Events Managment Application Development

Tender description

Summary of the work To develop a compatible on prem solution to manage events as per SOR. Expected Contract Length 3 months Latest start date Wednesday 1 April 2020 Budget Range £40k-£60k Why the Work is Being Done To meet a business requirement to digitalise a mainly manual events management process in a 3 month project beginning asap. Problem to Be Solved Events processes needs to be digitalised, with workflows in place to plan and administer events, invite guests, display guest list and see historical events. This application needs to run and intergrate into a Microsoft environment where MS Office, SharePoint and MS Teams are widely used. Who Are the Users As an event organiser I need to setup, plan, administer, change and close an event digitally I also sometimes need to cancel or change it's venue or date. I need to create a real-time guest list, with up to date special requests requirements and have an audit history of each event and attendees for reference purposes. I need my colleagues to see what I'm doing and be able to take over or add to my event administration at any point. I need invitees to accept or decline an event, tell me about any special requirements and be able to ask me questions that I can answer online. I also need these to be stored with the invitee information for each event. I often need 1 invitee to manage many attendees and individually manage their requests as in a school scenario where the teacher is accepting for each pupil. Early Market Engagement None Work Already Done SOR and user stories Existing Team In house ICT team Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Extensive experience of developing in a SharePoint environment and development of applications with integration and compatibility with other in-house systems • Experience designing and building Applications in a hybrid Microsoft Azure/on prem setup • A .Net Expert Development team with ongoing support for the application • Microsoft Gold Application Development Partner or equivalent in skills and as a minimum for the express route to MS support and assurances purposes • Expert understanding of performance monitoring and fault reporting setup • MS Azure experts in design, development and customisation • User centred design that is easy to use for non technical people • Experience of working across platforms to produce a seamless application • Proven ability to keep to timescales and budgets Nice to Haves • User Acceptance Testing service • Training for users and admins • Experience and able to run workshops for gathering requirements • Project Management of work • Previous experience of similar requirement met Work Location Cabinet Office, Central London, SW1 Working Arrangments TBC but working on site expected for periods of this project. Security Clearance Desired SC/DV clearance No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 10 Proposal Criteria • Technical solution proposed • Match to business requirements • Estimated time frames for the work • Value for money • Technology suggested • Support offering in package • Program control and project management approach • Skills and abilities proven • Innovation to meet requirements Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers • Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions • Take responsibility for their work • Can work with clients with low technical expertise • Work in a no blame atmosphere with a lessons learned mentality Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method Case study Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. The project duration is noted as 3 months. Although the request is just for Discovery at this stage, is the 3 month timescale for Discovery to Live, or just for the Discovery phase? The work carried out so far is at the begining of the discovery stage, 3 months is the approximate timescale expected from discovery to a live service. 2. You ask “Previous experience of similar requirement met”. Does this refer to the technology environment or having previously built an events management system? Both, we want to know you have experience of working in a similar technical environment and if you have built similar business systems successfully. 3. Is the SharePoint environment SharePoint Online or SharePoint On-premises? The SharePoint environment is SharePoint 2016 on-prem v16.0.0.4732 4. Essential requirement 1 asks for integration and compatibility. Could you provide more details on what you mean by compatibility? Compatibility meaning unified and seamlessly working with our other in house software such as MS Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel along with a customised web application using .asp and js 5. Will you provide sponsorship to support the successful bidder obtain SC/DV clearance for staff? Yes, if the supplier's staff have no clearance, we will support security clearance where required either CTC, SC or DV. 6. What are the number of system users? Where are they located? Around 10-15 users, the system should be accessible from any location via corporate network devices. 7. What support is required in delivering the system to the user base? i.e. system training, rollout support and user engagement programmes System training for installation, maintenance and administration of the application for the internal IT team plus online user manuals for the users. 8. Are there any other users stories that are required to be delivered other than those described in the notice? These will need to documented as a part of the full Discovery phase. 9. Are there other areas of functionality outside of the user stories attached that either required or desired as part of the project? This will need to be realised in the full Discovery phase. 10. You state you require essential skills in SharePoint and.NET. Have any of the architectural decisions for the system been made? Are you open to alternative suggestions around the platform? i.e. Microsoft PowerPlatform and Dynamics? We are open to MS PowerPlatform as an alternative. MS Dynamics does not meet the business requirement for this type of application. 11. Does the solution have to be developed in Sharepoint or are you open to other platforms? It needs to be fully compatible and able to integrate well with SharePoint as a minimum. 12. You seem to be suggesting a solution in Sharepoint? If an alternative was used, what would the need to integrate with sharepoint be? We are not suggesting a solution in SharePoint, however whatever we use needs to be fully compatible and integrate well with SharePoint as a minimum. 13. What function does the custom app provide? Does it provide / store data that needs to be referenced when administering and event? Why does this need integrating with? The ask is that Events application does not work in silo, it should have the ability to technically integrate with other applications. For example it should be able to link to a building access request system so there is a digital process to request entry to the building for each confirmed attendee. 14. Could you please advise the anticipated procurement timeframes? Expected dates for 2020 procurement are:11th March - Bid submissions closesW/C 16th March - Evaluation of bidsW/C 23rd March - Contract awarded and negotiations with supplierFrom 30th March – Contract signed and work begins 15. A budget of £40k-£60k is referenced – Is that for a discovery or for the implementation? The budget is for full implementation.