Design, implement and support essex.gov.uk using the LocalGov Drupal platform

Tender description

Summary of the work Collaboratively design and build a new essex.gov.uk website using the LocalGov Drupal platform. Working with the in-house service design team to migrate existing content and develop new features. Provide maintenance, support and hosting for 2 years. Expected Contract Length 24 Months Latest start date Monday 13 June 2022 Budget Range £300,000 total (as £150,000 in year 1 and £150,000 in year 2) Why the Work is Being Done Essex County Council is migrating to the LocalGov Drupal platform so that it can better meet the needs of its users and work with technology that is better suited to the capability and skills of the digital and technology teams. We have too many websites, an inconsistent approach to technology for publishing platforms and design standards are not consistently followed. This can cause confusion, which reduces satisfaction and increases cost. The goal of this work is to create an accessible website (through inclusive design approaches and compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA) and a strong foundation to iterate how we provide digital services. The scope of this work is primarily focussed on migrating content from the existing essex.gov.uk. However, we will be looking to reduce the number of microsites and exploit the new platform’s capabilities where opportunities arise. The LocalGov Drupal project aligns to the council’s strategic intent for the design of digital services. We are looking to play an active role in this open source project, contributing any new code back into the wider community. We want to work with the supplier as a blended team. Problem to Be Solved We cannot easily iterate or deploy features to our main website. This means we cannot respond quickly to the changing needs of our users or introduce new features. This has led to a proliferation of smaller websites. We want to bring consistency to the user experience and technology we use. We also want to reduce the carbon impact of our existing web estate. The content on the essex.gov.uk site is well managed and will not require any significant rationalisation or redesign. The council has recently published new brand guidelines and the design of the existing website will need to be adjusted in line with these. We’re looking for a partner to help us develop the essex.gov.uk website and publishing platform using LocalGov Drupal. The solution needs to comply with ECC’s standard non-functional requirements (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sKchfhmAB1hJo1Jc1WGaA_DTzYi5BEyR/). Who Are the Users The new council’s website will need to meet a wide range of user needs for residents, businesses and visitors. Some indicative high level user needs are: As a resident/business/visitor, I need to quickly access the right information and services online, so that I can meet my needs. As a content publisher, I need a simple and intuitive interface, so that I can create and manage useful content. As a marketing and communications professional, I need to easily create subsites with their own look and feel, so that we can effectively market our services. Work Already Done A technical discovery of the existing website and wider web estate was carried out in 2020/21. More information is available at https://servicetransformation.blog.essex.gov.uk/2021/05/06/platforms-discovery-week-notes/ We are carrying out related work to improve the council’s intranet https://servicetransformation.blog.essex.gov.uk/2022/01/05/intranet-alpha/ and Local Offer https://servicetransformation.blog.essex.gov.uk/2021/09/13/local-offer-discovery-week-notes/ websites Existing Team Director, Service Transformation (Sponsor) Senior Product Manager Delivery Manager Digital Performance Analyst Senior Content Designer (0.4) Content Designer Current Phase Live Skills & Experience • Provide an agile multi-disciplinary team including development, user research and product design • Have experience designing high volume digital services that meet a wide range of user needs using Drupal • Experience of delivering a product using agile product/service delivery • Knowledge and expertise in inclusive design • Experience developing digital services that are accessible for everyone • Have the ability to work with internal IT teams to assure security and solution architecture. Nice to Haves • Have developed and implemented a website using the LocalGov Drupal distribution • Evidence of designing, hosting and managing digital services to minimise the carbon impact Work Location We anticipate the team will be primarily remote. The County Council Offices are in Chelmsford, Essex. Working Arrangments Remote Working No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 4 Proposal Criteria • Clarity of approach and methodology • Technical solution • The team you will provide and the skills they bring • How you will blend and form an open and collaborative team with us • How the approach will align to the Government Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice • How you will maintain the live website and provide ongoing support to ECC Cultural Fit Criteria • Share knowledge and experience with ECC team members • Work collaboratively with the LocalGov Drupal community • Commitment to inclusivity in how you work Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Hi there – please could you advise how this requirement differs from “CO0164 SEND Local Offer on LocalGov Drupal” which was awarded to Invotra Consulting LimitedStart date: Monday 14 March 2022Value: £82,390” The CO0164 SEND Local Offer opportunity was for the development of a website to replace http://www.essexlocaloffer.org.uk/. This opportunity is to design and build a website to replace https://www.essex.gov.uk/. 2. What are the job roles of the evaluation panel? "Director of Service TransformationLead Service Designer (Service Transformation)Senior Product Manager (Service Transformation)Senior Content Advisor (Communications and Marketing)" 3. Is there an incumbent and are they bidding? There is no incumbent. 4. Who or which company performed the technical discovery as per the any work that’s already been done section? MadeTech 5. What is your procurement process for the shortlisted firms? – Timelines/Activities/Etc. We aim to shortlist candidates on the 4th of May, after which we will invite the shortlist to book a presentation slot and submit a written proposal. The clarification deadline will be the 11th of May, and the deadline to submit written proposal will be the 25th of May. The presentations will take place from the 26th to the 30th of May. Notification of selected candidate will be the 31st of May. Please note that these dates are subject to change due to scheduling commitments. 6. hi – could you share the final report on the discovery produced by madetech please? The link you’ve given in the opportunity goes to a blog which itself links to a video which is behind a Microsoft authentication challenge. Thanks The final report can be viewed at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1A_DMLdufDam1aO_mU0-TeNWms54lWBSp 7. "“You mention: “The content on the essex.gov.uk site is well managed and will not require any significant rationalisation or redesign.The council has recently published new brand guidelines, and the design of the existing website will need to be adjusted in line with these.”We understand from this that there will be no requirement for a content strategy or rewrite. However, there will be a redesign – based on the new brand guidelines – that will require effort to fit into the new LGD theme – please advise.”" "“We will need the supplier and their front end development team to work with us to interpret the new Essex County Council design guide to apply the council’s brand and visual identity to the LocalGov Drupal platform.. This will include theming styles, header and footer requirements and styling components (alerts, buttons etc.).We will have a member of the council's communications team design studio working with the delivery team and supplier to develop a consistent user experience.As stated in the requirement, the content on the site is well managed and so we don’t anticipate need for significant content redesign.”" 8. You mention the need to migrate content to the new website. What content types will be migrated, and how many of each? "Alert – 172 (e.g. “Contact Children’s Social Care” alert on https://essex.gov.uk/report-a-concern-about-a-child) Carousel Content – 3 (in news section on home page)Information Page – 294 (can have Sections – e.g. https://essex.gov.uk/get-married-in-essex, or no Sections – e.g. https://essex.gov.uk/support-for-residents) News – 668 (e.g. https://essex.gov.uk/news/energy-funding)Section – 466 (e.g. https://essex.gov.uk/trading-standards-policies-and-procedures/trading-standards-prosecution-policy) Start Page – 1 (https://www.essex.gov.uk/start/care-contribution-calculator) Topic – 28 (e.g. https://www.essex.gov.uk/topic/births-ceremonies-deaths) " 9. Will the content that is being migrated come from one website or are there multiple platforms? The priority is the migration of content from the essex.gov.uk website. We will then start the process of migrating service content from microsites and using the LocalGov Drupal microsites feature to migrate campaign and marketing site content. 10. Prior to migrating the content, will there have been a ROT analysis/Audit conducted of some sort to remove redundant content? Essex.gov.uk is managed by a service design team with content design specialists. It is under constant review and centrally managed with clear content governance standards. As such, there is very little redundant, outdated or trivial content. 11. You mention the requirement of microsites on LGD. Do you have an understanding of how many microsites/sub-sites you have? There are approximately 60 microsites / sub-sites. Migration of these sites is a long term goal, something we want the new platform technology to enable the in-house team to deliver. 12. Ahead of a production launch, are you planning to submit the website for a GDS assessment for approval, or will security, architecture and accessibility sign off be completed internally? Local government cannot submit services for assessment by the Government Digital Service. All service assessment prior to launch will be managed internally. We will assess against the 14 points of the standard and follow a process broadly in line with what’s documented at https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/service-assessments/how-service-assessments-work 13. With the Capped T&M will the supplier provide you with timesheets based on their SFIA rate card, and expect payment monthly in arrears? Yes. Suppliers will need to make their pricing clear in their bid, including if they are using an SFIA rate card, but there is no obligation to use an SFIA rate card for your pricing. 14. What is your target date for a final launch, and do you have a preference of rollout method (i.e. Alpha, Beta)? We don’t have a specific target launch date. We are keen to deliver value as early as possible, and we favour approaches that put a live product in front of users early to get feedback for ongoing development. This could include an alpha or a private beta.