ITS201169 Microsoft Access Database Replacement

Tender description

Summary of the work The Council is working to move away from our reliance on Access Solutions. Our programme vision is that using an agile approach incremental re-platforming of 514 Access Solutions will take place. Access Solutions will be re-platformed into cloud native solutions for digital workplace preferring Microsoft 365 and Power Platform technologies. Expected Contract Length 24 months Latest start date Monday 15 November 2021 Budget Range There is no designated budget and the project will be priced on a Time and Materials basis. Why the Work is Being Done The work is being done to lower the cost of ownership of solutions, enhance business productivity through the use of Digital Workplace technologies and control legal and compliance risks to the organisation from having legacy and unsupported solutions supporting service delivery. Problem to Be Solved Re-platforming or retirement of 514 Access Solutions. Who Are the Users Our users of access solutions are business stakeholders in business processes and service delivery that the Access solution supports. Their motivation is to have solutions that automate and make their job easier or service delivery more efficient. In some cases users are also technical experts in one or more Access Solutions. Early discovery suggests that our access databases exist as an application in their own right, to make a buisness process automated or plug gaps in reporting functions of the existing Line of Buisness Systems. Early Market Engagement N/A Work Already Done In 2020 LCC completed conversion of 305 Access 2003 databases to Access 2010. This project also decommissioned Access databases. Following conversion, a further discovery exercise has taken place. This exercise grouped our remaining databases into solutions (where one Access solution can contain multiple related databases) and identified 514 solutions made up of 1035 individual databases. All access solutions are in version 2010. Some business analysis work has been undertaken for a subset of the Access Solutions. Business analysis information does not exist for every Access solution. The majority of the 514 solutions do not have this analysis. Existing Team Leeds City Council will establish a team to support this programme of work which will include a programme manager, programme architect, area project leads (responsible for a maximum of 3 initiatives) and area product owners (responsible for a maximum of 3 initiatives) The Council will make any necessary Council resource available to support agile teams as required including but not exclusive to business stakeholders, subject matter experts, business analysts. Current Phase Not started Skills & Experience • Microsoft Certified Silver Partner or Gold Partner. • Proven track record of managing agile design and development projects, moving quickly with prototypes and pilots to prove ideas in practice. • Familiarity with production and refinement of discovery products e.g. personas, user stories and needs. • Experience in creating functional proof of concepts; performing user testing; identifying technical and implementation challenges. • Experience in creating production ready solution using secure development practices addressing process or technical related challenges, coordinating user testing & iteration. • Experience in the management and organisation of agile developments. • Ability to organise developments from design and user requirements presenting agile sprint plans, ordering product development backlogs and reporting on development progress. • Experience in the handover and deployment of production ready solutions. Proven track record in projects requiring support handover for operation by customer. • Ability to communicate project progress and manage resources in a extended teams to achieve on-time delivery of minimal viable products. • Proven track record of delivery of development projects requiring interface with existing organisations design, technical, and project management teams. • Experience delivering products using Microsoft Power Platform (Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps), Microsoft 365 Suite of apps (including extended apps such as Planner, Sharepoint Online). • Delivery of a quality coded products using a variety of Bespoke Development Stacks (LAMP, AWS, .net, Azure, Angular, React, Node.js, CSS3). • Exeprience delivering Application Management Lifecycle for Power Platform solutions using Microsoft ALM best practice. • Experience with developments requiring integration with existing back office systems. Extensive experience of Microsoft Azure integration Platform service. • Design, build and enhance Products in secure, ‘open’, loosely coupled ways so that they or their component parts can be shared and reused. • Experience working with automated regression test suites, Developing User Acceptance Test (UAT) Scripts and delivering UAT against agreed Test Scripts. • Ability to manage release including bug identification management and fix verification process. • Proven experience in transitioning support to an orgnaisations existing development and operations resources. • Experience in projects having required deployment to an oranisations existing development infrastructure. • Proven track record in creation of handover documentation and developer documentation. Nice to Haves • The relevant experienced has been gained by working with other large Councils. • Experience with delivering large projects in a remote working setup. • Experience with SCRUM methodology, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Application of SCRUM methodology in large programmes. Work Location The work will be done remotely. However the supplier may be required to visit Leeds City Council premises on an ad hoc basis. These are based in Leeds city centre. Working Arrangments Flexible – both office based and remote as required. The Council operates a flexible working policy encouraging remote working to reduce travel and office space requirements. We expect the supplier to be available for meetings on site if required but also to be able to deliver the required outcomes through remote working. Security Clearance Selected members of the supplier’s teams may have to undergo DBS checks when dealing with personal and sensitive data. Additional T&Cs N/A No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 15 Proposal Criteria • Approach: Agile and collobrative approach. Approach should be in line with GDS Service Manual for Agile Delivery https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/agile-delivery/agile-tools-techniques. • Method: Use of recognised agile methodologies in the delivery with deep familiarity with SCRUM agile methodology preferably in a large progarmmes or projects. • Timescale: Ability to quickly mobilse a variety of resources and deliver product incrementally over a 24 month timescale. • Team: Able to provide a large variety of team roles. Ability to work with existing Council team. Ability to work collaboratively with other suppliers/contractors awarded work on the programme. • Delivery Plan: Ability to curate both project and agile development delivery plan from requirements gathered. Cultural Fit Criteria • Work collaboratively and open in approach and opinions. • Be willing to share knowledge, intelligence and insights in an open and transparent way. • Be able to work alongside an established team and able to establish positive working relationships. • Be able to work remotely from the team whilst maintaining strong relationships. • Be willing to provide challenge and offer alternatives in a constructive manner. • Have a structured approach to planning and sharing knowledge. • Be willing to work with other partners, suppliers and contractors awarded work in this programme. Payment Approach Time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 10% Price 40% Questions from Suppliers No questions have been answered yet.