Data services

Tender description

There is a requirement within Network Rail (NR) to more effectively manage information sustainably at an enterprise level. At present, populating an Information Asset Register (IAR) or an Information Catalog at an enterprise level is estimated to be highly manual and time consuming. Therefore NR is keen to have a solution to effectively identify and manage key information assets across the organisation. Data mining tools that analyse various types of data (structured and unstructured) and automatically classify the data are available and could potentially be used to populate and maintain Network Rail’s IAR. This would allow NR to understand what data exists across the organisation and enable NR to be compliant to regulations, such as GDPR. The aim of the event is to better understand what the market has to offer in this area, so that Network Rail can better understand and articulate their requirements. The High level requirements can be stated as: The solution should: — automate the population of the Information Asset Register by identifying probable IAR candidates, — be able to handle all types of data (structured and unstructured) while discovering potential information assets, — be able to connect to industry standard data bases and data warehouse tools, — be able to identify data / information lineage. Identify the source, the areas where the information is subsequently used. This will help in managing data sprawl, — allow for manual entries of specific information types and should be able to assign ownership for each confirmed information asset within the register, — allow for data stewards / related personnel to modify the characteristics of the information asset with respect to data quality, security and accessibility attributes, — allow for searching capability of information assets within the register, — be able to classify assets automatically based on rules and a configurable business glossary, — automatically — based on periodic configuration - be able to scan data repositories and update the IAR and highlight changes, — be able to scan data in SharepPoint 2007, 2013, Office 365, Documentum and shared network folders, — be able to scan data in a distributed network topology, e.g. MS Azure, AWS, multiple NR private and public data centres where XaaS have a footprint. Network Rail are looking for suppliers with the following skill sets: — demonstrate that they have suitable and sufficient experience in enterprise information management products, — design and delivery of Artificial Intelligence IT solutions including metadata identification within both cloud and non-cloud environments, — execution of IT solutions in corporate environments or public sector organisations. Network Rail is interested in working with the following: 1) Information Technology Vendors; 2) Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning specialist companies; 3) Information management companies; 4) Data quality management companies. Network Rail will be holding a Discovery Day and Network Rail will notify interested suppliers of this in due course. The aim of the Discovery Day is for interested parties to engage with Network Rail and present their views and potential solutions to this problem. Organisations wishing to express interest should register their interest in the first instance by providing the following information, via email, to the buyers email address listed and provide the following information. — company name, — company address, — company registration number, — contact name, — job title, — telephone number, — email address. Suppliers who are interested in this opportunity will also need to register on the Network Rail Technology Supplier Qualification System. This can be done via the opportunity listing for the SQS via the BravoNR homepage (prior to logging in / registration) at https://networkrail.bravosolution.co.uk and choose Software as a Service as a category.