A partner to design, develop, iterate and run a digital platform for Warmer Homes

Tender description

Summary of the work A partner to design, develop, iterate and run a digital platform for Warmer Homes, a net zero start-up service for Northumberland residents. Following the initial go-live we would expect there to be at least one upgrade window per quarter for the duration of the contract. Expected Contract Length 12 months, with option to extension 12 months, if required. Latest start date Saturday 1 April 2023 Budget Range £100k - £150k Why the Work is Being Done Northumberland County Council (NCC) is intended to deliver in-house service of retrofitting domestic properties in the county including self-funded, co-funded and fully funded projects. The service is already running and plans operations for at least the next 26 months. To support in that activity, NCC is looking for a partner to design, develop and support a new digital service which will allow us to collect and manage applications from residents, manage delivery of the retrofit and report internally and to external bodies. The service has already started and is managed internally with an existing solution, but as NCC is scaling operations the new digital service needs to be user-centred, accessible, and scalable. Problem to Be Solved As NCC is scaling operations, we need a robust system with as many automated steps as possible to streamline the application process and provide a great user experience for our residents that choose to apply The problems to solve are: • Resident and Supplier enquiries about the scheme • Residents can’t currently easily apply for upgrade services • Eligibility checking is manual and time consuming • It is difficult to retrieve information relevant to any complaint or enquiry. • Poor user experience – not always clear to the user what the status of their application is or where they are in the journey. • Reporting is manual • Data collection is in different systems • Not always clear to NCC what the status of third party activities are • Not possible to take and track payments • The information to track overall progress of the schemes is not easily accessible • Legacy data from previous schemes needs to be available in the same system • Capturing resident and supplier feedback Who Are the Users There are multiple user groups who will be using the service: Applicants/Residents / Landlords -Provide evidence for eligibility -Track the progress / status of their application, including recommendations for home improvements, through the installation process, quality assurance and handover. -Pay for any services chargeable -View contractor / assessor recommendations Processing team -to check and assess eligibility -request eligibility documents -monitor the process. -assign case to a case worker. -Monitor workloads -Lodging warranties and certificates of compliance -Ability to match more than one funding stream to each measure and allocate percentage Retrofit Coordination Services (RCS - internal and external) RCS is responsible for providing the retrofit assessment. Assessors can be part of internal RCS team or contracted via external RCS provider. -Allocated a case -Upload EPC / EPR -Update status of case -View all my cases -View all cases Retrofit Management Services (RMS) RMS is an external company contracted to provide installation of measures accordingly to retrofit assessment. RSM is responsible for procuring installers. - Allocated a case - Upload design - Update status of case - View all my cases - Invoice / receipt payment - View all cases NCC Corporate - Access to all source data Early Market Engagement NCC have not engaged in any early market engagement with suppliers, however, we have insight from users from existing schemes. NCC has run a trial retrofit project which is already in process and established high needs for retrofit of the houses in Northumberland. There are over 100K houses in Northumberland which need upgrading their EPC score, many of those will fit into the eligibility criteria. There is a high demand, the application numbers are 2-3 times higher than available funding. There is also a range of digital skills between applicants Work Already Done NCC has already retrofitted hundreds of households, in the next 24 months the goal is to retrofit at least 600 more. Without wide informational campaign there is already 1000 applicants [as part of the supplier Q&A session we will walk through the current approach for additional context]. We are currently in the process of transitioning some key customer legacy systems (CRM and Website) to PlaceCube (DigitalPlace), any solution would need the capability to integrate (this could be manually at first) with this strategic asset, but eventually through APIs. Existing Team The existing team consists of Service Director, Project Manager and Assistant project Manager, Processing team, Customer Service Team, Retrofit Team, in-house Digital Team and Business Intelligence Analyst. Current Phase Beta Skills & Experience • At least 3 examples of designing, developing, iterating and running a similar digital service that: Can be used by residents and internal users Meet the Government Design Principles. • Have access to skilled and experienced resources who have delivered similar scale digital services • Experience supporting a production environment and supporting technical customers/users Nice to Haves Experience in implementing housing or retrofitting type of case management system Work Location Northumberland County Council, County Hall, A197, Morpeth NE61 2EF Working Arrangments The supplier team will work with NCC teams within the office working hours Monday to Friday, between 9am and 5pm. Meetings can take place virtually through Teams or other video conference service. Security Clearance BPSS No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • For 3 different examples of creating and running similar service please describe: (20% 1.The problem 2.Your approach 3.The results 4. If within time/budget 5.What did you learn • Provide a summary of experience, and education for people that you would use on this assignment. Provide contacts to customers for the examples above. (10%) • Describe your approach for delivering the outcomes for this assignment, including a programme plan (10%) • Specify the biggest risks to manage together and how would you mitigate them, what would you need to do, what would you need us to do? (10%) Cultural Fit Criteria Explain how your delivery approach fits into the NCC Values. (5%) Northumberland County Council - Corporate plan Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 5% Price 45% Questions from Suppliers 1. You state that the project start date is 1 April. Given that the end date for DOS submissions is 21 March, can you explain your timetable expectations in terms of proposal delivery date; clarification of proposal; contract setup and signature in order to facilitate a 1 April start date?” As we appreciate that 1st of April might not be possible considering all the legal aspects of procurement, we would like to start working with the chosen contractor as soon as possible. 2. Has the service already undergone an Alpha (user-tested tested prototype)? No, it hasn't, however it might be helpful, that the service is currently being delivered based on the SharePoint lists and excel spreadsheets with Power BI and RPA in the background, therefore we are very well aware of the processes and pain-points in the journey. 3. Is there a prioritised roadmap of jobs to be done for Beta? We are open to discuss that with the contractor and their abilities or currently developed systems which might be adapted for that requirement. The most important is entry point for the customer (application form), as it needs urgent changes, and which can be consumed by existing processes. The least urgent is integration with our financial system. We are open to discuss the road map, as long as it follows the agile, iterative way of delivery and provides MVP as quickly as possible. 4. What are the existing systems where data is stored that it will need to be migrated from? Existing data is stored in SharePoint lists. 5. Is there an approved payment platform or would recommend as part of the specification? There will be no requirements to collect payments through that system, only connection with existing payment systems or financial systems (Oracle) to track payments for contractors or residents if necessary. 6. Eligibility approval are there a set of rules that are followed or are they bespoke to individual? Eligibility rules will be bespoke to the finance streams (funding types), and we will need ability to amend them as we will onboard wider range of different funding types. 7. Is there an appeals process? The procurement is being conducted under the Digital Market Place process. Any appeals process will be as per the Digital market place guidance. 8. Would this be hosted internally (please specify the environment) or is hosting part of the requirement? We are open to proposal from the provider, just whatever will be the best solution from financial, security and usability perspective. 9. Are there any specific tech stack requirements? ie.NET, React? We are technically agnostic, current CCM is built using Java (PlaceCube) but it is not a necessary technology. 10. Would this be required to be built upon PlaceCube for core functionality? Later down the line we can integrate the solution into the customer service management system (e.g. through APIs) so customers can check the progress of their applications in their council account. PlaceCube will be available for customers later this year.The procured system can be built on whatever technology is best for the contractor. Other integrations are: financial systems to check the progress of the payments or invoices (for contractors) and additional payments if required for residents, LLPG system to provide the list of addresses with UPRNs and reporting systems (Power BI - eg through connection to SQL or api). 11. Can you expand upon your expectations around running & managing the service? In the initial phase of 12 months contractor will provide training and technical (level2) support for the system together with being responsible for its operational readiness. In that time the contractor will hand over the system to our internal digital team to manage together with training and our internal team will take it from there. 12. Are you able to share the discovery & alpha outputs please We will share our experiences of running the service so far using SharePoint lists, Power BI, Excel and RPAs with the chosen contractor. We don't have formal discovery documentation to share. 13. Given that this is a beta, has a discovery (definition of problem, user needs analysis definition of scope) and alpha (prototyping of ideas and testing of riskiest assumptions) already been carried out? Or is it expected that design and architecture outcomes that would typically be carried out in discovery and alpha be carried out within this beta phase also and within the same budget?If there are any discovery or alpha output reports can these be shared? We are already delivering the service using SharePoint, SharePoint lists, Power BI and excel together with a range of RPAs and we have an initial understanding of user needs, problem and the scope, which we will share with the chosen contractor, however we don't have a formal report we can share in the procurement stage. 14. Is this is a replacement solution? We don’t have a digital system for Warmer Homes, however, are currently delivering the service using SharePoint, SharePoint lists, Power BI and excel together with a range of RPAs and we have an initial understanding of user needs, problem and the scope, which we will share with the chosen contractor. 15. What type of data collections you expect this service to do? In terms of the integration with existing systems (such as CCM – PlaceCube or financial systems in Oracle) we will expect to utilise APIs, in terms of working with external contractors – that will be just a part of the core solution, in terms of consuming the data for reporting needs – that might be SQL or APIs or any other solution which will allow to integrate with Power BI. 16. What systems this new system has to connect to? We need this new system to collect UPRN, which is available through internal LLPG data, the CCM PlaceCube (through APIs) for the customers to check updates of their applications and installations, and the financial system (Oracle) to check for payments made. 17. When the system needs to be live? It is about getting it right and getting as quickly as we can, we are open to the suggestions for the roadmap and possible timescale from the contractor. 18. How the data will be fed into the system? A starting point of the customer journey is an application form for the residents, then application(case) is updated by applicant, processing team, retrofit assessment team, the installers and other external contractors (eg. through their account with managed level of permissions), all of each require documents upload. Application form and resident updates should be possible to replaced by APIs so it can be integrated in the future into the PlaceCube CCM . 19. What kind of payments solution the system needs? The system doesn’t require payment solution, just the integration with Oracle system to check for the payments made (for invoices or the residents' additional payments). 20. What is the expectation from the support point of view? We are expecting 12 months support on the back of this procurement stage, plus additional 12 if it will be required, which will need additional contract extension processes. 21. Where do you want this to be hosted? We are open to suggestions, whatever is the best solution from the financial, security, and usability point of view. 22. Do you want to adopt this system beyond 24 months? Yes, we want to use this system for the years to come and we are open to any training required to take it inhouse afterwards. 23. Do you want triple or double level of accessibility standard? We are more focused on actual usability and accessibility standards of the service than particular level of WCAG standards. 24. The user groups are wide and varied and the budget is potentially too small to cover all. If successful, could the scope be narrowed for a prioritised focus?The contract length is 12 months. Could a limited scope be delivered in a shorter period e.g. 3 months? The main focus in the customer journey is on the residents and the backend processing team, as they will have the most contact points within the service. Installers and external contractors' user experience might be a duplicate of the internal processing team UX with just a different level of permissions, depending on signposting to the relevant contractor. We are open for as quick delivery as possible.. We will expect, however, 12-month support for the implemented system for areas the training wouldn't cover or if there will be any problems with the product. 25. As there are no formal discovery outputs available, is the supplier expected to document all the requirements? If so is that included in the stated budget and does that also need to cover the build and support for the first 12 months? It would be extremely difficult as a supplier to commit at this stage to what can be delivered within that budget and in what timescales without definition of what is to be included in the MVP. Is any further information available at this stage? Our primary focus is on the delivery of a working product, therefore we are less concerned about detailed documentation and more focused on the development process and iterative delivery of quality product. The budget needs to be used predominantly for the built work, getting an MVP digital service live as per description in the tender. We also expect that the supplier has already experience of a similar product, which should help narrow down the requirements much quicker.