Single Trade Window - Strategic/Technical Partner

Tender description

Summary of the work This is an opportunity to support the Single Trade Window on its' journey to deliver the world's best border for the UK at a critical staging post, as the Programme moves out of foundational year with an SR21 settlement secured and engages with market leading suppliers to deliver the vision. Expected Contract Length 6 months +3 +3 Latest start date Wednesday 22 June 2022 Why the Work is Being Done Single Trade Window Programme will provide traders and their representatives with a single place where they can supply all mandatory information required into government and a single place where they can receive messages relating to the trade. The Programme aims to improve traders experience with the Border through simplification, reliability and consistency implementing a tell us once approach to data and incorporating supply chain data direct into government. Work packages to deliver these outcomes will continue towards this long term aim over the next 6-12 months. Problem to Be Solved Over the past 18 months Single Trade Window Programme has been laying the foundations for the Programme to move into delivery developing a high-level vision, component architecture, service design, Programme structure and business case to secure funding. STW launched its first live service in August 2021, a stand-alone guidance service for importers and intends to follow this by delivering an export guidance service in 2022 and a first phase for data submission bringing together Safety and Security and import declarations in 2023 whilst doing further work to iterate the service design, develop and agree the cross-government target architecture and evolve the 5year roadmap with further detail. Who Are the Users Detailed user requirements of UK businesses and traders in EPIC format will be provided to the successful bidder. Work Already Done In order to build on the success of the Programme's foundational year 21/22 - the STW now seeks client-side DDaT related advice and assurance, with a focus on strategic direction for the 3 overarching areas as below: · Service design · Data analysis, modelling &strategy · Technical architecture It is essential existing work is continued without pause or re-invention. Existing Team Existing STW Programme staff and existing suppliers supporting the live Guidance Service and other services in Private Beta Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Have proven expertise/track record of leading Government Programmes and Departments successfully through complex digital change delivery, demonstrable experience/track record of aligning all Strategic/Technical activity with Programme Business Case • Have capacity to provide quality technical resources; experienced solution and/or enterprise architects, with a good understanding of multi-component and distributed architectures, proven knowledge of designing solutions for cloud environments • Have experience of data driven delivery and expertise such as data modelling, analysis and management, plus documentation of artefacts • Have capacity to resource day 1 Programme requests with adequately skilled/experienced resources, respond in an agile way to needs/requests as understanding /requirements develop demonstrating ability to flex/prioritise maintaining quality • Provide a rate card setting out the range of charges for each of the following 6 essential roles - Service Designer/Technical Solutions Architect/Data Analyst/ Business Analyst/Data Architects/Data Engineer Work Location London, Liverpool, Newcastle Remotely as well Working Arrangments Remote working, onsite as required Security Clearance BPSS Additional T&Cs HMRC Mandatory Tax Clauses No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 10 Proposal Criteria • Technical Solutuon • Cultural Fit including Social Value • Price Cultural Fit Criteria • Respond to Social Value as part of full RFP • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers Payment Approach Time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 55% Cultural fit 15% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. The format of DOS does not allow suppliers to provide rate cards in the response. There is a max of 100 words allowed. Please advice how we’re to answer this question? Do you want examples of where we have done similar? I am going to try and issue a simple template to populate for this. If CCS are unable to facilitate this then I will respond to one of the other questions on this topic with guidance on how it will be managed. Examples of similar would be of interest yes. 2. can you guide us on the budget pls? The STW SR21 settlement is in the public domain £180m over 3 years, with £30m for 22/23, this opportunity will be less than that 22/23 budget but it is difficult to be precise given the emerging requirements of the Programme, sorry. 3. can you confirm who the incumbent suppliers are mentioned in the existing team please?“Existing STW Programme staff and existing suppliers supporting the live Guidance Service and other services in Private Beta” In alphabetical order, CapGemini, Deloitte, Engine, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, plus suppliers supporting HMRC Digital Delivery 4. In response to Q.5, is the expectation to provide day rates for all the six roles mentioned, at this stage of DOS procurement? Usually this is asked at stage 2. Please confirm. It is the expectation. Further detail will be provided in response to a related question, but the actual rates will not be evaluated at stage 1, the rates are requested relating to technical competence so that the Programme can get assurance at stage 1 that suppliers have access to resources with the required skills for a large digital transformation programme. 5. What is the budget for this opportunity. Please see answer to Q2 6. Is there an incumbent supplier for this piece of work? Please see answer to Q3 7. Please can you confirm if there is an incumbent provider for this service? Please see previous answer 8. Could you please provide an indicative budget for the 1st 6 month period? Previous answers hopefully inform, it is anticipated that a significant proportion of the Programmes spend over the next 6 months will flow through this proposed contract 9. Would it be possible to disclose the budget for this engagement? Other answers refer 10. Would it be possible to disclose who the incumbent supplier is? Other answers refer 11. Please could you confirm the allocated budget for this opportunity? Other answers refer 12. Regarding Q5 which asks suppliers to provide a rate card, please could you clarify how suppliers will be evaluated for this question given that it does not correspond with the evaluation guidance provided on the Digital Marketplace? This states that suppliers should only be evaluated on Technical Competence at Stage 1 by providing evidence of their skills and experience A rate card is deemed by the STW Programme as essential evidence of the skills and experience of supplier resources, so technical competence. Standard DOS5 scoring will be usedScore Description0 Not met or no evidence1 Partially met2 Met3 ExceededIf you are able to provide resources at all SFIA rates, this will result in a MET, if you are able to actually give the Client some assurance on how you can protect the Client against the risk of a less experienced resource being charged out higher, EXCEEDED. 13. Please can you clarify how you will score responses to the Rate Card question (Essential Skills and Experience bullet point 5). The Buyers Guide for DOS (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-score-digital-outcomes-and-specialists-suppliers#score-suppliers-on-each-criteria-for-technical-competence-and-cultural-fit), mandates a 0 to 3 scoring scheme for Essential Skills and Experience criteria with scores awarded according to the quality of the evidence provided. Given that a rate card is not based on evidence, how will you determine what scores to allocate? Please answer refers 14. Is there an incumbent? Apologies, above answer should say 'previous' not 'please'Other answers refer re incumbents 15. Is there an indicative budget? Other answers refer 16. Can you let us know where we can find the additional HMRC mandatory tax clauses? https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tax-compliance-of-hmrc-suppliers/tax-compliance-of-hmrc-suppliersThis link should provide enough detail at stage 1, full clause will form part of full RFP 17. Will the services being procured replace those being provided by an incumbent supplier? If so who is the incumbent supplier? Other answers refer 18. What is the expected contract value (or range) over the full possible 12-month contract duration? Other answers refer 19. Can you please clarify the likely timescales for the two evaluation phases of this DOS opportunity. Phase 1 26-27 May 22Phase 2 13-14 June 22Subject to change. 20. Can you provide the methodology that will be used to score the ratecard in this initial phase of evaluation (DOS round 1) Other answers refer 21. 1. Is the request for one case study to be referenced per question or are we at liberty to give examples of both UK Government experience and international STW experience per question?2. With regards to the rate card. Are you requesting a rate card at this stage of the tendering process? If so could you please specify the grades within each role you are interested in a rate card for. 1. It is up to you within the limits of the framework response word count2. Initially requirement is for all grades within a role, evaluation a stage 2 may be restricted to grades that will be specified in the RFP 22. Can you please provide a template for the ratecard that you seek given the 100-word limit of DOS Please see answer to Q1 23. As promised in the response to Q1, can you advise when a response template will be provided? Apologies for delay and also conscious of many outstanding questions which I will start responding to later today, but for the template for the rates I have not had chance to speak to CCS so best option is if you can email me directly at james.gadsby@hmrc.gov.uk before the close for clarification questions tomorrow then I will issue the template to all who request it on Thursday 19th May. Thank you. 24. In relation to the last question “Provide a rate card setting out the range of charges for each of the following 6 essential roles – Service Designer/Technical Solutions Architect/Data Analyst/ Business Analyst/Data Architects/Data Engineer” do you expect the rate card to be provided as part of the answer and if so what SFIA grades are the roles? Yes and for all roles at this stage please, SFIA grades for roles will be covered in more detail later 25. 1. What are the procurement timelines?2. Can the resources work from Offshore?3. What are the DDaT roles (and numbers) the Authority envisages to procure through this opportunity from day 1? 1. Stage 1 as per this opportunity Stage 2 new contract to commence 23/6/222. Preference is onshore 3. TBC 26. Please can you confirm what the expected timescales are for the full DOS bid process up to contract start? Other answer refers 27. Please can you clarify if this opportunity is intended to procure a single supplier, or a group of suppliers, to provide technical and strategic support to the Single Trade Window Programme over the next 12 months Single supplier 28. We note that there are 4 incumbent suppliers. Please could you confirm whether this DOS opportunity will be awarded to a single supplier or to multiple suppliers (and if multiple, how many). Single Supplier 29. Please confirm how many suppliers you will shortlist for DOS stage 2 (the assessment stage) Subject to interest and quality of responses to essential criteria, but at least 3 and no more than 10 30. 1. Please can you confirm how many suppliers are you looking for?2. Given there are 4 incumbent suppliers, please can you advise how are you able to create a level playing field considering the evaluation weighting for cultural fit is 15%?3. Please can you advise; is this resource augmentation or are you looking for defined technical and consultancy support against defined outcomes? 1. Single supplier2. 10% of the cultural fit is for Social Value so cultural fit weighting low and the full RFP section on that is designed to not to advantage any supplier incumbent or otherwise3. Outcomes will be defined but STW reserves the right to deploy milestone payment approach over hard deliverables for specific work packages 31. (1) Should suppliers provide rates for all SFIA levels (1 – 7). Please bear in mind, this will have an impact on response wordcount.(2) The response to question 12, suggests that suppliers need to answer 2 questions i.e. provide a rate card and assurance about resource capability. Given the limited wordcount available, is it possible to split this question into 2 parts?(3) Can you advise if suppliers will have an opportunity to update their rate card at later stages once more information about the work is available e.g. volume of work etc. 1. Yes - but as per a previous answer, request the template from james.gadsby@hmrc.gov.uk by cop tomorrow, so no impact on word count2. Yes - just provide narrative around assurance and any process you have in place to match skills/experience to what you charge, thank you3. Yes 32. (1) Given that the work is due to start to start in 5 – 6 weeks, when will the budget be confirmed?(2) Can you advise the initial volume of work for the first 1 – 3 months.(3) Recent HMRC DOS opportunities have been cancelled as they have been covered by the ongoing HMRC TSP programme. Can you advise if there is potential for that to happen in this instance? 1. There is no specific budget for this work, it is within the STW SR21 settlement2. No, but currently there are more than 15 resources deployed on this work and it is expected that will be continue under the 1st work package awarded to the successful bidder3. STW is outside of TSP and there has been no migration of services from existing arrangements to TSP contracts since STW transitioned back to HMRC, plus TSP deals unlikely to have headroom so highly improbable 33. Can any elements of this work be completed overseas, or will it all have to be completed in the UK? Other answer refers 34. Is the rate card required for both off-shore and on-shore team? On shore only 35. Is Rate card provided part of technical question 4 and evaluated separately? And does it need to adhere to the 100 word limit? Other answers refer 36. Will supplier staff be furnished with HMRC IT kit, or will supplier kit be used? If so does it need to be secure IT? Yes and yes 37. Do HMRC expect suppliers to provide a rate for each of the SFIA levels for each of the roles requested? Yes 38. Will you be awarding to a single Supplier and if this is therefore a consolidation would this require handover from multiple incumbents Yes a single supplier but the work covered by this RFP is currently being delivered by a single supplier, other incumbent suppliers are working specifically on the STW Guidance Service which is largely out of scope of this RFP, there will be touchpoints but not a full handover as such other than with a single supplier 39. Given Deloitte’s role on the TSP are they conflicted out from this tender? STW is not part of TSP 40. If successfully awarded this work as Strategic/Technical Partner, would this exclude the partner from carrying out further work for this programme? Suppliers are advised to conduct internal commercial risk assessments in respect of potential conflicts/associated impact on bidding for future work. STW may require any supplier, in parallel with standard financial/propriety assurances, to provide specific assurances they will provide open access to/sharing of all information they hold in respect of corporate knowledge/memory of Programme activity to ensure a ‘level playing field’ plus inclusion of data they hold in any future tender so as not to distort competition. This may include creation of appropriate transparent/auditable controls, including active/rigorous/secure ‘ethical walls’ to partition their teams, alongside signing of NDA during this opportunity term. 41. Will the successful supplier be precluded from bidding future Single Trade Window related procurements? Please previous answer 42. Would the award of this event disqualify or inhibit the winning supplier participating in any future development / implementation activity? Other answer refers 43. Does supporting this client-side conflict a supplier from future STW procurements? Other answer refers 44. Will wining this procurement preclude the supplier from future technical delivery partner bids? Other answer refers 45. As this work is client side advisory to HMRC, would any successful applicant be barred from working on downstream/future delivery opportunities that will form part of the Single Trade Window programme. Other answer refers 46. Please can you confirm if responding to this opportunity precludes a supplier from tendering from further work in the near future with HMRC on STW in particular? Wider HMRC - noSTW - other answer refers 47. Will the successful bidder be excluded from future procurements for the implementation of STW services? (we note this work is described as client-side). Other answers refer 48. Hi – please can you clarify if the successful bidder will be forbidden from bidding for any supply side STW contracts? Other answer refers 49. Thank you for clarifying that there is only one Incumbent whose contract will be replaced by this opportunity. Can you state please which one of the four it is? PwC 50. Can HMRC confirm the level of clearance required for resource included within the scope of this competition? BPSS 51. Can HMRC confirm any TUPE obligations as part of this competition? Current delivery is fixed price outcomes based 52. Can HMRC confirm whether the successful candidate(s) of this competition would be precluded from any subsequent downstream/ future Single Trade Window competitions/ procurement. Other answers refer 53. Good Morning, thanks for the Q&A so far. Please can you confirm if at Stage 2 there is to be a Presentation, or a Live Q&A session with shortlisted suppliers? Thanks Not planned no 54. Can HMRC confirm if the indicative rates we provide within our Stage 1 response will be considered/ carried forward into Stage 2 response? HMRC does not expect suppliers to provide rates at any stage, of any tender, that were unreliable and could distort competition 55. Can HMRC confirm which SFIA levels they require for each role type? HMRC needs to ensure that potential suppliers have the technical competence to deliver outcomes that could span the entire range of the SFIA grades for all the roles identified. It may be that the full RFP will focus on specific levels, but initially it is for all levels 56. Can HMRC confirm if the scores for Stage 1 are carried forward? If yes can you advise on the details of such; weighting/ %? No scores will not be carried forward 57. Will Tupe apply to this opportunity? Other answer refersPlease note, outstanding questions around resource profile/team size etc are being considered by STW and response will be issued before deadline 58. The first question asks for a start date for the team, whilst we have three overarching areas, please can you give some detail on the number of people or size of tasks to help us plan avaliability? So the start date is planned 23rd June, there is currently a team of around 15 in place but it is tbc if immediately landing a new team of 15 to shadow as that team rolls off is the best approach, the full RFP will cover mobilisation and give bidders the opportunity to clarify more in this area, including how they might review current resources and suggest a new approach, including use of Public Sector Resourcing. Size of task should flow out of mobilisation including picking up ongoing work packages from incumbent supplier. 59. • Size of budget• Expected size of team required (ideally by role)• Is there an existing incumbent supplier currently performing these services• Does performing this role exclude bidders from providing supply side services to deliver the STW Please see other answers, size of team by role can be covered in more detail at stage 2 of bidding 60. Regarding Q4 which asks suppliers to demonstrate “ability to flex”, please can you clarify what the lead time for this would be? There will be some dependency on Programme here around issuing kit etc but current onboarding is around 7-10days so ideally we would like resource to start onboarding process really quickly whilst acknowledging demand levels for these resources, asap really 61. Can you indicate the roles and number of resources that are provided by the current supplier (if there is one). e.g What is the resource profile in place today? It's around 15 resources maybe a few more, but it is not clear that some of these roles could be more efficiently provided through other routes, that is what we expect a quality supplier to advise us on 62. What is the team size and skills/level of experience profile required on day 1 of this contract? Other answers refer, Day 1 may be a small team of SFIA 7/6 resources who can then join conversation about what the profile needs to be going forward and where to best to recruit them 63. Approximately how many (or what range of) person-days are expected to be consumed under this contract over the full possible 12-month contract duration? Over 12 months it would be 000s 64. Hi,Is there a technology stack \ skills list for the 6 capabilities required as part of the procurement.Additionally, do you want suppliers to provide rates for SFIA Levels 1 – 7 or are there specific SFIA levels applied for each of the role I would imagine they are covered as per the SFIA 8 illustrative skills list 1-7 at this stage 1 65. The Single Trade Window will facilitate suppliers working with businesses and offering them services to facilitate trade. Is there a conflict of interest for suppliers in this market or planning to enter it, with this procurement?If yes, how will it be managed? This question should be re-submitted at Stage 2 clarification 66. Please can HMRC provide guidance on the number and type of roles that might be required for day 1 of this contract, to assist buyers in responding to the criterion ‘Have capacity to resource day 1 Programme requests with adequately skilled/experienced resources’? Other answers refer 67. HMRC issued a Single Trade Window RFI on 21st March and this market engagement is still ongoing. From the 28th Jan 22 market engagement launch event we understood that this RFI would inform HMG’s view of STW architectural approach/solution options which would then likely result in procurements later on this year. Please could you clarify how this DOS opportunity and the RFI/market engagement relate. This DOS opportunity is to continue momentum on critical work around declaration management and data strategy whilst the market engagement RFI progresses. 68. How does this work link to the current market engagement to define the scope for STW that is being led by Max Hacon? Please see previous answer 69. Could you confirm that the tender will only cover the discovery phase, and will all post discovery support be ringfenced and separate? Not categorically as there may be some degree of overlap potentially