DIT Export Development Team

Tender description

Summary of the work The Buyer’s Digital, Data and Technology team requires a call-off contract to provide support in delivering against the Buyer’s export priorities. The appointed supplier shall provide teams to deliver outcomes such as discoveries, alphas and betas. The-Supplier-will-be-responsible-for providing a handover of work at the conclusion of each Statement of Work. Expected Contract Length 24 months duration, plus an optional extension period of up to 6 months. Latest start date Tuesday 14 June 2022 Budget Range The Buyer will-issue-a range of work packages. A maximum budget of £5,000,000.00 for a 24-month-duration, exclusive of VAT. This budget range excludes-any-extension-options. The-value-of-the-optional-extension-period-is £1,250,000 excl VAT. Why the Work is Being Done The Buyer (DIT) is a global organisation with representatives in over 100 countries across the world. It operates across about 50 industrial sectors across every region in the UK. The Digital, Data and Technology team works to build-new services, and develop those-already-in-existence, to promote international trade. These services-provide-advice, support- and-end-to-end services for businesses in the UK and overseas looking-to-trade-or invest. DDaT is a growing function, and requires support-to-help it deliver-its-work during this time. Much of the team’s-work is exploratory, and suited to outcome-based teams. In-accordance with DOS guidance, the evaluation for this contract will be undertaken over 2 rounds, the highest scoring 5 suppliers (with scores of 2 or more in the essential criteria) will-be-invited to submit proposals for Round 2. However, if there is a tie for 5th place resulting in more than 5 highest scoring bidders, the Buyer will select all 5th placed suppliers. Round 2 will be issued via the Buyer's eSourcing portal Jaggaer at https://uktrade.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html, with responses being evaluated offline. Please register if-you have-not-already-done so. The individual weightings for essential skills and experience criteria will not be used as part of shortlisting at Round 1, but will form part of the overall score at Round 2. Problem to Be Solved The Buyer’s Digital, Data and Technology team requires a call-off contract to provide support in delivering against the Buyer’s export priorities. The appointed supplier shall-provide-teams-to-deliver outcomes such as discoveries, alphas and betas. The teams will sometimes work independently, led by the export programme team (in particular, service owner, portfolio delivery manager, service designer); and other teams will fit in as-part-of-established product teams. If a product-or-service progresses into beta, the Buyer will look to use an in-house team and will expect-the-managed-service-team to support transition of knowledge. Amongst others, we would expect the supplier to-be-able-to-provide the following roles: • Product manager • User researcher • Interaction Designer • Software developers The chosen supplier will be expected-to-undertake-the work in all cases according to: • DIT content lifecycle, approvals and standards • GDS service manual • DIT approach to user needs and acceptance criteria • GDS and DIT style guides • Accessibility directive • DIT security policy and procedures The supplier-will-be-required to: • Support delivery of new projects and transformation of existing services • Identify gaps and build capability in the Department to support emerging skills needed in the future • Ensure a successful transition-of-knowledge to the in-house team Multiple SOWs can operate concurrently. Who Are the Users We are looking for a supplier to help our Digital, Data and Technology team deliver against its export priorities. DDaT is a growing function, and we need extra capacity to deliver new projects and transform existing services, identify gaps and build departmental capability as we help the Buyer to deliver against its priorities. We have a number of planned exploratory projects that would suit outcome-based teams. Our services include both staff-facing and public-facing products. Staff-facing services are used by ~4,000 the Buyer’s staff and partners around the world, enabling the Buyer to support UK export and overseas investors and to inform UK trade policy. The Buyer's public-facing digital services are used by overseas investors to support them in their international trade journey. Existing Team The Buyer’s DDAT team consists of a range of multi-disciplinary teams, working across all areas. It is a fast-growing team. The supplier will support DDaT during this phase to deliver departmental priorities either by supplementing existing product teams or by taking forward new Discoveries, Alphas and Betas independently, under the leadership of the programme team. Documenting the work and handing over is a critical part of the contract to ensure that DDaT owns and retains the knowledge created during the work. There is no incumbent supplier for this work. Current Phase Not started Skills & Experience • • Experience working on user-centred, agile projects, following the Government Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice. (3%) • • Experience of a hypothesis-driven iterative & explorative approach to meeting user needs. (3%) • • Experience delivering as part of a wider product team, under the leadership of a programme team, as part of a wider portfolio. (3%) • • Experience in linking multiple loosely coupled systems, with different data models and data quality, as part of a production service. (3%) • • Experience of developing digital services or staff-facing digital tools to support transnational business activity. (3%) • • Demonstrate experience working as a strategic supplier for another organisation to improve their use of data (3%) • • Demonstrate the ability to work with stakeholders to refine and validate their ideas. (2%) Work Location Department for International Trade Old Admiralty Building Admiralty Place Whitehall London SW1A 2DY or remotely during current restrictions as a result of COVID-19 Working Arrangments The supplier will primarily work in DIT's London offices. Currently the teams are working remotely with a requirement to attend the office as needed (4-8 days per month). This is subject to change therefore Flexible working will be discussed at the commencement of each Statement of Work. Security Clearance All supplier staff will ordinarily be required to have SC clearance before they start. A copy of the clearance from the supplier will be required. It is the responsibility of the supplier to ensure clearance is received. Additional T&Cs All expenses must be pre-agreed between the parties and must comply with the Cabinet Office (CO) Travel and Subsistence (T&S) Policy. The initial SOW will be agreed with the successful supplier following award, however our underlying requirements will not change. The Buyer reserves the right to treat any bid which is caveated by reference to the UK's relationship with the EU and / or COVID-19 as non-compliant and, as with any procurement exercise, a bidder in submitting its prices for evaluation does so in acceptance of all business risks and circumstances arising from time to time. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Please outline-how-much-resource-you-will-be-able-to-provide-to-meet-call-off-requests-under-this-contract,-including-the-volume-of-parallel-requests-that-you-could-meet(6%) • Explain-your-approach-to-onboarding-and-retaining-key-resources-within-changing-market-conditions-(6%) • Explain-how-you'll-meet-the-Buyer's-need-for-appropriately-skilled-individuals-what-internal-tests/processing-will-you- undertake-to-ensure-these-specialists-meet-our-requirements?-How-will-you-measure-and-manage-the-quality-and-speed-of-delivery?-(6%) • Based-on-the-initial-requirements-(deliverables-in-the-SOW),-please-provide-outlines-of-the-team-profile-/-work-history-of-the-individuals-who-would-be-working-to-deliver-the-outcomes-(6%) • Explain-how-you-will-ensure-the-Buyer’s-staff-are-ready-to-take-on-operational-control-and-support-upon-completion-of-work.-(6%) • • Presentation question: Demonstrate how you will deliver the SOW deliverables with reference to 3 client focused case studies. Identify team members that-were-part-of-the-delivery-team-provide-1-example-where-you-operated-independently, and 1 example-where-you-were-part-of-a-wider-product-(10%) Cultural Fit Criteria • Demonstrate your ability to work with multiple teams on the same platform, sharing components, reviewing each other's work and promoting a collaborative working environment. (5%) • • Demonstrate your ability to deliver in an open, collaborative, agile way according to the principles outlined in the Government Service Design Manual (5%) Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Work history • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Can you share the procurement timelines – stage 2, contract award etc.? Anticipated Procurement TimelinesPresentations (round 2) w/c 9th May 2022Deadline for Round 2 submissions 9th May 2022Contract start 14th June 2022 2. IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM DIT:Notice of additional questions: Social Value: 10% total weighting Social Value 10%• Different-organisations-may-have-insights-into-new-ways-of-working-that-we-are-looking-to-promote. The Buyer-is-keen-to-ensure-that-its-supply-chain-includes-a-diverse-range-of-businesses-e.g. new-businesses-and-entrepreneurs,-start-ups,-SME's,-VCSE's-&-mutuals. Explain-how-you-will-support-this-goal (5%)• Experience supporting in-work progression to help people, including those from disadvantaged or minority groups, to transition into or progress within DDaT roles. (5%) 3. Re. the provision of “teams” under multiple concurrent SOWs – can you confirm approximately how many teams you may require in parallel at peak? The number of teams is dependent on our commitments and civil service headcount across the length of the contract and is therefore uncertain at this stage in the process. An approximate number could be 5 teams, plus individuals joining project teams mixed with civil servants, but this is not a hard figure. DIT would therefore expect the successful supplier to have sufficient resource availability to deliver a number of outcomes in parallel. However, DIT will consider bids from any type of supplier able to meet our requirements. SMEs are encouraged to submit a bid. We recognise that-different-types-of-company-may-mobilise-resource-in-different-ways – not-all-suppliers-will-necessarily-have-a-pre-existing-bench-to-draw-from. However,-any-supplier-would-be-expected-to-ramp-up-teams-quickly. 4. Re. the 14th June start date. How many teams do you envisage needing on day 1? We need at least 2 teams in as soon as possible, but recognise the challenging timescale that comes with the need for SC clearance if we need to start the SC process for individuals from 14th June.If the successful supplier is able to provide individuals that are already SC cleared on 14th June, we will look at on-boarding immediately, depending on the Statements of Work and the make-up of the team required to deliver those. For example, we would have to wait to onboard a team of developers until a delivery manager is also ready. 5. Re. the “handover of work”, we assume that suppliers will be expected to estimate and plan handover activities as part of the cost of the work statement? Correct. The supplier would work with DIT to ensure that DIT staff are able to take on the project after completion. The exact scope of the knowledge transfer will depend on the outcome of discoveries. An initial draft SOW will be shared in Round 2, which will indicate the areas in which the supplier will be expected to support with knowledge transfer. 6. Can we confirm that your term “managed-service-team” simply refers to the supplier who supplies and manages the “services” under this procurement, and not a traditional “managed service” (i.e. the winning supplier will not have to provide teams for live support)? This assumption is correct. 7. Re. the SC requirements. We assume you will sponsor staff needing to gain SC. Will those staff be permitted to work on (for example) non-production data, or other non-sensitive work whilst SC is pending? DIT would be willing to sponsor the SC process at the supplier's expense. The majority of staff working on the contract would be expected to have SC before starting work with DIT. On occasion on-boarding at BPSS may be agreed for certain roles, dependent on business requirements. 8. You state that the underlying SOW will be agreed with the winning supplier later but your “underlying requirements will not change”. Are you able to share those requirements now to allow suppliers to understand more detail about the nature and scale of work of the first SOW? This is vital to share at this stage as your Presentation stage 10% question requires suppliers to evidence how they will deliver that SOW through 3 case studies. We need to have details now to ensure that we do not discover later that we do not have three suitable case studies. These details will be shared with the selected suppliers before the second (presentation) round.Our platforms include one front-end website with a logged-in experience and one custom build internal CRM. Our technology stack is listed below. Suppliers can provide examples of where they have worked on similar projects.Tech stack:language: python (django)hosting: gov.uk PaaSdb: postgresqlsessions: redissearch: elasticsearchtools: github, circle-ci, Jenkins 9. The proposal stage marking percentages list the two CF answers as 5% each yet the evaluating weighting lists CF as 20% in total. Will each CF question be 10% each? Please note 'IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM DIT' above.Social Value 10%• Different-organisations-may-have-insights-into-new-ways-of-working-that-we-are-looking-to-promote. The Buyer-is-keen-to-ensure-that-its-supply-chain-includes-a-diverse-range-of-businesses-e.g. new-businesses-and-entrepreneurs,-start-ups,-SME's,-VCSE's-&-mutuals. Explain-how-you-will-support-this-goal (5%)• Experience supporting in-work progression to help people, including those from disadvantaged or minority groups, to transition into or progress within DDaT roles. (5%) 10. Please can you confirm how the “Work histories”, “Reference” and “Case Study” elements of the other assessment methods will contribute to the evaluation scoring? The authority reserves the right to utilise any of the methods when inviting shortlisted suppliers to stage two. The approach and details for each assessment method will be clearly defined within the stage two documentation. 11. Will you be using the standard CCS coarse-grained scoring method (0-3) for each element of the stage 2 criteria? Yes. 12. Can you please detail the core tech skills needed for this opportunity? The skills to work with our tech stack:language (must have): Django 2.x, Django REST Framework, Python 3.xlanguage (nice to have): Wagtail 2.11.x, Rails 5, Ruby 2.7hosting: gov.uk PaaSdb: postgresqlsessions: redissearch: elasticsearchtools: github, circle-ci, Jenkins 13. Can you please elaborate on what you mean by “transnational business activity”? DIT’s objective is to secure UK and global prosperity by promoting and financing international trade and investment, and championing free trade.Examples of transnational work that might be relevant to the work DIT will do within this requirement could relate to services that support business transactions that cross national borders. 14. Can you please advise if DIT will sponsor SC Clearance? DIT will at the supplier’s expense. 15. Will the winning supplier be expected to undertake structured Disco, Alpha, and Beta work, for which they will own the outcome? Or, will they be expected to provide team members for established teams, and move from project to project?In the event that it will be a combination of the two, could you please confirm what you expect the likely split to be between the two types of requirement? A combination of the two. DIT is unable to confirm the likely split at this stage in the process as this is dependent on our commitments and civil service headcount across the length of the contract.As per our specification, teams will sometimes work independently, led by the export programme team (in particular, service owner, portfolio delivery manager, service designer); and other teams will fit in as-part-of-established product teams. If a product-or-service progresses into beta, the Buyer will look to use an in-house team and will expect-the-managed-service-team to support transition of knowledge. 16. What do you mean by production service? A 'production service' is referring to a product with live users. 17. Will you sponsor SC clearance for suppliers that do not have List X status (and therefore require a Department sponsor to apply for clearances)? DIT will at the supplier's expense. 18. Are you content for suppliers to provide private sector examples where they are relevant to the question? For example, supporting transnational business activity. Yes, all relevant experience would be considered as part of the assessment criteria. The supplier would be expected to demonstrate experience working on user-centred, agile projects, following the Government Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice. 19. Would DIT be willing to sponsor the SC clearance process at the supplier’s expense? Also, will SC clearance be required for all roles? DIT would be willing to sponsor the SC process at the supplier's expense. The majority of individuals working on the contract would be expected to have SC. On occasion, BPSS may be agreed for certain roles. 20. Can you please advise the awarded supplier for a similar requirement in July 2021? DIT Digital Design Support Development Team – https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/digital-outcomes-and-specialists/opportunities/15239 Whilst this requirement is closed for applications, panel presentations are ongoing. As a result, this requirement has not been awarded to a supplier. 21. Could you please confirm the technology stack that a successful supplier would be expected to work with? Our tech stack is:language: python (django)hosting: gov.uk PaaSdb: postgresqlsessions: redissearch: elasticsearchtools: github, circle-ci, Jenkins 22. Has any external supplier been involved in the initial scoping work? If so, who? No, no external supplier has been involved in the initial scoping work. 23. Can you confirm if shortlisted suppliers will have the opportunity to present? Yes. Detail for stage two will be issued to the shortlisted suppliers. 24. Who is the incumbent and how long they have been the incumbent? There is no incumbent supplier for this requirement. 25. Who from your team will be scoring applications for this opportunity and what positions do they hold? The evaluation panel will be made up by colleagues from our Export and Digital Data and Technology teams. 26. The “existing team” details state that you may want the new supplier to perform new Beta work but the “Problem to be Solved” section states that you would look to hand over to in-house teams for Beta work. Please can you confirm which statement is correct? It is DIT’s intention for MST’s to deliver up to beta. Following which we would want beta to be delivered by a team of civil servants who may be supplemented by individuals via the contract. Please note that contract flexibility will be required. 27. Can you please advise who was awarded this similar opp, DIT Investment Support Development Team? https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/digital-outcomes-and-specialists/opportunities/14964 The outcome of the awarded contract will be published on contracts finder in due course.