Awarded to PA Consulting Services Limited (UK)

Start date: Monday 2 November 2020
Value: £1,243,116
Company size: large

Department for International Development (DFID)

Alpha and Beta development of the Growth Gateway- an XHMG (DFID-DIT-FCO-BEIS) digital platform

5 Incomplete applications

5 SME, 0 large

7 Completed applications

4 SME, 3 large

• Published: Thursday 30 January 2020
• Deadline for asking questions: Thursday 6 February 2020 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Thursday 13 February 2020 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Summary of the work: The Growth Gateway will align and expand the HMG offer across trade and development. Gateway will streamline the way businesses are able to interact with and receive support and information from HMG by providing a single user-friendly web-presence for developing markets.
• Latest start date: Tuesday 31 March 2020
• Expected contract length: Up to 12 months, with the potential to extend by 20% of the contract value.
• Location: London
• Organisation the work is for: Department for International Development (DFID)
• Budget range: £1.25 million

About the work

• Why the work is being done: At the UK-Africa Investment Summit 2020, the UK Government launched the Growth Gateway service. This joint DFID-DIT-FCO-BEIS initiative, lead through DFID, will bring together relevant HMG services and information for UK, other international businesses wanting to trade with and invest in developing markets, and for developing country businesses wanting to export to the UK. The ultimate goal of the the Growth Gateway is poverty alleviation. Delivery will take place through both online and offline channels.
• Problem to be solved: A Discovery has found that although the UK Government offers a variety of trade, investment and financial services to support developing markets, this support is complex for business users to access and navigate. They would welcome a more streamlined service, better tailored to user need as well as additional information on how to navigate import and export processes and access target markets.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: External users will be primarily UK and international businesses who are trading with and/or investing in developing markets such as Africa, and developing country businesses who are exporting to the UK. Further users may include trade associations, foreign governments and other consumer groups. Internal stakeholders include HMG staff based in London and in developing markets in DIT, DFID, FCO and BEIS.
• Any work that’s already been done: Discovery phase has been successfully completed by Deloitte Digital in August 2019.
• Existing team: The supplier will be located in DIT's offices, working with HMG staff from DFID Growth and Resilience Department, the DFID-DIT joint Trade for Development unit, DIT ODA policy team, FCO Trade Diplomacy Department, BEIS International Strategy Department and the Overseas Network.
• Current phase: Alpha

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: 50 Victoria St Westminster London SW1H 0TL
• Working arrangements: Co-working full time in the Windsor House office 5 days per week is preferred, but flexible working arrangements can be discussed.
• Security clearance: Baseline BPSS clearance

Additional information

• Additional terms and conditions: The Buyer will reserve the right to use alternative payment mechanisms e.g. Capped T&M, T&M for future SoWs with agreement with the supplier

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:
  • Examples of work you have delivered related to the complex needs of buisnesses operating in developing markets.
  • Evidence of having delivered services on GOV PAAS.
  • Full stack development capability in Python.
  • Delivering Content design to GDS service design templates.
  • Managing user research with UK, international and developing country businesses.
  • Service design of a service that is delivered online and offline, involving Government to Government, to agents and to commercial third parties.
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Experience of delivering systems that operate with the technologies of multiple central government departments and/or their arm's length bodies.
  • Experience of Ruby programming.
  • Strong private sector networks in UK and developing country markets, including Africa.
  • Agile delivery of Alpha and Beta projects, supporting trade and investment in developing markets.
  • Demonstrable experience working with the private sector to understand what incentivises business decisions and investment behaviour.

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 3
• Proposal criteria:
  • Demonstrates experience of developing services to give users the ability to find and filter content relating to HMG support. E.g. identified sources, consistent taxonomy, an effective search tool.
  • Demonstrates experience of delivering service design activity to create, publish, respond to user needs, and maintain content, which may be published on gov.uk or great.gov.uk (Wagtail cms, Elastic Search).
  • Demonstrates experience of conducting content design, providing users with complex information ideally in a business environment. Content includes Market Guides (adapting, expanding existing formats and content) and import/export processes.
  • Demonstrates experience of delivering user research, to GDS principles, to support an effective user experience on government platforms.
  • Evidence of integrating content with existing user journeys, content, architecture and data flows on pre-existing platforms and services.
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Demonstrate your ability to deliver in an open, collaborative, agile process consistent with the principles outlined in the Government Service Design Manual.
  • Demonstrate your ability to work and communicate with clients/ team members with low technical expertise.
  • Demonstrate your ability to be able to work collaboratively across multiple government departments.
  • Demonstrate your ability to engage and communicate effectively with developing country businesses.
• Payment approach: Capped time and materials
• Additional assessment methods: Presentation
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  65%

  Cultural fit

  15%

  Price

  20%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Will the winner of this tender be able to bid for the separate DFID Gateways for Growth technical assistance tender for which DFID recently held its Early Market Engagement (either as a lead or consortium member)? Or is this considered a conflict of interest?: Any supplier can in theory apply for all three Gateway procurements - Digital, Lead Supplier and M&E. However, the supplier will need to satisfy DFID that there are sufficient firewalls in place between the digital team and those bidding for other tenders. ; For example, the team that won the digital contract will not be able to be involved in any other bid put forward by their organisation. Nor would they be able to share information from the digital work with the bidding team. DFID will agree the conflict of interest arrangement in writing with the successful digital supplier in advance.
• 2. For any supplier shortlisted for the stage 2 will they be expected to propose a technical approach, delivery timeline and team? We cannot see this within the stage 2 criteria at present.: Yes, at Stage 2, as part of the technical approach we would expect to see a proposed team and timeline.
• 3. Will the winner of this tender be able to bid for the separate DFID Gateways for Growth technical assistance tender for which DFID recently held its Early Market Engagement (either as a lead or consortium member)? Or is this considered a conflict of interest?: UPDATED RESPONSE ; Any supplier can apply for both the Digital and Lead Supplier contracts, but not the M&E. However, the supplier will need to satisfy DFID that there are sufficient firewalls in place between the digital team and those bidding for other tenders. ; E.g the team that won the digital contract will not be able to be involved in any other bid put forward by their organisation. Nor would they be able to share information from the digital work with the bidding team. DFID will agree the conflict of interest arrangement in writing with the successful digital supplier in advance.
• 4. Suppliers should ignore the response to Question 1, and instead refer to Question 3 where the answer has been updated. Thanks,: Suppliers should ignore the response to Question 1, and instead refer to Question 3 where the answer has been updated. ; ; Thanks,
• 5. In regards to Question 6, do you mean online and offline for the mobile app or online and offline for the business processes?: The digital solution needs to work as part of a coherent end-to-end service that will include online and offline elements.
• 6. Can you please share a copy of the discovery report, or a summary of key findings, for the purposes of helping suppliers prepare their applications?: The discovery report will be shared with shortlisted suppliers.
• 7. Given the project has yet to commence alpha, can you please clarify why ‘full-stack development capability in Python’ is an essential criteria?: Given the selected supplier will potentially deliver both Alpha and Beta, we need to ensure that they have the right technical capabilities and experience.
• 8. Can you please outline your anticipated timeline for the additional assessment following the shortlisting, please?: We expect stage 2 to commence on 24th February. This will mean proposals due back on 9th March and presentations on 16th March
• 9. Do you have expected completion dates in mind for the alpha and beta phases?: We expect the Alpha phase to last around 12 weeks.