HMPPS - Secure Estate Live Digital Products

Tender description

Summary of the work The MoJ is seeking a managed service provider to support and maintain four live digital products used internally across prisons and probation to meet the Ministerial priority of rebuilding public confidence through protecting the public from serious offenders and improving the safety and security of prisons. Expected Contract Length 8 months Latest start date Wednesday 22 June 2022 Budget Range up to £1m Why the Work is Being Done We’ve set ourselves challenging objectives in the MoJ Digital, Data and Technology Strategy to: ● replace legacy systems with simpler, clearer, faster digital services, allowing staff to focus more time on the individual and their needs, rather than the administration of their case. ● capture, store and share high quality data across services, leading to better and faster decision-making about people in our care. We are delivering at pace and scale, which means we need a managed service provider to support, maintain and continuously improve four digital products currently in live running, which support the HMPPS Security Order and Counter Terrorism Directorate. We currently have a team in place via GDS Expert Services to create a prioritised backlog to handover to the new managed service team to deliver during the course of the year until 31 March 2023. The expectation is the managed service team will work alongside other MoJ Digital teams and at the end of the contract share knowledge and handover to an internal team Problem to Be Solved We require a team who can support and maintain live digital products to ensure they remain safe and secure to use and meet users needs. This will include: ● collaboration with our existing internal development and product teams as well as a centralised support team as part of a second and third line of support to investigate and resolve fixes, bugs and incidents; ● working with business stakeholders to understand the impact of user feedback and policy changes including estimation and prioritisation of new features; ● delivery of a prioritised backlog dependent on scale, cost and time; ● completion of security and maintenance patching and updates. The digital products are built in line with MOJ’s technology standards: ● front-end server-side applications in Typescript/Node.js using the GOV.UK Design System ● back-end services in kotlin/java (integrated with authority systems via existing internal APIs) ● Use of AWS service i.e RDS (postgres) , S3 and SQS ● Github to store and manage our code and CircleCI to build our software ● Kubernetes and Docker to schedule and run our services hosted in MoJ Cloud platform (built on AWS). Who Are the Users Users are predominantly staff working in prisons and probation. Early Market Engagement N/A Work Already Done These are live products which have been designed and developed within MoJ Digital. Existing Team We currently have a managed service team in place via GDS Expert Services who will share knowledge and handover to the new team Current Phase Live Skills & Experience • Experience of delivering digital services to, and/or on behalf of, Government Agencies to meet the Digital Service Standard, demonstrating how agile methodologies have been applied • Proven capability of supporting, maintaining and continuously improving live digital products • Evidence of successful knowledge sharing and handover in order to continue development or support of an existing product • Experience of managing a prioritised backlog across multiple digital products balancing user and business needs with budget constraints to ensure value for money • Demonstrating an ability to communicate with a range of stakeholders, managing expectations and conflicting views, recognising where the approach needs to be adapted Nice to Haves • Experience with the probation and prison environment • Knowledge of technical and security standards aligned with the Technology Code of Practice, Digital Service Standard and HMPPS and MoJ requirements Work Location Working remotely although occasional travel may be required to either - MoJ Digital Studio, 32 Scotland Street, Sheffield, S3 7BS - MoJ, 102 Petty France, London, SW1H 9AJ Working Arrangments The majority of work can be completed remotely i.e. homeworking. However there may be a requirement to work with MoJ Digital or business stakeholders who are predominantly based in London and Sheffield or to visit users at HMPPS locations Security Clearance SC clearance is required Additional T&Cs N/A No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Explain your approach and methodology for successfully supporting and maintaining the live digital products • Provide an example team structure including skills, experience, responsibilities and relevance of individuals, and explain how you will ensure the team successfully delivers the required outcomes • Provide a case study of when you have successfully taken ownership of a digital product from another team and continued to support and continuously improve during live running • Demonstrate how you will manage risk and issues and deliver value for money throughout this contract • Explain your exit strategy to successfully handover to an internal team at the end of the contract Cultural Fit Criteria • Work collaboratively with MoJ Digital and staff in probation and prisons • Ability to work with a range of stakeholders with varying understanding of agile methodologies • Encourage new entrees to their digital professions and up-skill and develops their workforce • Encourages diverse representation in their workforce Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Could Authority confirm that the score for stage 1 will be carried forwarded in the evaluation of stage 2? If yes, then how much percentage (%)? No, the scores for phase 1 are not carried forward. Each of the criteria for phase 1 will be scored between 0 and 3 in order to short-list suppliers for phase 2. 2. Can the Authority provide the exhaustive Tech-stack The digital products are built in line with MOJ’s technology standards:● front-end server-side applications in Typescript/Node.js using the GOV.UK Design System● back-end services in kotlin/java (integrated with authority systems via existing internal APIs)● Use of AWS service i.e RDS (postgres) , S3 and SQS● Github to store and manage our code and CircleCI to build our software● Kubernetes and Docker to schedule and run our services hosted in MoJ Cloud platform (built on AWS). 3. Who from your team will be scoring applications for this opportunity and what positions do they hold? It is not deemed appropriate to share such details with participating organisations 4. What are the required Roles? It will be up to the supplier to decide what roles are required but we’d anticipate the following roles to be included: Product Manager, Delivery Manager, Business Analyst, Developer, User Researcher, Content Designer etc. 5. Could Authority confirm that who is the incumbent supplier? We draw your attention to the information provided, specifically “why the work is being done” 6. Can you please provide an anticipated timeline for this procurement that includes dates for:1) Shortlisting Notification for Stage 22) Submission Deadline for Stage 23) Presentation4) Evaluation period5) Award Notification The anticipated timetable is as follows:● Phase 1 outcome notified by 19/04/21● Additional information sent to short-listed suppliers for phase 2 - 19/04/21● Submission Deadline for Stage 2 - 26/04/22● Supplier presentations - 03/05/22● Award Notification – 12/05/22 7. What level of support are you looking for 1st/2nd/3rd/4th? and are you looking for that support to integrate with MOJ’s service desk? We have a centralised support model who will triage and resolve user issues at first line. The managed service team will be required to support second line resolution and provide third line, investigating and resolving technical issues. The managed service team will also need to respond to user feedback and stakeholder requests to continuously improve the products. 8. Do you have a deployment pipeline set up for any/all of the products? Yes, we have a full CI and deployment pipeline using GitHub, Circle-CI. 9. Can you please provide names and descriptions of the four digital products, including repository urls? We will provide additional information on the products to the suppliers short-listed for the next phase. It is not required for phase 1. 10. When asking for evidence of successful knowledge sharing and handover, are you referring to ‘us’ sharing knowledge/handing over, or are you referring to ‘us’ picking up the project through knowledge transfer/handover in order to develop/support existing product? We are looking for evidence of both. The successful supplier will need to pick up the products from the exiting team and then at the end of the contract handover over and knowledge share to the team succeeding them. 11. If this project is partially delivery by a USA based technical team, would the equivalent security clearance be acceptable? No, the clearance would need to meet UK Government Security Vetting standards. 12. Can HMPPS please advise an approimate number of (FTE’s) working to support current live digital products? Also what are the current operating hours and SLA’s digital product support? We’d expect the supplier to propose the team based on the requirements. Additional information will be provided to those short-listed to the next stage to help support this. There is no out of hours support required as part of this contract. 13. How does HMPPS envisage this activity with its new partner to work? That is will this be interative analysis, feedback, design and product development? We expect the managed service team to work alongside other MoJ Digital teams and to collaborate with business stakeholders and users as required so that they can maintain and deliver a prioritised backlog for the digital services. The backlog is expected to include a range of tasks such as regular maintenance of the digital services, resolution of user support tickets (3rd line), continuous improvement and new feature development. What is delivered and timescales will be managed via Statement of Works so there are clear outcomes and cost stay within the value of the contract. 14. Will HMPPS be able to share insight of the current service backlog in a Stage 2 information pack? Yes we intend to provide additional information to the suppliers short-listed for the second stage to support written proposals. 15. Will the support service include being responsible for feature development? The managed service team is expected to support second line resolution of user issues and provide third line support, investigating and resolving technical incidents. The team will be expected to manage a prioritised backlog which may include maintenance of the digital services, continuous improvement based on user feedback as well as new feature development. 16. To what extent will HMPPS require DevOps engineering support? MoJ Digital has a dedicated platforms team that manages the kubernetes cluster which hosts the digital services. It is expected that managed service teams are responsible for deployment and maintenance of the kubernetes namespaces and resources for each digital service as well as maintaining existing dedicated CI/CD pipelines. Developers within existing service teams take on these devops tasks and there is a developer community and resources (documentation) available to acquire this knowledge. 17. Whats SLAs are you expecting the supplier to adhere to? What level of support is required (i.e. 1st, 2nd and 3rd line support)? We have a centralised support team who will triage and resolve user issues at first line. The managed service team will be required to support second line resolution and provide third line, investigating and resolving technical issues. SLAs will depend on the severity/priority of an issue. The managed service team will also need to respond to user feedback and stakeholder requests to continuously improve the products. 18. Can you please elaborate on what you mean when you say “we are delivering at pace and scale”? Can you provide some statistics? We have set ourselves challenging objectives to replace our legacy systems. This is context for the environment the team would be working in and explains why we need a managed service team as our internal teams are focused on other priorities. 19. Can you confirm all staff need to be Security Cleared? If so, are you able to sponsor security clearance for staff who are able to pass it during the project? Yes, SC clearance is required. Our preference would be for individuals to already have this but we can also sponsor individuals during the project. 20. To what extent will HMPPS require DevOps engineering support? What do you envisage the split to be (expressed in broad percentage terms) between front-end development support and backend platform engineering support? MoJ Digital have dedicated platforms team that manages kubernetes cluster which hosts the digital services. It is expected that managed service teams are responsible for deployment and maintenance of the kubernetes namespaces and resources for each digital service as well as maintaining existing dedicated CI/CD pipelines. Developers within existing service teams take on these devops tasks and there is a developer community and resources (documentation) available to acquire this knowledge. It is not possible to provide a % split at this stage. Additional information will be provided to short-listed suppliers on services and potential prioritised backlog to support written proposals. 21. Can the Authority please provide rationale on the expected contract length of 8 months and what their plans are for the service after this March 2023? The expected contract length is dependent on completion of the procurement exercise and award of contract. We are aiming for a managed service team to be in place by end of June. The contract end date will be 31 March 2023 in line with the financial year. We expect the managed service team to handover and knowledge share with an MoJ internal team. 22. Given that Kotlin is a niche language and interchangeable with Java, can the Authority confirm that a strong Java capability will suffice as evidence in scoring full marks We'd expect a strong Java developer to be able to support Kotlin especially as we are using repeatable patterns across the services. In terms of scoring, we will assess suppliers in the first stage against the evidence they provide to demonstrate the essential and nice to have criteria.