Northamptonshire County Council

Northamptonshire County Council ICT Partner Framework

18 Incomplete applications

15 SME, 3 large

20 Completed applications

14 SME, 6 large

Published: Tuesday 1 December 2020
Deadline for asking questions: Tuesday 8 December 2020 at 11:59pm GMT
Closing date for applications: Tuesday 15 December 2020 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

Summary of the work: Future Northants IT Strategy and Delivery Partner. Supporting us with strategic and technical delivery skills across a wide range of projects to get us to vesting day and to support us in building the foundations for our new infrastructure in accordance with Local Government Digital Declaration
Latest start date: Monday 4 January 2021
Expected contract length: 12 months
Location: East of England
Organisation the work is for: Northamptonshire County Council
Budget range

About the work

Why the work is being done: Local government in Northamptonshire is facing its biggest challenge in 40 years. The eight existing councils (seven district and borough councils and the county council) will be replaced with two brand new unitary councils on 1 April 2021; North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire.
The eight existing councils are working together through the Future Northants programme, on preparations to create the two new councils. The new unitary councils will be responsible for all public services provided to residents in their area.
Creating two new Unitary Councils will provide more efficient service delivery for residents and businesses, with considerable opportunities to develop and transform services to improve outcomes and increase value for money.
The primary focus is for these two organisations to be safe and legal on vesting day, 1 April 2021, with a minimal viable product approach, that also aligns to the ICT Strategy and supporting roadmap for the future.
One of the key delivery programmes for Future Northants is the ICT, Customer and Digital Portfolio. This underpins the continued delivery of most, if not all, services that the councils currently deliver and need to continue to deliver from day 1 (1 April2021).
Problem to be solved: The Future Northants programme has an immovable deadline and a huge amount of work to be done. We need to augment our existing team with specialist technical resources that can hit the ground running quickly, increase pace and agility in our delivery and help us to work in line with the Local Government Digital Declaration which we have signed. We also need to develop specific technology and delivery strategies in keeping with our wider strategy so that after vesting day, our transformation can continue at pace.
Who the users are and what they need to do: The users are mainly internal - the partner will support them in developing user needs for the services that are delivered.
Early market engagement
Any work that’s already been done: The programme has been running for some time, the MS365 migration project is well under way. Some of the other projects are to complete discovery/to develop an approach or to support delivery of an approach that we have already signed off.
The reality is that it is a real mixed bag and so our partner needs to be adaptable to the changing nature of each requirement that will come in.
Existing team: We have 8 ICT teams with a variety of skills and experience within each of the sovereign councils in Northamptonshire.
We have a Project and Programme capability delivering the activity and forming technical leadership for the unitary councils strategy.
We are working with Future Gov who are delivering 2x MVP websites for vesting day.
Current phase: Not applicable

Work setup

Address where the work will take place: The work is expected to be mostly remote using Teams and collaboration software to develop working relationships. Very occasionally onsite working will be required. This could be at any of the bases in Northamptonshire.
Working arrangements: Remote work will take place as agreed with each statement of work that is delivered. Hours and location will vary depending on the piece of work being delivered.
Security clearance: Not required

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: Demonstrate experience of delivering MS 365 roll outs/single email domains. To include MS365 delivery specialists, migrations, exchange, intune. Leadership and training for handover to onsite teams.

Tell us about your experience of delivering MS365 Sharepoint intranet sites.

Tell us how you would help with our MS365 roll out/single email domain. MS365 delivery specialists, migrations, exchange, intune. Leadership and training for handover to onsite teams.

Tell us how you would help us develop our MS365 Intranet on Sharepoint. SharePoint/MS365 specialists

Tell us how you would help us get our business systems ready for day 1. Software engineers, application/configuration specialists

Tell us how you would help us roll out end user devices, in particular application delivery specialists, Citrix, VMware

Tell us how you would help us develop a suite of ICT Policies

Tell us how you would help us develop an ICT Target Operating Model

Tell us how you would help us gather our requirements for a digital platform of loosely coupled technical components

Tell us how you would help us develop our income management system, including integrations

Tell us how you would help us to develop a security strategy

Tell us how you would help us to develop strategies around data to include: Archiving strategy Decommissioning applications strategy Document management strategy

Tell us how you could help us develop a data centre strategy
Nice-to-have skills and experience: Demonstrate experience of having delivered MS365 roll out in a unitary programme

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

How many suppliers to evaluate

Proposal criteria

Describe the approach to setting up a framework to enable us to call off specific deliverables
Describe how you will manage the relationship
Tell us how quickly you will be able to turn around requests for work
Tell us how you will ensure people are aware of us and our requirements prior to coming on site.
Tell us how you will demonstrate value for money

Cultural fit criteria

Demonstrate how they will work with our 8 different IT teams
Demonstrate how they will be able to align deliverables with our strategy
Demonstrate how they will encourage our team members to learn and take ownership of new services
Demonstrate how they will support a culture of continuous improvement

Payment approach

Capped time and materials

Additional assessment methods

Work history

Evaluation weighting

Technical competence

50%

Cultural fit

10%

Price

40%

Questions asked by suppliers

1. Do you have an indicative budget for this? Or indicative target / maximum day rates?: We have a minimum value of £50K up to a maximum of £400K. there is no guarantee of spend beyond the £50K
2. Is there an incumbent supplier?: No
3. What is the budget range for this opportunity?: We have a minimum value of £50K up to a maximum of £400K. there is no guarantee of spend beyond the £50K
4. Will there be any requirement within this Framework for development of Social Care Records systems and related data, for example the division of a single (currently County) system between the two Unitaries?: No
5. Do you have an indicative budget for this? Or indicative target / maximum day rates?: We have a minimum value of £50K up to a maximum of £400K. there is no guarantee of spend beyond the £50K – we expect all suppliers to submit their rate cards with their proposal
6. Can you please confirm the timelines for selected applicants to submit a proposal given the stated start date of 4th January.: Timelines are as following :

Published On -Tuesday 1 December 2020
Deadline for asking questions-Tuesday 8 December 2020 at 11:59pm GMT
Closing date for applications- Tuesday 15 December 2020 at 11:59pm GMT
7. With regards to the next stage, if we are selected as one of the 3 suppliers, what is the deadline to submit the written proposal.: Three suppliers will be shortlisted from technical competence, then the proposal submitted with the response to these questions will be evaluated for our preferred bidder. Deadline 15th December
8. we have assessed the requirements you have and are very confident we could be the perfect partner moving forwards, however in order to give you the best possible response, could we apply for an extension of three weeks for the submission?: Our timelines are very tight.
We would like to stick with the current timetable. Deadline 15-Dec-2020
9. Can you advise what critical IT services need to functioning 100% by 1 Apr 2021?: Please see the critical products listed in the IT Strategy - Use Link to access Strategy Document - https://public.huddle.com/a/xVBkrRR/index.html
10. Can the strategy for the unitary councils be shared so we can understand the current model?: Yes - Copy link into your browser to access strategy document -
https://public.huddle.com/a/xVBkrRR/index.html
11. Do you intend to merge all these into 1 operating model or perhaps need a Target Operating Model designed for both Transformation and Live Service Delivery? What is the current model for all 8 teams? Is it purely in house or a partner hybrid model?: 7 of the 8 councils operate in house IT services. The model will be in house, with 1 Authority taking the lead. IN the run up to vesting day there are 8 IT teams, with largely on premise infrastructures and a variety of set ups.
12. Is it just the web platforms Future Gov are delivering?: Yes, plus helping us with service design for the websites.
13. We need to understand what has been delivered so far, is this in-house or with a partner for each of the current 8 LA’s. Can they share a recent highlight report to show progress? Do they also have a technology roadmap that will be used as the basis for the 2 new LA’s?: This has been in house with some contract resource. We are part way through most of the day 1 projects listed in the strategy – day1 deliverables.

For a copy Strategy use link -https://public.huddle.com/a/xVBkrRR/index.html
14. Is there scope for face to face collaboration to build relationships and stakeholder engagement at the beginning of the project? Would recommend this subject to Covid-19 restrictions.: Yes
15. Are you moving to a single domain email?: Yes, 1 for each unitary Authority
16. How many users are migrating? Is there a plan already in place?: 7000, we have currently migrated 2,000 so far.
17. How many line of business applications are there? Will they remain on premise or is the desire to move them to Azure? Do you have a cloud strategy? And what LOB applications do you deem critical to be working on 1st April 2021?: Our day 1 products are listed in the strategy
( https://public.huddle.com/a/xVBkrRR/index.html )– our priorities for vesting day will be our county council functions that are disaggregating. Unless it has a day 1 need, those applications would be left as they are. We need you to describe how you might help us in this area should it be prioritised later.
18. Are you implying you would like to rollout new hardware to all users? Do you need Citrix and VMware if you are going down a Microsoft route?: We are only rolling out hardware where it will not support MS teams at this stage. We need to keep Citrix and VMWare in the short term .
19. What is the income management system and is it managed in house?: Civica Pay – we are changing this to split the county services to unitary – yes it is managed in house.
20. Where is your data stored and what size is your stack?: We have 8 councils each with at least one data centre. 7 “average” district councils and 1 large county council. We do not have this data at hand.
21. Have you run educational workshops with Staff for managing data efficiently and effectively?: IG training is given and repeated regularly. There is a need to refresh this with the adoption of new tools.
22. There will be continuous change and will need daily stand-ups in place – do you do this already?: Yes, and no problem.
23. Do you currently use a Data Centre model? Also, do you have a cloud strategy?: Not at this stage, this may potentially be something we call off from this framework.
24. How many users/devices are supported across the 8 councils?: 7000 users 9,000 devices
25. How many domains are there currently?: 8
26. Can the make/model and type of user device be detailed?: Not at this stage, if we require help with this project we will provide more detail. It is a very mixed estate currently, as you might expect with 8 different councils in scope.
27. How many mailboxes and associated sizing is there?: By the time this framework is left only two organisations will be left to migrate:
NBC: 1300 mailboxes (inc shared), NCC; 5,500 mailboxes (inc shared). Sizes are not available at this time.
ENC 315 users / 101 shared total data 1087.69 GB - 7116325 items
CBC 503 User mailboxes and 217 Shared mailboxes
KBC 522 and 190 Shared mailboxes 1.6TB of data
DDC 103 shared mailboxes & 264 user mailboxes

SNC 260 user mailboxes 190 Shared mailboxes

BCW 325 User mailboxes of which there are 76 Shared mailboxes.
28. How many ICT support personnel are there in the 8 ICT teams?: Which support personnel in particular do you think are relevant to your proposal?
29. Do any of the support personnel have experience with MS365 and/or migration to MS365?: Some experience yes – as we have now migrated 4 of the eight councils to MS365
30. Is VDI currently in use? If so what pools, applications and versions?: Yes, see question below.
31. How many users as Citrix and VMware is documented for application rollout: Northamptonshire County Council – 2800 concurrent Citrix

Daventry District Council 100 citrix users

Kettering Borough Council 557 VMs listed (Windows RDS)

Borough Council of Wellingborough approx 325 – Citrix

East Northamptonshire Council – approx 350 Citrix

Northamptonshire Borough Council Vmware Horzion - 560

Corby Borough Council – approx 130 – Citrix

South Northamptonshire Council XenApp & Xen Deskop 240 licenses for XenApp - was on roadmap to decommission but now unlikely
XenDesktop used for roaming office
32. What is the existing email solution, including versions?: Corby, Wellingborough, Kettering, Daventry have been migrated.

use Link to access additional information -https://public.huddle.com/a/DWVPvJq/index.html
33. • Key LOB applications – where are you with these – is there a plan what is the partner engagement. Please can you provide us with an organogram so we can understand further and would you like us to manage this on your behalf?: This diagramhttps://public.huddle.com/a/XOWXJBo/index.html shows (in the red outlines, the priority areas for vesting day). We may require some support in planning a future state. This would be provided as a statement of work.
34. • Digital Custom Platform design – can this be broken down in what needs to be delivered by vesting day accompanied by and organogram please: The capabilities we would like to have available from or as a minimum a direction of travel for vesting day are in the diagramhttps://public.huddle.com/a/zDnjPKM/index.html attached. We would like the partner to help us build the requirements and go to market. Delivery and development would be post vesting day.
35. • Contact Centre – Please confirm this is just a re-route of existing system(s) for vesting day – Would your desire be to modernise and have a single CCT solution? – Based on Teams?: For day 1 – yes and we don’t require support with this. Longer term, correct.
36. • M365 deployment – please outline the process taken so far, how many users are you migrating per day? What is the process you are taking with the personal folders are you migrating to OneDrive? And SharePoint?: We have migrated 4 of the 8 councils. We have migrated the users over a weekend, the biggest council so far was 500 users. We are only migrating email.
37. • ERP – where are you with Testing and cutover – what partner engagement is in place to support?: We are handing ERP with our in house resources, we don’t expect to need much other than specialist roles in this area.
38. • Education – is the new cloud platform in place and working? – what partner engagement is in place?: We don’t expect to need a partner in this area.
39. • Adult Social Care – is the new platform in place and working? – what partner engagement is in place?: We don’t expect to need a partner in this area. The platform went live this week.
40. • BI Phase 1 – Please expand in more detail deliverables: These will be provided as a statement of work once this piece of work is prioritised.
41. • Caveats on what we will/won’t deliver by 1st April in line with MVP timeline (P21): As this is a call off framework, the deliverables will be issued separately as they are required. The technical competence section is for us to get a measure of the partner’s capabilities in the different scenarios where we may need help. .
42. • Please can you clarify what the deliverables for this opportunity will be – the opportunity is written as though it were M365 migration but you state in the Q&A that you have already migrated 2000 of 7000 users – so what specifically will you be looking to be delivered? You talk in the "Problem to be solved" section about augmenting your existing team to increase pace and agility – so are we correct in assuming that the specific skillset could be for any M365 product / feature or is it broader even than that?: The opportunity is a call off framework for a partner to provide us with resource that can be stood up quickly to support us on a range of opportunities. Deliverables for each piece of work would be provided separately as they are required via a statement of work (or similar) and the partner would provide a quote against a rate card.
43. • You have stated that all suppliers are to provide a written proposal, and in the response to question 7, you confirm that the proposal is to be submitted by the 15th December. Please confirm where we can find details regarding the scope and format of the proposal and how it is to be submitted as only the details for providing the technical competence information are provided.: The proposal should cover how the partner will set up and manage the call off framework. This would include the timescales by which they will be able to stand up resources/a team, how they will manage the relationship and performance.
44. • You have stated that all suppliers are to provide a written proposal, and in the response to question 7, you confirm that the proposal is to be submitted by the 15th December. Please confirm where we can find details regarding the scope and format of the proposal and how it is to be submitted as only the details for providing the technical competence information are provided.: The proposal should cover how the partner will set up and manage the call off framework. This would include the timescales by which they will be able to stand up resources/a team, how they will manage the relationship and performance. Please provide an externally accessible link to your proposal document.
45. Dear Northamptonshire County Council, we have assessed the requirements you have and are very confident we could be the perfect partner moving forwards, however in order to give you the best possible response, could we apply for an extension of three weeks for the submission?: The answer is no, as we are on such a tight timeline to shortlist and appoint a partner.

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