Love Leicester Application

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done Leicester City Council currently has a mobile app called Love Leicester. The app is restricted to only reporting environmental issues, but the Council wants an app that will be a focal channel for citizens, businesses and visitors to interact with us on a wide range of services. Connection between a users’ My Account profile and the mobile app must be seamless. The mobile experience will promote self-service, be an easily accessible first port of call for our customers and serve as a platform to receive positive feedback/reviews. This app must be live by the end of March 2021. Problem to Be Solved Users currently wishing to report environmental issues online can use our Love Leicester app or by our My Account pages. The process for reporting the same issues on both online platforms have very separate customer journeys / displays and experiences, which is problematic and confusing to the user. Love Leicester processes meet user expectations but are difficult to manage in the back-office. The My Account processes are the opposite of this. The council requires a Leicester City Council branded app that is downloadable directly from the app stores (Android and Apple platforms) without being passed through a third party. Who Are the Users The users are predominantly citizens and businesses within the City of Leicester. The Council wants users to access a mobile app that provides information, guidance and an additional contact channel that has a council wide focus. Residents need to be able to access relevant services/information, undertake basic transactions and be able to report issues. Service users need to be able to easily access relevant services/information quickly. They should be able to see news and information that is local to them, view personal account(s), Users should be able to see events in, and information about Leicester. Early Market Engagement Leicester City Council published an ITT in July 2019. A decision was taken to abandon this procurement on the basis that the tendering process was unable to provide the Council with an app that represents its current needs and requirements or represent best value for money. Our position is now this: We are developing internal forms that focus on reporting environmental issues, these reports will populate an anonymised database that will then be used to show users reports that relate to the same issue and their status. Users will be able to request updates on progress. We would expect the app supplier to either provide and build forms that match the content in all or some of our forms and use two APIs provided by Firmstep to push data collected into our Firmstep workflow. Alternatively, we would expect the app supplier to use our existing Firmstep forms and provide access to them within the app, utilising mobile functionality. We also require a single sign on to be created between the app and our My Account platform. Once a supplier is chosen, they will be able to engage with Firmstep and discuss and feedback how this would be delivered. Work Already Done Development work is ongoing to add functionality to the forms currently available on our website. This functionality will bring the forms in line with the functionality provided by the forms within the current Love Leicester app. This work is being undertaken in a phased approach to focus initially on the forms with the highest levels of submissions. Other forms are already developed and available on our website. We also have a My Account platform that the app would be linked to. Existing Team Work will be carried out in conjunction with the Digital Transformation team and the IT Services Department at Leicester City Council Current Phase Beta Work Location The project team is usually based within the various city centre locations in Leicester. Currently most staff are working from home. Location will be dependent on restrictions that are in place with regards to Covid-19. We are open to the development of this project being remotely based and deployed. Working Arrangments Initial meetings will be undertaken via Microsoft Teams calls arranged by LCC staff. Regular updates on progress to be reporting throughout. Risks and issues to be raised and logged as they occur. The work would be undertaken in conjunction with our IT and DT teams. The expectation would be that the development of the app would be undertaken and deployed offsite. Security Clearance Additional T&Cs No additional travel costs will be paid. No element of the work undertaken will be sub-contracted out to a third-party unless this is clearly stated and agreed within the proposal provided. Payment will be upon deliverable stages as proposed by provider. Skills & Experience App development skills in iOS and Android with a wide portfolio of successful apps, please provide examples including adoption metrics. Experience designing services for users with low digital literacy Substantial experience of developing interactive and user friendly mobile and web applications. Demonstrable expertise in successful app take-up and use Will deliver the app to meet the requirements of the Digital Service Standard - https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/service-standard Use prototyping and user testing throughout development Demonstrable experience within the last 3 years of launching a market leading app Experience designing and implementing WCAG 2.1 AA accessible digital services/products Demonstrable experience of development and maintenance of secure mobile application Demonstrable expertise of industry regulations including DSS, DPA, GDPR, PSD2 Experience of the development of apps with embedded web views. Nice to Haves App development skills in iOS and Android with examples of apps already developed for local government Experience developing market leading apps within the last three years. Experience of working with Firmstep web forms Experience using Firmstep start thread and fill task APIs Experience of integrating Firmstep and an app with a single sign on (SSO) Experience of delivering a product to Digital Service Standard Experience of delivering apps for a large public sector organisation within the last three years. Demonstrable experience of developing solutions that securely integrate to other systems through a variety of techniques including tagging, SOAP and REST interfaces. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 4 Proposal Criteria Relevant skills and experience Evidence of a good track record developing similar user-friendly apps Value for money Technical solution How the solution meets user needs Estimated timeframes for the work How they’ve identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them Approach and methodology Team structure Cultural Fit Criteria User outcome focused Work professionally as a team with our organisation Transparent and clear decision-making process Collaborative style of working Accessibility of solution is a priority Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes Experience in agile development Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method Case study Work history Reference Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 65% Cultural fit 10% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers No questions have been answered yet Budget range we would be seeking a steer from suppliers with regards to the budget requirements for the work being requested.