Software Engineering Services Partner

Tender description

Summary of the work ONS is developing its survey data collection service which will enhance digital products for collection and ingestion of surveys, building on 2021's first digital census successes. ONS requires access to software-engineering services that can build new features and functionality in our technology products, integrating with multi-disciplinary and agile product teams. Expected Contract Length 2 years Latest start date Tuesday 3 January 2023 Budget Range There is no commitment to minimum spend over the term of the contract. The maximum spend will be £4 million per annum over the duration of the contract, excluding VAT. Statements of work shall be agreed so that we can ensure we’re delivering discrete projects or activities that meet user needs and value for money. The payment approach will vary dependent on the statement of work. For example, fixed price or capped and time and materials etc. Why the Work is Being Done The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics, recognised as a national statistical institute. We are responsible for collecting and publishing statistics related to the economy, population and society at national, regional and local levels ONS digital products for collection and ingestion of surveys are building on the success of the first digital census in 2021 by developing its survey data collection service to: Make it easier and quicker for respondents to complete surveys Support staff to work as efficiently and effectively as possible Maximise the use of digital and data opportunities in line with the government roadmap for digital and data and ONS’s strategy and business plans Replace legacy systems and develop new solutions which will improve efficiency and better meet user needs Improve data and performance through better information and decision support, improved insights from data, track performance and progress of the ONS’s digital surveys, as well as improved data flows across the end-to-end statistical process Improve value for money and user experience. Detailed SoR can be found by expressing interest on ONS’s e-tendering system – https://in-tendhost.co.uk/ons/aspx/ProjectManage/3467 All downselect and award criteria is in-line with the Gov.UK service manual - https://www.gov.uk/service-manual Problem to Be Solved There are surveys that are not currently delivered online and are missing the benefits that digital surveys realise. Additionally, some online surveys require technical skills to build and simplifying our survey estate will reduce operational costs. ONS requires access to software engineering services that can build new features and functionality in our technology products, integrating with multi-disciplinary and agile product teams. Due to the variety of digital services and technologies a flexible approach is required to allow SoW to be appropriate for any given project Our software engineering needs are evolving as part of our strategy and this service will support our journey of modernising our survey solutions to the cloud and online. This contract will allow time-critical work to be supported whilst building the in-house capacity and the transfer of skills and knowledge to civil servants. The main technology stack the successful Supplier will need to be proficient in is: Python (Flask) Linux / Docker / Kubernetes Google Cloud Platform Terraform IaC Monitoring and Alerting (Stackdriver / Grafana) CI/CD inc Concourse and Spinnaker Github Platform Node / Javascript React / Apollo GraphQL AWS and GCP Cloud Platform Terraform Java (Spring) Golang Postgres c# Who Are the Users External Users: As someone taking part in a survey, I need to be able to provide an online response to a request for information from ONS (in the form of a survey) so that I can contribute to UK government decisions. Internal Users: As an ONS survey manager I need to be able to setup and manage a survey for completion online by a user so that I can ensure quality data is collected in a cost-effective way with minimal burden on our users. As a Digital Services & Technology team, I need to design build and run the survey data collection service so that they meet user needs. Early Market Engagement n/a Work Already Done The survey data collection service has developed the following products that require new features and functionality: Author: Designs and builds surveys online. Electronic questionnaire: Runs online surveys built in Author and submits responses. Respondent account service: Lets respondents sign into and complete their surveys Response management: Manages and tracks survey responses & case management. Response operations: Allows ONS staff to manage survey status and ensure compliance. Survey response management/Respondent Home: our survey lite product for ad-hoc quick response surveys. Survey data exchange: Validates, receipts, transforms, and presents survey data. Existing Team The survey data collection service teams have a number of permanent staff across most of the government’s DDaT capability framework, supplemented by contractors. Where required, collaboration with other suppliers may be necessary. This contract will not prevent us from using other commercial arrangements. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Evidence of experience placing (SFIA 3to5) Developers, Technical Architects, Data-Engineers, Test-Engineers and Development Operations Engineers (devops) into agile delivery teams in government and understanding how those roles work together-10% • Evidence demonstrating experience of leading or supporting software delivery and working with developing software development processes (within the last 2-years)-10% • Evidence demonstrating experience of leading technical delivery and delivering software development capability support with proficiency in in the listed technologies (please see problem to be solved)-10% • Evidence demonstrating experience of working in multidisciplinary/multi-organisation teams using Agile-methodology (in a product-centric manner), operating in sprints/aligning development activities with parallel work-streams, ensuring coding-standards are maintained (within last 2-years)-10% • Evidence of certification/alignment to recognised information security standards (e.g. ISO27001, CyberEssentials, NCSC-guidance/principles etc.), how you ensured compliance with GDPR (including your ICO-registration number), IR35 and other policies/procedures when delivering outcomes-5% • Evidence demonstrating how you have delivered value-added contracts-5% • Evidence demonstrating your approach to maintaining standards whilst delivering at pace-10% • Evidence demonstrating how you have engaged with a client to understand outcomes and deliverables-10% • Evidence of sprint planning, show and tells, retrospectives, user stories, backlog management, communicating progress to the team and wider organisation-10% • Evidence of showing clear progress, demonstrating value for money and utilisation of the team -10% • Evidence demonstrating delivery of a similar capability and capacity contract, ensuring the client had the resource they needed, when they needed it and key considerations for successful delivery-10% Nice to Haves • Evidence demonstrating experience of managing portfolios of technical work in a multiple supplier environment-25% • Evidence demonstrating experience of transitioning outcomes to another team (within the last 2-years)-25% • Evidence demonstrating when you have transferred skills to a client-25% • Evidence of using the government Technology Code of Practice-25% Work Location The primary site for the Contracting Authority for this project is: Office for National Statistics, Newport Working Arrangments A flexible agile approach is required to meet the outcome-based needs of each SoW. Individual SoW’s (clearly defining working arrangements) will be agreed and aligned to discrete delivery phases, with robust onboarding and contract management practices in place. We anticipate a maximum of 3-5 concurrent Statements of Work All resources must be on-shored. Current working arrangement allow for home working which is subject to agreement. The supplier must be available to visit the Contracting Authority’s offices to undertake work and for face-to-face meetings when required All expenses to be agreed in advance inline with ONS’s Travel and Sustenance Policy Security Clearance Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) as a minimum with possible SC clearance required on a SoW’s basis No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Understanding of the requirement-15% • Implementation plan to mobilise the contract-10% • Proposed onboarding process for resource allocated to the ONS-15% • Approach and ability to provide resource to meet our requirements-15% • Proposed contract management methodology, including how the days worked by resource provided and then charged to us will be processed-10% • Understanding of the Government technology code of practice-10% • Approach to remote working-5% • Identification of risks and plan to mitigate them-10% • Dependencies on the ONS to enable successful delivery-10% Cultural Fit Criteria • Approach to working as a team with the ONS and our other suppliers-10% • Approach to transparency and collaboration when making decisions-10% • Approach to embedding a team or individuals quickly establishing working as a team with the ONS-7.5% • Approach to taking responsibility for their work-7.5% • Approach to sharing knowledge and experience with team members and the wider ONS-7.5% • Social values and how they align with the ONS's, including our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy-7.5% • Social Value- Support health and wellbeing in the workforce Activities(MAC7.1)-25% • Social Value - Influencing support for health and wellbeing Activities (MAC7.2)-25% Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method • Work history • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 20% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. Has any external supplier been involved in the initial scoping work? If so, who?As previous procurements are a matter of public record, and as per DOS guidance, could you please advise who the incumbent supplier is, and / or provide a link to the original procurement. This is a new requirement with all scoping conducted by ONS employees - there is no incumbent 2. Can you confirm if shortlisted suppliers will have the opportunity to present? Yes 3. Can you please provide an anticipated timeline for this procurement that includes dates for: 1) Shortlisting Notification for Stage 2 2) Submission Deadline for Stage 2 3) Presentation 4) Evaluation period 5) Award Notification Anticipated timeline - subject to change1-25/11/222-6/12/223-14/12/224-6/12/22 - 21/12/225-21/12/22 4. Who from your team will be scoring applications for this opportunity and what positions do they hold? ONS do not share names of evaluators, the roles of evaluators are;Deputy Director, Digital DeliveryProgramme Delivery Manager, Survey Data CollectionTechnical Lead, Survey Data Collection PlatformONS reserves the right to change evaluators as necessary, however ONS will endeavour to keep to the same evaluators throughout the tender 5. ONS have added the "core" roles for this requirement on In-Tend Please find as a separate attachment on In-Tend 6. You have given specific weightings against each of the Essential Skills. However, DOS guidelines require a score for each skill between 0-3. How will you apply these weightings? "As per DOS Guidance - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-score-digital-outcomes-and-specialists-suppliers (2. If you published points with your evaluation criteria, give points to each one) weighted scores will be multiplied by weighted score. I can confirm that the scoring will remain 0-3. 7. Under ‘Budget’ you state that the payment approach will vary per SoW but under ‘Payment Approach’ you state Fixed Price. Can you please clarify? DOS platform only allows to pick one option. It is agreed that a rate card will be used to evaluate (T&M) However ONS retains the right to agree per SOW on the payment approach with the winning supplier. CCS have confirmed this is appropiate. 8. Would a supplier with a 10 / 15 skills fit and a proven ability to quickly skill up be considered? We will down select accordingly against the essential criteria 9. Can the work be predominantly done either from home or on supplier sites? The supplier must be available to visit the Contracting Authority’s offices to undertake work and for face-to-face meetings when required and we will agree the arrangements for each discrete statement of work. 10. "Section Nice-to-have, question 4: Evidence demonstrating when you have transferred skills to a client-25%Is this asking for evidence about training client’s staff? or it is about transferring skills and our staff to the client, under TUPE?" This is evidence of transferring skills and isn't related to TUPE regulations (transfer of undertakings, protection of emplyment) which isn't applicable to this contract 11. Is ONS expecting some conversions of previous scripts in DC/Confirmit/Blaise to Author? We do not have any plans to convert scripts from other products into our Author product 12. Has Author a relation with the DDI? Our Author product does not have a relation with the DDI (data documentation initiative) 13. Can Author produce cawi, cati, capi without changes? Author does not produce CAPI, CATI, and CAWI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing, Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing, and Computer Assisted Web Interviewing) 14. Is Author accepting a script of some sort including questions and route or only a GUI? All questionnaires are produced using the Author user interface 15. Is the work mostly around augmenting existing ONS teams with skills and capabilities, supplying teams for outcome based delivery, or a mix of both? Depending on the statement of work, we will require whole teams or one or more specialists to work with an existing team to deliver specific outcomes, using the below format as per the DDaT PlaybookOutsource = Sole ResponsibilityBorrow = Self Directed TeamsBridge = Rainbow TeamsTeams may be purely made up of workers provided through the service contract or mixed with the employees from the ONS (and our other suppliers) 16. Which ONS offices may the team be required to meet in? Newport unless otherwise agreed in advance 17. How can experience be gained and demonstrated if organisations have not provided teams into Government organisations as yet? The award criteria is scoring against similar government organisations due to the similarity of standards and working practices. However the ONS would be to consider evidence of placing the required roles into similar organisations 18. Can you clarify what you mean by value-added contracts? We are looking for you to provide evidence where you have added value to contracts you have delivered before. For example, this may be in the way you worked with the client, the service you provided or innovation delivered. This is not an exhaustive list and we welcome any examples on how suppliers feel they have added value 19. For “maintaining standards whilst delivering at pace”, are you referring to the Service Standard or specifics like those above? We expect evidence of maintaining software engineering standards whilst delivering at pace. 20. “Are there any third parties that the supplier would need to integrate with?” "Depending on the statement of work, we will require whole teams or one or more specialists to work with an existing team to deliver specific outcomes, using the below format as per the DDaT PlaybookOutsource = Sole ResponsibilityBorrow = Self Directed TeamsBridge = Rainbow TeamsTeams may be purely made up of workers provided through the service contract or mixed with the employees from the ONS (and our other suppliers)" 21. Is this tender connected to Delivery Capability Partner or they will be completely different projects with different budgets? "These tenders are for the survey data collection service and will be used for outcomes for range of projects and budgets.Both tenders are being completed in their own right."