Policy Mapping Tool Development and Support

Tender description

Summary of the work Development (Alpha and Beta) of web-based Procurement Policy Mapping Tool for the Welsh Public Sector and early life support for the first 12 months of live service. Expected Contract Length 18 Months, with the option to extend for 6 months Latest start date Thursday 1 December 2022 Budget Range It is estimated that the work will be delivered within the budget range of £200,000 to £300,000. This includes development (Alpha & Beta) and early life support. Why the Work is Being Done The Welsh Government are responsible for procurement policy and legislation for the Welsh Public Sector. As part of this responsibility the Welsh Government have identified the need for a new system to help communicate policy and legislative requirements to public sector organisations and help them with implementing these commitments. The Policy Mapping tool is intended to enable the Welsh Public Sector procurement community to understand which policies are relevant, or need to be consulted. The expectation is that the tool will begin to raise the standard of procurement activities and outcomes from procurement. The Welsh Government need to disseminate this information effectively and be able to report on outcomes. Activities will also need to be linked to other stages of the procurement cycle, and other systems, using OCDS data and an OCID reference. The tool needs to be scalable and easy to configure to allow for future changes, by non-technical buyer staff. Problem to Be Solved Currently Welsh public sector procurement professionals do not receive sufficient guidance and support in applying relevant policies. Policies are implemented in a fragmented way, with differing approaches taken, furthermore there is a lack of insight on how policies are applied. There is a need for a digital tool to share best practice, case studies and additional information, as well as training information. The Welsh Government require an efficient means of disseminating this information and reporting on outcomes. The supplier will need to suggest the most suitable platform for the tool and outline the process for transferring the tool to the Welsh Government environment in the longer term. There is a broad range of end users, and the tool must be bilingual and meet WCAG 2.1 AAA standards. Who Are the Users Welsh Public Sector procurement professionals need to be able to use the tool to align their specific procurement exercise with relevant policies and regulations. The outputs need to be saved against the tender for future reference and should provide tangible and practical assistance in applying policies. They will also need an area to access best practice, information (i.e. documents/media etc.) and share information which should be linked to the policies in the tool. Welsh Government policy staff need to ensure the policy information in the tool reflects an ever changing policy landscape. They will need to be able to maintain add and change the information quickly and efficiently, on a self-service basis. Welsh Government non-technical staff need to be able to manage the service, making changes to the content and managing user accounts. Welsh Government management need to have an understanding of procurement activity being undertaken and how policies are being applied, requiring reporting and linkages to other systems, such as Welsh Governments Sell2wales and UK governments find a tender service. Early Market Engagement A discovery exercise including user research has been undertaken and a wireframe prototype has been completed which will be made available to successful suppliers who are shortlisted for further evaluation. Work Already Done A discovery exercise has been undertaken and a Business Analyst has defined the technical requirements. The additional discovery exercise and work undertaken by the BA will be provided at the selection stage. Existing Team The successful bidder will be required to provide all necessary skills and roles for this work, e.g. both for user research/service design and technical elements of service delivery. The supplier will need to work with the Sell2Wales supplier to ensure the tool works with Sell2Wales. There is an internal project manager, as well as a project board and external user group. There is a small internal project team. Current Phase Alpha Skills & Experience • Experience of Developing Web Applications in Azure, please give examples. • Experience of Developing using open-source Content Management Systems (such as Drupal), please give examples. • Experience of delivering user centric fully responsive front-end solutions, that are intuitive and easy to use, please give examples. • A proven track record of using an agile approach in developing digital services, please give examples. • • Experience of building a solution that can be maintained by Client non-technical staff. • Experience of ensuring security is integrated at every stage of development, please give examples. • Experience of using data standards, such as OCDS. • Experience of Developing bilingual web applications. • Experience of developing accessible web applications. • Experience of delivering using the GDS service standard and Design Principles. • Are you able to meet the required security clearance requirements (CTC and SC) • What is your earliest start date to the 01/12/2022 Nice to Haves • Will the resources that will be used on the project hold relevant security clearance at the start of the contract? • Experience of delivering Welsh Language digital service, please give examples. • Do you hold Microsoft Gold or Silver certification in Application Development competency area? • Experience of working in Public Sector setting, please give examples. Work Location The supplier to work remotely, on-shore, in the UK. The authorities main address is Crown Buildings, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ Working Arrangments The supplier will be working remotely, with meetings being held using Microsoft Teams and collaboration tools. However, the supplier will be required to work collaboratively with the Welsh Government and wider user groups. Regular stand-ups should be utilised and knowledge transfer is integral to the service. Security Clearance Developer and other resources (e.g. network architect) who require access to Welsh Government systems in order to work will need to be “Security Cleared” (SC). Non-technical and supporting roles shall be cleared to “Counter Terrorist Check (CTC)”. All staff will also need to complete Welsh Government security and ID Checks. Additional T&Cs The Service must: Comply with GDPR regulations and have successfully passed an independent IT Health Check prior to system go live. Be fully bilingually, in the languages of Welsh and English. Compliant with the WCAG v2.1 level triple-AAA. Fully responsive and follow the GOV.WALES design standards for any externally accessible pages. Tested and verified as being fully compatible with the browsers in this list: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/designing-for-different-browsers-and-devices and the assistive technologies in this list: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/testing-with-assistive-technologies The Supplier shall be required to agree to the Welsh Government security policy prior to work commencing. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Technical approach and methodology • Project management approach • Approach to ensure User Experience (UX) is a priority • Approach to ensuring the Welsh Government non-technical staff are able to manage the service and curate the content. • Delivery management approach and determining priorities (e.g. iterative approach, MVP) • Approach to managing and quickly resolving Risks and Issues. • Ensuring key non-functional requirements are met, such as embedding security, Welsh Language, and accessibility standards etc. • Approach to testing and quality assurance. • Approach to service handover to the Welsh Government • Appropriateness of draft project plan, including timeframes. Cultural Fit Criteria • Approach to working in the open, sharing findings openly and transparently with stakeholders. • Approach to working within a Welsh context, and of designing and developing bilingual services for users. • Approach to knowledge transfer, ensuring smooth transition of service operation to Client. Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 10% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. If a supplier doesn’t hold the below, is it still worth submitting for the opportunity or is it a requirement for a successful supplier?“Do you hold Microsoft Gold or Silver certification in Application Development competency area?” This is not a mandatory requirement and a Supplier will not be excluded if they do not hold the certification. The Policy Mapping Tool will need to be hosted in Microsoft Azure tenancy, and the successful supplier will be required to demonstrate their proven ability to meet this requirement. 2. Is there an incumbent in place? No, there is not an incumbent supplier in place. 3. Would the successful supplier be required to have internal Welsh Language capability? No, although delivering a Welsh Language digital service is a nice-to-have, it is not a requirement that the successful supplier has internal Welsh Language capability. Meeting this requirement through the use of partners would be sufficient. 4. Is the requirement for a solution using a Content Management System, or could an alternative solution be used to deliver the requirement? The requirement is for a web application the Client can manage and maintain using internal/non-technical staff. We are open to alternative solutions, such as the use Low/no code platforms (i.e. PowerApps). In the Essential Skills section, we are happy to accept alternative experience of solutions that deliver a comparable outcomes to an open source CMS. 5. We note that you have previously created some wireframes for the service. Are you able to share these to give us a better idea of the ask in Alpha? We will share previous work undertaken with the suppliers who progress to the selection stage of the process, this includes: wireframes, discovery exercise, and Business Analysts detailed list of requirements. 6. Do you have a specific date in mind from your question ” What is your earliest start date to the 01/12/2022” ? This question is also a radio button option given in all DOS responses. The target contract start date is 01/12/2022. However, the latest date for the service delivery to start is 9 January 2023. 7. You mention “Experience of Developing using open-source Content Management Systems (such as Drupal), please give examples.” Now is Drupal your favoured, and if no experience is shown with Drupal, then that counts against us? Or are you after CMS experience in general, regardless of the platform? Drupal is not a favoured technology, we would like to refer you to our response to clarification question 4, we would consider alternative technical solutions to a CMS, if this would meet the requirements. 8. Do suppliers need SC at the start of the contract or can it be sponsored? Supplier staff requiring admin access to the Welsh Governments Azure tenancy, which will be used to host the tool, will require SC clearance. The preference is for resource to have SC clearance at the start of the contract. However, if required the Welsh Government can sponsor supplier staff if needed. Please note, admin access to Azure cannot be granted until SC clearance is received for the individuals requiring access, and the additional time to obtain clearance should be factored into any timeframes included in your proposal.