Sovereign - Customer Portal

Tender description

Summary of the work Supply and install a CMS so that we can redesign our service offering and deliver a Customer Portal that; •Is mobile first, with apps for IOS and Android. •Allows for personalisation, is dynamically branded to our different resident groups. •Provides a Omini-channel experience. •Leverages our data and allows for analysis/optimisation. Expected Contract Length The initial term is expected to be two (2) years. Latest start date 13/06/2017 Why the Work is Being Done Sovereign is transforming the way it interacts with it's customers, by providing greater capabilities online and a better customer journey. Sovereign recently merged with Spectrum to form the entity Sovereign. Both Sovereign and Spectrum currently offer online portals (MySovereign and MySpectrum) and due to this merger we need to create one customer portal. The new customer portal initial Go-Live date will be in September 2017 with defined functionality. A series of iterative releases, enhancing the portal's functionality will then follow from October 2017 through to December 2018. Problem to Be Solved The customer journey at the moment is not as enhanced and as seamless as Sovereign would like and through this project we want to make this experience better (specifically for the digital customer journey).Following an impact assessment, Sovereign has identified it wishes to procure a new single customer Portal. The initial go-live will need to enable customers to complete the same transactions as they do today with further development being on a continuous and iterative process, to provide customers richer online capabilities. Who Are the Users As a Sovereign Customer I need to interact with Sovereign digitally via a Customer Portal So that I can fulfil my customer needs online (including but not limited to; pay my rent, book a repair etc) As a Portal Administrator I need to be able to manage the content, performance and robustness of the portal So that I can develop the portal to meet the needs of our customers and achieve business benefits. As a Sovereign frontline employee I need to manage interactions with customers via the Portal So that I can deliver great customer service. Early Market Engagement Early supplier engagement meetings have taken place and the outcome of the discussions was that we identified Kentico or Sitecore can meet our (CMS) needs. We are willing however to consider alternative comparable products. Work Already Done The majority of Sovereign's customer journeys have been identified. We have commenced design of the integration layer we will use to interface the Portal with other business systems. We have developed a data driven customer segmentation model with key customer profiles. We have developed a Customer Framework which sets out our future ambitions. Existing Team The supplier will predominantly work with our internal project team. Key members include Housing Integration Lead, Business Subject Matter Experts, IT, Communications, Marketing, Procurement, Business Analyst and Project Manager. Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Experience of incorporating existing customer segmentation models. (2%) • Experience of delivering front end design within existing brand parameters. (3%) • Demonstrable experience of successfully delivering projects with similar scope using agile (scrum) methodology. (4%) • Experience working collaboratively with internal teams, who may have limited agile development experience. The supplier is required to actively participate/lead some of the workshops followed by onsite/offsite iterative development.(4%) • Experience of interpreting analytics and management information to optimise customer experience and critically to enhance Sovereign's effectiveness in this area. (3%) • Demonstrable technical capability in relation to relevant CMS technologies. (4%) • Experience of developing mobile first solutions, including with apps for IOS and Android. (3%) • Ability to adopt a flexible and scalable resourcing and delivery model that assures the project is effectively resourced in a way that enables us to meet our timescales. (4%) • Experience supporting the business change process and digital transformation. Including upskilling to ensure the effectiveness of the customer journey experience is truly understood and owned by the business owner. (4%) • A key point of contact who will take accountability for ensuring successful project delivery and relationship management. (3%) • Relevant technical expertise (including ASP.net, HTML, Java script, accessibility standard 'W3C AA' and secure coding standards) and evidence of applicable technical qualifications/accreditations. (4%) • Experience of system integration including design and development eg REST, SOAP methodologies. (3%) • Experience of developing and delivering training to all key users. (3%) • Experience of performance optimisation to drive continuous improvement of CMS solution (within a cloud environment). (3%) • Demonstrable experience in data compliance and security including an understanding of applying the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR Regulation (EU) 2016/679). (3%) Nice to Haves • Experience of a broad range of sectors is desirable. Preferably this will include housing. (1%) • Is a Kentico or Sitecore partner and can demonstrate relevant development certification. (1%) • Experience deploying into Microsoft Azure. (1%) • Experience integrating into Microsoft Dynamics. (1%) • Experience integrating into Document Management solutions, to retrieve and display customer documentation within the CMS eg Docuware, SharePoint. (1%) Work Location Sovereign Housing Woodlands 90 Bartholomew Street Newbury Berkshire RG14 5EE. Spectrum House Grange Road Christchurch Dorset BH23 4GE. Working Arrangments Sovereign's preferred project methodology for delivery of this project is Agile (scrum) using sprint planning & retro (ideally onsite) and daily stand up's. Sovereign expects a collaborative approach to delivery with daily contact. Knowledge and skills transfer is also a key requirement. All expenses must be included in the price. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 6 Proposal Criteria • How your recommended CMS platform meets our needs, including hosting. (5%) • Solution meets our high level functionality. (5%) • Approach and methodology. (5%) • Approach to upskilling users. (5%) • Approach to knowledge transfer. (3%) • Proposed team structure. (3%) • Approach to development. (3%) • Project plan. (4%) • Key risks (including mitigation), issues, dependencies and assumptions. (4%) • Incorporate existing segmentation data in to your approach and experience of building online behavioural insight into customer segmentation models. (3%) • Brand guidelines. (2%) • Transition existing MySovereign and MySpectrum users onto Sovereign's new Customer Portal, Maximising conversions between platform. (3%) Cultural Fit Criteria • Please give examples on how you've actively shared knowledge, building the capability and future sustainability of your client. (20%) • Please give examples on your collaborative approach when working with clients, including how you make decisions. (20%) • Please describe how you will work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers. (15%) • Please describe your organisational values and behaviours and how they will fit with Sovereign's Values. (15%) • Please provide examples of where you have worked with organisations to challenge current thinking? What was the end result. (15%) • Please describe how you achieve an effective working relationship, overcoming differences in approach where they may arise. (15%) Payment Approach Fixed price Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 20% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. Is there an indication of budget you could provide us with? This project is about getting the right solution for Sovereign so at present we are not providing a budget as we do not want to constrain any ideas. 2. Are Kentico and Sitecore the only CMS solutions you will consider? We are willing to consider alternative comparable products 3. What is informing your current CMS Choice? Our internal research & our Early Supplier Engagement. 4. What work has already been undertaken, what remains to be done? We have initiated our project and we’re in the Discovery Phase. No development of a Portal has been undertaken. 5. Could you share any of this work with us for us to better respond to your tender? We’re not in position to share further work at this stage, please use the information provided in the Marketplace to respond. Additional information will be provided at the Evaluation stage. 6. Can you advise what you mean by "a CMS...with apps for iOS and Android"? Are you looking for a supplier to develop a new CMS-based customer portal that will be mobile responsive, and also have the ability to deliver a mobile app? We require a CMS-based customer portal, that will be mobile responsive. We are not currently planning to develop the same functionality within a mobile app. We expect our ‘app’ to be a mobile wrapper, downloaded from the Apple App & Google Play stores. We are not expecting the CMS to have mobile-app development capability. 7. Please describe your existing customer segmentation model. We have analysed our customer data with CACI using their Acorn model to develop our segments. These have then been shaped and clarified through a series of focus groups using customers from each identified segment to create segment portraits 8. Is the migration of existing customers into this new system part of this scope of work? Yes, this is in scope. We have over 10,000 customers split across the two platforms, who we need to be migrated. 9. Where will the solution be hosted? We have not a made a decision on hosting yet. We’d welcome a supplier’s view on hosting options, and the associated pros & cons. 10. Can you please clarify your expectations around document management interfaces - i.e. are there any specific capabilities or requirements you have in mind? Customer must be able to view their documents on the portal, and print these documents if required. Currently documents are storied in 3rd party Document Management solution i.e. Docuware and Sharepoint Online. 11. Can you please clarify your expectations around continuous improvement with regards performance? Does this relate to user experience (ability to get answers quickly), platform performance, or something else? To clarify, this portal needs to perform at a level that encourages user adoption. The portal’s performance should be on par with offerings such as online banking. As the portal’s usage grows, performance should not degrade. 12. Are functions like pay rent and book a repair done through existing API's or is this functionality that needs to be included in the solution? We would expect functionality to be a combination of custom forms within the CSM and API’s into back office systems via an Integrations Layer . We plan for the Integration Layer and API’s to developed internally, although we a keen to take a collaborative approach if you are able to contribute in this area. 13. What work has been done in Discovery around the customer journey? Have assumptions about suggested improvements been validated with users? A number of Customer Journeys and been identified and documented. Additional work is required to document all Customer Journeys. We have not yet engaged with users on their view on improvements but we consider User Engagement a key component of the Portal’s testing. 14. Do SHA require business hours support, or 24/7 support? Specific levels of support would need to be agreed at the next stage. Our working assumption is some form of extended support would be required. We would need to match level of risk, with the cost of support on your proposed configuration. 15. What is the size of the team at SHA who manage your digital properties? The final shape of our team will be established as part of this project. Currently we have a team of 6, spread across a number of customer facing services. 16. Do SHA have specific IS requirements that coding will need to be tested against? Not at present, we’d welcome views on our Testing Strategy. 17. Do SHA require data to not be stored outside of the UK or EU domains? SHA data must be stored within the UK. 18. Have SHA carried out any audit of URL to plan for URL Migration or a redirect strategy for the new platform? No, not yet. 19. How many CMS users do SHA envisage will need to access the CMS to author content Exact numbers are not currently known, are working assumption is a range between 5-20. 20. Do SHA have any preferred tooling for managing an agile approach (Jira). We currently use Jira & TestRail. 21. Do SHA currently use mobile apps? MySovereign is available as a mobile app. The app comes in the form of mobile wrapper. MySpectrum is not available as an app, in any form. 22. How many key users will need training on the system? Exact numbers are not currently known, are working assumption is a range between 5-20. 23. Is there a preferred training approach? The training approach will need to be tailored to the audience. We’d welcome examples of how you’ve implemented training in the past. 24. What support services are SHA interested in, Hosting, CMS, Application, etc? We are interested in any value you can provide, to the successfully delivery and management of our new Portal. This includes all of the items listed in your question, but not limited to.