Awarded to Scroll

Start date: Monday 15 March 2021
Value: £783,300
Company size: SME

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

UK SBS DDaT20358 UKRI Website Content Transition

11 Incomplete applications

9 SME, 2 large

12 Completed applications

11 SME, 1 large

• Published: Monday 30 November 2020
• Deadline for asking questions: Monday 7 December 2020 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Monday 14 December 2020 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Summary of the work: We are seeking a partnership with a highly skilled supplier to provide content design expertise and a Scrum Master or Project Manager for phase 2 of UKRI website project. The content design resource should be sufficient to transition 9 websites by November 2021.
• Latest start date: Monday 1 March 2021
• Expected contract length: Nine months to complete transition by 30th November 2021 with the option to extend for up to 1 month
• Location: South West England
• Organisation the work is for: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
• Budget range: We anticipate a budget cost of £100,000 per month for a team of content designers and a Scrum Master/or Project Manager. Therefore, the total budget is £900,000 excluding VAT for the 9-month initial term, with up to an additional £100,000 should UKRI decide to utilise the up to 20% contingency margin to accommodate any changes to the SoW deliverables during the term of the contract in line with the DOS framework guidelines. However, there is no commitment to spend up to that amount.

About the work

• Why the work is being done: UKRI is building one single website, replacing 10 existing sites.; ; In October 2020 the first phase of our new website went live with the replacement for the existing UKRI website. The second phase of the website development will be completed during 2021 and will include the full transition of the nine council websites into one integrated site.; ; The ‘Discovery’ provided the detailed analysis and evidence for a single consistent UKRI website that brings together all the sites. The Alpha phase proved proof of concept and during Beta the new site was designed, built and publicly launched, ready for council transition.
• Problem to be solved: UKRI are looking to transition the remaining nine websites (approx. 30,000 pages), using content design principles so that people can easily navigate and understand how the different parts of UKRI, and the various councils contribute to the research and innovation landscape individually and collectively.; ; This is not migration of content but transition using content design and user research. We have already done a high-level content analysis. The transition will require working across nine organisations at a time of culture change, to help them understand and buy in to the idea of transition not migration.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: • As a funder, I need to publish our objectives, priorities and funding opportunities so that researchers are informed.; • As a funder, I need to show the impact of our research so that all users are aware of the value of that research.; • As a researcher, I need to be informed of developments and opportunities, so I can apply for funding. ; • As policymakers in government, business and the third sector, we need to be aware of research, so we can use it to inform policy.; • As the public/media, we need to know about the research and its benefits and impact.
• Early market engagement: N/A
• Any work that’s already been done: We have completed an in-depth discovery phase of work; alpha proof of concept and beta build design are completed, and we have now gone public live with the MVP – ukri.org.; ; The live site replaces the old UKRI website and has nine unique council landing pages with latest news and funding opportunities. These will be the new homepages for councils as we transition their content from their present sites. ; ; We have already analysed the content on the nine sites and have a detailed roadmap with milestones for content transition based on a total of eight content designers.
• Existing team: The UKRI web project sits in the UKRI Communication and Engagement Team and works closely with the UKRI Digital Data and Technology function. Phase 2 transition consists of: ; • UKRI Website Service Owner; • UKRI Website Product Owner; • UKRI Website Delivery lead; • 1 Part-time UKRI user researcher, 2 contract user researchers ; • 1 contract content designer, 2 full-time and 1 part-time UKRI content designers; • 2 UKRI developers
• Current phase: Live

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: UKRI is based at Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, SN2 1FL. Currently our office-based work is being conducted remotely, and we expect the supplier would be able to complete the project online unless there is a specific need for a meeting or workshop in person.
• Working arrangements: UKRI will manage and lead the work. The supplier will work with the project team, 9 to 5 Monday to Friday.; ; We will be working together remotely and expect a transparent and collaborative approach to working with you. We would expect all the usual agile ceremonies to be conducted regardless of work-mode including daily team stand-ups, show and tells with a wide selection of stakeholders, regular discussions between us, end of sprint retrospectives etc. ; ; Workloads will be overseen by the UKRI Delivery Lead and a Scrum Master/or Project Manager provided by the supplier. Our project management planning tool is Asana.
• Security clearance: Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Additional information

• Additional terms and conditions: No 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:
  • Demonstrate experience of user-centred content design and ability to articulate complex content in a clear and succinct way, with experience of paired/collaborative writing. (5%)
  • Demonstrate understanding of user research - needs, personas, journeys and behaviour, and experience in successfully applying this to website projects. (3%)
  • Demonstrate experience of analytics and evaluation, including the use of Google Analytics and interpreting relevant data. (3%)
  • Demonstrate time management, and experience of working to tight deadlines. (3%)
  • Demonstrate understanding of website propositions and content strategies. (2%)
  • Demonstrate proven experience of working as a scrum master/project manager and your understanding of Agile methodology. (5%)
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Demonstrate proven experience to quickly understand an organisation’s business, culture and operating environment – being open and inviting of the views of others. (2%)
  • Demonstrate Experience of delivering projects to GDS standards. (2%)

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 5
• Proposal criteria:
  • Describe the size and shape of the proposed team - roles and experience of the people delivering the work, including how you will achieve and maintain value for money. (10%)
  • Demonstrate your approach, methodology and timeframes to meet the project goals. (10%)
  • Demonstrate how you will produce high quality content to tight deadlines. (10%)
  • Demonstrate how you will collaborate with our user researchers and designers to enhance the user experience through content design. (5%)
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Demonstrate how your team will work successfully with UKRI as part of a multidisciplinary and multi-supplier team working remotely (and when required co-located in Swindon). (6%)
  • Demonstrate your approach to engaging with internal stakeholders undergoing cultural change and how this will support project success. (6%)
  • Demonstrate how you will work transparently, collaboratively and agilely, sharing your approach with the project team and seeking actionable feedback. (4%)
  • Demonstrate the ability to being adaptive to constant changes and having a pragmatic, can do attitude to delivery to short timescales. (4%)
• Payment approach: Capped time and materials
• Additional assessment methods: Presentation
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  60%

  Cultural fit

  20%

  Price

  20%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Latest start date: The commencement of the services is scheduled for 1st March 2021 in accordance with the published requirements. However, this is subject to change should there be any delays in the procurement process.
• 2. Procurement timeframe: The anticipated procurement timeframes are as follows:; 11th January 2021 – Notification of shortlisting outcome; 18th January 2021 – Written proposal deadline; W/C 25th January 2021 – Presentations; 8th February 2021 – Notification of award outcome
• 3. How suppliers will be evaluated: The evaluation methodology for this procurement will be based on the 0-10 methodology as per below:; ; Suppliers that fail to score 6 and above in any Essential Skills and Expertise criteria will not be considered for the assessment stage.; ; Score - Score Prefix Descriptor; 0 - The Question is not answered, or the response is completely unacceptable. ; 2 - Very poor response and not wholly acceptable. Requires major revision to the response to make it acceptable. Only partially answers the requirement, with major deficiencies and little relevant detail proposed.
• 4. How suppliers will be evaluated (2): 4 - Poor response only partially satisfying the question requirements with deficiencies apparent. Some useful information provided but response falls well short of expectations. Low probability of being a capable supplier. ; 6 - Response is acceptable but remains basic and could have been expanded upon. Response is sufficient but does not inspire. ; 8 - Good response which describes their capabilities in detail which provides high levels of assurance consistent with a quality provider. The response includes a full description of techniques and measurements currently employed.
• 5. How suppliers will be evaluated (3): 10 - Response is exceptional and clearly demonstrates they are capable of meeting the requirement. No significant weaknesses noted. The response is compelling in its description of techniques and measurements currently employed, providing full assurance consistent with a quality provider.
• 6. Due to a limited character limit within the digital marketplace, please see the additional provided information regarding our requirement: Summary of the work - We have already analysed the content and have a detailed roadmap with milestones for content transition.
• 7. Is there an incumbent?: No, there is not an incumbent supplier.
• 8. Please could you define "content transition" and include in your definition the tasks/activities involved?: Content transition involves reviewing content and transitioning content that users need. We will not by default migrate all content from the nine websites to the single site. The steps as part of the transition are:; Content and analytics review; Interviews with subject matter experts; User research analysis, user needs development and journey mapping ; Content planning /development; Product development planning; Information architecture development; Content and product development; Develop process, guidance, templates and workflows; Content designers draft in WordPress - writing, editing content, including structure of copy ( this is not copy and pasting from the existing sites); final checks and publish.
• 9. Please could you explain the difference between a "content transition" and a "content migration"?: Content transition involves reviewing content and transitioning only content that users need (and therefore meets a business goal) to the single site.; Content designers draft in WordPress - writing, editing content, including layout of copy (this is not copy and pasting from the existing sites). We will not by default migrate all content from the nine websites to the single site.
• 10. Please could you explain what you mean by "website propositions"?: The website proposition outlines what the UKRI single site is for - what we will and will not publish. It defines the boundaries of the website with other UKRI services (e.g. we will not publish standard job adverts as they go on our careers portal; we will not publish lists of funded projects as they are on Gateway to Research).
• 11. Please could you provide URLs for the existing websites to be transitioned to the new single site?: https://ahrc.ukri.org/; https://bbsrc.ukri.org/; https://epsrc.ukri.org/; https://esrc.ukri.org/; https://nerc.ukri.org/; https://mrc.ukri.org/; https://re.ukri.org/; https://stfc.ukri.org/; https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/innovate-uk
• 12. Is the supplier constrained to using Asana or can we use other (similiar) tools?: The Supplier must use Asana as that is the project team's chosen planning tool.
• 13. Are you using a COTS content management system and if so, which one?: The system used is Wordpress.
• 14. Are you expecting the content to be rewritten i.e. not a lift and shift?: Yes, the high and medium priority content will be rewritten (content designed) but low priority content may need to just come across but only if it meets a business goal.
• 15. Do you have a taxonomy in place?: No, we do not have a taxonomy in place.