C18484 Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) Central Technical Delivery Management Services.

Tender description

Summary of the work The Home Office is looking for a supplier who can provide the necessary knowledge, skills and experience to help meet the demands for Technical Delivery Management within the Home Office’s Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) directorate, on a range of internal and public facing services from discovery to live. Expected Contract Length 24x Months. Latest start date Monday 1 November 2021 Budget Range The Home Office anticipates the total cost for DDaT Technical Delivery Management Services to be in the following range for 24 months £30m. This is based upon benchmarked costs from existing suppliers providing similar levels of resources. Why the Work is Being Done Home Office customers and employees rightly expect modern technology which helps customers receive the service they require and supports employees in protecting the public. We are increasingly reliant on technology to support the Home Office in its role to lead on immigration and passports, drugs policy, crime policy and counter-terrorism, and to ensure visible, responsive and accountable policing in the UK. We need to design and deliver technology which supports the transformation of the Home Office and the modernisation of our processes making them fit for a digital future. Home Office DDaT requires a Technical Delivery Management to provide Technical Delivery Management capability across all our areas of work (including immigration and passports, borders, policing and counter-terrorism). Problem to Be Solved Supporting the Technical Delivery Manager by providing specialist delivery advice, leadership and governance for HO DDaT portfolios, programmes and projects and: • Building and owning senior stakeholder relationships across the business, influencing Product Managers across many teams in order to achieve business outcomes • Identifying and implementing appropriate governance mechanisms for cross-cutting deliveries, advising on how any existing governance processes can be complimented • Recommend and agree optimal decision-making thresholds with key stakeholders and lead on ensuring that timely decisions are made across multiple teams to ensure successful delivery. • Taking insight from individual delivery plans to translate a complex product roadmap for an end to end outcome into a delivery plan, ensuring appropriate sequencing of the work across teams • Delivering in line with capacity and availability of many product teams, leveraging supplier frameworks and managing budgets and spending to make informed decisions on resources and team profiles • Using your delivery expertise to actively manage risks, issues and dependencies across multiple delivery teams, acting as the final escalation point for risks raised by the delivery teams • Implementing feedback loops, data analysis and experiments to iteratively improve the product, service and ways of working across the delivery teams Who Are the Users Home Office service users (staff and external). Early Market Engagement Home Office intends to hold an Overview and Clarification Session via Teams on 15th September 2021. To attend the Overview and Clarification Session potential providers will need to complete, sign and return a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Suppliers are restricted to a maximum of 2 people per organisation and one NDA copy required to cover one organisation. Suppliers who have recently completed an NDA for other recent Central Contracts will be covered for "Technical Delivery Management" but will still need to raise an email to express your interest. For further information on the Overview and Clarification Session and NDA bidders should submit an email request to ddatcontracts@homeoffice.gov.uk by no later than 12:00 (noon) 14th Sept 2021. Non-Disclosure Agreements or request received to attend the event after the deadline will be rejected. Work Already Done NA Existing Team A civil service led mixed team of managed service providers, contractors and civil servants. The successful bidder will be required to engage and collaborate across all groups delivering and maintaining services for the Home Office. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Recent experience (within the last 2 years) of placing SFIA level 3-5 delivery managers into teams in government or critical National Infrastructure & understanding how those roles work together. • Evidence supporting Lead Technical Delivery Managers, Senior Technical Delivery Managers, Technical Delivery Managers in creating and maintaining delivery plans that highlight forecasts, estimates and confidence levels • Evidence of strong collaborative working relationships with the existing civil servant and contractor portfolio teams • Evidence of balancing and adapting processes and understanding metrics to get the best out of themselves and their teams • Experience of technical delivery and technical practices to help translate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders • Evidence of providing leadership to immediate teams and a wider delivery • Evidence of driving innovation and continuously using industry improvements to increase quality and value for money delivered by products. • Evidence of working with government to ensure that key skills are retained within civil servants in a way that allows growth of capability within teams Nice to Haves • Provide evidence of resources that have existing SC clearance that will support the speeding up of on-boarding teams • Clear understanding of what good governance looks like and how to implement improvements Work Location The majority of the services are expected to be based at our London, Croydon, Sheffield or Manchester sites. However, the successful supplier must be capable of providing the service nationwide. Secondary locations may include Glasgow, Liverpool, Southport or Hendon. The work will be divided into Statements of Work (SOWs) which will clearly identify the relevant base location. Working Arrangments A flexible approach is required to meet the needs of each individual project and programme. The work will be divided into Statements of Work (SOWs) which will clearly identify the working arrangements. Security Clearance All staff must have Security Clearance (SC) prior to starting work. Staff not in possession of security clearance must be willing to undergo security clearance. Occasionally, NPPV3 or DV clearance is required. Clearance needs to have been achieved and validated by the Customer prior to commencement. Additional T&Cs 1.Travel expenses are payable for journeys outside the M25 (Greater London) or journeys greater than 10 miles from other base locations, where approved in advance and in line with HO Travel policy (subsistence not payable). 2. Professions rate caps will be applied to all roles at all SFIA levels. Caps will be provided to shortlisted suppliers at RFP stage. 3. Seasonal furloughs may be required. 4. Maximum sub-contractor margin caps will be applied 5. Potential Providers participate in the RFP stage will need to complete, sign and return a non-disclosure and ethical walls agreement (NDA) prior to receiving the RFP. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Essential Skills from Stage 1 • On-boarding and transition • Work packages • Organisation and sub-contractors • Proposed Leadership/Management Team • Thought leadership in Technical Delivery Management Cultural Fit Criteria Social Value Payment Approach Capped time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 10% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. What is the resource on-boarding time that is expected for this opportunity? We will provide as much advance notice as possible but where this isn’t possible, on-boarding is as quickly as possible. The successful supplier will be required to co-ordinate with Home Office teams to process security clearance and equipment requests. 2. Is there an incumbent supplier? There are suppliers currently delivering services across the DDaT portfolio providing similar services to individual projects and programmes, but no central DDaT partner. 3. In Q10, what level of governance are you referring to? Is it the governance of our delivery management service delivery? Is it governance of your delivery management capability? Or, is it individual project/programme governance? In Q10, what level of governance are you referring to? Is it the governance of our delivery management service delivery? Is it governance of your delivery management capability? Or, is it individual project/programme governance? 4. In Q7 are you referring to the continuous improvement of a delivery management practice or to our delivery managers driving continuous improvement within a project and its deliverables? This is referring to the delivery managers driving continuous improvement within the project. 5. In Q6 are you looking for evidence of leading immediate teams and leading wider delivery, or leadership of immediate teams that are part of a wider delivery? And could you explain what you mean by “wider delivery” – is this a wider project, programme, function/practice, capability, effort or initiative. Evidence of leading immediate (delivery) teams in the specific project and the wider programme if applicable . Wider delivery = wider delivery community. 6. In Q2 are you looking for us to demonstrate the ability of our delivery managers to create plans, maintain them and report on progress? In Q2 are you looking for us to demonstrate the ability of our delivery managers to create plans, maintain them and report on progress? 7. In Q2 and the “problem to be solved” do you mean “supplying” when you say “supporting”? I want to be clear that you are looking for the provision of delivery managers and not supporting resources to your own delivery management team. Yes, supplying these resources. They will, however, support the incumbent delivery teams by filling delivery manager resource gaps. 8. Are you happy for a supplier to use multiple examples to illustrate experience? Yes. 9. In Q1, when you say “those roles” do you mean how the delivery manager works with other DDaT team roles or how different levels of delivery manager (lead, senior, etc.) work together? We mean how the delivery roles work together – supporting, nurturing and growing skills within the delivery community. 10. Could you say who will form the evaluation panel, in terms of names and/or roles? The full panel is still to be confirmed due to some scheduling issues. We expect it to consist of SCS Sponsor for the Delivery Cluster, Head of Role for Delivery and Head of Central Contracts. We are unable to publish the job holders' names. 11. 'Essential Skill' 3: Evidence of strong collaborative working relationships with the existing civil servant and contractor portfolio teams - AMENDED For clarity we would like to confirm that the Home Office would like responses from all suppliers who can demonstrate that they have collaboration experience in a similar environment, which may be outside of the public sector. The essential skill is amended as follows: Evidence of strong collaborative working relationships with the customer staff and contractor portfolio teams. 12. 'Essential skill' 8: Evidence of working with government to ensure that key skills are retained within civil servants in a way that allows growth of capability within teams - AMENDED Evidence of supporting non-gov organisations will also be acceptable. 13. 'Nice To Have' 1 "Provide evidence of resources that have existing SC clearance that will support the speeding up of on-boarding teams" - AMENDED. This "Nice to have requirement" is being withdrawn and will not be scored. Suppliers should apply the following response when completing their submissions: “ not applicable” 14. Please can I ask the Title/Role of the decision makers who will be reading and marking the question response to the 10 questions please. Please see the response to Q10 above. 15. As further clarification against clarification question 9; is this how the different levels of delivery manager work together or is it nurturing the other DDaT functions? Q9 (Nice to Have 1) has been withdrawn. Can you please clarify which essential skills you are referring to? 16. Please could you review the answer to clarification question 6 as the current answer is a repeat of the question. Apologies. The response is: Yes – plans must be appropriate for the delivery. So we are looking for how they would choose the best methodology and plan accordingly. 17. In Q10 are you looking for an SWR example? Can you please resubmit the question and expand the acronym SWR? 18. Please could you review the answer to clarification question 3, as the current answer is a copy of the question. Apologies. The response is: This is referring to the governance within the delivery process, relating to approvals, risk management, appropriate purpose, format and timing and regular communication. 19. Is Nice To Have 2 also withdrawn and out of scope, or does this only apply to Nice to Have 1? Only Nice to Have 1 is withdrawn. 20. Regarding – “Recent experience (within the last 2 years) of placing SFIA level 3-5 delivery managers into teams in government or critical National Infrastructure & understanding how those roles work together.”Would you reject(not meet)) an SME supplier if they have experience in Large Financial Services experience but no government or critical National Infrastructure ?Please specify what critical elements are applicable in government/critical National Infrastructure but not applicable in highly regulated Financial services to help derive an objective outcome ? Finance is an infrastructure service and, if compromised, could have significant impact so a financial sector example wouldn’t be rejected. Both Government and CNI sectors have similarities in criticality to daily life, environment, scrutiny and pressure and it is these elements that make the examples comparable. 21. Could clarity be provided on essential skills and experience 4? What type of processes are being referred to and what is meant by ‘get the best out of themselves and their teams’? The processes referred to are: planning and estimating; ensuring quality; financial and commercial management; risk reduction; collaboration and communication; continuous improvement; and governance. Getting the best out of selves and team = creating a high performing team who balance priorities, respond to issues in a flexible manner and look at metrics (including lessons learned) to improve their overall delivery performance. 22. In my question, “As further clarification against clarification question 9; is this how the different levels of delivery manager work together or is it nurturing the other DDaT functions?” I was referring to clarification question 9 (about essential skill 1). Thanks for confirming. It’s within the delivery community, so the different levels of delivery managers within DDaT. 23. In my question, “In Q10 are you looking for an SWR example?”, I was referring to evidential examples covering Situation, Work and Result. Thanks for confirming. Yes we are looking for that type of response - how, when, where and what the outcomes were. 24. Could you please let us know who owns the product roadmaps within DDaT today? Product Roadmaps in DDaT are owned at a variety of levels, for example each area of DDaT may own their Roadmaps. Oversight responsibility rests with the Head of Role for Product and the SCS sponsor for the Product profession.