FCDO Consular Digital Services Partner

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done FCDO delivers a number of Consular services to support British Citizens travelling or living abroad. Some of these services have been digitally transformed. FCDO has ambition to improve these, and develop new, digital services. At the same time we want to scale our specialist digital service capability to match our ambition. We seek a delivery partner to support the development of services around how our users contact and interact with us across multiple digital channels to meet the Government Service Standard. We aim to start this work from November 2020. Problem to Be Solved FCDO needs a specialist delivery partner that can deliver outcomes based on user needs and government service standards across the product lifecycle. This contract will provide internal teams with core sets of skills capable of supporting a range of projects from inception through to live. Typical roles would include delivery manager, business analyst, user researcher, full stack developers and service designer. This approach would provide continuity through the lifecycle of projects, ensuring no break in support and expertise built up in the team leading to improved opportunities for shadowing and knowledge transfer. Who Are the Users Users can be British Citizens (or citizen's relatives) travelling or living abroad, or local partners internationally (police, hospitals, local authorities). They will need to contact us and use the services to reach a variety of outcomes: As a British citizen who wants to get married in Thailand, I need to swear an oath at the embassy to prove I am eligible. As the wife of a British citizen who has died in Spain, I need to find a local lawyer so that I can repatriate the body. As a British citizen who is stuck abroad with no money, I need to apply for a loan so that I can get home. Early Market Engagement None Work Already Done We have already developed a series of discovery, alpha and beta phases working with existing suppliers. A number of simple services to allow stranded British citizens to register interest in a flight back to the UK or apply for an emergency loan have already been launched. The roadmap includes various discovery, alpha and beta phases and we will need the relevant outcomes for each phase. There may also be a requirement to support live services. Existing Team FCDO digital services is a small team, working with internal business owners and subject matter experts. It has product management, delivery management and user centred design expertise and is looking to expand in the near future. Current Phase Beta Work Location Currently all of the team are working remotely due to Covid-19. Travel to FCDO sites across the UK will be required in the future. Working Arrangments Post Covid 19 remote working: onsite at least 3 days a week or 12 days per month. Security Clearance All staff working on FCDO premises and IT networks must be at least SC cleared or capable of being cleared to SC. Bidders must confirm clearance of nominated resources. If required, FCDO will initiate SC clearance. Additional T&Cs To promote fair practice we would encourage bidders not to use their organisation's name within their responses. ISO 9001, ISO 27001 certification must be held by the supplier by the Service Commencement date. Evidence of certification shall be required. Skills & Experience Demonstrate recent experience of delivering high quality user-centred digital services that are compliant with or in alignment with the Government Service Manual. Detail recent experience of delivering products and services successfully through discovery to public beta agile phases using a range of agile tools, methodology and techniques. Detail ability to provide an extensive range of software development skills and disciplines, including an example of a programming language that could be used for Gov.uk. Detail experience of performing a successful agile, ‘test first’ approach to software testing. Experience in conducting user research, user journey mapping and other user centred design disciplines. Designing and developing working digital services using evidenced user stories. Experience of working with specific Platform-as-a-Service solutions (for example AWS, Azure or similar). Demonstrable ability to scale-up the size of teams quickly and when needed to work on multiple services with multiple teams. Detail recent experience of working with multidisciplinary, mixed (blended) client and supplier teams of specialists working to achieve successful service outcomes. Ability to upskill client staff on core skills such as user centred design, delivery management, software development and testing when required. Detail recent experience of providing Agile coaching services to help build internal service capability. Nice to Haves Experience of working successfully with UK Government and/or Arms Length Bodies Sector knowledge of FCDO business requirements and issues Experience of delivering digital services in multi-national / global scenarios Evidence of having taken digital services to a GDS Service Assessment and passed. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria How you would deliver a digital service solution Demonstrate understanding/ability to deliver digital products/services to government Digital Service standards and Technology Code of Practice How you plan to transfer knowledge to permanent staff within the client organisation Team scalability, flexibility, deployment, time and pause capability Illustrate core team skills/strengths, including CVs of key personnel including developers How value for money will be achieved for the duration of the contract Demonstrate understanding of the challenges of implementing user centred design in a government agile environment Cultural Fit Criteria Ability to work in supplier teams of with blended teams between client staff and possibly in collaboration with other suppliers according to needs at the time. Approach work with a focus on end to end services rather than products. Focus on agile ways of working and user centred design. Thorough understanding of continuous improvement using data and user research. Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Case study Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 55% Cultural fit 15% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers No questions have been answered yet Budget range maximum budget of £4.5m