West Midlands Combined Authority One Stop Shop

Tender description

Summary of the work The solution must be cloud hosted, with Software as a Service(Saas)preferred allow integration into current systems and have a proven roadmap for continual improvement make clear any additional licensing or ongoing costs for the length of the contract either be based on or fully integrate with Microsoft 365 platform,SharePoint Online,OneDrive,Teams,Exchange/Outlook. Latest start date Monday 31 October 2022 Budget Range NA Why the Work is Being Done The “One Stop Shop” project has been envisaged as a key component of the WMCA’s new Ways of Working. The core statement behind it is to make sure that anyone in any team across our organisation knows where to go for whatever it is they need to do and are presented with actions they have been assigned to undertake. Examples of the former might include helpful information about the organisation and who to contact about what, while examples of the latter might include purchase orders and holiday requests that need their approval. Problem to Be Solved The “One Stop Shop” project has been envisaged as a key component of the WMCA’s new Ways of Working. The core statement behind it is to make sure that anyone in any team across our organisation knows where to go for whatever it is they need to do and are presented with actions they have been assigned to undertake. Who Are the Users The users are WMCA’s staff, and they need to use the interface as a single point of entry for information, news, and actioning tasks from various line of business systems Work Already Done - High level project brief has been prepared. - Analysis of existing SharePoint content has been complete and engagement with business areas has started. Existing Team The Digital and Data team within WMCA, the One Stop Shop project team and extended stakeholders. Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Experience using agile methods for building services using the iterative and user-centred methods defined in Government Digital Standards. • Experience of defining a robust solution and a medium to long term roadmap in achieving and improving that solution. • Previous experience integrating Line of Business application functions to a central solution. • Experience in investigating and assessing third-party APIs for the purposes of integration and automation. • Knowledge of web accessibility standards and associated accreditation • Knowledge and experience of SharePoint Online and SharePoint 2013 • Experience of building websites/intranets using SharePoint Online. • Experience of migrating information to SharePoint Online (Microsoft 365) • Experience of working with Active Directory / Azure Active Directory • Experience in testing end-to-end services including regression testing • Experience of assessing and mitigating security and privacy issues • Experience of analysing existing processes, optimising, and automating through the most appropriate methods. • Experience of the Microsoft Power Platform including Canvas Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents. • Experience of enhancing and improving search functionality • Ability to train and upskill staff to ensure they have the knowledge to maintain a solution going forward. Nice to Haves • • Experience of developing content strategies and information architectures for new services. • • Experience in successfully delivering digital projects using iterative development • • Experience of working with central or local government Work Location This work is to be virtual, but there may be an opportunity to travel to WMCA offices in Birmingham for workshops and ideation Working Arrangments The supplier will work primarily with WMCA’s Digital and Data team but may also work with broader project stakeholders, including the Finance and Business Hub and Internal Communications No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • • Proposed solution and approach methodology • • How the solution will meet the requirements • • Estimated timeframe for the work • • Skills transfer process Cultural Fit Criteria • To share knowledge and experience to upskill WMCA staff Payment Approach Time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 70% Cultural fit 5% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers 1. Please clarify if a proposal is only required following this RFI evaluation activity? The proposal will only be required at the second stage from the shortlisted bidders. 2. For those short-listed, what is the expected timeframe for the delivery of a proposal? About 2 weeks. 3. Do you expect to provide more detailed requirements as part of this RFP stage? Yes. More detailed requirements will be provided at the second stage to the shortlisted bidders. 4. Please describe if you are looking for an off the shelf SaaS product solution or a partner who can build a software solution from the ground up for One Stop Shop application at WMCA? The WMCA is open to the best proposed solution that can meet timescale and available budget. 5. “Please outline the functionalities required in the One Stop Shop application E.G. can you list:a. The key features requiredb. The main User Journeys – or roles / personas of the expected usersc. Workflows for actions (holiday requests, purchase orders) please add others” Many of the desired functionalities are described in the detailed requirements brief that will be released to shortlisted bidders. 6. How many processes are considered for inclusion within the One Stop Shop application? There are several processes that are under consideration for inclusion, however the number of processes to be included at this stage will depend on complexity on fuller analysis. 7. How many users do you anticipate will be accessing the One Stop Shop application? All staff at the West Midlands Combined Authority will access the “One Stop Shop” solution for everyday processes and functionality. The specific number of staff is approx. 1,200 people. 8. We assume this application will be used by WMCA staff only and not intended for external users, please confirm This is correct, however there may be instances where non-staff members require access for targeted functionality. 9. It was mentioned that solution should be cloud hosted. Can you share your preference to cloud (Azure, AWS or Google) The WMCA currently make use of both AWS and Azure to host applications and data. However, the organisation is strongly aligned to the Microsoft environment of Azure and Microsoft 365. 10. Please confirm if you have licenses for Microsoft 365 and if so, what level of license do you currently have E3 or E5? We currently license staff with M365 E3. 11. Can you estimate the number of integrations required and the proportion that are internal vs external? There will be integrations many third-party applications, with varying numbers of processes aligned to each. The majority are external or third-party hosted SAAS applications. 12. Essential skillsets listed in the document are broader across MicroSoft ecosystem. Can you please estimate the ratio / mix of people required in each skill areas (SharePoint, MS Power Platform, Azure, etc.) We expect that the selected supplier will have the necessary skills and resource to support the delivery of their proposed solution. 13. What are your reporting needs for this application? This will be dependent on the applications and processes integrated, and will be considered at the early stages of the project. 14. What is the estimated duration of this engagement? The initial period is 12 months with up to 12 (twelve) months extension in increments of 6 (six) months. 15. Can you confirm the number of users within the organisation, and the level of Microsoft 365 and Azure AD licensing currently in place? The WMCA has currently approximately 1,200 staff. All staff are licensed with M365 E3 including Azure AD Premium P1. 16. The ‘One Stop Shop’ brief suggests you require the delivery of a communications platform, information hub which incorporates line of business applications and automation for business process, integrating with other systems. Do you also envisage the ‘One Stop Shop’ to facilitate content and document management and collaboration across the organisation? In addition do you envisage this project to include the roll out of associated apps in the Office 365 Suite that will complement the ‘One Stop Shop’, e.g. Yammer, Stream, Viva, Delve, etc? Yes, the solution should facilitate content and either facilitate document management or integrate with document management solutions in use, such as SharePoint Online. The solution may include the roll-out or re-positioning of relevant Microsoft 365 apps where the proposed solution will benefit. 17. You mention SharePoint 2013, which we assume is where you are migrating from. Can you please confirm whether you are migrating from any other platforms/locations to SharePoint Online? Can you also please advise on the current use cases for your existing SharePoint On-Premises platform? We wish to migrate from SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint Online. No other platforms or locations are considered for migration at this time.SharePoint 2013 is currently used for Intranet publishing, project management documentation, workflow hosting and automation and general file storage and management. 18. Experience of developing content strategies and information architectures for new services. This is currently highlighted as a nice to have, we see this as fundamental to the success of the implementation of your ‘One Stop Shop’ and migration to Office 365, Teams and SharePoint Online. Do you have plans to design your information architecture internally or with another partner? No. We expect that the selected supplier will have the necessary skills and resource to support the delivery of their proposed solution. 19. We would be happy to work on a T&M basis however we typically deliver fixed cost outcome based projects. We may also propose delivering solutions based on our own products and packages solutions which are subscription based. Are you set on T&M or open to fixed cost implementation deployment and subscription based products and services? We are only considering Time and Material based proposals for the purposes of this procurement exercise. This is to be able to fairly assess solutions as like-for-like.