Support and Development for FCO Consular Hub Systems

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done The Consular Hub platform hosts 3 business critical Consular systems: The Contact Hub, the Crisis Hub and the Post Hub. Our current support arrangement is expiring in March 2020 and we therefore need to secure a supplier who can provide 24/7/365 support and help maintain and develop these systems after this point. Suppliers must be able to start the onboarding process by 17th January 2020. The absolute latest start date for service commencement is 27th May 2020. Problem to Be Solved We require a supplier with the technical expertise and experience to support our hub systems. This will involve ensuring system availability, resolving errors or bugs and developing ad-hoc enhancements to these systems as requested by FCO. There is also an established working Backlog for ongoing development which shall need supporting. Two copies of any updated releases will be required for sale opportunities. For example, new releases will need to be produced in a production environment and in a format that is saleable for commercialisation purposes. We may consider re-platforming the hubs in 2020. Who Are the Users Contact Hub: As a contact centre agent I need to access location-specific information from all around the world so that I can provide customers with information when they call our Contact Centres. Crisis Hub: As a local or central crisis response manager I need to plan for and record details of any crisis that could impact British nationals overseas so that we can effectively support customers during a crisis. Post Hub: As an FCO employee, I need to find information related to each British Embassy or High Commission (e.g. living conditions, local schools) so that I can decide which role I wish to apply for. Early Market Engagement N/A Work Already Done The Hubs are currently live and supported by an existing incumbent supplier to deliver this service. The successful supplier shall be expected to onboard and support knowledge transfer between themselves and the existing supplier in order to facilitate swift service commencement. Existing Team You will be working with representatives of our Crisis Management Department and Contact Centres to facilitate the onboarding process in January 2020 as well as our current supplier. There may also be necessary collaborative activities between the successful supplier and providers of other Consular services to ensure successful delivery and issue resolution. Current Phase Live Work Location Work can be done offsite, but we would expect you to be able to visit the London Office on a regular basis. Working Arrangments It is expected that the new supplier will work predominantly offsite, with occasional ad-hoc visits to the London Office for meetings and releases. Security Clearance All staff working on FCO premises must be at least SC cleared or capable of being cleared to SC. Bidders must confirm clearance of nominated resources. If required, FCO will initiate SC clearance. Additional T&Cs Skills & Experience experience of providing 24 hour support for IT systems, including providing second and third line support and ensuring that application support is not subject to single points of failure. Have a proven track record of incident management and problem resolution. Have a well-established and engrained culture of service improvement and have experience of implementing client-led changes to IT systems, delivered in alignment ITIL processes. Have evidence of delivering at pace and working to tight timescales. Have the ability to develop technical expertise quickly on unfamiliar systems. Have the ability to explain technical details to users with low technical literacy. Be able to deliver software solutions aligned to industry standards defined by the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework. Have a strong track record of service management, service review and monitoring in line with standard ITIL process. Have evidence of performance, availability and capability management. Have experience of management of risks, issues and dependencies with other systems. Have experience of re-platforming services. Be certified to ISO27001. Be able to provide complete support services against the following tech stack: Postgresql, Tomcat (Java 8), RabbitMQ, Apache, HAProxy, CakePHP (PHP 5.6), React JS, Centos 6 (servers), Ansible (configuration management) Nice to Haves Previous experience of providing support for government departments. Experience of Agile development. Experience of collaborative working with other suppliers on IT systems. Can provide monthly service reports to the FCO detailing service availability and incident management. Familiarity with Government Security Classifications and compliance with HMG Information Assurance and Security Standards (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/710816/HMG-Security-Policy-Framework-v1.1.doc.pdf) No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria Technical solution Approach and methodology (including how approach meets our goal) Estimated time frame for work (start and finish) How supplier has identified risk/dependencies and offered approaches to manage Team structure and technological capabilities in-house Value for money 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 Can work with clients with little technical expertise Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers Budget range £140,000 - £170,000 fixed price p/a for ongoing support estimated £100,000 time and materials p/a for ad-hoc development all figures excluding vat.