Awarded to Made Tech Ltd

Start date: Monday 6 September 2021
Value: £274,711
Company size: SME
City of Lincoln Council, Southwark Council and MHCLG

Housing Repairs online - Beta phase.

16 Incomplete applications

14 SME, 2 large

14 Completed applications

13 SME, 1 large

Important dates

Published
Tuesday 1 June 2021
Deadline for asking questions
Tuesday 8 June 2021 at 11:59pm GMT
Closing date for applications
Tuesday 15 June 2021 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

Off-payroll (IR35) determination
Summary of the work
The winning supplier will be required to provide a multi-disciplinary team to develop a user interface based on the common service pattern defined in Alpha, with an open API that can be utilised with incumbent scheduling software suppliers. This would allow facilitate diagnosis, booking and tracking of a repair online.
Latest start date
Monday 26 July 2021
Expected contract length
24-30 weeks
Location
No specific location, for example they can work remotely
Organisation the work is for
City of Lincoln Council, Southwark Council and MHCLG
Budget range
£275,000 managed through a statement of works based on project phases
with the possibility of further work subject to procurement rules.

About the work

Why the work is being done
Councils are responsible for providing repairs to socially rented properties. Most users access the service by phone, and it is typically the service with the highest volumes. Following the completion of an Alpha we are moving to Beta to create a reusable, accessible product.
In the Beta phase we will develop an end to end, working, open and reusable repairs booking service. Testing will be completed with a wide range of personas to ensure accessibility. A report concluding the financial and commercial impact to adoption will be prepared in addition to adoption guidelines and pipeline of authorities wanting to adopt the product.
Problem to be solved
The purpose of this project is to develop a reusable product that allows residents to diagnose, book and track a repair that can be adopted by the local government sector. The product should allow integration creating an open API to different scheduling systems that is open source, scalable and accessible. Integration to HMS systems and HACT should be considered throughout.

All phases should be tested with users and iterated as appropriate. Findings should be continually synthesized confirming common API options.

Phase 1
This phase will prove the assumption that; the main barrier to customers using current online repair services is the lack of functionality to pick a date/time. This phase will build the user interface with integration to scheduling systems (sandbox environment is sufficient) with a subset of approximately 50 SoR’s based on the common service pattern defined within Alpha.

Phase 2
Prove ease of replication with deployment at a partner authority. This should include options for expansion of SoR subset and iteration of any common service pattern changes identified in Phase 1.

Phase 3
Finalise common API layer and create adoption toolkit. Report concluding the financial and commercial impact to adoption in addition to adoption guidelines.
Who the users are and what they need to do
As a user of social housing repairs service I need to:

• report, book, update and track repairs at my convenience, so I that I can have the repairs issue solved at my convenience without having to chase the council.
• understand at the earliest opportunity the responsibility for the repair, so I know what I have to pay

As a repairs operative I need to know what I’m expected to fix, so that I arrive able to fix it.

As a contractor I need to receive job information so I can complete the work required.

As a housing repairs service owner I need technical and governance support, so that I can successfully implement the Housing Repairs Beta solution at my council.
Early market engagement
Some engagement has been done with incumbent suppliers, as specified in the technical alpha report (https://localdigital.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Repairs-Online_-Alpha-Report.pdf)
Existing team
You will be working with a project team consisting of members from the City of Lincoln and Southwark Council. The project will be supported by the Local Digital Collaboration Unit at the MHCLG.

The core team is:
Fraser Trickett – Product Owner (Lincoln)
Jyde Omotajo – Head of Digital Delivery (Southwark)
Wendy Banks – Senior Business Analyst (Lincoln)
Jem Bowen - Representative (THiSTLe)

We anticipate the chosen supplier needing to work with the representatives from HACT and other private sector organisations, such as incumbent suppliers to council housing repairs back office and scheduling systems in addition to wider audiences.
Current phase
Beta

Work setup

Address where the work will take place
COVID-19 restrictions are in place and work will be conducted remotely. Some travel to one or more of the partner council locations might be required towards the end of the project.
All associated expenses, including travel costs, should be included in your proposal and will not be reimbursed separately.
Working arrangements
An Agile project, following the principles outlined in the Local Digital Declaration and the GOV.UK Service Standard.
Working in 2 week long sprints, implementing regular Agile ceremonies, such as stand-ups, sprint planning sessions, retrospectives and any others deemed necessary by the project team. Project vision, plans and sprint priorities will be agreed and monitored by the project team and product owner.
We will use digital tools e.g. Trello/Google Docs/Office 365/Miro, whichs should be accessible by all partner authorities without chargeable licence requirements.
We will ‘work in the open’, ensuring other interested parties can follow our work and contribute as needed.
Security clearance
None

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
  • Provide a multidisciplinary team, including delivery manager, user researcher, content and service designer, data architect, tech architect, security expert, developer.
  • Technical experience of development and integration options
  • Deployment of product in live environment
  • Iterative design experience using Agile that is accessible
  • Experience of developing design patterns that can be re-used by organisations
  • Proven track-record of user-centred design and Agile approaches
  • Share their work freely and openly with the partner organisations and the wider community
  • Experience of communications campaigns that help build a community around the service and drive take-up of a product
Nice-to-have skills and experience
  • Have experience of working to the GOV.UK service manual
  • Have experience of working on a similar project with multiple partners
  • Have the ability to impart knowledge and skills to our in-house team during delivery of the project
  • Have additional resources available to call on to rescue delivery timelines should significant slippage occur

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

How many suppliers to evaluate
3
Proposal criteria
  • Demonstration of essential skills and experience criteria
  • Evidenced technical experience of accessible development and integration options
  • Understanding of user needs from the service
  • Clarity of the approach
  • Experience from a similar project
  • Team structure, including skills, experiences and relevance of individuals
  • Identification of risks and plan to mitigate them
  • Demonstrable experience of user testing; including accessibility
Cultural fit criteria
  • Work openly and have a commitment to open sourcing
  • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers
  • Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistake
  • Take responsibility for their work
  • Share knowledge and experience with other team members
  • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers
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. Can you confirm if there’s a current incumbent and are the suppliers of the Phase Alpha work able to bid for this.
We would expect the solution to work with all leading scheduling system software in the local government sector.
No suppliers are excluded from bidding for the project.
2. Does the IP for the provided solution remain with the supplier?
No - The Council shall own all reports, documents and all other intellectual property produced by the Supplier including all publication rights. The Supplier shall indemnify the Council against all costs and damages associated with infringements of intellectual property rights in relation to the Services provided by the Supplier.
3. Can one or two roles among the multidisciplinary team provided through contractors? i.e. not all required roles are in-house employees.
Contractors are allowed provided the costs are included in the quote and they are hired by the supplier
4. Are you considering a solution that is pre-built and delivers this solution for many customers in the public sector, that integrates which the leading repairs systems – rather than a custom built solution? The software IPR remain with the supplier, but the licensor can employ the software on a SAAS basis.
We are looking to produce a solution for which the IPR will belong to Lincoln Council and be made available to all other councils free of charge under Open Government License (or similar). Any already existing products would need to meet this condition and specify this in the proposals.
5. Are vendors outside of UK allowed to submit their proposal and will be evaluated on equal terms?
Any company currently registered on the Digital Marketplace is allowed to submit their proposal and will be evaluated on equal terms. We encourage companies based outside the UK to consider how they'll meet the potential need of meeting the project partners face to face and if there are any additional conditions they might be required to meet as a result of EU exit.
6. Which supplier conducted the alpha stage work for this project?
The original alpha stage was conducted by DXW Digital.
The technical alpha was conducted by Unboxed.
7. Which supplier conducted the discovery stage work for this project?
The discovery stage was conducted by OrangeMaple