Awarded to Made Tech Ltd

Start date: Wednesday 1 September 2021
Value: £250,000
Company size: SME

Hackney Council

A team to improve document management capabilities and evaluate the opportunity for a products team

8 Incomplete applications

5 SME, 3 large

7 Completed applications

7 SME, 0 large

• Published: Saturday 26 June 2021
• Deadline for asking questions: Friday 2 July 2021 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Saturday 10 July 2021 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Off-payroll (IR35) determination: Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply
• Summary of the work: Create a team to improve our document management capabilities and evaluate the opportunity for a documents products team
• Latest start date: Monday 19 July 2021
• Expected contract length: 6-9 months
• Location: London
• Organisation the work is for: Hackney Council
• Budget range: This procurement is to the total value of £250,000 and we would expect

About the work

• Why the work is being done: Hackney has two main ways of managing documents and evidence from residents, where a line of business application doesn’t already have that capability: Civica’s w360 and a custom built document and evidence store. In addition, we use Google Workspaces to store records and typically utilise this where business processes:; Involve lower volumes of transactions; are less structured; Involve collaboration, sharing and editing of standalone documents; ; These documents may be delivered electronically directly from residents and agencies, and digitised by council officers, or created by council officers as part of processes involving other systems. ; ; As part of wider changes in the structure of IT, we want to explore the opportunity to develop a product team to support and continuously improve how we manage documents and evidence from residents. This scope may include both documents that form part of a case file managed primarily in another system, or case and topic files that are managed as series of documents. ; ; This aims to provide the capacity and expertise necessary to understand the user needs, identify the optimal technology solution to meet these needs and contribute to our understanding of how a multidisciplinary products team could work to meet these outcomes.
• Problem to be solved: The document evidence store is currently in public beta with an ambitious roadmap of further improvements which would support a number of additional use cases. ; ; We have recovered three legacy document stores from our cyberattack and these are currently operational in Civica’s w360 software. ; ; Google Workspaces is managed by our Corporate Knowledge and Information Management Team to ensure that colleagues have a clear understanding of security, data protection and retention requirements.; ; We do not have a multidisciplinary product team in place to support these tools and we have limited understanding of the detail of how a product team would best be organised to utilise and continuously improve a range of solutions to best meet user needs. ; ; If these solutions continue to be managed separately then it may be that we miss opportunities to improve outcomes for users and reduce cost.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: At a high level, there are common user needs for how residents submit and the council manages documents and evidence. These are set out in this document: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nyb3TEV2eKmDA73n3naZulb13uYS8YVMW6wxgKrz9MM/edit
• Any work that’s already been done: Information about the Document Evidence Store is available:; Document Evidence Service hub doc; ; Civica’s w360 is used for: a) documents submitted as part of council tax and benefits processes (documented: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Kq47OqBdtcxdaDlZ7_WLlZaBom-maXx5XIHb0xQvj1E/edit) b) storing tenancy agreements and correspondence relating to housing services management c) social care records. ; ; We have a high level brief for what we’re trying to learn through the creation of product teams: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12cy0zla4aQMUqYNWE0_vKFwEQvxdLMieGUgiP9gIUPg/edit
• Existing team: Hackney would expect to provide:; A records management expert with some practical experience of acting as a product owner; An associate user researcher; Supplier management skills; Stakeholder management skills; ; We anticipate that the agency will supplement the team with the following skills:; UX design; Front-end development (HTML, React); Back-end development ; Coaching support for the product owner
• Current phase: Live

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: Hackney Council offices in Mare Street, E8
• Working arrangements: This work can be done remotely but will require fortnightly reporting (eg via show & tells) to involve key stakeholders and regular engagement with practitioners through video conferences. We will provide access to key systems to project team members where required.

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:
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the user needs associated with the management of social housing
  • Demonstrate a track-record of user-centred design and Agile approaches to delivery
  • Experience of developing applications to meet a government Service Standard
  • Have experience of working with .NET core, Docker, AWS and Terraform
  • Have experience of developing ‘in the open’ - using tools such as Github
  • Have experience of designing and developing minimum viable solutions
  • Have experience of designing to meet the public sector accessibility guidelines
  • Demonstrate how they have worked collaboratively in a multi-vendor environment
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Demonstrate an understanding of Hackney’s approach to technology and data
  • Demonstrate how they provide opportunities for apprentices

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 5
• Proposal criteria:
  • Understanding of the brief
  • 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
  • Blended day rates of the team
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers
  • Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions
  • Share knowledge and experience with team members and the wider service
  • Hackney Council is a diverse organisation, reflecting the diversity of our borough. Describe how you would successfully work as a team with Hackney and other suppliers in a diverse environment.
• Payment approach: Time and materials
• Additional assessment methods: Presentation
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  60%

  Cultural fit

  5%

  Price

  35%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. We assume that resources can work from outside UK (offshore) also. Please confirm.: We believe that creating the team would benefit from a hybrid approach of predominantly remote working but with in-person collaboration to support team development and problem solving.
• 2. Is there an incumbent supplier, and if so whom?: No. Previous product development work was led by We are FutureGov but the contract has expired. We are re-assessing the market because the needs for the brief are different.