THEMIS Operations and Intelligence Management

Tender description

Summary of the work The Home Office requires support to deliver the Operation and Intelligence capabilities as part of the THEMIS solution, based on a SOA-based architecture in a multi-vendor environment. Expected Contract Length 2 year with potential 6 month extension for transtion. Latest start date Friday 31 May 2019 Budget Range £1.5m - £2.5m Why the Work is Being Done The Home Office is seeking to replace an intelligence capability that is vital to the UK Law Enforcement Community. Operations are currently conducted using large monolithic solutions for the management, storage and analysis of intelligence.​ One of these is nearing end of supportable life. The replacement capability will be developed using a multi-vendor supply chain that delivers greater speed of change and reduced operating cost. The Authority is seeking a supplier to deliver the Operations and Intelligence capability as part of a solution based on a modular and extensible SOA-based architecture. Problem to Be Solved The Authority is seeking either an individual supplier or consortia that can use evolutionary development techniques to deliver a capability that supports the lifecycle of an operation including the setup and configuration of an operation, information management related to the operation and management of operational and intelligence reports. This capability will be realised through the delivery of the following group of subsystems identified through early design work by the interim D&A function: - Operation - Intelligence - Intelligence System Integration - Knowledge Management It's expected that this delivery will consist of both transactional system development and aspects of content management. Who Are the Users The primary users of the system are from Law Enforcement and include operational users (such as intelligence officers and operations managers) and business users (such as system administrator or inspectors). Example user needs captured through stakeholder engagement include: -As an Operations Manager, I need to set up a RESTRICTED operation so that only specified users can access that operation. -As an Intelligence Officer, I need to create a report related to an operation so that I can record intelligence. -As an Operation Manager, I need to review and approve reports so that they can be shared with specified recipients. Work Already Done The project has delivered an initial THEMIS architecture model that articulates the key elements of the THEMIS system as well as some key architecture principles informed by a proof of concept. A significant amount of user engagement across all stakeholder organisation has been undertaken that has detailed the user requirements for Operations and Intelligence Management. These have been captured as a business capability map, key capability concepts, user stories (capturing functional requirements), user journeys, scenarios, and personas. Existing Team The Authority is supported by a Design & Architecture function which includes: - A product owner; - A business analysis team who've conducted an initial requirements capture; - An architecture team who've developed the outline solution architecture; - A UX lead; - Procurement support. THEMIS is in the process of on-boarding a framework services supplier who will deliver the architecture framework, including CI/CD pipeline tools and environments. Additional suppliers will be required in the future to deliver the remaining applications. All suppliers will be required to work collaboratively in the planning and delivery of the solution. Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Demonstrate expertise in performing business analysis activities with end users in the Law Enforcement or Intelligence domains. • Demonstrate experience of incremental delivery within a SOA/microservice-based architecture. • Demonstrate experience of developing transactional systems. • Demonstrate experience of developing content management systems. • Demonstrate experience in the complete evolutionary software development lifecycle including testing and deployment. • Demonstrate experience of working in an Official Sensitive environment. • Have a suitable location and technology to support Software Development at Official Sensitive. Nice to Haves • Demonstrate experience of involving end users in the evolutionary development of a solution. • Provide evidence of successful delivery involving multiple supplier teams to provide an integrated solution. • Demonstrate experience in software development using Open Source and relevant COTS technologies. • Demonstrate experience of case management solution development. • Demonstrate expertise in complex IHMs. • Provide evidence of recent successful delivery of technology into the Law Enforcement or Intelligence domains. Work Location It is anticipated that development activities will be conducted from the suppliers own location. Some non-development members of the suppliers team will be required to work from locations in proximity to the Home Office (2 Marsham Street) in London on a regular basis. Work may be required at other locations nationally from time to time. Working Arrangments Suppliers are required to participate in collaborative planning and delivery involving the wider THEMIS supply chain for each delivery increment. This will require some members of the team to work in proximity to the Home Office (2 Marsham Street) in London on a regular basis, although development activities will be conducted from the suppliers own location. Security Clearance SC level clearance is required as a minimum for staff working under this contract or any subcontracts. The supplier must have a location and technology to support development up to and including Official Sensitive. Additional T&Cs 1. Unless agreed, Home Office will retain ownership of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) created during the contract. 2. Travel and Expenses will not be paid within the M25. 3. Key Supplier staff included in proposals will be expected to work on the contract. 4. Home Office reserves the right to agree fixed price Statements of Work when it is deemed prudent; the Supplier shall not unreasonably withhold its agreement to such requests made by the Home Office. 5. Sub-contracting is permitted. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Approach and Methodology • Value for Money • Risk • Team Structure and Composition Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a Team • No-Blame Culture • Knowledge Sharing • Collaboration Payment Approach Time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 58% Cultural fit 12% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. Will you sponsor clearances? Yes, the Authority can sponsor clearances. The project needs to meet tight delivery timescales so we anticipate that the core team members will need to have SC by the start of the contract. Note that there is the potential for some work to be abstracted and carried out at a lower classification and thus with a lower clearance requirement. 2. Which technologies are being used? We have conducted an initial de-risk using Drupal 7 for the CMS elements, but we have not made specific technology choices at this point. We would expect to work through these choices with the Supplier. 3. Do you have a preferred team size vs skills? We expect the supplier to have their own educated opinion on the appropriate team make-up. More detail will be provided in Stage 2 of the competition to support this. 4. Please can you clarify what is referred to as IHMs in the Nice-to-have skills & experience. Information Handling Model i.e. the use of user permissions to provide granular logical access controls on THEMIS. 5. The THEMIS Operations and Intelligence Management and the THEMIS User Interface Framework opportunities talk separately about Multi-Vendor Environments and Multi-Supplier teams.Please can the Authority elaborate on the difference it sees between a Vendor and a Supplier? These terms have been used synonymously. 6. For CI pipeline tools and environments, are you open to using a service like GitHub or BitBucket, or do you wish to use a wholly self-contained solution? The Framework lot Supplier will be providing a CI/CD pipeline. This may involve similar technologies but will not be a public service due to the protective marking. 7. For CD are you only considering Continuous Delivery or are open to Continuous Deployment now, or at a later stage? We would like to get as close to continuous deployment as we can given that we have a series of air gaps in the network. 8. Is this work deemed to be outside of IR35? The work will be outside of IR35. 9. Could you please detail the various solution delivery options that would be entertained regarding licencing? There is a mention of Open Source and COTS; would it be possible to provide a solution where some elements are COTS (and whether that can be closed-source or source-provided) but the business-specific logic and configuration is assigned to the Home Office, even if it requires COTS to run? We would prefer Open Source or low cost licensing options. A mix of OS and proprietary is acceptable where it provides appropriate value.