Provision of BCC Data Engineering Delivery Capability

Tender description

Summary of the work Birmingham City Council requires a supplier to deliver work packages to achieve continuous improvement of current services and designing and delivering new digital use cases. The supplier will act as development partner who will be able to provide the software engineering capability on digital and technical projects. Expected Contract Length 24 Months Latest start date Tuesday 22 March 2022 Budget Range £1.3 Million (Ex VAT) Limit of Liability. The Authority can make no offer of guarantee that this limit will be met or that work packages are guaranteed. Why the Work is Being Done Birmingham City Council are moving towards a more Agile centred approach to delivery of projects. As part of this BCC are building their internal digital capability. BCC is implementing a number of strategic programmes, Field Worker programme and customer services being two of these over the next two years, and needs the services of a supplier to support in key software engineering skills where the gap in the internal team exists. Problem to Be Solved Birmingham City Council require a software engineering partner who will work in conjunction internal resources to provide software engineering expertise in order to fill the gaps in the existing delivery teams.The programmes will premonitory require the following software engineering services: key critical skills required (but not limited to): . Net MAUI, Xamarin, APIM, Service Bus, Logic Apps, Event Grid, Azure Functions, App Services, ., API Gateway, Azure Data Factory, CI/CD process, SQL, Golden Record, ETL Power Platform, Adobe XD, Adobe CC Suite, Sketch, Marvel, machine learning, data profiling, etc. Who Are the Users Internal Users across the following directorates, Adult and Social Care, Education & Skills, Customer Services, City Operations, Public Health and City Housing. External users, Citizens, business that use BCC services, blue light services and third sector organisations. Early Market Engagement None Work Already Done The existing programmes has been managed internally and delivery to date has been done with a combination of internal and external contract resources. Some specialist development services have been precured through the GCloud framework to support the delivery of part of the first phase of the field worker platform. Existing Team Business Analysis team, Business change team, Projects and programmes team, Apps support, development services, networks team, DBA team, Microsoft are supporting, external specialist development services provider. Current Phase Beta Skills & Experience • Knowledge in developing full stack digital services using .net, REST API build and integration and SQL databases in a cloud environment. • Have knowledge and experience of Xamarin/.Net Maui and other mobile technology products within a similar size local government organisation • Have knowledge of and experience with Azure hosting, Logic Apps and solid understanding of cloud concepts • Have knowledge of and experience with Git, GitHub, Gitlab • Technical agile delivery experience in end-to-end design, development, test and deployment • Knowledge in setting up DevOps capability and CI/CD pipelines • Have experience of successfully building secure web applications that collect/manage personal and/or sensitive information with appropriate controls • Last 2 years experience with a similar sized local authority developing mobile app technology • Understanding of data linkages between different Line of Business apps • Experience of working with multiple Line of Business suppliers. Nice to Haves • Awareness of Local Government data sets • Demonstrate an understanding of BCC's approach to technology and data Work Location Birmingham City Council, 10 Woodcock Street, B7 4BL Working Arrangments They will be expected to provide regular progress updates and liaise as appropriate with internal and external stakeholders throughout the projects they are undertaking. They will be expected to work openly and collaboratively on digital channels (e.g. slack, MS Teams, Office365 etc). They will be expected to attend key project meetings, virtually or at BCC offices, and be involved in catch-up calls, organise and run user testing sessions, and present findings. Security Clearance None but standard business confidentiality and non-disclaimers will be required especially if the Supplier would want to use the Training Environment with live Council Data Additional T&Cs Right to cancel or vary the competition:- Birmingham City Council reserves the right: To amend, clarify, add to or withdraw all or any part of the Invitation to Tender at any time during the tender process To vary any timetable or deadlines set out in the Invitation to Tender; Not to conclude a contract for some or all of the services for which tenders are invited; and To cancel all or part of the tender process at any stage at any time. FURTHERMENT OF THIS PROCUREMENT IS SUBJECT TO CABINET AND FUNDING APPROVAL ONLY No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Critical experience implementing Xamarin/.Net Maui mobile technology • Critical experience of Microsoft integration services (Logic Apps) within a similar size local authority • Experience of developing data services within the Azure cloud within local or central government Cultural Fit Criteria • Share knowledge and experience with other team members and commitment to building Council • Have the flexibility to source resources and specialist skills from within your organisations within tight timescales to meet programme milestones • Work collaboratively as part of a multi-disciplinary team • Have the ability to effectively engage with staff and stakeholders at all levels to progress outcomes • Have the ability to challenge and question existing behaviour or perspectives while maintaining good working relationship • Evidence of working within a Local Authority Culture • Have the ability to work remotely and in an Agile manner Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 35% Cultural fit 5% Price 60% Questions from Suppliers 1. Could you clarify what is meant by “multiple Line of Business suppliers” please? Are you looking for experience of us working in a multi-supplier environment where each supplier has its own different technical specialism and how we have managed the interfaces and interdependencies between those suppliers? Answer to your first part, Line of business applications are software applications which are used to facilitate the unique requirements of a team, department within BCC, e.g. Northgate, we have multiple LoB applications that we need to integrate into. Answer to the second part, Yes. 2. What is the expected roadmap for the use of Xamarin /.net Maui? Xamarin /.net Maui are critical to every major release for the Field worker platform. 3. What is the work package roadmap? The work packages will be closely aligned to the product Roadmap for the field worker platform. As part of the second phase of this competition the shortlisted suppliers will be provided further information on the product roadmap. 4. Could the Authority please share the procurement timetable. TBC and refined at point of short-listing and further competition. Award of the contract will be strictly subject to Cabinet and funding approval which is being sought currently. Expectations are an award will be made for a March 2022 engagement to maintain pace 5. Does this stage 1, carry any scores/weightage. Stage 1 will be based on an evaluation and short-listing of the Essential and Nice to have skills. 0-Not Met, 1-Partially Met, 2-Met, 3-Exceeded