Awarded to TPXIMPACT LIMITED

Start date: Monday 28 September 2020
Value: £265,200
Company size: SME

Data Unit – Department for Transport

National Access Point (NAP)

5 Incomplete applications

4 SME, 1 large

10 Completed applications

9 SME, 1 large

• Published: Monday 27 July 2020
• Deadline for asking questions: Monday 3 August 2020 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Monday 10 August 2020 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Summary of the work: The winning supplier will be required to provide an experienced Agile development team to implement the National Access Point, a metadata catalogue, building on insight from Discovery and Alpha. The supplier is responsible for ensuring adherence to all standards and passing all quality gates.
• Latest start date: Monday 28 September 2020
• Expected contract length: The contract is up to one year.
• Location: London
• Organisation the work is for: Data Unit – Department for Transport
• Budget range: £300k capped

About the work

• Why the work is being done: Progressing the NAP Discovery/Alpha into Public Beta. The NAP is a catalogue of transport metadata used to index data, originally mandated by EU Directive 2010/40/EU. The DfT will implement NAP beyond the original scope of the directive. Our scoping study concluded that the specific needs of NAP extend beyond the capability of the current data.gov.uk website, and this was confirmed by Discovery and Alpha concluded recently. The Alpha returned a set of wireframes and a Proof of Concept that will need to be turned into a full MVP and iterated upon, and scoping a back-office function to operate the service.
• Problem to be solved: Problem to be solved (Describe Problem) (100 words); ; The winning supplier will be required to provide a team experienced in passing GDS Beta assessments to build and implement the National Access Point, a metadata catalogue, evolving the Alpha proof-of-concept to Public Beta. Teams will be required to adhere to: ; • GDS Digital Service standard, ; • Technology Code of practice, ; • GDS spend approval standards and; • DfT architectural principles and standards; ; Suppliers will be required to pass:; • Architectural change board; • External Pen Test; • GDS BETA service assessment.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: Data Analysts / Architects; Traffic Managers; Logistics, parking, taxi, road freight teams; Smart City programme teams; Technologists, Data scientists / consultants; Waste service teams; Software developers; Central Government / Local Authorities; Data consultancies/companies; Researchers
• Early market engagement: Early research with data producers, followed by Discovery and Alpha.
• Any work that’s already been done: The NAP scoping report ; ; The NAP draft specification ; ; Discovery and Alpha; ; FutureGov case study report; ; Alpha Report ; NAP Discovery and Alpha Show and Tell 22 May 2020 presentation ; ; NAP Discovery and Alpha Show and Tell 22 May 2020 Q&A summary
• Existing team: National Access Point is being developed jointly between the Smarter Traffic Management team in the Traffic and Technology division and the Data Unit in the Analytics and Data Division, in full collaboration with DfT Digital Service. ; ; DFT will provide 0.5 product manager and 0.5 service manager. The supplier should provide a full Beta team.
• Current phase: Alpha

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: In accordance with COVID Safe Working Guidance, the work should be conducted at the supplier’s own site or remote working locations, unless there is specific request by DfT for physical meetings. Expenses will be paid in accordance with DfT rates.; Address: Department for Transport, Great Minster House, 33 Horseferry Road, SW1 or Department for Transport, Windsor House, Victoria Street, London SW1
• Working arrangements: Expected to be remote, but with travel to London required for presentations and meeting as and when required
• Security clearance: BPSS

Additional information

• Additional terms and conditions: GDS public beta assessment to be passed at six months after the contract begins.; - Migrate the CKAN demo instance from AWS into DfT’s Google Cloud Platform; - designing of the system for beta to include the ability to scale for the required users/use cases, data pipelines and security/IAM in line with DfT Arch principles & standards.; - Architectural Change Board sign-off in for the Alpha phase of the project; - Pass GDS Beta Service Assessment; in case of failure, condition or recommendation, resolve and pass within 2 months.

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:
  • Demonstrable evidence of design and delivery of secure and scalable public facing digital services that pass GDS beta service assessment
  • Demonstrable evidence of delivering digital services with complex user journeys on both the back office and the end user functions
  • Demonstrable evidence of delivering in the cloud using IaaS and Serverless technology (preferably GCP)
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Experience deploying and supporting CKAN-based solutions
  • Experience developing metadata catalogues
  • Experience working in transport data sector

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 6
• Proposal criteria:
  • Demonstrable evidence of Technical solution 25%
  • Demonstrable evidence Approach and methodology 25%
  • Demonstrable evidence How they’ve identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them 5%
  • Team structure 15%
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Demonstrable evidence and experience of working as a team with our organisation or other government departments 5%
  • Demonstrable evidence and experience of working on national data projects 5%
• Payment approach: Capped time and materials
• Additional assessment methods:
  • Case study
  • Work history
  • Presentation
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  70%

  Cultural fit

  10%

  Price

  20%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Please find the links to the documents mentioned in the Any work that’s already been done section of the published advert: Please find the links to the documents mentioned in the Any work that’s already been done section of the published advert; ; The NAP scoping report ; https://drive.google.com/file/d/13fT2dOiBsDtxlcBRk_pdvKLzYanBSTK3/view?usp=sharing; ; The NAP draft specification; https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k1pz1-Cm7myx2QcGyV8-n4USgvxTYAfv/view?usp=sharing; ; Discovery and Alpha; https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/digital-outcomes-and-specialists/opportunities/10463; ; FutureGov case study report; https://www.wearefuturegov.com/work/department-for-transport-national-access-point; ; Alpha Report; https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wNDJXo_aoytUO7_K3yiXXOEdUAbm12vQ/view?usp=sharin; ; NAP Discovery and Alpha Show and Tell 22 May 2020 presentation ; https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WxcT_FAmzF3rT1JD0fV42F0ETe2Ju83L/view?usp=sharing; ; NAP Discovery and Alpha Show and Tell 22 May 2020 Q&A summary ; https://drive.google.com/file/d/17wjp1bRi_8lrnu3rAqF4uX0O7rTGbQpr/view?usp=sharing
• 2. Just wanted to check if here is an incumbent supplier?: This is a new stage of this project, so there is no incumbent supplier and contracts for previous stages have come to an end
• 3. Considering that Alpha has been achieved via a CKAN demo (see https://demo.ckan.org for a public demo instance), has the project pre-determined that the Beta implementation must be achieved via a CKAN instance? Is there any scope for an alternative implementation strategy in Beta?: At this stage, a CKAN implementation that operates on the DfT’s GCP standard platform is our preferred option and starting point for Beta; however, alternative implementation strategies that are mindful of DfT’s digital architecture guidelines and are able to reach a successful Beta assessment will be considered
• 4. Duplicate Question Considering that Alpha has been achieved via a CKAN demo (see https://demo.ckan.org for a public demo instance), has the project pre-determined that the Beta implementation must be achieved via a CKAN instance? Is there any scope for an alternative implementation strategy in Beta?: At this stage, a CKAN implementation that operates on the DfT’s GCP standard platform is our preferred option and starting point for Beta; however, alternative implementation strategies that are mindful of DfT’s digital architecture guidelines and are able to reach a successful Beta assessment will be considered
• 5. Given that the current Alpha implementation CKAN instance is hosted within AWS cloud, could you explain the rationale in moving the Alpha instance from AWS to Google Cloud? Has the project pre-determined that the Beta implementation must be hosted on Google Cloud? Is there any scope for an alternative hosting strategy in Beta?: The rationale is that DfT’s default supported platform is Google Cloud Platform, therefore we strongly favour an implementation on GCP
• 6. Is there an incumbent supplier who has completed the Alpha implementation, and are they applying for this Beta implementation opportunity?: This is a new stage of this project, so there is no incumbent supplier and contracts for previous stages have come to an end
• 7. Considering that Alpha has been achieved via a CKAN demo (see https://demo.ckan.org for a public demo instance), has the project pre-determined that the Beta implementation must be achieved via a CKAN instance? Is there any scope for an alternative implementation strategy in Beta?: Further to Q3 and Q4 please see revised response.; ; At this stage, a CKAN implementation that operates on the DfT’s GCP standard platform is our preferred option and starting point for Beta; however, alternative implementation strategies that are mindful of DfT’s digital architecture guidelines with ongoing support addressed and are able to reach a successful Beta assessment will be considered