704361450 - Army Website Renewal (Project Lamarr)

Tender description

Summary of the work Support and maintenance of the Army website and Umbracco Content Management System. Refresh and iterative development of the Army website. Maintain software layer and licensing whilst liaising with MODCloud to ensure infrastructure is patched and secure. Support Army digital communications. Digital Improvements to Soldier magazine including subscription service. Expected Contract Length 2 years with a further optional 6 month period Latest start date Saturday 1 October 2022 Budget Range £600,000.00 - £750,000.00 ex VAT Why the Work is Being Done The Army main corporate website (www.army.mod.uk) is the Army’s digital hub for media operations, information provision, family support and assisting in recruit Marketing activity. The site provides a wealth of information about the Army. The purpose of the website is to: i. Provide accurate and relevant information about the Army, current operations, the people and equipment to meet the People, Purpose and Innovation objectives, Recruit and Retain our audiences ii. Attract potential recruits to a career in the Army iii. Support families and current personnel through engagement and information provision Problem to Be Solved In order for the Army to have an ‘official’ web-site and presence in the world-wide-web (www) it is necessary that there is a support arrangement to work alongside the in-house teams who provide content. Solder Magazine needs to update its digital offering for the 21st century. It currently has online PDF page-turning software on the British Army website. Who Are the Users As a member of the general public I need to be able to learn more about the Army and be able to find the relevant information easily so that I can get either the relevant help I need to increase my knowledge of Army activities or the organisation as a whole. Existing Team The Army Communications Digital Communications Team who look after the Army website and the Army's social media accounts. We will also be working with Soldier magazine. Current Phase Live Skills & Experience • Demonstrate proven experience of using agile project management • Demonstrate proven experience of managing responsive websites based on user needs • Be a gold standard or Certified Umbraco partner • Demonstrate knowledge in conducting on-going user research by providing at least 2 examples • Demonstrate examples of delivering projects at speed with clearly identified deliverables and timescales • Demonstrate evidence of harvesting website performance data to transform into meaningful information to make informed decisions within the last 3 years • Have extensive/proven Technical knowledge of website hosting environments such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure • Have experience of assessing and mitigating security threats and privacy issues, including Cyber Essentials certification and GDPR • Demonstrate understanding, experience and implementing website metric software such as Google Analytics • Demonstrate evidence of good planning, co-ordination, communication and project management skills within the last 3 years • Experience of tactical communications Nice to Haves • Demonstrate previous experience or understanding of working with the UK military within the last 5 years • Demonstrate experience of delivering projects in line with Government Digital Services Standards within the last 3 years Work Location The Army Communications Team is based in Andover however the supplier is to work from the supplier's premises. Working Arrangments The work can be done remotely with meetings face to face either in Andover or at the suppliers location when needed. Security Clearance n/a Additional T&Cs DEFCON 76 (edn 06/21) Contractor's Personnel At Government Establishments DEFCON 513 (Edn 04/22) - Value Added Tax and Other Taxes DEFCON 516 (Edn 04/12) - Equality DEFCON 531 (edn 09/21) Disclosure Of Information DEFCON 532B (edn 04/20) Protection of Personal Data DEFCON 534 (Edn 06/21) – Subcontracting and Prompt Payment DEFCON 537 (Edn 12/21) - Rights of Third Parties DEFCON 550 (Edn 02/14) - Child Labour and Employment Law No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 8 Proposal Criteria • Technical solution • approach and methodology • how the approach or solution meets user needs • how the approach or solution meets your organisation’s policy or goal • estimated timeframes for the work • how they’ve identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them • how they will maintain the live website and provide ongoing support Cultural Fit Criteria • (Fighting climate change) Please outline your company’s sustainability policy, including but not limited to, your plans for ensuring that your company has net zero, or negative greenhouse gas emissions • (Equality – tackling economic inequality) Please explain how your company will help tackle inequality by creating employment and training opportunities for disadvantaged groups, disadvantaged young people • (Equality, diversity and inclusion – reducing the disability employment gap) Please outline what you have done to increase the representation of disabled people in your workforce • (Equality, diversity and inclusion – tackling workforce inequality) Outline your company’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy and explain what steps you have recently undertaken to promote this agenda • (Health and wellbeing) Please describe your company’s health and wellbeing policies, and what steps you take to ensure that they are being positively applied across your workforce Payment Approach Fixed price Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 10% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. Please could you advise what is required under “Experience of tactical communications”. How you ensure the same message you are trying to achieve is delivered on the appropriate channels and tailored for those channels. How you identify the audiences on the channels and identify the audience for the message. How the message meet the user need. 2. Please could you advise what is required under “Experience of tactical communications”. How you ensure the same message you are trying to achieve is delivered on the appropriate channels and tailored for those channels. How you identify the audiences on the channels and identify the audience for the message. How the message meets the user need. 3. Previous work for the Army has identified a number of internal processes that slow down decision making. How will this project be managed and how have internal processes been adapted to bring greater efficiencies Army Digital are bringing greater resource to the team and dedicated support to the contract. Projects within scope of the contract will be discussed with the Digital Team Leader and agreed along with the timelines to achieve. Only projects within scope of the contract will be considered to ensure quick decision making can be achieved as this will be within scope of the Digital Team Leaders remit. The Digital Team leader will also have support from the Head of Digital and Content to ensure decisions can be made in a timely fashion. 4. What is the current incumbency situation – why is the Army looking now for a supplier? For example, has the current contract come to an end. The current contract will be coming to an end. 5. Please could you provide more information on this requirement “Digital Improvements to Soldier magazine including subscription service.” Solder Magazine currently has an online PDF page-turning software on the British Army website which does not reformat for viewing on mobile devices therefore needs to be optimised for the reader’s digital device.The magazine needs to be accessed for free via the Defence Gateway for current serving personnel and a paid for subscription for non personnel.Current Soldier Magazine: https://www.army.mod.uk/news-and-events/soldier-magazine/Ideally we would like something similar (not firm on the look and feel but the way the model works) to Navy News: https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/navy-news 6. Other than for question 4 (‘Demonstrate knowledge in conducting on-going user research by providing at least 2 examples’), may bidders use more than one example per response when responding to the essential and nice-to-have skills and experience? Are there any questions where more than one contract example will be preferred? There are no other specific questions where more than 1 is required. Bidders may use more than 1 example but no more than 3 for any question. 7. “Demonstrate proven experience of managing responsive websites based on user needs” Please advise if ‘managing’ relates to ‘support and management of the site once built’ or project management of the Discovery/Build phases or something else. The website is in need of a refresh so some demonstration on your experience in this area on how you have done this in the past looking at the business requirement but ensuring the site is user friendly and meets the user need.Once re-built the site would require ongoing support and management and ongoing improvements to ensure the user need is met based on the ongoing business requirements.