Awarded to Ripple Intranet Limited

Start date: Monday 2 March 2020
Value: £25,000
Company size: SME

Ofcom

Ofcom Intranet Discovery Phase (Reference C20180047)

20 Incomplete applications

17 SME, 3 large

22 Completed applications

20 SME, 2 large

• Published: Thursday 2 January 2020
• Deadline for asking questions: Thursday 9 January 2020 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Thursday 16 January 2020 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Summary of the work: Successful bidder will complete a Discovery Phase and provide information to inform any subsequent stages of development including phasing and estimated costs. It is envisaged that Ofcom will, in the future, move to a more 'AI' led intranet and this is an important first step for Ofcom in that transition.
• Latest start date: Monday 2 March 2020
• Expected contract length: circa 6 weeks
• Location: London
• Organisation the work is for: Ofcom
• Budget range: A maximum of £25,000 excluding VAT for completion of all work in this Discovery Phase.

About the work

• Why the work is being done: All work to be completed by 31 March 2020.; ; Ofcom’s current intranet (the Loop) has remained a popular and critical business tool for colleagues for the 10+ years that it has been in service. However, the Loop no longer meets our requirements; it is not flexible enough, it does not offer a personalised user experience, nor is it available on mobile devices .; ; Enhancement / change is envisaged to give a greater personalised experience to users and to fully integrate Ofcom internal online services.
• Problem to be solved: We need to understand clearly our user needs, our information architecture, rough order of magnitude (£ROM) for works required (cost and time) for any subsequent development phases as well how to deliver via an Agile approach.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: Users are our Ofcom colleagues, some office based, some field based, some work internationally and there are circa 1200 colleagues in total. All will need to use the Intranet resource .
• Existing team: No other suppliers are involved, Ofcom only as follows:; ; 1 x Project Manager; 1 x Business Analyst; 1 x Technical Architect; 1 x Commercial Manager; 3 x Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) - 2 x Internal Communications and 1 x SharePoint; 2 x Business Solutions Architects
• Current phase: Discovery

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: Ofcom; Riverside House; 2a Southwark Bridge Road; London; SE1 9HA
• Working arrangements: We are open to discussions around the format for delivering the work but envisage most will be conducted on Ofcom's premises in London. Successful supplier to be available during Monday - Friday 09:00-17:00, and for any knowledge transfer.; ; Ofcom expects that the supplier may not need to travel to Ofcom regional offices however the supplier must be willing to do so where necessary (for example to Warrington). Supplier will be expected to make use of teleconferencing to minimise travelling.; ; T&S costs should be included within the Capped Price (not claimed as additional expense unless specifically agreed post award by Ofcom).
• Security clearance: Background verification checks should be carried out equivalent to Government Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS).

Additional information

Skills and experience

Buyers will use the essential and nice-to-have skills and experience to help them evaluate suppliers’ technical competence.

• Essential skills and experience:
  • Demonstrate experience in an Agile environment, where the organisation was new to an Agile approach
  • Show experience working on an Intranet based solution where SharePoint on-line was the foundation technology
  • Demonstrate experience in creating User Personas and mapping the User Journey
  • Demonstrate experience in examining and analysing existing systems to create an information architecture
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Show experience of conducting practical Agile Ceremonies without over-reliance on on-line tools
  • Show an example of a good stakeholder management approach in a similar sized organisation to Ofcom
  • Demonstrate experience of providing a customer with a phased program of works where the time to deliver was within 10% tolerance of plan
  • Demonstrate experience of providing a customer with cost estimates (e.g. £ROM) for a phased program of works where the cost out-turn was within 15% tolerance of plan
  • Demonstrate experience of working on a digital project that explores the potential benefits of artificial intelligence related to an intranet or digital workplace specifically.

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 4
• Proposal criteria:
  • Approach to Discovery Phase (12%)
  • Team Structure for this Discovery Phase (12%)
  • Approach to estimating the next phases both in terms of time and cost (£ROM) (12%)
  • Estimated timeframe to complete the Discovery Phase (12%)
  • Based on findings from Discovery, your approach to making recommendations on possible success factors / KPIs for subsequent phases (12%)
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Provide evidence of working with a similar sized organisation to Ofcom with a similar deadline (5%)
  • Provide evidence of working successfully with other clients that have similar values to Ofcom which include: excellence, collaboration, empowerment and agility (5%)
  • Provide evidence of successfully challenging the status quo in another similar organisation(s) (5%)
  • Provide evidence of working with teams that have a low level of Agile experience (5%)
• Payment approach: Capped time and materials
• Additional assessment methods: Presentation
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  60%

  Cultural fit

  20%

  Price

  20%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Could you confirm that, by “capped time and materials”, you are just referring to your having an overall budget cap to work within and not that you are expecting the successful supplier to take on commercial risk or complete work at their own cost?: A capped time and materials approach is the same as a time and materials approach but there’s a limit on how much we will pay for the work. If you reach the limit that you have bid before the work is finished, you will need to complete the work at your own cost. If you finish the work before you said you would (and using fewer days than you had stated) we will only pay for the time taken to do the work.
• 2. Are you expecting that this work will be subject to a GDS style service assessment?: Not at this time.
• 3. In the opportunity you refer to the existing team. What is their availability to take part in the discovery exercise e.g. can we assume that we do not need to provide either technical architecture or business analysis capability?: This is correct, you will not need to provide these roles.
• 4. Please could you clarify the meaning of £ROM.: 'Rough Order of Magnitude' - would normally include an estimate of effort ( e.g. x number of days over a given period) and an estimate of cost in pounds Sterling. It is good practice to consider a variance for the cost also (e.g. -20% to +30%).
• 5. The webpage shows "All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal." – is this required for this phase of the programme or for future phases? If required for this phase, is there a template we should use and where do we upload the resultant document?: Suggested templates are provided on the Digital Marketplace. If you are successful at the sifting stage for this Discovery Phase you will be invited to provide a written proposal based on a template we will provide at that time.
• 6. Is Ofcom considering a move to office 365 as part of this programme?: Ofcom are already using Office 365, including SharePoint Online.
• 7. Is there a current incumbent for the Intranet support?: No
• 8. What is meant by AI-led Intranet?: We envisioned AI to provide, but not limited to, features such as these - ; - Enhance the user experience by personalising the home page e.g. news articles shown based on those already seen/read etc.; - Evolved enterprise searches that can go beyond the basic content e.g. how many annual days do I have left?; - Finally a long term goal would be the ability to perform user tasks e.g. requesting leave, booking meetings etc. without leaving the intranet to go into the specific business application.
• 9. We have case studies to demonstrate our experience of working on Intranet solutions and experience of working with SharePoint, though not as part of the same project. Would Ofcom consider our experience on its merits across both of these, or is it a prerequisite that the experience must be on Sharepoint-based Intranet solutions?: We have asked suppliers to demonstrate as 'Essential Skills and Experience' working on an Intranet based solution where SharePoint on-line was the foundation technology. Unfortunately we consider separate experience as you describe would not to meet our criteria on this particular occasion.
• 10. Has a decision already been taken by the project stakeholders that the new intranet must be built using Sharepoint, or would Ofcom be willing to consider an alternative technology following completion of the Discovery phase?: A SharePoint solution is our first preference. We may consider other solutions following the Discovery Phase but the extent to which it can integrate with SharePoint will greatly influence our decision.