Home Office, DDaT, Digital Services at Border Programme

Digital Capability Partner for Digital Services at the Border

20 Incomplete applications

15 SME, 5 large

53 Completed applications

24 SME, 29 large

Published: Tuesday 28 April 2020
Deadline for asking questions: Tuesday 5 May 2020 at 11:59pm GMT
Closing date for applications: Tuesday 12 May 2020 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

Summary of the work: Home Office Digital, Data and Technology (HODDaT), Borders IT require a Technical Delivery Partner for ongoing development capabilities, working across the present and future projects of the Digital Services at the Border (DSAB) programme.
Latest start date: Wednesday 15 July 2020
Expected contract length: 1 year plus a 1 year extension option
Location: South East England
Organisation the work is for: Home Office, DDaT, Digital Services at Border Programme
Budget range: Between £4m-£4.9m over 12 months

About the work

Why the work is being done: Digital Services at the Border (DSAB) is a major agile programme within the Border Systems Portfolio that is building functionality to transform the way the Home Office (HO) manages the United Kingdom Borders. The primary benefits of delivering DSAB are to: enhance the security of the UK; gather and act on data from those people and entities crossing the border, both inbound and out; and provide timely and accurate data to those who need to access/use it.
DSAB has a requirement for a strategic Delivery Partner to provide technical delivery capability in the form of whole teams, partial teams and specialist technical resources to deliver a series of iterative work packages aligned to the DSAB programme roadmap, with a specific focus on the Border Crossing, Watch List Management and Federated search strategic products which support Border Force, Police and other key stakeholders to identify and assess threats who are about to travel to, and from, the UK.
Problem to be solved: DSAB would like to engage with a delivery partner who has proven track record in the delivery of large-scale, complex digital, highly available end to end supported services. We wish to work in partnership through a series of defined outcome-based work packages.

We are particularly interested in Delivery Partners with extensive experience of delivering solutions for complex problems in the engineering and data space with CNI or near CNI levels of scalability and resilience and a track record for delivering quality products on time and to budget.

Work packages will be focused on all stages of agile delivery and will be based on the strategic roadmaps for our products
As a key delivery partner you will be expected to embrace the one team culture in DSAB and work with other suppliers to achieve a series of high profile Home Office outcomes in the digital border space that span organisational and supplier boundaries.

We are building a reputation for engineering excellence and we will be seeking support to continually evolve and improve our engineering platforms and processes.
Who the users are and what they need to do: As a Home Office Digital, Data and Technology (HODDaT) Technical Delivery Director, I require a Technical Delivery Partner for ongoing development capabilities to deliver the present and future projects of the Digital Services at the Border (DSAB) programme.
Early market engagement
Any work that’s already been done: DSAB is a programme in flight. One of the early strategic products is in early beta testing, while the other two are emerging from a design phase.
Existing team: The successful supplier will be working with other supplier teams to deliver a supportable end to end service. Demonstrable track record of collaboration in a similar environment is essential.
Current phase: Not applicable

Work setup

Address where the work will take place: The Supplier will be predominantly based at Home Office premises at Lunar House, Croydon, CR9 2BY, but may be required to attend Marsham Street, London, SW1; and MetroPoint , Croydon; Surrey; or other locations as necessary. You may propose working from your own location for discreet pieces of work.
Working arrangements: We expect the supplier to work collaboratively with the existing cross-functional teams to deliver ongoing development capabilities and future projects of the Digital Services at the Border (DSAB) programme.

The delivery partner will work primarily on-site with teams as required and report to management on site. The supplier is expected to work across the multiple sites as required

The team is expected to be available during standard Home Office working hours. Expenses will conform to Home Office internal policies and will not be payable within the M25.
Security clearance: Security Check (SC) level clearance is required by the commencement of this piece of work. HO DDaT will support the clearance process.

Additional information

Additional terms and conditions: Individual statements of work (SoW) will be agreed periodically and aligned to discrete delivery phases that are requested (subject to satisfactory performance of the supplier and Home Office needs). This contract is non-exclusive. The intention is the provision of a service with defined outcomes where the Delivery Partner is responsible for deliverables, risk, and provision of individuals to deliver the outcome.

IPR in any developed technology will rest with HO.

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: Experience in designing and delivering outcome based services that meet both user needs and business requirements.

Demonstrable capacity and flexibility to deliver work packages providing multi-disciplinary teams with skills in Project Management, Solution Architecture, Business Analysis, Development etc.

Evidence that technical resources have experience of: Java 8, Spring Boot, Spring Data, Apache Camel, HTML5/CSS, Angular, Maven, building Cloud services on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Evidence that technical resources have experience of: Containerisation, specifically Docker and Kubernetes, SOAP, and REST, GitHub, GitLab, Drone, Jenkins.

Experience of designing and implementing solutions in the engineering and big data space

Development using supported Open Source products or products in which IPR will rest in the Home Office
Nice-to-have skills and experience: Evidence of resources that have existing SC clearance that will support the speeding up of on-boarding teams.

Demonstrate experience of handing over products to another team, including service transition.

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

How many suppliers to evaluate

Proposal criteria

Evidence of ability to provide high quality professionals
Demonstrable experience of working in an Agile collaborative environment to deliver projects to a customer.
Identification of risks and dependencies and approaches to manage them.
Ability to mobilise the team quickly and approach to service continuity
Ability to flex up and down resources, whilst ensuring quality and consistency
Approach and methodology for delivering successful outcomes for the requirements outlined
Approach to ensuring value for money

Cultural fit criteria

Ability to function effectively and collaborate in a multi-supplier environment
Working successfully in complex public sector organisations
Approach to proactive issue management, problem resolution and improving ways of working
Transparency in decision-making

Payment approach

Time and materials

Additional assessment methods

Work history
Presentation

Evaluation weighting

Technical competence

60%

Cultural fit

10%

Price

30%

Questions asked by suppliers

1. Is there an incumbent supplier, if so, who?: The incumbent supplier is Scott Logic Ltd.
2. What are your procurement timelines, e.g. when will the shortlisted companies be informed?: The applications close on 12 May and we intend to communicate the results of the short listing by 15 May. It is the intention to publish the details of the Further Competition/ITT in the w/c 18 May.
3. Will the current incumbent be invited to re-tender?: The opportunity has been raised as an open competition and the Home Office will not be selective in encouraging bidders. Any supplier on the DOS Framework who feels they have the capability to deliver the required outcome is welcome to apply.
4. Re the essential criteria: Experience of designing and implementing solutions in the engineering and big data space What does the Authority mean re "engineering" in this context?: In this context, “Engineering” means Software Engineering. We are seeking an experienced Delivery Partner who can support us in our ambition to deliver well-engineered software solutions. Attached link gives more detail: https://www.cpni.gov.uk/critical-national-infrastructure-0
5. Could you define the term 'CNI levels of scalability'?: Critical National Infrastructure levels of scalability. Availability/Scalability for CNI can vary considerably from other systems, we are interested in Delivery Partners’ experience in delivering critical services with high levels of availability, scalability and resilience.
6. Is the transformation of legacy services such as Warnings-Index also in scope?: We are looking for a Delivery Partner who can support us in the delivery of all aspects of the DSAB programme. This may include integration with and development of legacy solutions should that be what is required to meet the programme objectives.
7. Will HODDaT be selecting a single supplier only for this engagement?: It is the intention of the Authority award this work to a single supplier.
8. Could you expand on what you mean by "solutions in the engineering and big data space" please?: We are interested in your experience of Software Engineering, and also any use of “Big Data” within the software solutions you have built.
9. Please can you confirm what you mean by 'outcome based services' in the following question: Experience in designing and delivering outcome based services that meet both user needs and business requirements. Do you mean how we structure our work packages on an outcome base and take into account what the business and users need?: Our technical delivery is aligned to the business objective or outcome that we are working to achieve. We want a delivery partner who is able to consider all aspects of technical delivery that are required to successfully deliver a business outcome, and to embed those considerations in the delivery pipeline.
10. Could you please confirm the average number and skills mix (architect/developer/analyst/DevOps/test/delivery) of the incumbent for the current contract.: Currently the majority of the team are developers, with support from tech leads, technical architecture and delivery managers. This is fluid and will flex to the requirements.
11. Please list the top 5 improvements you would like to see in service delivery over the next iteration of this contract.: We are interested in a Delivery Partner who will:
• Foster collaboration across a blended environment of civil servants and a number of suppliers
• Actively build and encourage the use of ‘first class’ engineering practices.
• Actively own the delivery of work items throughout the delivery pipeline.
• Understand and get behind the programme vision.
12. Please confirm the current technology stack and any planned future migration/roadmap.: The current technology stack is as defined above: Java 8, Spring Boot, Spring Data, Apache Camel, HTML5/CSS, Angular, Maven, building Cloud services on Amazon Web Services (AWS), along with Kubernetes. The current road map is being planned.
13. Please quantify ‘CNI levels’ as they apply to this contract.: CNI levels are defined here: https://www.cpni.gov.uk/critical-national-infrastructure-0
14. Could you provide clarity around the need to provide support of ongoing services, and the delivery of new packages of work in line with your established road map. In addition an idea of the volume of work packages needing to be delivered across the 12mths of the contract and how many are in train at any one time?: There is an incumbent supplier and the chosen supplier will be required to pick up the delivery of any services that are currently in the delivery pipeline. We take an agile approach to delivery and as such carefully monitor and manage our Work in Progress to ensure an efficient delivery process.
15. As part of your One Team Culture, could you indicate how many other suppliers are involved in the delivery of this work?: While we aren’t willing to share the number of suppliers involved, we expect all of our suppliers to enter into a collaborative relationship with all teams and individuals involved in the programme, regardless of which supplier they are from.
16. With Apache Drone being relatively new in the market, what level of experience is expected for this requirement?: We are interested in your experience, it has been used in the HO for several years.
17. Who from your team will be scoring applications for this opportunity and what positions do they hold?: The responses will be evaluated by civil servants across a range of disciplines who are qualified to carry out the task. We reserve the right to include specialists, but these roles will be advisory only.
18. Is the current situation with Covid-19 likely to impact the planned start date of 15th July?: No but this may change.
19. Is the current situation with Covid-19 likely to impact the Supplier's ability to work on-site?: No but this may change.
20. It is mentioned that the Supplier 'will be working with other supplier teams to deliver a supportable end to end service'. What other supplier teams will be involved and what services will they be providing?: We are engaged with a number of suppliers for a range of services across the delivery pipeline.
21. Can you expand on "products in which IPR will rest in the Home Office", please? And if possible share an example of such products.: The HO has developed several tools to help with development. The IPR for these lies with the Home office. You may be working with these tools.

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