Intranet redevelopment project

Tender description

Summary of the work Redevelopment of the Trust's staff intranet, including: discovery, design, build and implementation, year one; hosting, maintenance and support in year two. The solution must be easy to use and edit, have an advanced search facility and be accessible by all staff, at all sites, and remotely via secure mobile access. Expected Contract Length 24 months Latest start date Thursday 31 March 2022 Budget Range Up to £150k for year one discovery, design, build and implementation. Why the Work is Being Done Our vision is to deliver a best-in-class intranet that acts as the hub of information for staff – accessed at any time, from any device, anywhere in the world. The CUH intranet is used by teams and departments for sharing information internally. The intranet requires a full redesign to make it more dynamic and bring it up to date with a modern look, greater accessibility, ease of maintenance and navigation. The current intranet uses unsupported software, contains out of date information, and staff are unable to access information quickly and easily. During the initial Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020, CUH created a staff portal out of necessity, to enable staff working from home access to critical operational information and policies. This has led to a situation where we are running two separate intranets, which adds complexity and confusion for staff. A new, fit-for-purpose intranet is required that is robust, secure, easy to use and maintain. It also needs to provide tools to help keep content consistent and up to date. The intranet needs to be fully accessible on mobile devices in order to support the Trust’s methods of working. The intranet needs to allow secure access for staff. Problem to Be Solved Redevelop our intranet to improve the experience and access to information for staff, improve performance on multiple devices, and comply with EU accessibility standards. Departments find it difficult to update their sections, particularly adding media; and the site is difficult to maintain and navigate. Users cannot find information or access the information they require. The more fundamental challenges are of having an intranet that meets the current and future requirements of the organisation. Must have functionality: • Content templates • Forms (feed into database or email) • Embed images and video (YouTube links/Mp4 files) • Single sign on using active directory • Metrics • Mobile, tablet friendly • Intuitive search (results showing location of page) • Swap Shop functionality - list 'sale'/wanted items • Link to document storage library (PDFs only in exceptional circumstances) • Works on all browsers • Meets accessibility standards • Calendar of events • Employee directory • Page publication and review dates, content owner details • User/editor categories for updating Nice to have functionality: • Users add news (moderated) • Personalisation based on profile, or ability to choose 'favourites' • Live chat • Incorporate social elements • Corporate image library • Ability to comment/react/rate news Who Are the Users As a member of staff I need to be able to see up to date information on what is happening across the Trust, access departmental information and other items as required. Departments need a way to communicate information to the wider staff base to ensure all have up to date knowledge. As a user I expect a visually appealing, easy to use intranet where all the current information I need can be found quickly, whether using a desktop PC or mobile device. The intranet will need to link to other systems such as the document storage library (Merlin). Early Market Engagement The Trust already has experience of Wagtail for its external website and has a preference to use Wagtail for the intranet, but is willing to consider other content management systems. Work Already Done CUH has an existing intranet and staff portal that contain much of the information that will be used in the future intranet. CUH’s communications team has carried out some internal workshops with staff to understand the issues they have with the current sites and the wants/needs for any new intranet. There are some key themes emerging which would be investigated further as part of the project: • Simple, logical navigation with improved search • Better structure • Easier to use CMS • Up-to-date relevant content, easy to find • Accessible within the network, plus when working remotely • Mobile-enabled. Existing Team The intranet is managed by a small in-house internal and digital communications team. The supplier will be working with this team to complete the project. Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Experience of delivering intranet projects for organisations of a similar size and complexity to CUH • Experience of working with large NHS or public-sector organisations and knowledge of the health technology environment • Experience of full lifecycle building an intranet site for a complex and diverse organisation (discovery, stakeholder management, design, build, content creation, launch, hosting, maintenance, support) • Experience of delivering innovative intranet projects that have transformed the online experience for users, balancing function with creativity and modern design • Proven track record of building and supporting intranet sites using open source software • Ability to mobilise a project quickly and provide an account manager as a point of contact • Knowledge and experience of designing fully accessible intranet sites and which support digital inclusion • Experience of migrating historic intranets • Demonstrable examples of long-term (3+ years) relationships with satisfied clients • Ability to present research findings and insights to a non-technical audience, including senior managers • Ability to deliver high quality but low technical maintenance intranets • Evidence of creating content which optimises engagement and meets effective standards of usability and accessibility • Experience of creating intranet brand guidelines that set tone of voice, content and image style that fit with an organisation’s corporate identity • Evidence of successful integrations of intranets with other applications • Expert in configuring and implementing effective intranet search tools • Expert in setting up an intranet for continued improvement using analytics to deliver actionable insights • Be able to deliver effective training for intranet editors including train the trainer sessions • Be able to assist with migrating, cleansing and rationalisation of existing intranet content to ensure only current, relevant signed off data is migrated to new intranet • Evidence of hosting, supporting and maintaining intranets, including offering a fully replicated development environment for testing upgrades and configuration changes • Recent and demonstrable experience of implementing a public-sector / corporate intranet that complies with the principles of the GDS Service Standard and NHS Digital Service Manual Nice to Haves • Knowledge of NHS identity guidelines and evolving technical standards from NHS Digital • Experience of delivering reusable templates that can be re-purposed and used on specific areas of an intranet • Experience of implementing third party accessibility and website governance software • Experience of using video, images and other media to enhance intranets Work Location Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ Working Arrangments Mainly off-site, with visits to our offices as required by the project. Security Clearance Not required. All information supplied by CUH in connection with this procurement exercise shall be regarded as confidential. By submitting a Tender the Tenderer agrees to be bound by the obligation to preserve the confidentiality of all such information. Additional T&Cs https://www.gov.uk/guidance/terms-and-conditions-of-digital-marketplace-frameworks NHS standard terms: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-standard-terms-and-conditions-of-contract-for-the-purchase-of-goods-and-supply-of-services Accessibility requirements for public sector bodies: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/accessibility-requirements-for-public-sector-websites-and-apps No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • How the approach meets the needs of our staff • Previous experience of similar projects • Previous experience of working with NHS or public sector organisations • Team structure, roles and responsibilities, knowledge and experience • Costs and value for money • Proposed timescales and indicative project plan • Project management approach/methodology, including management of risks • Hosting, maintenance and support arrangements Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a team with our organisation and individuals leading on the intranet redevelopment project, as well as other suppliers where necessary • Be ready to challenge the status quo • Champion equality, diversity and digital inclusion • Be innovative, creative and forward thinking • Share knowledge and experience with clients • Provide honest and expert feedback • Use innovative, cost-effective techniques to engage intranet users • Take responsibility for the quality of their work • Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions • Work well with clients of varying technical expertise • Have no blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method • Case study • Work history • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 55% Cultural fit 15% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. Can we please clarify that the budget for this entire project (and not just the Discovery) is £150,000? If so, can information be shared on how this budget was determined? The budget is up to £150,000 for the total project in year one, including discovery, design, build and implementation.This budget was based on a previous web project and early market testing. 2. a. Do you envisage your intranet being deployed in a Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) tenant?b. Do you have Microsoft 365 licences or are you planning to buy them?c. What licences (E1/3/5 etc) do you have or planning to buy? a. We do not envisage our intranet being deployed in a Microsoft 365 tenant. We are in the process of adopting MS online services specifically for the NHS - N365 Shared Tenant but the timing of this does not align to our current intranet requirement.b. We aim to have N365 licences for all our staff by mid 2022.c. All staff have an E3R licence by default, with additional licencing added depending on requirements. We have not yet confirmed how we will licence Office yet, but will do so within the next couple of weeks. 3. GDS guidance for answering questions indicates we should provide a single example (although usable to answer multiple questions) per question asked. However, your questions indicate a desire for multiple examples (eg Experience of delivering intranet projects for organisations of a similar size and complexity to CUH). Please advise if we should give multiple or single examples. We are happy to receive one or more examples, if these evidence your ability to deliver. 4. Is there any existing content eg news articles, documents such as policies and procedures that will need to be migrated into the new internet?Are there any other systems that need to be integrated with the intranet?Do you currently have a document management capability?Do you currently use Office 365 and if so, for what eg email, Teams etcWhat browser do you use?What version of Office applications eg Word do you use?What mobile devices must the intranet support? It is likely that some content will need migrating. We envisage the extent of this migration will be ascertained during the discovery phase.The intranet should link to all our clinical and non-clinical apps, and will need to integrate with Merlin (document management system).We use Merlin as our document management system.We are adopting MS online services specifically for the NHS - N365. Initially just for email and Teams only, from mid 2022.The intranet must work on all browsers.Office 2016Both Android and iOS. We require a responsive design usable on all devices with a browser. 5. Does the Trust have an active Microsoft N365 licensing subscription? If so, would you consider maximising the use of that subscription in delivering a new Intranet, as opposed to paying additional money to another hosting service provider? We are in the process of adopting N365 Shared Tenant but the timing of this does not align to our current intranet requirement. We are therefore considering other hosting service providers. 6. As the United Kingdom has left the EU, can you please confirm that your expectations on accessibility will be in line with the UK Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018 and not EU Directives? Yes, we expect the intranet to comply with UK Accessibility Regulations. 7. Do you currently have SharePoint and if so, what version is it? E.g. SharePoint OnlineIf yes, then: how many SharePoint licences do you have? Would you be open to an integrated intranet CMS with your SharePoint platform? We do not currently have SharePoint. We are in the process of adopting MS online services specifically for the NHS - N365 Shared Tenant. Initially this will be for email and Teams only, from mid 2022. Migration to SharePoint is a future phase of this project. 8. As a small business we do not hold resource in bench and can onboard external resources only after issuance of contract. How quickly will you need all the resources to be deployed for the project from the contract signing date? Would you allow staggered resource deployment? We are aiming to have a minimal viable product in place by August 2022 - staggered resource deployment is acceptable provided this timeline can be maintained. Our preferred option is that all resources are contracted directly by the company that we sign the contract with.