RM1043.8-1-Crown Commercial Service: Content Improvement UR

Tender description

Pre-market engagement N/A Work done so far A significant amount of work has already been conducted: - historical guidance documents were audited - c.40 user research interviews were conducted - based upon findings new templates were iterated and agreed with CCS - training materials to upskill colleagues on completing the new templates in a consistent way - c.100 new agreements have had their guidance documents transitioned into the new templates; the vast majority of these are now online and available to customers We now must understand the impact of this content transformation. Which phase the project is in Live Existing team The successful supplier will work closely with the CCS content team, lead by the Head of Content, who will manage this work on a day-to-day basis. Collaboration may also be required with the CCS user research team, subject matter experts (for example to debate a change in how the templates are worded), and senior stakeholders. Address where the work will be done We expect that the vast majority of this work will be done remotely. This project will operate a 'remote by default' approach. Working arrangements We would expect for the vast majority of this work to be done remotely and will operate on a ‘remote by default’ basis. While each sprint is running, we would envisage weekly status review calls with the supplier. Likewise, CCS would be comfortable with kick off meetings, presentations summarising user research, discussions around iterations, and wrap up meetings being held remotely. We would be happy for the successful supplier to conduct user research remotely (e.g. - via video conferencing software). CCS has office space in Liverpool, London, Birmingham, Newport, and Norwich. Likewise, staff are encouraged to travel where there’s a business need. To that end, we would be open to, by exception, face-to-face meetings with the successful supplier where both parties agree it would be beneficial. Provide more information about your security requirements: No security clearance needed Latest start date 2023-12-01 Enter the expected contract length: 8 months Extension period: 4 months Are you prepared to show your budget details?: Yes Indicative maximum: 55000 Provide further information: We expect each 3 week sprint can be delivered for c.£20k while we acknowledge that further time and resource will be involved in planning the sprints, research approach, designing materials - thus incurring more cost. As previously stated, if user research surfaced significant iterations that could not be reasonably completed in the set time frames, this would be considered beyond the scope of this project. CCS would then explore the most appropriate next steps. Confirm if you require a contracted out service or supply of resource Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply Summary of work Crown Commercial Service (CCS) have recently undertaken a large scale content transformation project to, based upon user research, provide more consistent and user-centric agreement guidance documents to our customers. We now require user research and content design support in order to assess the efficacy of this content transformation and, where necessary, make iterations to the guidance templates (and their associated, internally-facing, training materials) based upon feedback. We envisage the successful supplier will work with us twice during the remainder of this financial year to deliver 2 ‘user research sprints’. Both of which are covered by this procurement. Our working assumption is that these sprints will take place early in Q3 FY 23/24 and in Q1 FY 24/25. We expect each sprint to last c.3 weeks and to cover interviewing a small, balanced sample of external and internal users (in addition to potentially sending a survey to a border group) to understand how they are interacting with the documents and the impact they are making. This research will then be presented to the CCS project team and potential iterations to the templates discussed, agreed, and implemented by the supplier. We would expect any iterations to be reasonably minor: tweaking copy or structure for example. If the research surfaced anything more substantial that could not be reasonably implemented in the timeframe of the sprint, we would look at extending the scope of the work. Where the supplied staff will work North West England Where the supplied staff will work No specific location (for example they can work remotely) Who the organisation using the products or services is Crown Commercial Service plays an important role helping the UK public sector save money when buying common goods and services. We use our commercial expertise to help buyers in central government and across the public and third sectors to purchase everything from locum doctors and laptops to police cars and electricity. More information on CCS can be found here: www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/about-ccs/ Why the work is being done This work is being done for 2 reasons: 1. we must follow user-centred design / Government Digital Service best practices and must continually test our product (in this case, the guidance documents) with users and make any appropriate iterations based upon feedback. 2. to help CCS understand the value of the content transformation: by speaking to users, we seek to understand the impact the work has had on our users, informing future content transformation decisions We also envisage that findings from this work can contribute to CCS bank of user research and help inform other projects. The business problem you need to solve Historically, there was huge variation in the guidance documents we offered customers. There was no standardised structure, language, length, or contents. We know our customers found this very confusing. The work we’ve carried out means we now have 3 user-tested guidance document templates to be used depending on how the agreement is structured. We also offer guidance to internal colleagues on how to complete these templates in an accurate and standardised manner. By October 2023, many of these templates will have been live for 8+ months. We therefore now need to understand how users are interacting with these templates in the real world so we can iterate the templates (if appropriate) and begin to understand the value the content transformation has brought. First user type: N/A Enter more details about this user type: N/A Questions and Clarifications 1. Q1. Is the budget inclusive or exclusive of VAT? Q2. Is the budget (and pricing) inclusive or exclusive of travel expenses? Q3. For all questions but using Q1 as an example, when you make the assertion ‘Extensive experience in planning’ do you mean: ‘Please demonstrate that you have…’? If so please update the ITT so it includes answerable questions rather than assertions. Q4. For all questions - what criteria must be included in an answer to gain maximum marks, and for each of these criteria what proportion of the question score have you allocated? Q5. Does the 750 character limit apply to all answers? Q6. Did you intend to offer this as a Fixed Price contract rather than capped T&M? Q7. What level of integration with CCS content designers and researchers do you expect from the supplier? Eg will the supplier be leading a round of research, or providing note taking and analysis support for a round of research? Q8. Could you please clarify the timeline: you say both ‘sprints will take place early in Q3 FY 23/24 and Q1 FY 24/25’ and ‘the successful supplier will work with us twice during the remainder of this financial year’. Q9. If there is a need for onsite meetings with CCS, where will these meetings take place, ‘North West England’ or another CCS office location? Q10. To what extent will CCS support the supplier with access to research participants? Q11. Could CCS please clarify what ‘survey to a border group’ (mentioned in Summary of the work) means? A1. Exclusive of VAT. A2. Exclusive of travel expenses – though as noted in the ITT, the project operates on a remote by default basis. A3. We can clarify that questions are prefaced with ‘describe the essential skill or experience’, followed by the question itself. For example ‘Extensive experience in planning and running…’ We can confirm these questions are asking suppliers to demonstrate the skill / experience described in the question. A4. Weightings and scoring guidance are contained within section 4 'Assessment criteria’. A5. Yes. A6. This is offered as a fixed price contract. A7. We would expect the supplier to lead the work (e.g. - lead research rather than simply providing note taking support). The internal CCS team will be on-hand to support the supplier and offer an internal perspective. A8. Timelines are indicative, but we would expect 2 sprints to be carried out: one in Q3 of the FY and another at the end of this FY and / or in Q1 of 24/25. A9. If there is a need to meet face-to-face, CCS will agree on a suitable venue with the successful supplier. A10. CCS has access to a range of participants, however we would be open to contacting new participants should the successful supplier be able to bring them to the process. A11. Typo: ‘survey to a broader group’, was the intended text. Last Updated: 30 August 2023, 13:09 2. Q1. You indicate that there are 3 templates and that c100 agreements have been migrated to these templates. Could you give an indication of the volume of content to be assessed, please? Q2. You suggest the user research will involve interviewing a small balanced sample of internal and external users, can you give an indication of the size of the sample you would expect for internal and external users? Q3. You mention potentially sending a survey to a broader group of users, are there any criteria you would use to assess whether or not to send a survey? A1. While research approaches are to be agreed with the supplier, we would envisage in-depth research with a small sample of stakeholders. A primary aim of the work is to understand how users are interacting with the new templates. As such, there is no requirement to assess / audit a huge volume of existing content. Rather, we wish to gain a rich understanding of how users interact with them and use this insight to inform potential iterations. A2. We expect to agree on research approaches and decide upon an optimum way forward with the successful supplier. However, as a rough guide, we are working on the assumption that a balanced sample of 15-20 internal and external users would give us the necessary insight. A3. We expect to agree on research approaches and decide upon an optimum way forward with the successful supplier. A survey was mentioned as a means to illustrate how, potentially, the insight yielded from interviews could be expanded upon and another layer of data gained. Last Updated: 29 August 2023, 17:30 3. Good afternoon, Please can you confirm the total contract value and length of this opportunity, as the stated value is £55,000 but also notes 'We expect each 3 week sprint can be delivered for c.£20k while we acknowledge that further time and resource will be involved in planning the sprints, research approach, designing materials - thus incurring more cost.' Many thanks, i3Works As a guide, we would expect each 3 week sprint would be delivered for c.£20k. With 2 sprints, this would take spend to c.£40k. However, we are also aware that time will need to be spent prior / post sprints planning research methods and conducting a wash up. Hence the 'extra' £15k. Last Updated: 24 August 2023, 15:16 4. Survey to a border group: if you mean 'broader group then who would constitute such a group and what would be the likely magnitude/size of the survey? Apologies. This was a typo. We did mean 'broader' group. The size and magnitude would be discussed with the potential supplier as part of their research approach. Last Updated: 24 August 2023, 15:14 5. Q1: Did you create any personas or identify user types during the initial phase of research (of internal and external users)? Q2: Are there different user groups within the external and internal categories? Q3: Was there any baseline measure taken of the previous guidance documents during the auditing, before the new ones were produced and released? A1: No personas were created specifically for this work, but user types are clearly defined and understood. A2: External users consume the documents; internal users create them. Within external users, there are a number of user groups (e.g. - procurement professional; procurement novice) who must be catered for. A3: Our focus is on external users. However, we also must consider how internal users are finding the creation process and if it can also be iterated. Last Updated: 24 August 2023, 15:11 6. We applied for this opportunity in June 2023, but have not heard the outcome. Was the original procurement paused or cancelled and has it now been rereleased CCS had to cancel ITT_28998. Unforeseen capacity issues meant we would not have been able to run the procurement in-line with the stated timeline. With these issues resolved, we have now gone back out to market. Suppliers will note the requirements and assessment criteria are very similar to the previous ITT. Last Updated: 22 August 2023, 15:54 7. Can you please confirm if the 750 character limit includes or excludes spaces? The character limit includes spaces. Last Updated: 22 August 2023, 15:53 8. Many thanks for inviting us to bid for this tender. We had previously submitted a response in June so we just wanted to clarify whether this is a separate tender and is this a requirement to re-enter stage 1? CCS had to cancel ITT_28998. Unforeseen capacity issues meant we would not have been able to run the procurement in-line with the stated timeline. With these issues resolved, we have now gone back out to market. Suppliers will note the requirements and assessment criteria are very similar to the previous ITT. Last Updated: 21 August 2023, 10:33 9. We note that this itt is very similar to a previous itt 28998 which was released on 25th May 2023. Can the authority please clarify the position on the previous itt 28998 ? Thank you CCS had to cancel ITT_28998. Unforeseen capacity issues meant we would not have been able to run the procurement in-line with the stated timeline. With these issues resolved, we have now gone back out to market. Suppliers will note the requirements and assessment criteria are very similar to the previous ITT. Last Updated: 21 August 2023, 10:30 10. Good afternoon, I am writing to find out whether this invitation to tender a reissue of the previous tender (itt_28998). Many thanks CCS had to cancel ITT_28998. Unforeseen capacity issues meant we would not have been able to run the procurement in-line with the stated timeline. With these issues resolved, we have now gone back out to market. Suppliers will note the requirements and assessment criteria are very similar to the previous ITT. Last Updated: 21 August 2023, 10:29 11. Is there an incumbent that has provided a similar service within the past 12 months? An agency was procured to support CCS in the initial work: conducting user research and developing new templates. This contract has now finished and, as such, a new procurement is being run for this new requirement. Last Updated: 21 August 2023, 10:23