Data & Trading Environment Bench

Tender description

Summary of the work Providing experienced data and product specialists to deliver and enhance the department's data and digital services, through a range of short and long-term projects, in accordance with GDS standards. Expected Contract Length 24 months Latest start date Tuesday 10 May 2022 Budget Range A maximum budget of £4,000,000.00 for a 24-month duration, exclusive of VAT. Why the Work is Being Done The DIT Data team builds and operates data services to support the department's objective to become a data-driven organisation. The Trading Environment Portfolio supports and enables the specifics of getting goods and services across a border and into a market. The services part of the Trading Environment portfolio provide a variety of functions to enable cross-border trade. They: • provide the mechanics of trade negotiations • store and process trading data (tariffs, controls, licenses) • provide customs information for traders (tariffs, controls, rules of origin) • provide infrastructure to report, record and resolve trade barriers The team is constantly developing new services and infrastructure to meet emerging priorities. As our range of products grows, we need to supplement our in-house teams with other specialists able to deliver on our requirements, including: • Business Analysts • Developers • Product Leads • User researchers • Service and Interaction designers • Content Designers • Delivery Managers. This will allow us greater flexibility to enhance existing services, while also delivering against urgent priorities as they arise. The Call-Off contract terms and conditions cannot be changed. Problem to Be Solved DIT need to deliver both long- and short-term solutions, to meet emerging priorities for the department. At the same time, we need to ensure our existing services are maintained and enhanced to ensure they remain best-in-class. We have a range of services in discovery, alpha and beta phases of development. The supplier will work on a number of different work packages, including new feature development for our in-house data platform and customer relationship management system, developing applications to manage the UK tariff, report and manage trade barriers and issuing licences, data infrastructure development and data science projects. Who Are the Users DIT are looking for a supplier to help its Digital, Data and Technology team deliver against its full range of departmental priorities for data & trading environments. DDaT is a growing function, and it needs extra capacity to deliver new projects and transform existing services, identify gaps and build departmental capability as DDaT helps the Buyer to deliver against its priorities. The Buyer’s services include both staff-facing and public-facing products. Staff-facing services are used by ~4,000 Buyer’s staff and partners around the world, and the Buyer's public-facing digital services are used by those UK exporters and overseas investors to support them in their international trade journey. Early Market Engagement Not Applicable Work Already Done The DDaT Data & Trading Environment Teams are already working on a number of projects within the scope of this procurement. The successful supplier would be expected to support with existing projects, as well as working on the early stages of new projects. 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. There is an existing DOS contract, which is due to be depleted by May, for part of the scope of this requirement. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Experience of and excellent technical competence in developing Python Django applications, using Postgres databases, and developing user-facing forms using Node.js and React. (5%) • Proven experience in delivering new services and components which are integrated into existing digital services, particularly including API integrations. (5%) • Proven expertise in key data science, analysis and engineering skills, including natural language processing, sentiment analysis, machine learning and data visualisation. (5%) • Experience in the planning and delivery of user-centred, agile projects, following the Government Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice. (7%) • Experience of hypothesis-driven iterative and explorative approach to meeting user needs. (5%) • Experience of developing digital services or staff-facing digital tools, to support transnational business activity. (5%) • 250-word count for each question Nice to Haves • Experience delivering as part of a wider product team, under the leadership of a programme team, as part of a wider portfolio. (3%) • 250-word count for the question Work Location Department for International Trade Old Admiralty Building Westminster London SW1A 2BL Working Arrangments Much of the work can be completed remotely. However, a substantial portion of the work will typically have to be performed on-site at DIT’s premises in Westminster, London. Security Clearance The majority of individuals working on the contract would be expected to have SC clearance. DIT would be willing to sponsor the SC clearance process at the supplier's expense. On occasion, BPSS may be agreed for certain roles. Additional T&Cs The Call-Off contract terms and conditions cannot be changed. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Explain-how-you-will meet DIT's need for appropriately skilled data and product specialists and what internal tests/processing will you undertake to ensure these specialists meet the requirements? (3%) • How-will-you-measure-and-manage the quality and speed of delivery? (5%) • Provide-three-client-focused-case-studies-from-the-last 3 years where your company have provided similar services. Please identify any proposed team members that were part of the delivery team for these case studies. (4%) • 250-word count for each question • Presentation - 45 minutes - 20 mins. for presentation, 25 mins. for questions and 25 mins. for Q&A. Maximum of 4 supplier personnel. Delivered over Teams. • Presentation question: Explain-how-for-the-contract-duration-you will provide flexible resourcing of SC-cleared staff, including your approach to onboarding and retaining key resources within changing market conditions. (4%) • Presentation question-Delivery approach – Present-an-example-delivery-plan-for-development-and-integration of a new product, which consumes data and content from multiple sources and applies data science and engineering techniques to produce new insights. (5%) • Presentation question: Explain-how-you-would-work-collaboratively with DIT to develop and implement exit and transition plans and ensure knowledge transfer to DIT staff. (4%) 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 GDS Manual (5%) • 250-word count for each question Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Work history • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 70% Cultural fit 10% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Digital Marketplace application allows 100 wordcount for responses to stage 1 questions. Please confirm that this is the requirement, and not 250 as stated in the opportunity. The stated 250 word count for Phase 1 questions is an error. To clarify, the word count for stage 1 questions is 100 and the word count for stage 2 questions is 250. 2. Are you able to indicate if there is an incumbent supplier and if so who the supplier is? There is an existing DOS contract in place with Profusion Media Ltd, which is due to be depleted by May, for part of the scope of this requirement. 3. Can you confirm that you will not score the Essential Criteria and Nice to Have criteria “250-word count for each question”? And therefore require a blank response from suppliers on each of these criteria? This is correct. Where ‘250-word count for each question’ is stated/written, it is not scored, nor is a response required. 4. Will any components of the work requiring cloud hosting and if yes, which cloud provider(s) are they likley to be? Yes, we use AWS (both directly, and via GDS PaaS). 5. You state “a substantial portion of the work will typically have to be performed on-site at DIT’s premises in Westminster”. Could you confirm how many days a week please?. The expectation would be approximately 2 days per week, depending on business need. 6. Can you provide the rationale for using both Node and Python please? We are asking for both pythoh/django and nodejs/react because we use mainly python for Trading Environment products, and we use both pythoh/django and nodejs/react for the development of Data Hub, within the Data Portfolio.