ITS301103b Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Specialist Partner

Tender description

Summary of the work Leeds City Council require a team with knowledge and experience in design, delivery and deployment of Robotic Process Automation. Expected Contract Length 12 months Latest start date Monday 5 December 2022 Budget Range It is expected the work will be in the region of £100k to £450k, although this is subject to ongoing budget and programme review. All work will be undertaken on a time and materials basis and the supplier must agree the resource profile in advance of the resource being utilised. Why the Work is Being Done As part of the significant financial challenges being faced by the council, coupled with the drive to digitise and modernise services, there is an urgent need to exploit technology that will increase automation and streamline service delivery. The introduction of RPA is seen as a key approach to save time and human effort as we automate the execution of repetitive tasks and thereby extending our human staff resource even more. With a greater number of low-level customer requests handled automatically, those customers will have a better experience. Increased RPA across the authority will generate efficiencies to support the financial challenge by digitising and modernising the delivery of council services and back-office processes where these are currently heavily manual. Problem to Be Solved The Council has identified a number of use cases and requires a partner to work with it to identify and develop the most appropriate solution using RPA. The Council has limited skills in this area and wishes to engage a partner to help it develop its approach to RPA and upskill its staff. The work will involve: a) Review of the areas affording the greatest opportunity; b) assist in the production of individual business cases; c) provide assurance around technical, data and security risks; d) development and delivery of solutions (minimum viable product) that drive the greatest savings / income generation opportunities; e) development of a repeatable methodology and approach to adopting, implementing and supporting solutions developed by RPA technologies. The Council does not have a preferred RPA technology and expects to work with the successful company to select appropriate toolsets, which will be procured outside of this proposed contract. There will also be a requirement to ensure skills transfer to the Council's staff. Who Are the Users As a head of service I need to see RPA in action on a business process so that I can have confidence in the business case. As Digital and IT professional I need to be to be trained so that I can understand what has been delivered to support the solution and help in its expansion. As a Digital and IT professional I need to see RPA in action so that I can provide assurances around security and data governance. As a service manager I need to see RPA in action so I can understand where it might benefit my service and residents / users. Early Market Engagement The Council has undertaken initial research into the use of RPA and products available but has not undertaken any formal assessment. Work Already Done We have identified some potential service areas, along with potential savings / income generation targets. However, additional capacity and expertise is required from an experienced supplier to move this work on at pace. Existing Team The council will build its team as the programme progresses and expects the successful supplier to assist in identifying the optimal number of roles and their skillsets. Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Extensive experience of introducing RPA in a large local authority or other large public sector body (1) • Promoting RPA to service managers and operational staff (1) • Supporting knowledge transfer so that the Council can understand what skills it requires (1) • Providing solutions with robust security capabilities, adhering to Cloud Security Principles requirements, and within required Information Governance frameworks (e.g. GDPR). (1) • Delivering using Disciplined Agile, XP or Scrum Agile manner (1). Nice to Haves Working with a range of RPA solutions Work Location It is expected on-site work will take place at any of the Council's offices in Leeds. We also expect remote working, including on/near/off shore, will be used to deliver elements of this work. Working Arrangments The supplier will agree working patterns and locations with the Council delivery team. Security Clearance Staff will be required to have BPSS as a minimum, unless agreed with the Council that the specific role is exempt. Additional T&Cs It is expected the majority of work will be undertaken in the early stages of the contract, with the later stages predominantly providing support to the Council's own team. The Council may extend the contract by a further 3 months. The Council will not pay subsistence or travel expenses. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Methodology for identifying the most appropriate technology solution (10) • Methodology to rapidly deliver positive business outcomes (10) • Approach to working in an agile / rapid development manner with hybrid supplier/customer teams (10) • Proposed resources profile and skills matrix (10) • Approach to promoting RPA to services within the council (10) Cultural Fit Criteria • Will work collaboratively as a team with our organisation and can work both remotely and on location, maintaining strong relationships and assisting successful skills transfer to the project team. (10) • Approach to provide challenge and offer alternatives in a constructive manner. (10) • Methodology for delivering knowledge transfer to Council teams (10) Payment Approach Time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Work history • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 10% Price 40% Questions from Suppliers 1. Can you explain what the numbers in brackets mean, i.e. (1), after each question in the ‘Skills and experience’ section? The number is the weighting of the individual requirement. 2. Can you explain what the numbers in brackets mean, i.e. (10), after each question in the ‘How suppliers will be evaluated’ section? The number is the weighting of the individual requirement. 3. Does the budget of £100k to £450k include or exclude VAT? The budget excludes VAT. 4. Is the budget of £100k to £450k just for this one opportunity? The budget is for this published opportunity. 5. Do you expect supplier a supplier to work continuously for 12 months on this opportunity? As detailed within "Additional Information": It is expected the majority of work will be undertaken in the early stages of the contract, with the later stages predominantly providing support to the Council's own team. The Council may extend the contract by a further 3 months. 6. How do we submit a proposal that, for example, allows down selection on price? The response does not allow us to submit rates for example. Questions relating to the use of the Digital Market place should be submitted to the Digital Market place - see https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/help.We can confirm no price information is required for the assessment of Skills and experience. 7. Does the cloud security principle requirement refer to the overall Council network/infrastructure or the proposed technical solution and integrations? We assume the question refers to the Essential skills and experience. You are required to demonstrate that you have skills and experience in providing solutions with robust security capabilities, adhering to Cloud Security Principles requirements, and within required Information Governance frameworks (e.g. GDPR). 8. What are your success criteria for process automation within the 12 month project and beyond? Successful implementation of RPA solutions. 9. What would be the impact to Leeds City Council if RPA was not implemented? It would not achieve efficiency and cost savings it expects RPA to deliver. 10. What financial benefits have you identified already within your pipeline of opportunities (eg what is the FTE saving, what is the cost avoidance)? This will vary according to the services for which RPA is implemented. 11. The budget range is broad – do you have a feel for where within this range the true budget is likely to fall? No. 12. Do you have any aspirations beyond the RPA toolset? Eg OCR, Natural Language Processing, Sentiment Analysis. Any such aspiration is outside of this opportunity. 13. Do you have Project Management, Change Management or Digital Transformation roles already within Leeds City Council? These roles exist within the Council. 14. What is the earliest start date you require? Please refer to the published information. 15. How many processes and of what complexity do you expect to be in place at the end of 12 months? This is dependent upon complexity of processes implemented and available budget. 16. Is a cloud delivered solution an option? If so, do you have a favored cloud vendor (or whitelist of available vendors)? Yes. No. 17. Does your budget for RPA include infrastructure (servers and spinning disks or cloud hosting etc.)? Infrastructure and RPA solution are outside of the published budget. 18. Which departments / service areas would be initial focus for RPA? Potentially any within the Council. 19. How large is the process backlog which has been currently identified? Has the process backlog been prioritised? Not yet identified. No. 20. Do you want the supplier to supplement the existing pipeline? The requirements of the supplier are as published. 21. Which business systems are likely to be in the scope of the process pipeline? Potentially any within the Council. 22. Will any roles be resourced internally initially? Please refer to the published information. 23. For any internal recruits have individuals already been identified? Please refer to the published information. 24. How do you foresee the resource ramp-up for the engagement (big bang or iterative)? We expect resource to be available for the start of the project. The delivery profile will be agreed. 25. BPSS is needed for ‘most roles’, do you see any roles specifically which might be exempt? Staff will be required to have BPSS as a minimum, unless agreed with the Council that the specific role is exempt. 26. Are there any constraints around data location? (can this be outside the UK?) Please refer to Joint Schedule 11 (Processing Data) of the framework terms and conditions. 27. Do Leeds City Council work with any other local authorities / public sector organisations giving the potential to share logic and solutions? On this occasion, the published opportunity is to undertake work for Leeds City Council. 28. Does this work package also include the production support of the processes? Eg updates following system upgrades or process changes and then regression testing. Please refer to the published information. 29. Is there any virtualisation technologies used to access applications eg Citrix, VM Ware? Yes. 30. Would we access the Leeds City Council environment via physical hardware or through a remote connection? The access methodology will be agreed with the successful supplier. The supplier will be responsible for provision of all equipment it needs to meet the requirements. 31. How have they identified that RPA is the solution across the use cases? By establishing the need for automation. 32. If once the review of the areas affording the greatest opportunity was complete, would they be open to alternative recommendations? The requirement is for a partner to support implementation of RPA. 33. Is the expectation that the development and delivery of solutions will be configured and implemented using a single RPA Solution? We are expecting to implement the most appropriate RPA for each use case. 34. Is the expectation that ‘the supplier’ would provide the implementation skills? The Council may seek support from the supplier. 35. What is the makeup of the existing team – is there budget for specific RPA Solution training or is the expectation that it that supplier would provide that training? Please refer to the published information.