The Wales Gateway Project

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done We have developed a new Wales brand – one that is fresh, contemporary and inspiring. This provides a foundation for the business and tourism elements of our work and is being adopted by customer facing teams across the whole of Welsh Government. The associated marketing strategy is firmly rooted in a content-led approach where creating and supporting the distribution of great content about the depth and breadth of things on offer in Wales underpins everything. The marketing team has been restructured around a hub and spoke model where a brand marketing hub that supports the different geographical and sectoral teams. Problem to Be Solved The scope of this contract covers the user experience, design, build and ongoing maintenance of a network of outward facing Wales ‘gateway’ sites. Initially that covers visitwales.com and wales.com and potentially, at later stages, tradeandinvest.wales and other destination marketing sites. Ultimately we are trying to create a platform for our content from which we can tell our story and support the distribution of those stories further and wider. That in turn should drive more interest in Wales through better visibility of our content and news for a larger and more valuable audience. Who Are the Users Users cover defined tourism audiences (visitwales.com), inward investment audiences (tradeandinvest.wales) and our more general Wales audiences (wales.com) - including those people that might be interested in studying, living and working in Wales: We want our users to engage with our content and take positive messages from it. In some cases we want to drive specific on site events e.g. search for accommodation, download something, make an enquiry. We want to drive higher volumes of relevant search – tracked via search trends We want to be talked about more and more positively – tracked via media monitoring. Early Market Engagement We have had some initial meetings with a handful of suppliers and key take outs include: Whilst most suppliers follow an agile methodology a fair few of them are adopting a hybrid approach where the first stages are scoped in reasonable detail and we feel this will suit us and this project well. We have done a fair amount of the discovery stage and the starting point for working with suppliers will be defining the vision and customer experience we want to deliver across our gateway sites. This will inform the alpha phase. We would like to approach this brief from a technology / CMS agnostic point of view. Currently we have sites on both Sitecore and Drupal. That approach is certainly not broken equally but we are not wedded to it. Whilst this is a web development brief like many organisations we are on a digital transformation journey. We need to be cognisant of the internal teams needs at every stage of the process and the opportunity to have the supplier working on supporting this journey alongside the development of new tools and platforms is one we would like to explore. Work Already Done We have undertaken the following work in relation to this project - including: Some initial research looking at our current destination websites in relation to other destinations and best practice. Basic user research for those users on wales.com and some more in depth studies of users on visitwales.com. We have developed the associated vision for digital, defined project objectives and outlined some initial user journeys. Some initial work around content themes and typologies, information organisation and the creative approach. Existing Team This work will be managed by our digital and creative services team sitting within our brand marketing hub. The appointed agency will be required to work closely with our lead brand and creative agency (Smorgasbord, Cardiff) as well as our lead digital agency (iCrossing, London and Brighton). Current Phase Discovery Work Location It is expected to be a mixture of on-site and off-site working. If on-site, the contractor will mainly be working at Welsh Government Offices in Pontypridd or Cardiff. There may be the possibility of the requirement to visit one or two other locations across the UK - for example, to work with appointed agencies. Working Arrangments The supplier will work closely with the digital team in the brand marketing hub. It is anticipated that most work will be conducted remotely but regular contact with the Welsh Government team is maintained. The contractor might base some resource with the Welsh Government team at key points throughout the engagement. The cost of attending any meeting or performing tasks away from the contractors premises shall be borne by the contractor. The supplier will submit weekly reports to the Project Manager regarding the status of the project, achieving key milestones and issues that may impact on timescales and cost. Security Clearance All supplier staff, including sub-contractors, undertaking any work related to the contract must be subject to Baseline Personnel Security Standards (BPSS). Any supplier staff, including sub-contractors, operating in a system administration function or with administration access to live data must undergo UK National Security Vetting to SC following contract award. Additional T&Cs Break points will be added to the contract to assess progress, quality and to enable contract termination (if necessary) at the following stages of delivery: Completion of Alpha and Beta phases. The successful Supplier will be required to sign a "Security Aspects Letter" detailing the security Requirements. The Supplier shall be required to hold Cyber Essentials certification. Please contact us (NPSICTCategoryTeam@wales.gsi.gov.uk) for further and full information. The project will also need to adhere to the Welsh Language Standards as they apply to Welsh Government. Skills & Experience Must be available to meet the latest start date Include accreditation i.e. cyber essentials, ISO 9001 Ability and experience around advising on an appropriate CMS or technology stack for this project Experience of developing content rich sites that support a content led approach to digital marketing Experience of delivering multi-lingual platforms and websites Experience using agile project management Creating responsive websites based on user needs Conducting on-going user research Experience delivering web projects that support exemplar customer and use experience Knowledge of delivering projects in line with Government Digital Service Standard. Evidence of delivering projects at speed with clearly identified deliverables and timescales Designing websites that are intuitive and easy to use on all devices Technical knowledge of website hosting environments Experience of mitigating security and cyber threats to websites Understanding, experience and implementing website analytics such as Google Analytics Working with third party stakeholders - great client and relationship management Good planning, coordination, communication and project management skills Nice to Haves Experience of working with destination marketing or 'brand as publisher' or news sites Ability to support the digital transformation agenda - to include supporting the content and social teams with the right tools and processes. Proven experience in developing appropriate tech solutions and technology stacks to support content marketing and a newsroom approach 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 our overarching goals Estimated timeframes for the work How you have identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them Team structure Value for money Case studies References Cultural Fit Criteria Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes Take responsibility for their work Share knowledge and experience with other team members Challenge the status quo Be comfortable standing up for their discipline Take account of clients expertise and experience Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method Written proposal Case study Work history Reference Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers Budget range the budget we have allocated to the scope outlined above and the first two years amounts to circa £600k - to include wales.com, visitwales.com and tradeandinvest.wales. we have identified additional budgets of up to circa £400k to support any additional destination sites not currently included in that scope.