team size? 5 You have provided a breakdown of the current team supporting the platform. Does this breakdown only cover the resourcing of the incumbent currently providing support services or does it also include NHSI staff? If it does include NHSI staff could we understand the split between NHSI and Supplier staff? 6 What existing SLAs do you use to assess service responsiveness? At the end of the two months handover the team should be of a similar scale to the current supplier (or as required to deliver the outcomes). NHSI has a small number of internal staff working alongside the existing supplier. Please refer to working arrangements for more detail. 40. Please clarify below queries: 7 How do you propose the service and resource allocation be managed? Is there an already existing preferred or expected approach? 8 Besides TFS, are there any other the tools supporting the Software Development Life Cycle? (Requirements, documentation, test management, project management, issue tracking, incidents, …) 9 Can the overall conceptual architecture be shared? 10 How do you see the technical architecture evolving during this engagement, for example which version of APS do you use and do you have a strategy to upgrade or move off this platform? Service and resource allocation will be done by Statements of Work and Work Packages managed by the Product Manager (Data Warehousing). NHS Improvement will keep the control of the overall internal architecture; the winning supplier will act as an adviser in this field. APS is regularly upgraded in line with a Microsoft support agreement. 41. Please clarify below queries: 11 Is the contracted support designed to cover technical support for the platform only or does it extend beyond this to the production of reports, ad-hoc analysis and other products? 12 Are there any restrictions in place that a prospective service provider should be aware off with respect to off-shore provision? For example are there tasks or data source that can only be completed on-site or in on-shore? Please refer to “Problem to be Solved” section. The data and process governance will be applied equally to both teams as offshore team will only work via VPN into our local systems 42. We may be interested in submitting a consortia bid; would there be any interest in such an approach? We very much welcome consortia bids where it allows us to access teams with the best possible expertise and experience to meet out requirements. For example, expertise around Microsoft APS or Python could be provided by a consortia member rather than the prime contractor in terms of the DOS framework responding to the opportunity. 43. Will the contract be directly with NHS Improvement ? The contracting party will be Monitor on behalf of NHS Improvement.