Homes England - Single Pipeline Delivery Partner

Tender description

Summary of the work Support development of a consolidated pipeline service from Alpha to Live, combining portfolios of work and providing a process, data and systems spine for local processes to dock into. Expected Contract Length Up to 16 month Latest start date Tuesday 1 November 2022 Budget Range Homes England has budgetary approval to proceed however we are not disclosing the budget in this instance. We are looking to pay a fair rate for this piece of work that will be informed by the markets response to our requirement. Why the Work is Being Done Homes England has a stated strategic goal of moving to a more integrated and intelligent approach for identifying and progressing interventions in the housing market. This move is essential for Homes England to operate effectively at scale and at pace, and was integrated as a core process as part of the spending review 2020/21 and the business cases for new funding. To bring the agency together and change the way in which we operate, Homes England needs to be able to base decision making on a strategic understanding of business across the agency, with lenses to understand, target and engage around places, interventions and effectively with partners. Problem to Be Solved Homes England has disparate local processes to manage its various interventions in the housing market throughout their lifecycles. Teams have developed their own portfolios to meet local demands without consistent challenge around the form of intervention and consideration of how individual pipelines dock into a wider process. This results in a lack of visibility across interventions to support strategic conversations around opportunities, both internally and externally, and prevents movement of projects from one part of the business to another. The agency has been working towards the concept of a single pipeline and considerable work has been invested to map together existing pipelines, consider overlap and surface early reporting of a combined set of data. In order to become more effective, work must now start on consolidating the pipelines which sit behind this, making the pipeline effective within our internal processes and looking to deliver the efficiencies through establishing the single pipeline approach. A pipeline service must provide the spine into which other agency processes dock. As an opportunity progresses through the end-to-end process, intelligence will be gathered to be used for more automated collateral which supports business development, decision making, evaluation and developing the future direction of the agency. Who Are the Users An initial selection of high level needs is outlined below: As a director / accountable officer I need to: • manage potential activities together as a portfolio • identify and target higher value activity, increase throughput, deliver on strategy and credibly evidence delivery • have an auditable trail around opportunity development and decisions • assess the health of the pipeline and take action if required, and provide assurance to stakeholders that we are following key assurance principles and delivering value for money As a manager of opportunities I need: • the right evidence per stage • to reach the right decision quickly and avoid wasted time • to monitor end-to-end progress of opportunities individually and collectively • to make evidence-based decisions to manage/continually improve operations • consistent/compatible processes across Homes England • so I can collaborate with colleagues in other teams • to report on opportunities through multiple lenses • so I can analyse activity and outcomes around specific themes and identify duplicates and opportunities to join up As a partner of Homes England; • consistent, joined up engagement with Homes England • So I can manage my engagements with HE more effectively Early Market Engagement N/A Work Already Done A high-level overarching pipeline process is agreed, together with initial definitions and connectivity with a single assessment framework. There is also an interim solution for combining pipelines to support handling of DLUHC / Treasury enquiries and business cases for future funding. It uses a PowerBI frontend on a data environment and Extract Transform Load (ETL) processes, and some early location-based (geospatial) capabilities to show pipeline activity in context with current business and wider market activity. This prototype does not address core needs around integrated process / data, and relies heavily on manual intervention, which is unsustainable and offers limited resilience. Existing Team A product lead is in place looking at the overall pipeline proposition in context, with some part time service design and business analysis support. who is no incumbent team as such, but individuals across Homes England are working on aspects of consolidated pipeline management as part of their operational roles. In addition, a programme team is in place to oversee a number of inter-related projects. Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Demonstrable experience as prime supplier leading and providing the majority of roles within teams working on agile delivery of digital services from Alpha to Live in UK Government (or equivalent) • 2. Demonstrable experience exploring multi-faceted-problems across complex landscapes to identify opportunities to rapidly unlock value showcasing approaches to problem-definition, hypotheses testing, analysing user needs, rapid prototyping to identify appropriate solutions • Demonstrable experience of implementing portfolio management capabilities (project and/or investment portfolios) into complex organisations • Experience of working with the full lifecycle of implementation across a suite of complex services – process, data, technology and business change • Experience of the housing market and/or demonstrable understanding of the complex landscape across the homebuilding industry • Familiarity with Microsoft Dynamics, C# .NET Core, .NET MVC, Microsoft SQL Server, CosmosDB, Data Lakes, PostgreSQL, Databricks, PowerBI, Oracle, ADF, Kubernetes, Azure • Demonstrable expertise in developing complex, multi-dependency workflow implementations in Microsoft Dynamics • Experience in DevOps and automating the consolidation of data from different data sources in order to provide data insights Nice to Haves • Experience of investment management / banking systems • Experience of land management / property systems Work Location Remote. London, Coventry or Newcastle offices. Predominantly working remotely but attendance of face to face meetings and workshops will be required occasionally. Working Arrangments The team work remotely for majority of the time, the same would be expected of suppliers. However, teams should have easy access to London and/or Coventry and/or Newcastle as we expect all teams to be able to collaborate in person when needed. The expectation is that this might be up to 2 days per 2 week sprint. Suppliers may also be required to occasionally visit other offices/sites across England. The supplier will work closely and collaboratively with Homes England’s team to deliver the work and enable effective knowledge transfer, ensuring any future services can be maintained by Homes England’s staff. Security Clearance BPSS Additional T&Cs Standard Framework and Call Off Terms and Conditions subject to the changes and special terms inserted in the order form and schedules. Any expenses shall be submitted in line with Homes England standard T&S policy. We will not consider any further amendments from the supplier. Please confirm your acceptance of the order form and schedules plus special terms and amendments to call off terms. If you are unwilling to accept the order from as drafted you will be excluded from the selection and award processes. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Approach and methodology • Team structure and resourcing models, including ability to meet resourcing levels, CV’s of key people who will work with us & experience of working together and alongside client teams. • How the approach or solution meets user needs • How the approach or solution meets your organisation’s policy or goal • Value for money • How the approach delivers a sustainable model, including exit strategy and handover to an enduring function Cultural Fit Criteria • Demonstrable experience working effectively in a blended team, maintaining accountability over delivery of outcomes whilst the client provides other key roles (e.g product manager) and subject matter experts. • Your approach to developing the capability of internal teams, in parallel to delivery Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Is there an incumbent supplier? No. 2. Can the supplier leverage a blended team of onshore and nearshore resources to deliver the technical components in a more cost effective manner for Homes England? Due to our internal security policies we require all staff working on this project to be UK based. 3. Are the users of this Pipeline all internal or does this require engagement and the creation of links to external parties? End users will ultimately include external parties such as partners, funding applicants, DLUHC and Treasury. It is not yet known to what extent their needs will be met through digitally enabled self-serve capability vs. (for example) engagement / existing systems / other projects / reports.The needs of internal users are more clear and certain, and initial focus is likely to be primarily on these users. 4. Is the data required for the Single Pipeline, readily available and of sufficient quality to trust? Detailed data requirements are not yet fully understood, but Homes England has a mix of legacy systems, new systems and a data platform in development. This results in a complex data landscape with some duplication and quality challenges in some areas. In addition, managing a single pipeline will require creation and management of some new data. There is some understanding of what this looks like, but it is is yet to be fully defined. As such availability and quality will both need work. 5. Please can you provide an anticipated timeline for this procurement? We anticipate we will require two weeks to shortlist. The ITT will then be available for 2 weeks following the shortlisting then we will require another 2 weeks+ to review the final submissions, including presentations where appropriate, and evaluate proposals.