Feature development for FCO's open-data analysis platform (AWS based)

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done The Open Source Unit's aim is to best use open data to help the Foreign and Commonwealth Office deliver across the whole spectrum of its policy priorities (encompassing many spheres, such as: crisis response, consular services, security and sustainability). The work must be completed by 31st March 2020. Problem to Be Solved Our existing platform draws on from a variety of rich data resources. Its analytical capabilities are at an early phase of development and we want to enable users to better exploit the full potential of the data. For instance we want to: - improve the geographical querying and visualisation capabilities - add functionality to enable users to curate their own visualisations and dashboards; - build functionality for users to explore the relationships between entities featured in the data. The platform must be secure and meet the National Cyber Security Centre’s requirements for official documents. Who Are the Users The platform is intended to meet a wide range of informational and analytical foreign policy use-cases around open data. These include collating some high value data streams; mining self-hosted data for timeseries trends and qualitative insights; visualising and spatial querying data with geospatial dimensions; harnessing live API-based data resources; and comparative-analysis of a broad range of timeseries data resources. It also looks to enable groups of users to collate and manage shared informational resources and analyses, so to inform decisions around strategic objectives in the region and to track the impact of previous interventions. Early Market Engagement None Work Already Done The platform has already undergone two stages: initial prototyping, followed by a five-month intensive development phase to get the platform into a live production state with active daily users. The cloud architecture has been put into place and provides a suitable foundation for further feature development. Data pipelines exist that provide regular updates from a number of sources; these can be easily replicated to link to other potential sources. A number of backend components are in place that can be expanded (e.g. Elasticsearch for document storage). A well designed front-end has been developed that we envisage adding to. Existing Team OSU has three data scientists who would be involved with the data science aspects of the project e.g. machine learning / data wrangling. At this stage we do not expect any additional suppliers to be involved with the project. We have an existing early life support contract with a third party supplier to provide basic maintenance to keep the service live. Current Phase Live Work Location Foreign and Commonwealth Office, King Charles Street, London, SW1A 2AH Working Arrangments We expect to have regular catch-ups, at least once per week at the FCO premises, but perhaps more frequently if the project requires it. 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 Suppliers must be accredited or working towards ISO27001, or equivalent. Skills & Experience experience of developing user-friendly, visually engaging user interfaces, specifically using Vue.js experience of developing interface components for handling geospatial/map data exploration experience of interacting with Elasticsearch experience of cloud archetecting (specifically AWS), including serverless components (e.g. AWS Lambda) experience of developing data-pipelines, e.g. to provide updates from APIs experience using graph databases – interrogating relationships between nodes experience of working in an agile team to deliver software based on user requirements experience producing user documentation and maintenance documentation familiarity with government cyber security requirements for official data experience of developing secure user authentication Nice to Haves No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria Technical solution Approach and methodology How the approach or solution meets user needs How the approach or solution meets your organisation's policy or goal How they've identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them Team structure Value for money Cultural Fit Criteria Work as a team with our organisation Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes Take responsibility for their work Share knowledge and experience with other team members Challenge the status quo Be comfortable standing up for their discipline Can work with clients with low technical expertise Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers No questions have been answered yet Budget range the maximum budget for this requirement is £156,000 (excl. vat)