Awarded to Interact Consulting Limited

Start date: Thursday 29 October 2020
Value: £350,000
Company size: SME

Home Office Police & Public Protection Technology (PPPT)

C19569 Home Office Police & Public Protection Technology (PPPT) Network Architect

5 Incomplete applications

3 SME, 2 large

17 Completed applications

16 SME, 1 large

• Published: Thursday 24 September 2020
• Deadline for asking questions: Monday 28 September 2020 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Thursday 1 October 2020 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Specialist role: Technical Architect
• Summary of the work: A Network Architect is required to support existing BAU teams with the support of all network related functions in the Hendon datacentre whilst also acting as the Network Architect for a migration project.
• Latest start date: Thursday 29 October 2020
• Expected contract length: The initial statement of work will have a six month term. The contract can have a two-year term.
• Location: London
• Organisation the work is for: Home Office Police & Public Protection Technology (PPPT)
• Maximum day rate: £700. The role is at the SFIA 5 level.

About the work

• Who the specialist will work with: The Specialist may identify a need to work with the Existing Datacentre lead and engage with the PPPT Architect reporting to the Programme’s Lead Architect on design.; The Specialist will need to engage with members of the Law Enforcement Data Service (LEDS) Architecture Team, the existing Police Live Services team and with the programme’s Delivery Partners as necessary.; To deliver some of the design work, external stakeholder engagement should be expected.
• What the specialist will work on: The specialist shall be responsible for the delivery of the design specifications and completing the activities required to deliver the following:; • On Premise VMWare Estate (Network element); • Transition to Cloud ; • WAN capabilities; ; The specialist shall articulate specifications to a level that an implementation team can use, and refine these specifications with technical colleagues and delivery partners. Specialist expertise shall be available to consult with such as infrastructure and security architects. The designs are generally technical, but may involve some process-related design.

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: The primary location is the Hendon Datacentre, Aerodrome Road, Colindale London, NW9 5JE.; Other London sites will include Croydon and 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF. ; ; The Specialist will be Home based during Covid 19 restrictions.
• Working arrangements: A typical working day is 9am-5pm, however working outside of these hours may be required due to business/project need. ; ; Remote working is acceptable, supported by a Home Office laptop to enable collaboration and sensitive material to be exchanged.; ; Some meetings can be by conference call, but significant design meetings are expected to be face-to-face at a Home Office location or partner visit. Existing Subject Matter Experts located in Croydon or Hendon will provide most of the information on the architectures and requirements.; ; The role is outside IR35.
• Security clearance: SC or ability to be SC cleared.

Additional information

• Additional terms and conditions: Travel expenses are payable for journeys outside the M25 where approved in advance by the customer and in line with Home Office Travel policy (subsistence is not payable).; ; Day rates will be in line with the Home Office "Project Optimus" requirements.

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 ability of design of technical solutions for implementation by a third party within the last two years.
  • Demonstrable ability of authoring technical design documentation within the last two years.
  • Demonstrable evidence of knowledge of legacy Cisco Hardware within the last two years.
  • Demonstrable evidence of knowledge of Cisco UCS within the last two years.
  • Demonstrable evidence of knowledge of Cloud Networking within the last two years.
  • Demonstrable evidence of knowledge of SD-WAN Networks within the last two years.
  • Demonstrable evidence of knowledge of software based encryption methods within the last two years.
  • Demonstrable evidence of knowledge of Cisco or Checkpoint Firewalls within the last two years.
  • Demonstrable ability to build rapidly and maintain a network of colleagues to achieve progress on objectives.
  • Demonstrable ability to actively involve colleagues and partners to deliver the best possible product.
  • Demonstrable evidence of having worked in a leading on projects that have spanned multiple systems and integration points within the last two years.
  • Demonstrable ability of sharing knowledge and working in a multi-disciplinary team.
  • Demonstrable evidence of knowledge of F5 GTM and LTM, including deploying it as Infrastructure as Code.
  • Demonstrable evidence of knowledge of implementing and configuring firewalls and VPN on Palo Alto and Cisco ASA and FTD.
  • Demonstrable evidence of knowledge of Architecture and configuring AWS Services, including EC2, S3, Route 53, Cloudwatch, etc.
  • Understand and implement best security practices.
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Detailed knowledge of Police Networks (or similar) within the last two years.
  • Detailed knowledge of Mainframe Computing within the last two years.
  • Previous use of ITIL methodology for BAU activity within the last two years.

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a work history.

• How many specialists to evaluate: 3
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Seek constructive outcomes in discussions.
  • Actively involve colleagues and partners to deliver an outcome.
  • Challenge assumptions but remain willing to compromise when it is beneficial to progress.
  • Make recommendations for decisions and options.
  • Personal management of time within a team to best deliver the scope of work.
• Additional assessment methods:
  • Reference
  • Interview
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  50%

  Cultural fit

  10%

  Price

  40%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Is there an incumbent?: Yes, there is an incumbent.
• 2. Is this in conjunction with or to replace the previously published "Home Office-PPPT Reference Architecture Service"?: This is a totally separate project to the CTO Reference Architecture Service.
• 3. Does the max budget exclude VAT?: It is excluding VAT.
• 4. We have an infrastructure architect who is extensively experienced in Cisco UCS. Will our candidate be suitable or are you specifically looking for a network architect?: The Network Architect role encompasses numerous technologies and CISCO UCS is one of these technologies hence it would be advantageous to have such skills.; ; A candidate limited to just CISCO UCS skills would not be adequate for this role given the fact that the requirement is for a Network Architect rather than a CISCO UCS SME.
• 5. Is Cisco UCS already being used?: Yes.