DP For the Provision of UiPath Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to Generate Savings

Tender description

Summary of the work A hybrid model to deliver at pace; the UiPath partner must provide scalable resources for implementation. The BCC expects delivery in three waves; each wave supplier will provide costs for discovery, analysis, and outputs in the form of fixed price/volume adjust to deliver and generate c£60k savings per automated process. Expected Contract Length 24 Months Latest start date Monday 3 April 2023 Budget Range circa £1.5m (Specialist Delivery Partner). The awarded costs may be subject to a cap and agreed volume adjuster Why the Work is Being Done BCC's wider savings targets for FY2023/24 and beyond mandate specific Service area(s) to adopt the power of automation services. The council are moving towards a more Agile-centred approach to drive efficiencies. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) enables our business process to be configured and scripted to emulate human actions (such as keystrokes/ extraction of data etc.) to drive efficiency in the business and allow staff to focus on more value-adding activities. BCC Uses UiPath as the strategic platform for delivering RPA and has successfully delivered automation in-house through IT&D. To contribute towards the council's wider savings targets for 2023/24 and beyond, the scale at which the automation is delivered to the business will need to increase substantially. As such, a delivery partner that specialises in UI Path must be secured to increase the roll-out speed to Service Areas within the council by providing the following: Delivery Management of each automation within service areas --> Analysis & Design --> Development --> TEST --> Roll Out --> Handed to BAU Services --> Savings Recognised Problem to Be Solved RPA (Robotic Process Automation)  Reduce effort currently spent on delivering manual, repetitive processes across 18 services areas in the council  - By automating processes, savings are achieved through FTE's release. Who Are the Users Users & Business Case:  Users will be the BCC staff (mainly the back office) and residents/citizens using the day-to-day council services.  A specialist delivery partner must be onboarded to drive savings and target specific service areas chosen for automation with priority on the highest savings first for each identified tranche.  Balance and pace will be maintained to ensure the changes are not overloaded for BAU.  Appropriate Leadership & Programme Governance Oversight will be provided for this change throughout the period  Automation will drive savings and will be achieved by releasing FTEs. Non-Financial Benefits:  Improved customer experience and service for both internal & external customers throughout the cycle of contact with the council  Manual errors will be reduced, and the council can deliver quality, consistent, efficient services.  Spend less time on basic enquiries and more time on value-added activity and complex queries.  Scaling up automation within BCC will allow employees to improve their technical abilities. Early Market Engagement None Work Already Done YES - The Inhouse Project was commissioned in 2022 to perform a few automation for service areas before a full OBC was produced. BCC has an embedded UiPath Estate and SaaS licencing contract, as such and for the avoidance of doubt, cost of change and change impact - NO alternative RPA licencing will be considered Existing Team Development Manager x 1; Software Engineer x 4 (RPA) Business Partner: Change Lead, Comms Lead, Finance Lead, HR Lead, Tech Solutions, Solutions Architect & Business Analyst. Current Phase Beta Skills & Experience • The supplier must be a Platinum Partner for UiPath • Experience in planning an organisation-wide automation programme in Local Government • Knowledge of Local Government processes and proven track record of delivering accelerated RPA processes to local Authority • The supplier has extensive experience in implementing solution which reduces local authority time spent on delivering manual, repetitive processes • Experience in implementing automation that transforms core enterprise processes for each service area • Build business apps and automation processes rapidly with low-code, visual tools • Build business apps and automation process with development interface • Ensure all processes can be integrated and adopts artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP) • Ensure all processes create smarter decision-making and collaboration between people and robots • The supplier MUST have proven and delivered skills transfer in a previous delivery; • The supplier must ensure BCC resources are upskilled and knowledge transfer is completed, enhancing their RPA skills & capabilities • The supplier MUST provide all Developed processes with Automated TESTING Scripts (TEST UiPath TEST Manager) to the BCC Engineers • The processes and solutions must adhere to UiPath's Best practices • Ability to leverage efficiencies by automation, re-use & master continuous improvement in an efficient way • Ability to leverage efficiencies by automation, re-use & master continuous improvement in an efficient way • MUST provide evidence and report implementation progress at key Council Governance Forums on RPA progress Nice to Haves Able to use pre-built solutions/components against Local Authority key line of business. Work Location Birmingham City Council, 10 Woodcock Street, B7 4BL Working Arrangments  Remote (Using MS Teams for communications), with requirements for the occasional on-site workshop(s), and meeting(s)  Meetings MUST meet take place during UK standard working hours  Regular weekly and ad-hoc progress updates to Internal/External stakeholders throughout the Programme and Project lifecycle  Programme/Project Board, Finance Reporting Security Clearance Standard business confidentiality and non-disclaimers apply when the supplier has secured the council's approval to use any Environment with live Council Data. Specific Systems may require evidence to be provided to BCC HR & Security Team from a compliance perspective citing data sensitivity. 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. AWARD OF CONTRACT IS SUBJECT TO BOTH CABINET AND FUNDING APPROVAL ONLY No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Technical Solution • Delivery Approach and methodology • Team Structure • Proven track record of implementing UiPath RPA within a Local Authority environment at an accelerated pace • Proven track record of delivering Change Adoption (New Working Practices) within a Local Authority • Proven track record of delivering financial savings for Local Authority by driving automation processes • Proven track record of delivering financial savings for Local Authority by driving automation processes Cultural Fit Criteria • Have the flexibility to source resources and specialist skills from within your organisations within tight timescales to meet 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 • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 20% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. Is it possible to provide extra documents to supplement the answers, such as powerpoint slides, videos or case studies, for example. Based on previous Procurements under DOS (Stage 1 only), supplier responses appear to be restricted to text only, with such responses received by the Cusomer in Excel Format only (with a response per requirement per cell). As such may we suggest you contact CCS for further clarification 2. You mentioned 18 Service Areas in the description, are you able to provide details of those Service Areas? Digital & Customer ServicesAssistance Director DeliveryStreetSceneCity Housing ManagementRegulation and EnforcementSkills & EmployabilityPlanning, Transport and SustainabilityInclusion and SENDDevelopment and CommercialCity Housing Services and SupportService FinanceNeighbourhoods DivisionLegal and Democratic ServicesEducation & Early YearsHighway and InfrastructureCommissioningBirmingham Property ServicesPublic Health Division 3. Are Lean methods used currently for continuous improvement (CI)? Not formally, but we want best practices and CI embedded into all processes going forward as part of this programme. 4. What does the current UI Path landscape and license setup look like? Cloud Orchestrated Unattended Robot x 11 (& TEST x 8)Cloud Orchestrated RPA Developer - Named User x 3Cloud Orchestrated Action Center - Named User x 5Tester - Named User x 5Test Manager x 1Cloud InsightsComputer Vision - On CloudAI Units Bundle 60k (replaces separate line items for Task mining & document understanding & compute units) 5. Are you already using a UI Path Test Automation Framework? No - We have licences and getting ready to deploy, but currently not being used at time of writing. 6. Are there existing automations which have been optimised/adopted to best practice? We have buit 30 production robots (11 of which have now been archived) and have a pipeline of automations. 7. Can the team work with suppliers hardware or would it be provided by the Authority? Hybrid: Supplier can use their hardware but to access BCC Network - Council will be providing standard hardwares for delivery partner - users. 8. What supporting products/licenses are in use e.g UI Path Document Understanding Refer to Point 4 9. Is your automation team following standards like PDD creation, code review, coding guidelines? Yes 10. Is SC or DV Clearance required for resources? NO SC or DV Clearance required. Note: Specific Systems may require evidence to be provided to BCC Programme Board to satisfy - HR & Security Team from a compliance perspective citing data sensitivity. (i.e. Right to Work Verification of Nationality, ID documentation and Immigration status, Identity ID check, Criminal Records Search for 'unspent' convictions (Basic Disclosure check - DBS), Employment checks Confirmation of 3 years (minimum) Employment History/Activity). 11. is onshore/onsite and offshore (Hybrid) delivery model acceptable ? Yes - Acceptable 12. How is this “savings recognised” stage of the delivery management confirmed and what KPIs will be used? By automating processes, savings are achieved through FTE's release. As part of the Governance the benefits will be materialised & signed off by the Programme Board against the original target. 13. Is the ongoing support of the automated process in scope? If so how long is the duration. Please elaborate on the expected SLAs e.g. 24/7 or 18/5 etc. Is the support and maintenance of existing automated process already live. If so, how many bots are in place? NO - Ongoing Support beyond the engagement period not required. All automation processes developed and handed to BAU staff along with Automated TEST SCRIPTS. We already have BAU contract in place for UiPath to provide ongoing support and maintenance. 14. Is the expectation to provide fixed price for discovery and analysis separately? No 15. Is the expectation to provide the price for development and support separately? No 16. Is there a planned number of automations per year? And what is the expected overall saving target from this program? Minimum of 90 automations in total across 18 service areas x 5 automation each. We expect the delivery to be achieved in 5 quarters (15 months in total). Overall savings = £5.4m (minimum of 90 processes across services x £60k avg savings per automation), and excludes any delivery, redundancy costs etc. 17. How long is the bot handover transition period to BAU services? Is there a standard expected duration? We expect the BCC Development team to be part of the delivery working alongside the partner, and the expected warranty, and BAU support handover to be short. 18. Please elaborate the phrase upskilling and Knowledge transfer to BCC resources? Is it the bot operating process or overall skills on automation including Uipath depending upon each role? We have an experienced Development team - but we expect there are best practices, soft skills & development techniques to embrace from previous successful migrations. 19. Would the Birmingham City Council consider bringing the uncapped indemnity in relation to willful misconduct and IRP claims under the liability cap The Council will not consider this In realtion to IPR infringement(s) 20. Would the Birmingham City Council consider changes to the terms or the introduction of special terms in the Call Off Order Form, where the Call Off terms may otherwise preclude the Supplier from meeting their statutory or regulatory obligations? The Council envisages addition of special terms will be limited, there is a clear obligation for suppliers to meet statutory and regulatory obligations, notwithstanding this - the Council will review any proposed additions in context