Group Business Intelligence Service (GBIS) Urgent Support

Tender description

Which phase the project is in Not applicable Existing team The existing team consists of Head of Group BI Service, Head of data Engineering, 3 x Lead Data Engineers, 4 x Data Modellers. A Head of Service Development, 2 x xCapability Managers, a Lead Visualisation Manager, 2 x Visualisation Authors and a Customer Support role. Address where the work will be done The office locations for this co-located team are; Square One, 4 Travis St, Manchester M1 2NY and; The Quadrant, Elder Gate, Milton Keynes MK9 1EN. In addition the team work flexibly from home or other based office locations depending on customer requirement. Working arrangements Supplier resources will work as part of a blended delivery team, working remotely but using Network Rail supplied equipment, Monday-Friday usual office hours. More flexibility may be arranged by mutual agreement after an initial onboarding process. We expect team(s) to reflect the roles and capabilities listed in the Essential Skills section. Team(s) will work in the Agile delivery methodology, or 'Waterfall', or in a hybrid of both disciplines. Provide more information about your security requirements: Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) Provide more information about your security requirements (optional): Dependant on the individual requirement(s) and access to systems/data higher levels of clearance may be required. Latest start date 2024-03-18 Enter the expected contract length: 2 years Extension period: 1 year Are you prepared to show your budget details?: Yes Indicative maximum: 4000000 Indicative minimum: 1 Provide further information: Not committed spend, this is a none exclusive call off requirement. Confirm if you require a contracted out service or supply of resource Supply of resource: the off-payroll rules may apply Summary of work Network Rail require a delivery partner to provide urgent DDaT support for their Group Business Intelligence Service (GBIS). The successful supplier will provide the capability and capacity to deliver on multiple, urgent, time-constrained outcomes (within scope of the overarching contract) and possess the ability to onboard individuals and teams at short notice - 10 working days from a Statement of Work (SoW) being agreed. Where the supplied staff will work North West England Where the supplied staff will work South East England Where the supplied staff will work No specific location (for example they can work remotely) Why the work is being done There is a need for a flexible supplier to respond to urgent requests received by Network Rail's Group Business Intelligence Service from its customers. The proposed contract will enable GBIS to access the market for support in delivering urgent Business Intelligence projects where resources are required within 10 working days of a Statement of Work (SoW) being agreed. The Contracting Authority are looking for a supplier that can provide Agile Multidisciplinary Teams to work with GBIS and its customers to provide an urgent delivery bridge where there is a lack of in-house capability and/or capacity. Core capabilities for the proposed contract are:  Data strategy  Data visualisation  Cloud architecture  Data architecture  Data governance (e.g. Microsoft Purview)  Data engineering  Digital upskilling This contract will allow time-critical work to commence while alternative arrangements are made. All agreed deliverables (SoWs) will be in scope of the overarching, agreed contractual outcomes. SoWs will be managed by Network Rail's GBIS Technical Lead to ensure compliance. The business problem you need to solve GBIS was set up to support and provide Data, Analytics and Business Intelligence Services to Network Rail customers including Routes, Regions and Central Functions. The operating model was designed (around 3 years ago) in consultation with those customers to make sure GBIS delivered the outcomes they required. Since then, GBIS has seen the demand for their services evolve and are seeking options that enable them to continue to deliver the services needed by customers across Network Rail. The current challenge is how to meet this evolving demand. Customers from across Network Rail (NR) are now requesting more design and delivery services in addition to the expected demand. GBIS subject matter expertise (SME) knowledge and experience is also being used significantly to support NR in its major transformation of its technology platforms. With the reduced capacity of the service this means that GBIS are not able to fully meet their customers current needs. GBIS possess the expertise to help shape the solutions and support their customers, however, require support to deliver on projects and programmes that have pre-agreed investment and budget in place. First user type: Network Rail Customers (Routes, Regions and Central Functions) Enter more details about this user type: Need the Data, Analytics and Business Intelligence to design and deliver major transformation of its technology platforms. Questions and Clarifications 1. Each of the 'Essential Skills and Experience' questions mention a 200 word limit, but the one box to answer includes a 750 character including space limit. This would mean that a 750 character answer would cover all 10 questions. Is this correct? This is an automated form provided by CCS. We would suggest using the box and numbering each response accordingly. We are accepting responses up-to a 200 word limit for each of the criteria, including nice-to-have's. Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 17:09 2. Each of the 'Essential Skills and Experience' questions include that they are pass/fail and on a points based scoring structure. Are these being scored (out of 10 weighting), or pass/fail (10/0 weighting)? Each of the essential skills responses carries a 10% weighting, however, if you score less than a Met (2) for any of the essentials, you will be excluded regardless of how you may have scored on the other criteria. Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 17:08 3. Who is the primary/executive sponsor for this opportunity? Network Rail Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 17:07 4. In the Nice to Have question, you ask how we promote Health and safety as an organisation. We want to clarify what you are referring to to ensure we have the best understanding. Is it possible that you are referring to our promotion of staff well-being? Thank you. We are referring to the actions you take as an organisation to ensure the Health & Safety of your staff and those within your sphere of influence. Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 17:06 5. In the Nice to Have question, you ask how we promote Health and safety as an organisation. We want to clarify what you are referring to to ensure we have the best understanding. Is it possible that you are referring to our promotion of staff well-being? Thank you. We are referring to the actions you take as an organisation to ensure the Health & Safety of your staff and those within your sphere of influence. Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 17:06 6. As per UKNR GBIS, resource is required within 10 days of SLA agreed upon, is there any leeway for our supplier team to augment the resources else timeline is very strict. For clarity, SoWs will be agreed towards the overarching outcome as demand materialises. Once the deliverables are agreed in conjunction with the successful supplier - the expectation is that the required resources are onboarded within 10 working days. Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 17:05 7. RE: Q3 "Previous experience of delivering and supporting complex transformation programmes within government (encompassing IT enabled change alongside complex organisation and process re-design)." Could you please confirm if work conducted on the HS2 programme will be classified as a programme within government. Yes, this is sufficient. If the experience is not within Government but in a similar regulated environment we will still consider your response. Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 17:04 8. Please could you clarify if you require us to write 200 words per technical question response OR if you require us to write 750 characters including spaces per technical question; both are specified in Attachment 3 Responses to Essential and Nice-to-have skills and experience. For the two nice-to-have questions, please confirm that it is 750 characters PER question. Thank you 200 words per response will be permitted (Includes nice-to-haves). Combined, hyphenated, or lists using "/" etc. will not be allowed. Any words over the 200 word count will be discounted from your response. Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 17:03 9. The Attachment 3 document lists 10 questions, each with a 200 word limit. Under Q10, the space is for supplier responses, yes only 750 characters including spaces. If it is 10 questions, of 200 words, that doesn't seem to match. Please confirm a total of 2000 words total. Or do we respond under each individual question? 200 words per response/question are permitted. Combined, hyphenated, or lists using "/" etc will not be allowed. Any words over the 200 word count will be discounted from your response. Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 17:02 10. Are visuals allowed within any of the responses or are they intended to be text only? No pictures or diagrams please. Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 17:00 11. The response template indicates that each question should be only 750 characters (including spaces), however, the questions indicate responses should be 200 words. Can you clarify which instruction should be used? 200 words. Combined, hyphenated, or lists using "/" etc. will not be allowed. Any words over the 200 word count will be discounted from your response. Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 16:59 12. Are you able to include pictures and/or diagrams? And do they count towards the word count? No pictures or diagrams please. Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 16:57 13. Are you able to include pictures and/or diagrams? And do they count towards the word count? No pictures or diagrams please. Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 16:57 14. Who will be evaluating the response? To be confirmed Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 16:57 15. Can the deadline be extended? Unfortunately an extension can not be facilitated. Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 16:56 16. Are ethical walls in place? Not relevant Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 16:55 17. If an incumbent is present, will they also be bidding? (Can we ascertain how good a job they’re doing) N/A Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 16:54 18. Is there an incumbent? If so, who is the incumbent? No incumbent Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 16:53 19. I noticed there is no word count for the nice-to-have questions - can we assume that this is also a 200-word limit or is this higher? 200 words. Combined, hyphenated, or lists using "/" etc will not be allowed. Any words over the 200 word count will be discounted from your response. Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 16:52 20. Hi Is there a preferred technical stack / platform ? Yes – Microsoft stack Last Updated: 10 January 2024, 16:50