Forestry Commission England website development

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done Forest Enterprise England is an agency of the Forestry Commission and manages the public forest estate and the Forestry Commission’s commercial activities in England. The Forestry Commission England’s public-facing website must be disaggregated from the wider Forestry Commission and redeveloped as part of the digital engagement strategy to deepen awareness and understanding of Forestry Commission’s role and services across England and increase commercial income. The other areas of the Forestry Commission website (including Forest Research and Forestry Commission Scotland among others) are out of scope for this project. More information can be found in Appendix 1: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17tG7VaG7b5oB9KxBf9e-HRzJuFMiOzh3KG1mypODkQk/edit?usp=sharing. Problem to Be Solved The Forestry Commission website (built on the Lotus Domino platform) was launched 17 years ago and content has organically grown over time. Our new website requires disaggregating, modernising and improving the information architecture and content as well as the infrastructure across all devices from desktops to mobiles. This re-development will be undertaken concurrently with a redesign of the Commission’s IT infrastructure and branding work, and suppliers must ensure this work is in accord with and complementary to this activity. Who Are the Users The website is a crucial public engagement channel for the Commission, providing the digital interaction with visitors, families, timber buyers, jobseekers and event goers. Website functionality should be preserved and extended, accessibility standards met and usability of the website maximized for all users. Internally, the website must provide easy-to-use and straightforward web publishing templates for the 100+ distributed content creators within the Forestry Commission England staff. The Commission looks to the supplier for strategic guidance on the site direction, UX considerations and internal training support and as such the project must include these activities. Early Market Engagement No. There is no incumbent supplier. Work Already Done Some requirements capture and internal stakeholder interviews have been completed, along with a branding exercise, the results of which must be incorporated into the website redevelopment. Existing Team The supplier will work with the existing in-house Forestry Commission web and marketing team. Current Phase Not applicable Work Location Envisioned to be a mixture of on-site and off-site working. On-site at the Forestry Commission’s Bristol Offices, off-site at the supplier premises. Potential requirement to visit other Commission premises in the UK. Working Arrangments Suppliers will be required to work on-site as required, although it is envisaged that the majority of the work will take place at the suppliers’ premises. The supplier will submit weekly reports to a nominated Commission representative regarding the status of the project, milestones met and any issues that may impact on timescales and cost. Security Clearance Not required. Additional T&Cs First-phase development including conclusion of the Discovery phase and execution of the Alpha and Beta phases to be completed ready for go-live at the latest March 2018. This will be followed by a further 15 months of second phase development as well as support, maintenance and potential hosting services for the website. The evaluation will process according to the DOS evaluation criteria: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-shortlist-digital-outcomes-and-specialists-suppliers Skills & Experience Demonstrable experience of the discovery phase of a similar project, including mapping of user journeys / stories and converting these into high-quality website requirements (4%) Demonstrable experience of a website redevelopment that has led to proven improvements in one or more of: website traffic; brand perception; email data capture; conversion rate; sales metrics (4%) Demonstrable experience of providing CMS strategic guidance along with an effective integration with an existing CMS. (3%) Evidence of website development which supports photographs, video clips, other rich media as well as social media integration (3%) Demonstrable experience of managing the entire project lifecycle, including the planning, design, development and delivery of projects in line with Government Digital Service Standards (3%) Demonstrable experience of redesign and redeployment of websites in a mobile-first manner; to include how this was done and the improvements in business outcomes which resulted (3%) Demonstrable experience of providing an easy-to-use, simple interface for website content contributors to upload, edit and manage content (3%) Demonstrable experience of hosting, maintaining and running large e-commerce websites (3%) Nice to Haves Evidence of working with a large, distributed organisation and delivering value through redesign of a centralized website (2%) Demonstrable experience of providing high-quality, high-availability website hosting services. Examples of websites currently hosted by the supplier should be provided (2%) Evidence of further development of a customer website after go-live, with additional work packages and features introduced and the associated benefits outlined (2%) No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria Proposed approach, methodology and timescales, including team availability and responsiveness (20%) Skills and experience of the team (10%) How the bidder proposes to provide training and knowledge transfer to in-house web team for future publishing and development (4%) How the bidder proposes to provide training and knowledge transfer for content publishers (4%) Cultural Fit Criteria How the bidder propose to work with a distributed organisation and deliver value through redesign of a centralized website (4%) Evidence of working with government, visitor attraction and third sector organisations (4%) Evidence of working with clients with different levels of technical expertise (2%) Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method Written proposal Case study Work history Reference Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 70% Cultural fit 10% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers Budget range the budget for this procurement is estimated at 400k – 500k (£400 fy17/18, £100k fy18/19) which will include all development, support, maintenance and hosting costs. proposals must be inclusive of all travel and expenses.