Money and Pensions Service (MaPS)

20-106C Digital Collaboration Partner for Money Guidance and Debt Advice

8 Incomplete applications

6 SME, 2 large

13 Completed applications

3 SME, 10 large

Published: Monday 12 October 2020
Deadline for asking questions: Monday 19 October 2020 at 11:59pm GMT
Closing date for applications: Monday 26 October 2020 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

Summary of the work: As a digital collaboration partner, you will have a track record of understanding, defining customer need and procuring and managing complex mix of digital solutions providers. Evidence of managing contracts in excess of £10m per annum, onboarding and managing suppliers in the financial sector preferably money guidance and debt advice.
Latest start date: Monday 18 January 2021
Expected contract length: 2 Years + Optional Extension
Location: No specific location, for example they can work remotely
Organisation the work is for: Money and Pensions Service (MaPS)
Budget range: Indicative breakdown as follows:
Discovery
Year 1 (to March 2021): up to £300k (excluding VAT),
The above to include use of any tools used to undertake the discovery, professional service for implementation and exit.

Life time of Project:
Up to £12m over the life of the programme, subject to project and budget approval. This is an indicative figure at this stage and should not be taken as commitment.

About the work

Why the work is being done: Our mission is to ensure everyone in the UK can easily access the information they need to make the right financial decisions for them throughout their lives, making the most of their money and pensions.

MaPS is the largest single funder of free debt advice in England and also works alongside partners across the UK to make debt advice easier and quicker to access, and to improve standards and quality across the sector. We lead innovation by managing an extensive research and evaluation programme to help underpin decision-making related to financial wellbeing for consumers
Problem to be solved: Demand for money guidance and debt advice will increase from Q4 2020.

MaPS predictive modelling shows this demand peaking in 2021/22 with an increase of circa 3 million more people needing debt advice

Coronavirus has impacted people's finances in many ways; many have seen their income reduce because of reduced hours, or furlough schemes, others have saved money but now face redundancy; while others have lost jobs and face long-term money problems or early retirement.

The Collaborative partner will be responsible for delivering 1m debt advice and 2m money guidance sessions through a network of partners
Who the users are and what they need to do: The users are the overindebted population in England and customers who need guidance to:
engage with their money and pensions and take positive steps to improve their overall financial well-being
• Support to navigate the financial impact of Covid-19
• Understand the complete picture of their money in a holistic way
• Utilise data to better understand their finances especially their credit commitments
• Understand the preventative actions needed to improve their financial picture
• Move into a debt advice journey quickly where required
• Seek support when either positive or negative life events are triggered that cause a change in financial well-being
• Utilise guidance and advice services when needed
Early market engagement: This requirement is building on a webinar hosted by maps on Wednesday 19 August at 2pm

Contracts finder link: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/a7e99b63-cc41-4ca1-b440-21870bd86f0d
Any work that’s already been done: Generated 180 pieces of Covid content on the Money Advice Service site. Launched Money Navigator tool in July, 35k visits. Launched covid FaceBook community with 11k members. A suite of additional guidance including; printed guides, PDF's and videos (YouTube). MaPS Money Navigator tool is a key destination on FCA's creditor guidance, and a referral destination from DWP Universal Credit.

Maps have carried out co-design research into the expectations and desires that customers have of remote debt advice services.
Existing team: The supplier will be working directly with the MaPS Team:
Head of Operational Model Development & Transformation
Head of Money and Debt Operations
IT Commercial Manager
Senior Debt Advice Development Manager
Chief Marketing Officer
Chief Technology Officer DMI
Senior Policy and Propositions Manager
Operational Delivery Managers
Implementation Team
Content Manager
P&P Manager
Customer Journey/UX Manager
Business Analyst
Marketing Manager
Current phase: Not started

Work setup

Address where the work will take place: Customers served by the services must be resident in England. The Collaboration Partner must be UK based with no offshoring.
Working arrangements: The Collaboration Partner will work with MaPS through remote meetings on MS Teams. Depending on UK restrictions due to Covid 19 there may be limited face to face meetings, for which MaPS would expect the supplier to fund travel and subsistence against actuals from the overall budget allocation
Security clearance: Not Applicable

Additional information

Additional terms and conditions

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: Successfully leading strategic, user centred initiatives that understand the end-to-end lived experiences of users.

Designing end to end customer journeys/solutions with measurable outcomes, particularly increased customer engagement/use of services.

Advanced customer research skills (both for validation of product and early stage needs analysis - methods including evidence of ethnographic research)

Evidence of financial need and wellbeing product development

Be able to demonstrate strong experience of delivering large scale programmes managing multiple technology suppliers

Experience in supporting organisations operating in FCA regulated activity.

The ability to scale resources to the demands of this programme, giving an example of where this has been done successfully

Experience of how, when delivering outcome-based programmes, they have supported the development of long-term capabilities, leaving a positive legacy.

Understanding of how to deliver digital products/services to Government UK Digital Service Standard or appropriate similar standards within complex digital programmes across government

Be able to demonstrate an expert knowledge of financial solutions/money guidance (debt, credit and budgeting)

Demonstrable knowledge and experience of successful delivery using technical competencies that include agile delivery, testing methodologies and DevOps management (supported by Case Studies evidence ideally in a single programme)

Effective integration of user centred design and research into the development process Strong programme management - both establishing and managing an ecosystem of suppliers.

Extensive evidence of engaging vulnerable customers - especially digitally disadvantaged

Experience in working on delivery programmes that include DXP technologies; including analytics, campaign management, design frameworks for digital consumer facing applications

Demonstrate data competencies API/API Gateways, Open Banking, CRA and PSD2 standards, Azure, identity management, data caching at scale for consumer facing digital applications, data quality management, GDPR/Cyber Security experience.

Working knowledge of opensource solutions Analytics, AI & ML incorporated within solutions being designed

Technical solutions designed need to maintain balance between OOB & customisation as it should not result in technical debt and/or difficult upgrade path

Evidence of running digital innovation programmes that bring together multiple parties to create a Community/ecosystem focussed on delivering a solution

An understanding of the fintech community and experience of having engaged with Fintechs

Experience in applying smart technologies i.e. ML/AI in real world context
Nice-to-have skills and experience: Experience in Debt Counselling, Debt Adjusting or Personal finance management services

Have experience in designing digital services which have excelled in making the services accessible

Evidence of successfully delivering Minimum Viable Product solutions within compressed timelines

Demonstrable knowledge and experience of successful delivery using the following technical competencies supported by Case Studies evidence ideally in a single programme.

Active large stakeholder audience engagement and management

Digital Competencies

Data Competencies (e.g. - Statistical modelling, Machine Learning,- Real time analytics)

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

How many suppliers to evaluate

Proposal criteria

Understanding of the problem from the perspective of the user with a clear understanding of Debt advice and Money guidance journeys both independently and how they relate to one another.
Evaluation of the delivery approach and methodology, (Methods, processes, control and compliance)
Risk and Critical Success Factors (and how will these be successfully managed)
Assessment on value for money
Approach to developing a "One Team" approach, working collaboratively with MaPS
Actively promote diversity and inclusion as per the public sector equality duty
Demonstrate working experience in delivering digital products/services and understanding the challenges of implementing user centred design in an agile environment
Demonstrate understanding to deliver digital products/services to Government UK Digital Service Standard or appropriate similar standards within complex digital programmes across government
Demonstrable experience of working alongside clients in co-located, integrated team
Demonstrate approach to knowledge and skills transfer
Technical competence in a wide range of relevant technologies and agile practices
Demonstrate the use of open standards and ease of integration
Ability to scale up team and flex resource when needed
Ability to demonstrate successful delivery of large scale multi-faceted and complex data solutions

Cultural fit criteria

Demonstrate your alignment with MaPs purpose and values
Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers
Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions
Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes
Share knowledge and experience with other team members
Challenge non-productive behaviours and attitudes
Can work with clients with all levels of technical expertise
Work in an integrated way with the MaPs team to leave the team informed and able to take ownership of ongoing service management

Payment approach

Capped time and materials

Additional assessment methods

Case study
Work history
Reference
Presentation

Evaluation weighting

Technical competence

50%

Cultural fit

20%

Price

30%

Questions asked by suppliers

1. Please could you clarify "Evidence of managing contracts in excess of £10m per annum, onboarding and managing suppliers in the financial sector preferably money guidance and debt advice. Does this mean we require a turnover of £10m to submit a bid?: Organisations are not required to have a turnover of £10m+ to submit a bid. Organisations are required to evidence managing contracts in excess of £10m.
2. Is it envisaged this programme will include provision of people to take calls as well as digital solutions and if so do you have a view on the relative apportionment of the budget?: Our vision is that for Money Guidance, this will be a digital first solution, which needs to link into our omni-channel services. The details of how this happens will form part of the discovery phase.

For Debt advice solutions there will be a blend of digital and human interaction, by qualified debt advisers. The budget allocation will be determined in the discovery phase. In summary we are not looking for the supplier to provide people to take calls.
3. What considerations have been given to liability for this opportunity, do MaPS see this sitting with the collaborative partner?: Team would like further clarification on the question before answering: Which area of liability are you specifically focused on with this question?
4. What considerations have been given to liability for this opportunity, do MaPS see this sitting with the collaborative partner?: Team would like further clarification on the question before answering: Which area of liability are you specifically focused on with this question?
5. In the ‘Nice to have skills and experience’ section please confirm the first 3 bullets are all allocated 100 words maximum each for the response.: The configuration of the Shortlisting process and the suppliers responses including the word count to our questions is a default set by CCS . Please utilse the maximum word count the system permits when responding to this question.
6. In the ‘Nice to have skills and experience’ section the last 3 bullet points all relate to the bullet above ·        Active large stakeholder audience engagement and management ·        Digital Competencies ·        Data Competencies (e.g. – Statistical modelling, Machine Learning,- Real time analytics) Can you confirm 100 words max are allocated to each of these bullet points for the response?: The configuration of the Shortlisting process and the suppliers responses including the word count to our questions is a default set by CCS . Please utilse the maximum word count the system permits when responding to this question.
7. The requirement states "onboarding and managing suppliers in the financial sector preferably money guidance and debt advice". Does Maps have existing suppliers which would be onboarded and managed by the successful bidder, or would these be suppliers proposed by the bidder?: Some of the providers may have ongoing agreements with MaPS, however it is envisaged that the collaboration partner will establish new agreements for specific projects and will not take over management of the existing ones.
8. Which types of Fintechs (B2C, B2B or both) are you expecting us to have experience engaging with which would be beneficial for programme delivery?: Part of the Money guidance offering will almost certainly involve open banking data aggregation so interaction with Personal finance management apps for example would be beneficial. Alternatively engagement with digital challenger banks, prepaid card products, etc could also be other examples of the fintech market which would be beneficial to have worked with.
9. Please can you confirm if 'Active large stakeholder audience engagement and management' is intended to be one of the 'technical competencies' supported by case studies or if this is a formatting error?: Yes this is part of the technical competencies and should be supported with case studies
10. Does MaPS have open dialogue with regulatory authorities or would you expect supplier to bring this?: Yes MaPS has open dialogue with the regulatory authorities and would support the collaboration partner in this area where appropriate
11. Please could the authority confirm the procurement timeline and stages beyond 26 October? For example, is there a down-select and second stage of the procurement? When do you envisage reaching contract award?: "Maps will evaluate all responses to our opportunity and will shortlist the top three organisations that best meets our requirements. We will use the ‘Essential skills and experience’ together with the ‘Nice-to-have skills and experience’ to score each of the submissions taking forwards the top three highest scoring organisations onto the detailed evaluation stage.

The Indicative timelines for the detailed evaluation stage:
• 16/11/2020 Issue of ITT Documents
• 27/11/2020 Bid submission date
• 08/12/2020 Presentations
• 16/1/2021 Contract award
12. The document refers to both the UK and England – could the authority confirm the geographical scope?: MaPS funded provision for debt advice is England only, however the money guidance element is UK wide
13. Can we gain access to the co-design research done so far?: https://moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Co-designing-the-future-of-remote-debt-advice-services.pdf
Additional Co-design and other research into debt advice services can be found here
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/corporate/debt-publications
Money guidance: There's been no specific co-design research carried out but all of our research publications for money guidance can be found at: https://moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/research/
14. Please can you confirm that the successful supplier will be responsible for delivery of both discovery and full service delivery – and there will not be a subsequent competition for full service delivery following the discovery phase?: The successful supplier will be responsible for the discovery phase and setting up and managing the full ecosystem of providers subject to meeting internal project milestones and staging gates.
15. Please can you confirm the following clarifications in relation to “The Collaborative partner will be responsible for delivering 1m debt advice and 2m money guidance sessions through a network of partners”. 1. Will the successful supplier hold responsibility for creating the network of partners to deliver debt and money advice, or have these organisations already been identified by MaPs?: 1. DA: MaPS will provide an overview of the debt advice market and publicise in order to enable quick engagement, however it will then rest with the supplier to decide which organisations to accept into the network of partners.
MG: Money guidance will be delivered directly through Money and Pensions consumer channels. For this part of the project, technology suppliers will be required which the Collab partner will establish.
16. 2. Will the scope / requirements of the advice sessions be defined by the successful supplier or MaPs?: 2. DA: The scope and requirements are set out at a high level by the FCA regulatory boundaries, MaPS Debt advice outcomes framework as well as our service measures of quality. Within this wide ranging scope however it will be in conversation between the supplier and each of the partners in the network as to the precise requirements of how these outcomes are achieved.
MG: MaPS will define the proposition and guidance to be used in the money guidance journey.
17. 3. Will the successful supplier be soley responsible for the output/delivery of the money/debt advice sessions delivered through the partners?: 3. DA: The supplier will be responsible for facilitating the various debt advice providers towards reaching the goal of the overall provision and further improvement. As the debt advice providers are regulated entities we would still expect them to carry the full responsibilities and liabilities of any regulated activity they carry out with individual customers. MG: The Collab partner will work alongside the MaPS internal team to deliver the money guidance targets."
18. I understand there is a significant increase in the estimated budget from the initial market engagement to now. Can you provide any insight into the major categories of cost that make up the £12m. budget estimate e.g. licensing, systems development.: The outcome of the discovery phase will determine the make-up and phasing of the budget

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Awarded to Ernst & Young LLP (EY)