Awarded to Cognizant Worldwide Limited

Start date: Tuesday 1 June 2021
Value: £6,500,000
Company size: large

HM Land Registry

IT Operations Capability Partner

15 Incomplete applications

11 SME, 4 large

12 Completed applications

8 SME, 4 large

• Published: Tuesday 5 January 2021
• Deadline for asking questions: Tuesday 12 January 2021 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Tuesday 19 January 2021 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Summary of the work: A partnership across Digital, Infrastructure and Security technical programmes as part of our Transformation Portfolio. You will provide expertise and specialism to boost capacity and enhance capability. You will work alongside our in-house specialist teams, including Networking, Web Operations, Security, Server and Desktop, Mainframe, Telephony Engineers and Infrastructure Designers.
• Latest start date: Thursday 1 April 2021
• Expected contract length: The expected contract length is a 2 year contract term
• Location: South West England
• Organisation the work is for: HM Land Registry
• Budget range: Budget approval is subject to Cabinet Office spending controls, service assessments and HM Land Registry governance. ; A pipeline of activity is foreseen over the next 24 months, with an indicative budget against the requirements for this capability being approx £6.5m, but that scope could expand or contract. ; Each SOW will be assigned a set cost to enable tracking; HM Land Registry does not commit to any minimum or maximum spend at this point.

About the work

• Why the work is being done: HM Land Registry are implementing a large, complex and ambitious portfolio of change over the next 2 years. In order to support this ambition, we continue to review and invest in our internal capability to deliver these changes. ; ; We require an IT Operations Delivery Partner to help us to uplift our internal capability with a range of skills, whilst providing a short-term uplift in capacity to assist in the delivery of a number of technical deliverables.; ; Our Digital, Data and Technology Directorate is primarily based in our Plymouth location, we have a range of specialist groups organised into Practices and specialist technology teams. This requirement is for a single partner to boost our IT Operations Practice capability. ; ; HM Land Registry will take the lead responsibility for delivery of programmes. You will work as part of blended HM Land Registry and supplier teams. We are looking for a partner therefore who will be able to provide these capabilities in one contract.
• Problem to be solved: HM Land Registry is transforming its internal and external digital and data services. This demands DDaT activity across many Programmes and Projects, which will: ; ; Digitise and automate new user-facing services.; Automate and improve HM Land Registry’s internal application processing and casework systems and processes.; Refresh existing technical architecture and build new technical capabilities.; Build a new digital register to enable future services and create data products.; Continue to enhance our Local Land Charges service offerings ; Improve our customer data and implement a SaaS CRM Product.; Migrate data to support our cloud-first strategy, building API’s to use this data.; The IT Operations Practice supports the work of this Transformational activity, whilst also being heavily engaged in an IT Infrastructure programme which will:; ; Migrate image objects away from mainframe platform into cloud platforms.; Build Cyber-security enhancements, providing improved operational security capability and enabling further lines of defense.; Implement End User device enhancements to enable a more mobile workforce, and build automation into the deployment of end user devices.; Undertake Data Centre migration activity, with the aim of migrating away from our physical sites to shared facilities.; Undertake Cloud migration activities, moving on premise services and Infrastructure to cloud hosting.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: User groups of HM Land Registry's services include: ; • Citizens who require a better and more consistent experience when requesting land information, registering land interests and/or tracking land transactions.; • Solicitors / Conveyancers / Mortgage lenders who must be able to transact using digital services when acting on behalf of buyers and sellers in registering land interests.; • Caseworkers who process land registration applications require more automated, intelligent and consistent casework tools to enable more time to focus on quasi-legal decisions and judgements.; • HM Land Registry employees who require secure access to internal and external applications and seamless deployment of secure end user devices.; • Other professional/commercial/academic groups with an interest in land information, including start-ups in the Proptech sector
• Early market engagement: N/A
• Any work that’s already been done: HM Land Registry has a large Transformation Programme in train. This opportunity forms part of the ongoing evolution of our partnership model where we work with a number of Capability Partners to support us across the Transformation Programme. We have the following programmes currently in flight: ; • Digital and Data Programmes; • Service Improve Programme.; • Customer Programme; • Infrastructure Programme; • Local Land Charge Programme.; • Corporate Systems Programme
• Existing team: Led by the Deputy Director of Technology, HM Land Registry has internal staff with a variety of technical expertise. They are organised into practices which support their professional development and are assigned to appropriate work in one of the organisation’s portfolio of change programmes. ; We have several Web Operations staff embedded and supporting 25 multi-disciplinary service teams, currently delivering new products and services. Current teams are at a variety of different project phases and require a variety of Web Operations skills and capability.; In addition, we have several technical infrastructure specialist delivery teams supporting Infrastructure and Operational Security Programme deliverables.
• Current phase: Not applicable

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: The majority of HM Land Registry's agile development and IT Operational teams are based in Plymouth, UK; Due to the restrictions on travel and office occupancy imposed by COVID, there is an expectation that currently most work will happen remotely, though all remote workers must be based in the UK. ; In the future there may be a requirement to be on-site in Plymouth or to travel periodically to the most suitable location for work requiring a greater degree of collaboration.
• Working arrangements: This will be a 5 day per week (Monday to Friday) commitment. Detailed working arrangements, including team location, size and make-up, will be contained within each statement of work. ; The partner must follow HM Land Registry’s IT and security procedures and policies in relation to access, data and equipment use.
• Security clearance: HM Land Registry requires all supplier staff to have baseline personnel security standard clearance (BPSS). There may be a requirement for some of the work to require security clearance checks. This will be detailed in the statement of work.

Additional information

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:
  • Evidence of working on complex digital and Infrastructure Programmes and projects across a large change portfolio and multiple workstreams.
  • Demonstrate extensive evidence of rapidly and successfully onboarding in a complex organisation. This should include aligning with organisational standards/culture and building key relationships.
  • Demonstrate ability to provide multi-skilled people to meet the variety of capabilities required.
  • Demonstrate that your organisation promotes a collaborative culture and you can demonstrate where you have successfully worked as part of a multi supplier team.
  • Evidence of infrastructure engineering across a large change portfolio within a complex technology landscape. Evidence of working with Web Operations specialists experienced in provision of infrastructure within a DevOps culture.
  • Demonstrate experience of designing and building secure, resilient next generation hosting platforms and container-based services. Evidence of applying relevant/modern technology, using agreed standards and tools, to achieve a well-engineered result.
  • Demonstrate experience of a range of technologies including but not limited to Openshift, Infrastructure as Code, continuous deployment technology, Cloud Infrastructure and networking.
  • Evidence of using technology to build highly resilient platforms and solutions.
  • Demonstrate experience of enterprise level cybersecurity controls. Evidence of implementation of modern Operational IT Security tooling and controls.
  • Demonstrate experience of traditional infrastructure and data centre skills and end user device management. Evidence of deployment automation and asset management.
  • Evidence of technical design and architecture across a large change portfolio within a complex technology landscape. Evidence of designing micro-service-based architectures, and wider infrastructure platforms and services.
  • Demonstrate experience of development of platform roadmaps which align to strategic architecture.
  • Demonstrate experience of SecOps, threat modelling, designing and implementing zero-trust methodology. Evidence of embedding security best practice.
  • Evidence of building capability in client departments and leaving a self-sufficient, sustainable internal capability.
  • Demonstrate experience of effective knowledge transfer relevant to work undertaken.
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Demonstrate experience of working in partnerships with the client to understand capability and capacity needs and ensure the right skills are delivered and effectively embedded.
  • Demonstrate experience of implementing service management tooling.

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 5
• Proposal criteria:
  • Quality - How you ensure commitment to the quality of the deliverables, outcomes and resources and ability to rapidly identify/ remedy / replace if an issue occurs.
  • Delivery - Your method for measuring and maintaining speed of delivery.
  • Capability - Your approach to transferring knowledge to build capability / demonstrating effective methods of upskilling.
  • Innovation and Organisation - Your approach to identifying and assessing opportunities within the organisation and securing the appropriately skilled resource to meet the deliverables.
  • Accountability - Your approach to managing your resources on site as part of a multi-vendor, multi-disciplinary environment, taking accountability for achieving deliverables
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • •Social Value - criteria drawn from Procurement Policy Note 06/20 Taking Account of Social Value in the Award of Central Government Contracts
  • •Collaborating in and across teams - Demonstrates effective collaboration with multiple organisational stakeholders and multiple vendor personnel /collaborate across multi-disciplinary agile teams to deliver significant infrastructure change.
  • Knowledge Transfer - Demonstrates a clear process for transferring knowledge to permanent staff within a client organisation
  • Stakeholder Management - Ability to manage stakeholder expectations, ensure clarity of communication and ensure any risks are appropriately raised.
  • Continuous Improvement - Reinforce a culture of continuous improvement of people, processes and solutions.
  • Infrastructure Design - Champion the value of infrastructure architecture and design.
• 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. Can I please ask if there is an incumbent?: There is no incumbent for this new opportunity.
• 2. Please share the resource onboarding timelines for this opportunity?i.e: time between choosing the final supplier and starting the work: We expect there will be a 10-day standstill period between supplier selection and contract signature. Following this, we will expect to work with the winning bidder to begin onboarding within one month.
• 3. Could you please provide more information on the types of platforms you are referring to in the question “Demonstrate experience of development of platform roadmaps which align to strategic architecture”. Would this be business platforms, digital platforms etc.?: We have a number of different hosting platforms, used for development (microservices) and hosting of internal services (e.g. virtual desktops & IaaS). These platforms are complex and consist of on-premise, IaaS, PaaS & SaaS infrastructure, as well as supporting tools and services. The specific experience required is the ability to be able to appropriately engage with all relevant stakeholders to capture and manage the future roadmap for each platform and all its components.
• 4. Does the HM Land Registry have a preferred Cloud hosting environment like AWS, Azure or both?: HMLR extensively uses AWS and Azure for different use cases. AWS is currently being used for building new Digital services, whilst Azure is being used for hosting corporate (back office) services, and an extensive remote desktop solution. We have plans to continue migration of some on-premise solutions to the Cloud, and will look to the winning bidder to help us in building automation & resilience into our current platforms.