Press Office Management system

Tender description

Summary of the work Identification of possible solutions for and procurement of a Press Office call management system. Latest start date 31/01/2017 Why the Work is Being Done The Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet Office Communications Team (Press Office) require a tool to enable them to record the calls that they receive from - and the responses they give to - journalists, and to enable them to better manage the documents that they have. The Press Office currently rely on Google Drive and individual Gmail accounts to manage their processes. Problem to Be Solved Call management. The team manage calls in their own mailboxes, which constrains teamwork across portfolios Inadequate search Google Drive provides global search functionality, but the search takes place across the entire Cabinet Office domain. Searching in Google returns a large number of documents Google Drive does not allow tagging, so it is not possible to sort documents into a logical order, for example by Policy Area, Document Type etc, except within folders and by using a naming convention that makes document naming unnecessarily complex. Who Are the Users User Needs and System requirements can be found in Annex A: Press Office Call Management Tool: Requirements Early Market Engagement We have not done any early market engagement. The team have reviewed other government departments (OGD) applications specifically designed to support Press Office activities. Work Already Done A broad scope discovery phase has been undertaken by the Cabinet Office Digital and Technology team and is provided as an annex. Existing Team You will be working with The Cabinet Office Press Office as well as the Cabinet Office Digital and Technology Team. Current Phase Not started Skills & Experience • Have experience of working with multi-agency departmental programmes • Detailed understanding of government digital service standard and Technology Code of Practice, including GDS service design manual and wider industry-standards • Experience in using evidence-based research to inform a user-centred redesign, focused on external users’ needs, end-to-end user journeys, motivations and goals • Have good understanding and experience of meeting AA accessibility standards • Have a strong understanding of the requirements for Hosting OFFICIAL and OFFICIAL SENSITIVE information Nice to Haves • Previous experience of working with Government Departments • Experience of implementation of press office call management solutions • Understanding of Press Office and Government communications Work Location 1 Horse Guards Road and 10 Whitehall Cabinet Office locations Working Arrangments You will ideally work close to London, be available for daily stand-ups (these can be via conference call) be available in London for sprint demos and other important meetings. Security Clearance Basic security check No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 6 Proposal Criteria • Technical solution • Approach and methodology • How the approach or solution meets user needs • How the approach or solution meets the organisation's goal • Estimated timeframes for the work • Value for money Cultural Fit Criteria • Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions • Take responsibility for their work • Can work with clients with low technical expertise Payment Approach Fixed price Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 40% Cultural fit 15% Price 45% Questions from Suppliers 1. Can you tell us how to get the broad scope analysis that is mentioned as available in Annex A? Thanks Please email: samantha.villis@cabinetoffice.gov.uk With the subject line: ANNEX A Please note that no questions will be answered over email. 2. The challenge as described could feasibly met by one of several off-the-shelf packages and a system development may not be needed, subject to the discovery work already completed being adequate. Can you please provide more details of the discovery work completed to date and your view regarding using COTS software rather than building something bespoke? Please email: samantha.villis@cabinetoffice.gov.uk With the subject line: ANNEX A to receive user stories created from discovery activity.Please note that no questions will be answered over email.We have no preference for bespoke build work or COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) software and welcome all responses from suppliers. 3. How many users will this system need to cater for? We anticipate that this solution will need to be used by 15-20 users consisting of members of the press office team. 4. Does the Press office systems has any CRM systems in place and has any preference for any technology like Dynamics, Salesforce etc. The team have no solution currently in place and manage the process with a mixture of email and Google applications, particularly Drive, and Docs.There is no preference for technology solutions at this stage. 5. Are you able to give an indication of budget for this work please? We currently have no budget in mind for this piece of work. 6. Please can you clarify what a “line” is? A line is a statement given to journalists that represents the Government’s view on a Policy Area, event, or other matter of interest 7. The team have reviewed other government departments (OGD) applications specifically designed to support Press Office activities What department is the OGD? I cannot seem to find it here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations And is the source code for that application open source? If so, where can we find it? OGD stands for Other Government Departments. One of the reviewed solutions was based on Microsoft Sharepoint. We do not have a technical solution in mind, we would like to hear how suppliers would address the user needs. 8. One of the hiring criteria is: Experience of implementation of press office call management solutions. Can the buyer share example systems that do press office call management? Apologies, this requirement should have been removed - we do not require direct experience of implementation, and do not have any example technology specifically aligned to press office call management. 9. The broad scope discovery was mentioned. Do you feel that user needs and stories already discovered are sufficient to proceed into the Alpha phase, or would more discovery be useful? The team have undertaken some Discovery work, however it would be envisaged that some further discovery may be required and that user research would be a part of any process ongoing. 10. We are the supplier of “COLIN” a Press Office management system used by the vast majority of central government departments.You state that there has been some brief research of OGDs usage of press office management systems, which must have surfaced COLIN as an option. Based on the fact that I have not been contacted to discuss a version for No.10/ Cabinet Office, can I take it that you have ruled out COLIN and I should not apply for the role? It might be that this is not appropriate for a supplier of a Press Management solution at this stage. All suppliers will all be evaluated based on the outline we have provided within the "How suppliers will be evaluated" section of this listing. We have no preference for suppliers or solutions, and have not ruled out any solutions at this stage. 11. If you get more than 6 suppliers who tick all of the essential and nice to have requirements, will you run a shortlisting exercise before the proposal stage? If yes can you please tell us the word cap you will apply for each criteria? When we are able to review supplier responses we will make a decision about how to proceed, this will be in line with guidance on selecting suppliers as found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-shortlist-digital-outcomes-and-specialists-suppliers so we may choose to take all top scoring suppliers to evaluation, or we may choose to ask for evidence, if we do the latter word cap will be 100 words.