Assess Platform Development for 2018/19 Policy Implementation

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done SLC's primary functions are to: • Deliver financial support to eligible students pursuing higher education; • Pay Higher Education Institutions public contribution towards tuition fees for England, Wales and Northern Ireland; • Supply information needed by HMRC to ensure repayments are collected on time from those due to repay under the Income Contingent Repayment Loan Scheme; • Manage direct collection of repayments for loans granted under former Mortgage Style Loan Scheme. • Undertake specific tasks for individual Devolved Administrations e.g. payment of Education Maintenance Allowances. • Undertake administration and payment of bursaries and scholarships to higher education institutions throughout UK. Problem to Be Solved SLC is looking to engage a professional Supplier to provide specialist application development and maintenance services for delivery of specific programme outcomes for the Student Loans Assessment Platform (Assess) to meet the current Policy Requirements for 2018-19. Supplier presentations planned 27th July 2018, Onboarding planned 3rd September 2018. Who Are the Users As an internal assessor within SLC I need to, on behalf of applicants, ascertain eligibility and entitlement for repayment, payment and lending capabilities, so that the appropriate processes and capabilities are in place in support of study. Early Market Engagement No early market engagement has taken place with suppliers for this requirement. Work Already Done Inception phases for this development is currently underway. These have been supported by incumbent suppliers and the successful bidder will be expected to mobilise and complete the delivery phases. Existing Team The Supplier will provide a managed service in alignment with the scope of works and deliverables as agreed with SLC. The SLC team will agree in advance with the successful bidder priorities for the outcomes and backlog of features to be delivered as well as contract and project governance mechanisms , including Assurance and Acceptance of Supplier work and reporting format/frequency. Current Phase Discovery Work Location Glasgow (multiple sites), potentially Darlington and supplier sites. Working Arrangments The services to be delivered onsite within SLC premises and are anticipated to be 5 days per week (unless otherwise agreed with SLC). Travel and Accommodation expenses only will be paid (in alignment with SLC Travel and Expenses Policies) and only for sites that are not the nominated working location. SLC would also consider some of the supplier provision being provisioned from supplier offices. Security Clearance All Supplier resources must meet the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS/DS). Additional T&Cs Skills & Experience Digital application development and maintenance (ADM), analysis and design, code development and management, test and QA, ADM Service in complex public sector, policy driven environments at scale Programme/project delivery & quality management, demand management, resource management, planning, change management, delivery performance management and governance in complex public sector, policy driven environments at scale Examples of data management, data integration, data modelling, configuration management, source control, use of standards for development & test in complex public sector, policy driven environments at scale Examples, demonstrating by resources numbers deployed and length of deployment, significant experience of Java development, Clojure development against an existing Clojure code base, JavaScript/ReactJS/Redux in complex environments at scale Examples demonstrating significant experience of developing systems using RabbitMQ, RESTful APIs, MongoDB in complex environments at scale Examples at scale of automated continuous Integration & deployment multiple times daily utilising GIT source repository, trunk based development with toggles, automated testing in continuous delivery at multiple levels. Examples of driving forward development on an existing architecture to deliver Government Policy aims on systems heavily integrated into a complex legacy estate involving heterogeneous platforms at scale Examples at scale of working in contemporary architectures including complex microservices also building service oriented and event based architectures Examples at scale of delivering projects via agile methodology and managing significant backlogs across multiple Agile delivery teams, outcome based delivery as a supplier only delivery team Examples at scale of working with other suppliers and client staff sometimes in mixed teams, also deliver while, at least partially, located at the Suppliers UK offices. Suggest a resource profile for team of 20 resources incorporating the following, Iteration Manager, Business Analysts , Developers, Testers to support SLCs requirement If shortlisted, would you be able to provide 20 appropriately skilled profiles who would be available to start work on 3rd September 2018? Please state when you can commit to have a full compliment (assume 40 heads) of appropriately skilled resources onboarded mainly in SLC Glasgow offices (80%) and Darlington offices (20%). Nice to Haves Provide examples of demonstrating innovation and give examples of innovation that relate to SLCs business need Described coaching/training expertise that relate to SLC and be able to demonstrate where this has been undertaken for other organisations with measurable impact Provide value add potential, demonstrate additional areas that the supplier can offer to SLC that would be of benefit to SLCs business No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria Technical competence Significant experience evidenced at scale Cultural Fit Criteria Describe how outcome based delivery of services will be managed. Give examples of previous such deliveries indicating the scale of such delivery as monetary value and the length of engagement How do you ensure stability of resources delivering services. How long would resources be committed, what turnover SLA can you commit to? How would you compensate SLC if SLA breached? Describe how you will partner with SLC to support training and mentoring of SLC staff ensuring SLC prepared to providing ongoing support and maintenance once the supplier service terminates Describe your Account and Relationship management practices, and approach for delivering and managing this service Is your organisation aligned to GDPR? You will be required to comply with SLC GDPR terms. SLC use Agile delivery techniques. What delivery methodology do you use and how would you work with SLC. Payment Approach Time and materials 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 subject to business case and cabinet office approval.