RM1043.8-1-MINISTRY OF DEFENCE - Head Office Commercial - Data Strategy

Tender description

Work done so far The Buyer has developed a qualitative review of current T&E data management processes in use across a range of Buyer T&E Enterprise participants (including Front Line Commands, test units, test suppliers, industry providers, the Buyer’s Long Term Partnering Agreement (LTPA) for testing), the output of which will be made available to the Supplier at the Call-Off Start Date to support the Supplier’s requirements capture. The Buyer will furnish the Supplier with contact details for a range of technical staff from across the Buyer T&E Enterprise, which the Buyer requires the Supplier to consult with to inform requirements capture. Which phase the project is in Discovery Existing team The existing project team are predominantly based in London, however the requirement includes a need to engage with Defence Test & Evaluation enterprise stakeholders located nationally. Some remote work is expected also. Address where the work will be done The existing project team are predominantly based in London, however the requirement includes a need to engage with Defence Test & Evaluation enterprise stakeholders located nationally. Some remote work is expected also. Working arrangements The Supplier delivers the Service via a blend of online working and physical attendance at the Buyer’s Sites. The Supplier delivers the Service in the United Kingdom only, and on Buyer-issued IT only. Delivery of the Service will require the Supplier’s Personnel to maintain proximity to key Buyer leaders and stakeholders. Opportunities for collaboration in person or hybrid will be available, and meetings will be organised with key stakeholders. All Supplier Personnel working on this Call-Off Contract must be vetted to National Security Vetting (NSV) Security Check (SC) as a minimum, rising to Developed Vetting (DV) in select roles and/or tasks. The Buyer’s Sites include MOD Main Building, Whitehall, London, SW1A 2HB and additional unit or partner Sites. For the avoidance of doubt, the fixed price tendered shall include of travel expenses to the base location (MOD Main Building, Whitehall, London, SW1A 2HB) and no additional costs relating to travel to/from or subsistence relating to or stemming from attendance at this base location is allowable. Recoverable Expenses will allow reimbursement of travel expenses for visits to other Buyer Sites outside of the M25 area (outside London and not including MOD Main Building, Whitehall, London, SW1A 2HB) subject to: ● Forecasts of Recoverable Expenses being submitted to and agreed with the Project Lead in advance of expenditure; and ● Limitation to standard rates of travel in line with the Buyers Expenses Policy. Provide more information about your security requirements: Security Check (SC) Provide more information about your security requirements: Developed Vetting (DV) Provide more information about your security requirements: All Supplier Personnel working on this Call-Off Contract must be vetted to National Security Vetting (NSV) Security Check (SC) as a minimum, rising to Developed Vetting (DV) in select roles and/or tasks. Latest start date 2025-11-25 Enter the expected contract length: 7 months Extension period: 1 year Special terms and conditions The Terms and Conditions of the Call-Off Contract will include MOD Terms and additional Special Terms address the Buyer's specific needs and operational requirement of working in the Defence sector. These will be published in full with the issuance of the Stage 2 Further Competition. Are you prepared to show your budget details?: Yes Indicative maximum: 600000 Provide further information: Budget is Not to Exceed £600,000.00 Inclusive of UK VAT. 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 The Service has been designed to develop answers (in the form of Deliverables specified throughout the Statement of Requirements) to the following questions: 1. What requirements do end users across the Buyer T&E enterprise need from the proposed data management system now and in the future? 2. What are the system requirements for the proposed data management system that would fulfil those present and future end user needs? 3. What data management frameworks and architectures are available presently, whether from within the Buyer T&E enterprise or from Good Industry? 4. Practice, which meet, or could be further developed to meet, identified system requirements for the proposed data management system? 5. Of those presently available solutions, which is an optimal selection by the Buyer to meet or further develop to meet, identified system requirements for the proposed data management system? 6. Leveraging understanding built from examining the above listed questions, how should the Buyer implement the proposed data management system?   Building on the work done to date the Supplier: Requirement 1: Captures user requirements to enable the development of a Buyer T&E Enterprise data management system, and completes review of available data management frameworks and architectures for current and future T&E data management. Requirement 2: Captures system requirements to enable the development of a Buyer T&E Enterprise data management system. Requirement 3: Assesses the suitability of identified candidate data management frameworks and architectures for current and future T&E data management, and recommends an optimal candidate framework and architecture to be carried forward for further development. Further optional Deliverables that may be scoped subject to the Buyer’s instruction are detailed in the Statement of Requirements. Where the supplied staff will work London Where the supplied staff will work No specific location (for example they can work remotely) Who is the organisation using the products or services The Buyer is the Ministry of Defence, however the services will be for the benefit of the Defence-wide Test & Evaluation enterprise, which comprises a range of Defence organisations and industry partners. Why the work is being done BACKGROUND The Buyer works to undertake enterprise-wide modernisation of Test and Evaluation (T&E) capabilities to generate operational, economic, and political benefits and mitigate risks to delivery of Defence capability. Defence T&E capabilities have evolved organically and are not currently well configured to enable the agile and integrated approach, complex high-tech capabilities, and dynamic operating environments envisaged by Defence strategy. Improved data management is key to extracting increased value from data generated in T&E. Data needs to be organised to support future opportunities from the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Current data management in Test and Evaluation does not optimally support the published aims of the Buyer and is not Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR). Data is being generated and used in siloes, with limited scope for distribution. There is no agreed standard centralised Test and Evaluation data management approach in place across the MOD test ranges, or across the Front-Line Commands. In response, the Buyer has established a Project to develop a data management system for the storage, management and sharing of technical data and information generated across the aggregate Buyer T&E enterprise, that renders T&E data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR). The business problem you need to solve Improved data management is key to extracting increased value from data generated in T&E. Data needs to be organised to support future opportunities from the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Current data management in Test and Evaluation does not optimally support the published aims of the Buyer and is not Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR). In response, the Buyer has established a Project to develop a data management system for the storage, management and sharing of technical data and information generated across the aggregate Buyer T&E enterprise, that renders T&E data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. The Project seeks to deliver the following Strategic Outcomes: • A data management system that ensures that the Buyer’s T&E data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR), and which fulfils the strategies and visions outlined in the Digital Strategy for Defence and the Data Strategy for Defence are is developed and implemented. • The Buyer is able to readily reuse T&E data, reducing the risk of repeated T&E activity. • The Buyer is enabled to make decisions at greater pace and with more evidence, through increased accessibility of Defence-wide T&E data and increased sharing of capability data. • The Buyer can order and access T&E data for the creation of training data sets that enable future opportunities for the use of AI (i.e. for natural language queries, or big data trend evaluation). The Supplier will support, through its delivery of the Service, the delivery of the Project and the achievement of its Strategic Outcomes. First user type: The Buyer is the Ministry of Defence, however the services will be for the benefit of the Defence-wide Test & Evaluation enterprise, which comprises a range of Defence organisations and industry partners. Questions and Clarifications 1. Dear Team, Regarding the third Essential Skills and Experience question: "Please demonstrate the quality and suitability of your organisation’s capabilities to deliver within UK Defence successfully." Could you please confirm whether this question specifically requires demonstrable experience delivering services within the Ministry of Defence (MOD), or whether equivalent experience gained in other UK public sector organisations operating at comparable security levels (e.g. OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE, SECRET, or TOP SECRET) and using SC/DV cleared personnel would also be considered relevant and acceptable? We would like to understand whether suppliers who have not previously worked directly with the MOD would be placed at a disadvantage in this competition. Kind regards, Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification question. The Authority is seeking potential suppliers with experience of delivering successful digital outcomes for government or large organisations within the Defence sector. Potential suppliers may submit a response based on the experience they believe best fits this requirement, but Defence sector specific experience (as tested in evaluation criteria 1) and capability (as tested in evaluation criteria 3) is viewed to be essential to successful delivery of the project and so responses that do not offer this may not be able to meet the requirements sufficiently to achieve a score of 100/'Good' for these questions. Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:51 2. Hello all, The Invitation to Tender states that the Tenderer’s Stage 1: Shortlist response must not exceed 3, 2 and 2 sides of A4 for Evaluation Criteria Ref. 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Attachment 3: Responses to Essential and Nice-to-have skills and experience states that the response must not exceed 750 characters (including spaces) for each question. Please could the Buyer clarify the word or page limit for Tenderer's Stage 1 responses? Many thanks Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification question. Please accept our apologies for any confusion caused. We believe the 750 characters limit is perhaps a system generated message but we are unable to actually view or amend this on the Contract Award Service portal. I can confirm that the page limits are as follows: • Evaluation Criteria Ref 1: Maximum of 3 sides A4 • Evaluation Criteria Ref 2: Maximum of 2 sides A4 • Evaluation Criteria Ref 3: Maximum of 2 sides A4 Your Tender must be written using Arial font size 11. Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:48 3. Please may you clarify whether there is a word / page limit and any required response format for the Stage 1 response. Attachment 3 (pp.2-3) states 750 characters including spaces (and provides a template), but in the ITT document (pp.11-12) it says up to 7 pages of a4 across the questions. Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification question. Please accept our apologies for any confusion caused. We believe the 750 characters limit is perhaps a system generated message but we are unable to actually view or amend this on the Contract Award Service portal. I can confirm that the page limits are as follows: • Evaluation Criteria Ref 1: Maximum of 3 sides A4 • Evaluation Criteria Ref 2: Maximum of 2 sides A4 • Evaluation Criteria Ref 3: Maximum of 2 sides A4 Your Tender must be written using Arial font size 11. Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:47 4. Hi Can you please advise what the character or word limit is for the x3 questions that need to be responded to? In the response template, it states 750 characters for each. However, in an other document, it states x3, A4 pages for Q1, 2, A4 pages for Q2 and x2, A4 pages for Q3. Can you please on what this needs to be, including any font sizes, as we cannot complete the response, nor submit it without this clarification. Many thanks Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification question. Please accept our apologies for any confusion caused. We believe the 750 characters limit is perhaps a system generated message but we are unable to actually view or amend this on the Contract Award Service portal. I can confirm that the page limits are as follows: • Evaluation Criteria Ref 1: Maximum of 3 sides A4 • Evaluation Criteria Ref 2: Maximum of 2 sides A4 • Evaluation Criteria Ref 3: Maximum of 2 sides A4 Your Tender must be written using Arial font size 11. Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:46 5. Please can you clarify the wording on Stage 1 Q3 as it appears that the word “the” is in the first sentence by mistake after the word "deliver"? Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification question. You are correct, there is an errant "the" in Q3 as viewable on the CCS Contract Award Service portal between "deliver" and "within". This is not present in the Invitation to Tender document uploaded to the portal (page 12). Please disregard the extra "the". Explanatory note: The message sender noticed that Q3 as viewable on the CCS Contract Award Service portal has an erroneous extra "the" between "deliver" and "within", as copied below: "Please demonstrate the quality and suitability of your organisation’s capabilities to deliver THE within UK Defence successfully, including; 1. Understanding of relevant Ministry of Defence Joint Service Publications and the Standards listed in Annex I of the Statement of Requirements 2. Capability to safeguard protectively marked information and security aspects 3. Understanding of the Ministry of Defence’s interactions with industry and the wider Defence Test and Evaluation enterprise with regards to intellectual property rights and information asset ownership" Q3 was included in page 12 of the ITT document uploaded to the portal is correct and reads as follows: "Please demonstrate the quality and suitability of your organisation’s capabilities to deliver the Project successfully, including; • your organisation’s capabilities to deliver within UK Defence, including: • understanding of relevant Ministry of Defence Joint Service Publications and the Standards listed in Annex I of the Statement of Requirements • capability to safeguard protectively marked information and security aspects • understanding of the Ministry of Defence’s interactions with industry and the wider Defence Test and Evaluation enterprise with regards to intellectual property rights and information asset ownership. " Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:43 6. In Stage 1 Q2, point 5, can you clarify what is meant by the meaning of "infrastructure changes"? Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification question. In Evaluation Criteria Reference 2, references to "infrastructure changes" refer to changes to IT infrastructure and process/procedural changes. Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:41 7. In Stage 1 Q2, point 5, can you clarify what is meant by the meaning of "infrastructure changes"? Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification question. In Evaluation Criteria Reference 2, references to "infrastructure changes" refer to changes to IT infrastructure and process/procedural changes. Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:41 8. In Attachment 1: Statement of Requirements, is the indicative maximum budget of £600,000 (exc VAT) to cover only Requirements 1-3? If not, please clarify which requirements the indicative maximum budget needs to cover. Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification questions. We would like our maximum budget of £600,000.00 to cover Requirements 1 to 3 (Deliverables D1 to D6) and to have some budget left over to fund Requirement 4/Deliverable D7 (Implementation Plan) should we wish to instruct this. The maximum budget must as a minimum cover to cover Requirements 1 to 3 (Deliverables D1 to D6). Please note that the maximum budget of £600,000.00 is inclusive of VAT. Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:39 9. In Attachment 1: Statement of Requirements, is the indicative maximum budget of £600,000 (exc VAT) to cover only Requirements 1-3? If not, please clarify which requirements the indicative maximum budget needs to cover. Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification questions. We would like our maximum budget of £600,000.00 to cover Requirements 1 to 3 (Deliverables D1 to D6) and to have some budget left over to fund Requirement 4/Deliverable D7 (Implementation Plan) should we wish to instruct this. The maximum budget must as a minimum cover to cover Requirements 1 to 3 (Deliverables D1 to D6). Please note that the maximum budget of £600,000.00 is inclusive of VAT. Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:38 10. Good afternoon, Please could the Authority kindly answer the Clarification Question below: Within the Statement of Requirement, under section ‘Stage 1’, essential skills and experience, question 2. Part 5, the Authority requests suppliers to demonstrate the quality and suitability of its organisation’s capabilities to deliver the project successfully, including: Implementation of infrastructure changes. Can the Authority please confirm what type of infrastructure it is referring to (e.g. physical, IT, procedures, etc.)? Kind regards, Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification question. In Evaluation Criteria Reference 2, references to "infrastructure changes" refer to changes to IT infrastructure and process/procedural changes. Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:35 11. Hi Procurement team, I wanted to check if MoD is strictly looking for suppliers bidding to have experience within the Defence sector only or are they happy to consider the other public sectors experience as well. Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification question. The Authority is seeking potential suppliers with experience of delivering successful digital outcomes for government or large organisations within the Defence sector. Potential suppliers may submit a response based on the experience they believe best fits this requirement, but Defence sector specific experience (as tested in evaluation criteria 1) and capability (as tested in evaluation criteria 3) is viewed to be essential to successful delivery of the project and so responses that do not offer this may not be able to meet the requirements sufficiently to achieve a score of 100/'Good' for these questions. Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:32 12. Good Morning, I note that Attachment 3 indicates the length is 750 characters - but ITT-0 doc on page 13 indicates that we have 3 pages for Q1 and 2 pages for Q2 & Q3. Please confirm which is to be used Many Thanks Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification question. Please accept our apologies for any confusion caused. We believe the 750 characters limit is perhaps a system generated message but we are unable to actually view or amend this on the Contract Award Service portal. I can confirm that the page limits are as follows: • Evaluation Criteria Ref 1: Maximum of 3 sides A4 • Evaluation Criteria Ref 2: Maximum of 2 sides A4 • Evaluation Criteria Ref 3: Maximum of 2 sides A4 Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:28 13. Good Morning, I note that Attachment 3 indicates the length is 750 characters - but ITT-0 doc on page 13 indicates that we have 3 pages for Q1 and 2 pages for Q2 & Q3. Please confirm which is to be used Many Thanks Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification question. Please accept our apologies for any confusion caused. We believe the 750 characters limit is perhaps a system generated message but we are unable to actually view or amend this on the Contract Award Service portal. I can confirm that the page limits are as follows: • Evaluation Criteria Ref 1: Maximum of 3 sides A4 • Evaluation Criteria Ref 2: Maximum of 2 sides A4 • Evaluation Criteria Ref 3: Maximum of 2 sides A4 Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:27 14. Statement of Requirements, Section 2.1, states that 'all Supplier Personnel working on this Call-Off Contract must be vetted to National Security Vetting (NSV) Security Check (SC) as a minimum, rising to Developed Vetting (DV) in select roles and/or tasks'. How many roles, and what types of roles and/or tasks would require DV? Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification questions. We can clarify that, subject to any unique customer/user requirements surfacing communicated that our project team has not considered, SC cleared individuals are expected to be sufficient for all roles envisaged during this phase of programme delivery, There may be a requirement in later stages for DV cleared individuals. Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:26 15. Statement of Requirements, Section 2.1, states that 'all Supplier Personnel working on this Call-Off Contract must be vetted to National Security Vetting (NSV) Security Check (SC) as a minimum, rising to Developed Vetting (DV) in select roles and/or tasks'. How many roles, and what types of roles and/or tasks would require DV? Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification questions. We can clarify that, subject to any unique customer/user requirements surfacing communicated that our project team has not considered, SC cleared individuals are expected to be sufficient for all roles envisaged during this phase of programme delivery, There may be a requirement in later stages for DV cleared individuals. Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:25 16. Good afternoon, Please could we have the following Clarification Questions answered by the Authority: 1. Does the Authority currently have, or until recently has it had, third party support working on this task or its precursors? 2. Could the Authority please confirm the page limit/word caps for the Stage 1 responses (Attachment 3 says 750 character but the ITT gives 3 pages of A4 for Q1 and then 2 pages of A4 for Qs 2 and 3)? Kind regards, Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification questions. 1. The Authority contracted PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2024 for advice on potential T&E enterprise operating models. The use of T&E data was one of many areas explored as part of that work, but at a much higher level, rich picture design, than is required under this work. This work concluded in 2025 and since then there has been no third party support. The Authority contracted Atkins in 2023 to support requirements capture and URD development/portfolio architecture for a future centralised T&E provision. This is not addressing T&E Data and the work in scope of this procurement is viewed as necessary to complement ongoing work. 2. Please accept our apologies for any confusion caused. We believe the 750 characters limit is perhaps a system generated message but we are unable to actually view or amend this on the Contract Award Service portal. I can confirm that the page limits are as follows: • Evaluation Criteria Ref 1: Maximum of 3 sides A4 • Evaluation Criteria Ref 2: Maximum of 2 sides A4 • Evaluation Criteria Ref 3: Maximum of 2 sides A4 Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:17 17. Good afternoon, Please could we have the following Clarification Questions answered by the Authority: 1. Does the Authority currently have, or until recently has it had, third party support working on this task or its precursors? 2. Could the Authority please confirm the page limit/word caps for the Stage 1 responses (Attachment 3 says 750 character but the ITT gives 3 pages of A4 for Q1 and then 2 pages of A4 for Qs 2 and 3)? Kind regards, Thank you for your interest in our procurement and for your clarification questions. 1. The Authority contracted PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2024 for advice on potential T&E enterprise operating models. The use of T&E data was one of many areas explored as part of that work, but at a much higher level, rich picture design, than is required under this work. This work concluded in 2025 and since then there has been no third party support. The Authority contracted Atkins in 2023 to support requirements capture and URD development/portfolio architecture for a future centralised T&E provision. This is not addressing T&E Data and the work in scope of this procurement is viewed as necessary to complement ongoing work. 2. Please accept our apologies for any confusion caused. We believe the 750 characters limit is perhaps a system generated message but we are unable to actually view or amend this on the Contract Award Service portal. I can confirm that the page limits are as follows: • Evaluation Criteria Ref 1: Maximum of 3 sides A4 • Evaluation Criteria Ref 2: Maximum of 2 sides A4 • Evaluation Criteria Ref 3: Maximum of 2 sides A4 Last Updated: 7 October 2025, 07:14