Government Digital Service

WP1942 - Digital Capability for Urgent DDaT Requirements (2)

28 Incomplete applications

26 SME, 2 large

7 Completed applications

6 SME, 1 large

• Published: Tuesday 27 April 2021
• Deadline for asking questions: Tuesday 4 May 2021 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Tuesday 11 May 2021 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Summary of the work: Following on from the success of WP1701-03 and WP1810-13 that provided urgent DDaT resource across Government. GDS requires a new supplier to work on time-constrained DDaT projects.; ; The new contracts will continue to provide teams, or resources to supplement existing teams for Departments and ALBs.
• Latest start date: Monday 19 July 2021
• Expected contract length: 24 months
• Location: London
• Organisation the work is for: Government Digital Service
• Budget range: There is no commitment to minimum spend over the term of the contract.; ; The maximum spend under the contract will be £4 million

About the work

• Why the work is being done: There is a need for a flexible supplier to respond to urgent requests received by GDS from departments.; ; Enable departments to access the market for support in delivering urgent digital projects where resources are required within 5-10 working days.; ; We expect this contract to fulfil three types of need:; ; Resource to supplement teams on urgent projects; Agile Multidisciplinary Teams; Specialist services (e.g. Data Science, GOV.UK content & Domain Knowledge); ; Core capabilities for the proposed contract would be:; ● user experience and design; ● performance analysis and data; ● service delivery; ● software development; ● user research; ; This contract will allow time-critical work to commence while alternative arrangements are made.
• Problem to be solved: UK Government needs access at short notice to resources that can design, build, and deliver digital services. We are looking at placing teams within two weeks to deliver digital outcomes.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: As a Department/ALB, I need to run discoveries and develop digital services to design, build and run services within 5-10 working days. I may need a full team, or a number of staff to complement a team I have.
• Early market engagement: We held a pre-tender market engagement in conjunction with CCS on 10/12/20;; https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oXJpJVnKlljwQIk52dlZSTb1bLXXy2tS/view?usp=sharing; ; Please also see link to Q&A in relation to this;; https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C-14vxUGaE0f1F5A245pqcb2GgwpIYfX0rVHM-_HzOQ/edit?usp=sharing
• Any work that’s already been done: Projects will be at various stages and suppliers will be briefed relative to specific statements of work.; ; This is the third series of similar contracts for resourcing in this space. Links to previously let contracts, WP1701-03, WP1810-13, below;; ; https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/digital-outcomes-and-specialists/opportunities/9395; - https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/digital-outcomes-and-specialists/opportunities/9676; - https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/digital-outcomes-and-specialists/opportunities/9779; - https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/digital-outcomes-and-specialists/opportunities/11781; - https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/digital-outcomes-and-specialists/opportunities/12297; - https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/digital-outcomes-and-specialists/opportunities/12752; https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/digital-outcomes-and-specialists/opportunities/13374
• Existing team: The supplier will work with Government Departments & ALBs from a range of disciplines, including architecture, security, policy, service and product management, finance, and delivery management. Knowledge transfer back into HMG will be required to enable HMG to improve internal capability to build and support the services.; ; Where required in the development cycle, collaboration with other suppliers may be necessary. This contract will not prevent us from using other commercial arrangements, including using capability contracts, to pull together a team from a range of suppliers.
• Current phase: Not started

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: It is expected that the majority of work will take place inside the M25, however there will be requirements around the UK that we would expect to be supported also.; ; The primary base will be detailed in each Statement of Work (SoW) and expenses will not form part of the cost unless the supplier is asked to work from a secondary location instead during the execution of the work relating to the SoW. e.g. If SoW primary base is in Coventry then no expenses will be paid for Coventry.
• Working arrangements: Suppliers will deploy resources at short notice working with departments and their arms length bodies to deliver discovery or development outcomes. The majority of work will be based on customer sites as well as remotely - the sites and working arrangements for a particular project will be specified in a Statement of Work. ; ; We anticipate a maximum of 5-8 concurrent Statements of Work
• Security clearance: Resources are likely to be required to be security cleared. Most projects will require BPSS and smaller number SC/or above. If not held, resources must meet the criteria and go through the process at the cost of the Supplier. GDS is willing to sponsor supplier staff through the clearance process.

Additional information

• Additional terms and conditions: All expenses must be pre-agreed with between the parties and must comply with the Cabinet Office (CO) Travel and Subsistence (T&S) Policy.; ; All vendors are obliged to provide sufficient guarantees to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures so that the processing meets the requirements of GDPR and ensures the protection of the rights of data subjects. For further information please see the Information Commissioner's Office website:https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/

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:
  • In your own words what are the key considerations for delivering on a capability and capacity contract such as this?
  • How do you allocate resources based on uncertain demand? Describe you business model/how do you resource teams
  • How do you ensure compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other policies and procedures when delivering an outcome?
  • Evidence how your organisation look to deliver value-add above delivering an outcome?
  • Describe your approach to maintaining standards whilst delivering at pace
  • Describe your approach to working with GDS on this contract and how you'd look to engage with Government Departments to understand outcomes and deliverables.
  • What challenges have you faced when needing to delivery within tight time constraints; How did you overcome these challenges?
• Nice-to-have skills and experience: How does your organisation look to nurture and evidence social value?

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 5
• Proposal criteria:
  • Your approach to rapidly deploying a team
  • Your approach to deploying multiple teams at once
  • Your approach to building multi-disciplinary teams
  • Your approach to sourcing security cleared staff, and your approach to getting staff security clearance
  • Your understanding of the Digital Service Standard and Government Design Principles
  • Your approach to deploying blended resource across established DDaT teams
  • Your ability to evidence where value has been added to projects you have worked on
  • Your approach to managing conflict resolution (resources, stakeholders)
  • Your approach to managing Departmental expectations regards key skills/experience
  • Your approach to dealing with multiple stakeholders (skill and seniority) and managing expectations
  • Your approach to dealing with cross-department projects with collective outputs and blended delivery teams
  • Your approach to working at a national/regional level
  • Your approach to remote working
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Your approach to embedding a team quickly within organisations with differing cultures
  • Your approach to working with the public sector
  • Your approach to Data Protection compliance
  • Your approach to pastoral care of core or subcontractor resource
  • Your ability to align with public sector values
  • Your approach to social responsibility
  • User-centricity - How you champion the value of user research, user-centred design, and evidence-based decision making
  • Continuous Improvement - Reinforce a culture of continuous improvement and iteration in all teams
• Payment approach: Time and materials
• Additional assessment methods:
  • Case study
  • Work history
  • Presentation
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  65%

  Cultural fit

  15%

  Price

  20%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. What happened to Digital Marketplace requirement WP1942 - Digital Capability for Urgent DDaT Requirements?: This has been replaced by this requirement - WP1942 - Digital Capability for Urgent DDaT Requirements (2) due to material errors with the initial requirement.
• 2. When providing case studies and examples of work, do these need to have been within Public Sector, or, are examples in alternative sectors accepted too?: No, these can be transferable skills from alternative sectors.
• 3. Will this be awarded to one supplier who can supply all disciplines or are you open to bids from smaller suppliers who can supply a sub-set of disciplines?: We are open to consortium bids but one supplier will need to take the lead for the submission. Ultimately the winning supplier will have the capacity to deliver across the broad spectrum of capabilities described.
• 4. Will this be awarded to one supplier who can supply all disciplines or are you open to bids from smaller suppliers who can supply a sub-set of disciplines?: We are open to consortium bids but one supplier will need to take the lead for the submission. Ultimately the winning supplier will have the capacity to deliver across the broad spectrum of capabilities described.
• 5. Is this work outside of IR35?: GDS has determined that in respect of this Contract it is buying a managed services and therefore this Contract is outside the scope of IR35. However, the Client/Department shall be responsible for conducting its own IR35 status determination in respect of each of its Statements of Work and shall notify GDS of it’s determination prior to the commencement of Services relating to the relevant Statement of Work
• 6. Please advise who is the incumbent on this service?: Please follow the links to the previously published requirements for information on previous winning suppliers in this space.
• 7. Please advise who will be on the panel for assessing the bids?: TBC
• 8. Is there a day rate cap?: Day rates are scored in the 2nd phase of this procurement but there is no cap other than the standard minimum / maximum rates on the overarching DOS framework.
• 9. At the proposal stage, in order to compare suppliers like for like, how will price be evaluated: will you be evaluating by the total price, rate card or both? How do you ensure that you are completing a genuine value for money comparison rather than just a rate card comparison?: Whilst we assess a rate card this only constitutes 20% of the overall marking. We further assess suppliers in the 2nd phase on how they look to add both value for money and wider social value in their delivery model.
• 10. Will the scores from the evidencing round be taken through to final evaluation? Or will they only be used for the purposes of shortlisting suppliers?: No, we will not carry scores forward
• 11. For the first evaluation round (evidence), what would you expect to see from an answer for it to be deemed ‘exceeding’ and score 3 marks?: To exceed we are looking for suppliers to articulate or evidence how they will look to or have delivered above and beyond a required outcome. ; We will score submissions 0 to 5.
• 12. Do you have any preference between public sector or private sector examples? Or will both be treated equally as long as they are relevant to the question?: No, these can be transferable skills/experience from alternative sectors.
• 13. Do you have any preference between public sector or private sector examples? Or will both be treated equally as long as they are relevant to the question?: No, these can be transferable skills/experience from alternative sectors.
• 14. Is it permissible to provide more than one example where required to fully address the question?: Yes so long as the answer is kept within the 100 word limit
• 15. Please can you share a procurement timetable outlining steps from receipt of initial submissions by midnight 11th May to work commencement on 19th July (typically including evidence response evaluation, shortlisting/informing suppliers, preparation of supplier proposals, evaluation of supplier proposals, announcement of successful supplier, contract completion, contract signatures, commence work)?: Wednesday 26 May - Notification of successful/unsuccessful progression to Evaluation stage; Friday 4 June - Supplier submission of written/pre-recorded evaluation material.; Monday 14 to Friday 18 June - Live presentations/Q&A; 21 June - Notify shortlisted suppliers of winning supplier.; 21 June - 1 July - Standstill period; 2 July - Award of contract; 12 July - Latest start date
• 16. Which roles will be represented on the evaluation panel?: TBC
• 17. Will GDS sponsor SC clearance where appropriately skilled staff do not yet have it?: The nature of these contracts is to deliver within 10 working days of a SOW being delivered. This therefore makes retrospective SC clearance challenging
• 18. Would you prefer responses were in STAR format, or are some responses more about directly responding to what we’d do for GDS, rather than evidencing where we’ve done it in the past?: Suppliers are encouraged to provide structured responses. The content of your responses will ultimately decide your scores.
• 19. Can you please confirm the ‘key considerations’ eg: Are you looking to understand how we’d manage the relationship with GDS, or is this more about how we’d build capacity to meet demand?: We are interested to see your unique individual response to this requirement. "In your own words"
• 20. How many SoW can the winning supplier expect to receive over the course of the 24 months period?: As the underlying anchor for these contracts is "urgent requirements," there is no pipeline and hence demand is largely undetermined
• 21. What proportion of SC requirements do you expect within this contract?: 10-20%

The deadline for asking questions about this opportunity was Tuesday 4 May 2021.