Delivery Partner to provide a Digital Portfolio Office and Burst Capability

Tender description

Summary of the work A Delivery Partner is required to provide a Portfolio Office, with additional Burst Capability to coordinate and support the delivery of a range of new and emerging Policy initiatives Expected Contract Length The contract will be 2 years in length with the option to extend for an additional 6 months. Latest start date Monday 15 January 2018 Budget Range £3,000,000 for all aspects of delivery including both the Portfolio Team and Burst Resources Why the Work is Being Done The Home Office is being asked to respond to an unprecedented number of challenges relating to delivery of new and amended Digital and Legacy ICT systems and services that support front line and back office services This work requires coordinated actions across the Home Office and wider Central Government to assess what actions need to be undertaken to ensure successful delivery of outcomes in line with challenging timescales and limited existing resources. Problem to Be Solved The Home Office is required to respond to a plethora of new and emerging policy challenges. A delivery partner is required to quantify and coordinate our response to these requests, working with teams across the Department to determine what impact they will have on our current and planned Digital/Technology platforms, services contracts and associated systems This capability will also be responsible for tracking risk across the portfolio; producing coordinated plans; responding to data requests and coordinating engagement with other Government Department. It may also be required to provide suitably qualified resources to support the delivery of the outcomes proposed Who Are the Users Senior Leaders within the Home Office need to receive a coordinated response to the current raft of policy changes so that the Digital and Technical Platforms, Services and contracts can be amended and developed to meet the operational requirements within the time and budget constraints that exist Work Already Done An existing Discovery Phase has been undertaken to understand the size and scale of the work that is required that has been split into 8/9 separate work streams, each of which might have multiple possible options for delivery. This work has also created an outline plan for the work to be undertaken and a proposed team structure for the portfolio team element of the requirement Existing Team This requirement is intended to replace a small, existing team that has been use to complete an initial scoping and data collection phase. This team currently interacts with other Delivery and Programme teams across the Department and colleagues in other Government Department who are focused on the same areas of work Details of the make-up of the proposed team will be included in the RFP document but this is likely to include 1 x Programme Manager, 1 or 2 x Project/Delivery Managers at different levels and resources with service management and communications experience. Current Phase Alpha Skills & Experience • Have experience in establishing and operating a Portfolio Office into a large, complex environment, incorporating multiple work streams • Have experience of integrating with the client organisation to establish processes, procedures and governance. • Have experience producing a full range of management reporting to satisfy multiple audiences • Have the ability to provide suitably experienced and security cleared staff at short notice to cover Portfolio/Programme Management; Digital Delivery, Service Management and Delivery, and Technical Contract Management and Commercial • Have Experience of working in a complex, Government environment including across multiple Departments • Have Experience of working to GDS standards and working within the GDS/CCS Spend Control regime Nice to Haves • Experience of undertaking knowledge and skills transfer to a replacement team • Have the ability to drawn from their own Cross-Government experience and networks to aid in the running of the Portfolio Office Work Location The work will predominantly take place in the Home Office sites in Westminster and Croydon. There may also be a requirement to visit other Home Office sites nationally and other Government Departments Working Arrangments The Delivery Partner will be required to work flexibility with teams across the Home Office and wider Government Departments Within the Home Office, where the bulk of the work will be completed it is expected that the Delivery Partner will acts as an integrated function of the Home Office’s Digital, Data and Technology Team. Any expenses for travel between Government sites within the M25 should be included within the pricing proposed. Security Clearance CTC clearance will be required as a minimum. SC Clearance is preferable No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Approach to Portfolio Management • The identification and management of risks and dependencies • Resource planning • Development and Implementation of processes and governance • Impact assessment and analysis • Quality and availability of staff Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers • Engagements with stakeholders both within the Department and Cross Government Payment Approach Time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 10% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. Would it be possible to have organisational ethical wall to enable the successful supplier to bid for services in any of the areas where commercial support is being provided? This is an area that will be covered in the RFP but the simple answer to the question is yes. 2. Does that authority have a view on how many resources may be needed as a standing team, and up to how many resources may be needed as part of the Burst Capability? The standing team is likely to be between 3-5 depending on the delivery phase and the successful supplier’s proposed approach. The Burst Capability requirement is being determined and is likely to fluctuate from a limited amount to as many as 5-6 resources, dependent on whether additional work can be accommodated within existing Home Office teams/contract. The Burst Capability requirement is likely to be formed of short, individual pieces of work to deliver a specific outcomes but the number of these commissions and whether they will run in sequence or concurrently, and if so to what volume is currently unknown 3. Is this the new version of the previous opportunity with published on the 24th of November? https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/digital-outcomes-and-specialists/opportunities/5788 Yes this is. 4. Does the authority have a view on any upcoming Policy initiatives that may require support from the successful bidder? The Home Office is currently being asked to respond to changes emanating from a variety of policy areas including Immigration, Law Enforcement and Borders. Further information will be shared with the shortlisted suppliers at the further evaluation stage. 5. What are the 8-9 workstreams that have been identified during the discovery phase? This information will be shared at the further evaluation stage to the shortlisted suppliers 6. Are you able to advise the projected number of resources for the burst capability vs the permanent capability? The standing team is likely to be between 3-5 depending on the delivery phase and the successful supplier’s proposed approach. The Burst Capability requirement is being determined and is likely to fluctuate from a limited amount to as many as 5-6 resources, dependent on whether additional work can be accommodated within existing Home Office teams/contract. The Burst Capability requirement is likely to be formed of short, individual pieces of work to deliver a specific outcomes but the number of these commissions and whether they will run in sequence or concurrently, and if so to what volume is currently unknown 7. Can you share the organisation design from the Discovery Phase? To be shared at the further evaluation stage to the shortlisted suppliers 8. Can you advise who the sponsor is for this portfolio and which specific department this would be part off? This capability will sit within the Digital, Data and Technology team within the Commercial Directorate who have been asked to coordinate this work. The Sponsor is David Howie, who is the Director for this area 9. Does the existing team consist of Home Office staff or staff from external suppliers? The current team have been supplied by the Cabinet Office through their Complex Transactions Team. It comprises both Civil Servants and 3rd Party resource from EY through an existing agreement that the Cabinet Office has 10. If they are from external suppliers, are they all provided by one company? See above 11. The specification mentions a Programme Manager; we understand a Programme Manager to be a delivery role, whereas this outcome appears to require a governance service to be implemented. Can you confirm that this requirement is governance focused rather than delivery please? The Programme Manager role with be to coordinate a number of activities required to deliver successful outcomes and part of this responsibility will be to ensure that appropriate governance is in place to allow the delivery to take place 12. How will the data collected by the Discovery team be handed over to the incoming Digital Portfolio team? All of the outputs and underlying information collected through Discovery will be supplied to the incoming team as part of a structured handover 13. Can you advise which company/team did the Discovery work? The current team have been supplied by the Cabinet Office through their Complex Transactions Team. It comprises both Civil Servants and 3rd Party resource from EY through an existing agreement that the Cabinet Office has 14. Is there a cycle for the receipt of requests and reporting which would help to estimate periods of peak workload, and what is that cycle? The future pipeline of work is still being determined but due to the range of areas that it covers it is unlikely that it will fit to a single cycle of requests 15. Will the Digital Portfolio team be required to set, socialise and maintain operating standards and controls? The Portfolio team will be required to establish its own, internal operating standards but in the main its work will be governed by the existing governance and controls that are already in place within the Home Office and where appropriate, across Government 16. Is there a governance structure in place that helps define how the senior policy leads interact with the Portfolio team? There is an emerging governance structure that supports that interaction between the Portfolio Team and the Policy areas. What is currently available will shared with suppliers in the further evaluation stage 17. Have SLA’s been defined that cover response times to requests, and if so what are they? No 18. Given the start date of 15th Jan and the Christmas holidays can you provide any further detail of the next stages of the procurement to aid our planning? The expectation is that the sift of initial responses and the distribution of the further evaluation documentation will take place week commencing 18th December, with responses due back in early January. Sufficient time will be given to ensure that no one is required to work Christmas week and discussions have already commenced with the Cabinet Office about potentially extending their role within the Home Office if it is determined that this is necessary 19. Have you had external assistance in the initial scoping phase and if so can you tell us who provided the support? External assistance has been supplied by the Cabinet Office through their Complex Transactions Team. It comprises both Civil Servants and 3rd Party resource from EY through an existing agreement that the Cabinet Office has 20. Can you provide us with any further information from the output of the discovery phase? This will be shared with all shortlisted supplier as part of the further evaluation phase.