Homes England - Architecture as a Service

Tender description

Summary of the work Homes England is looking for a third-party supplier to augment the Architecture team and provide a ‘burst’ capability to support the establishment of Architecture-as-a-Service. This will operate as a strategic business partner providing guidance, governance and assurance cross Architectural domains including Business, Enterprise, Applications, Infrastructure, Data and Security. Expected Contract Length Up to 24 months Latest start date Thursday 15 December 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 is in the state of flux because of significant strategic changes under the auspices of ‘Levelling up’ agenda and is expected to continue its evolution in response to the changes in political agenda. Evolve has commenced a broad and inclusive design phase for the Evolve Portfolio. As per the industry best practice, we need the Architecture team well established to be able to: • understand how best to design and implement changes • understand the likely consequences of making proposed changes • build greater agility, adaptability & responsiveness • have fewer unmitigated risks • create a strategy link between mission/vision to delivery prioritisation with information cascaded to technology teams and mandated through design assurance. • apply consistent standards and principles to drive the successful delivery of services Problem to Be Solved Our team of architects have performed a significant number of activities to understand, describe and communicate various aspects of Enterprise architecture: • Legacy Approach • Governance • Business Architecture artefacts • L1 as-is and to-be target architecture • Technical debt assessment • Established architecture Community of Practice • Enterprise Architecture tool • Designed engagement toolkit • Architecture Metamodel and blueprint • Co-designed initial draft of Organisation Blueprint Despite this, the team has struggled onthe implementation front due to lack of capabilities and capacity to effectively lead across multiple workstreams/change programmes. Due to this, we are unable to: • mitigate risks associated with alignment and dependencies between programmes • support strategic change and provide clarity and joined-up understanding of demand and implementation approach • provide technology assurance over design, implementation, and benefit realisation of business capabilities • firm up Architecture resource strategy, create skills profile, bring resources at pace, establish a sustainable permanent team • create coherent knowledge base from range of artefacts • create single shared view of business and technical architecture to systematically assess programmes against design principles, emerging strategy and mitigation of risks • assess what to stop, start, adapt or continue to define single portfolio of change Who Are the Users You should use this format: As a Evolve Programme Director I need to be able to prioritise resources (people, process, and technology) so that we are supporting the core organisation needs As a Evolve Programme Director I need to be able to manage risks associated with the alignment and dependencies between multiple change programmes so that we can prioritise, plan, and deliver value for money As Head of Architecture, I need a range of skilled resources so that I can deploy them into multi-disciplinary teams in a timely manner to support delivery at pace As Head of Architecture, I need to design and implement an effective governance process so that I can manage risks As Head of Architecture, I need to establish a clear strategy journey from mission/vision to product and services so that I can inform strategic decision making and drive delivery Early Market Engagement Not applicable. Work Already Done To Build capacity and capability we have so far: • Defined Architecture resource strategy based on ‘Now, Next and Later’ approach based on assessment of existing demand and strategic vision • Hired small number of individual contractors and deployed within the projects and programmes • Procured agency to do the foundational work • Created architecture proposition Existing Team • Head of Transformation Architecture • Lead Architects – 3 • Specialist Architects – 2 • Lead Data Architect – 1 • Data architect – 1 • Supplier architects - 3 Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Proven experience of establishing an Architecture function within a complex government organisation • Substantial experience delivering and leading business, enterprise and solutions architecture within complex transforming organisation with effective application of technology skills (CRM, ERP) using Domain skills (Business, Data, Solutions and Security) • Architecture practice development and governance embracing agile working, product management and DevOps practices • Extensive experience of working with technology teams and multi-disciplinary stakeholders and user research-based insights to define solutions that best support the business and user needs • Capable of effectively engaging with wide range of digital specialists, suppliers and stakeholders. Contribute to and assure detailed technical architectures and designs in line with Homes England and Government strategy • Expertise with GOV.UK services, service design methods and GDS standards Work Location Predominantly working remotely but attendance of face-to-face meetings and workshops will be required occasionally at the following offices; London, Coventry or Newcastle offices. 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. Suppliers may also be required to occasionally visit other offices/sites. 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 Cultural Fit Criteria • Demonstrable experience working effectively in a blended team, maintaining accountability over delivery of outcomes Payment Approach 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? If so, who?Is this service replacing the individual contractors already delivering, or in addition to the contractors? This is a new requirement and therefor is not replacing individual contractors that are already delivering services at Homes England. 2. Are CRM / ERP programmes under way or about to get under way? Yes these two projects are ongoing or about to start. 3. Are there any specific architectural domain skills that are in most need as part of this opportunity? MS Dynamics. 4. What do the specialist architects do? / In what areas do the current two specialist architects work in? Sharepoint and Dynamics. 5. What is the likely level of demand and demand profile for architecture resources? We estimate we would require at least 3 architecture resources at any 1 time however this number is not a guarantee and we expect the number required to change as per our developing requirements. 6. How many projects are there running currently and in the pipeline requiring architecture support/involvement? We have approximately 20 projects either ongoing or in our pipeline however his number is expected to change over the duration of the contract. 7. What is the size of IT estate in terms of in-house development, number of applications and % cloud applications? We will provide this information to the successful supplier. 8. Do you have an enterprise architecture tool? Yes, we have recently procured Lean IX. 9. Is it possible to be able to view the generated artefacts from the foundational work activities and developed architecture proposition? We will provide this information to the successful supplier. 10. From the foundation work carried out do you have a feel for what ratio of resources between architecture and implementation would be required? Approximately 40% architecture and 60% implementation. Please note this is just an estimate. 11. What do you believe is the main issue that’s stopping you from implementing the work identified from the architecture proposition carried out in the foundation stage? Lack of resource which we hope this service will address. 12. How mature is the architectural department and practise currently and how involved is it in organisations change management process? (e.g. do you have architectural review boards?) This is work in progress. 13. What do you believe are the status of any existing unmitigated risks mentioned, how have they been highlighted and managed at present? Main risks are dependency and alignment between various change programs. Work is in progress as part of future architecture to address these. 14. What is the vision (or target operating model) that you are aiming to define a strategy and link outcomes to? The vision is to deliver this strategy; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/homes-england-strategic-plan-201819-to-202223 15. What does your organisation already have or do that will help this succeed? There are various ongoing projects to address this. 16. What are your key technology platforms? (e.g. Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, Google Workspace, Atlassian) MS Azure 17. Are you currently considering GDPR issues and PII data management around moving to the Cloud? Yes. 18. Do you have an established Identity Management Platform for SSO? Homes England has Identity Service which integrates with AD and provides the SSO capability. 19. Could this opportunity be carried out at a resource capacity based on SoW’s from a Technical Resource entity? or would it require a Technical Capability consultancy? Yes, it could be carried out by a Technical Resource entity.