Awarded to BAE Systems Applied Intelligence Limited

Start date: Thursday 14 July 2022
Value: £2,000,000
Company size: large

Homeland Security, Home Office

Internet Connection Records (ICR) Technical Migration

8 Incomplete applications

8 SME, 0 large

14 Completed applications

8 SME, 6 large

• Published: Thursday 12 May 2022
• Deadline for asking questions: Thursday 19 May 2022 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Thursday 26 May 2022 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Off-payroll (IR35) determination: Supply of resource: the off-payroll rules will apply to any workers engaged through a qualifying intermediary, such as their own limited company
• Summary of the work: The National Communications Data Service (NCDS) are looking for a Technical Migration team for the transition and build of a Filtering Arrangement and Results Platform as part of the National ICR Service capability, and in support of the Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) community.
• Latest start date: Monday 4 July 2022
• Expected contract length: Approx. 6 month initial SOW, 24 month maximum contract duration
• Location: London
• Organisation the work is for: Homeland Security, Home Office
• Budget range: We have a budget range of between £500,000 to £2,000,000 for this project, dependent on the length of time the Migration Team is required for, and whether any additional roles are required or the team is required to expand. ; Please note that the Home Office Optimus Rate Card applies to this opportunity.

About the work

• Why the work is being done: Under the provisions of the Investigatory Powers (IP) Act, it is now possible for the Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) community to lawfully obtain Internet Connection Records (ICR) in support of their investigations. Following the completion of some initial trial activities, work is now underway to provision a national ICR service. As part of this national service, a central Filtering Arrangement and Results Platform is required, which will be hosted in our NCDS AWS Environment. ; To ensure maximum reuse of the trial capabilities, work to evaluate which elements can be migrated to NCDS and which elements need to be rebuilt is ongoing and will be delivered by the existing wider ICR Team. The Technical Migration team (to be sourced under this Outcome) will be responsible for the technical implementation of the national service once this analysis has been completed. ; We are working in line with the expectation that a private Beta version of the Filtering Arrangement and Results Platform capability will be available for use against Telecom Operator (TO) data by the end of 2022.
• Problem to be solved: The current trial Filtering Arrangement and Results Platform capabilities are hosted in a TRACER (Threats and Risk Assessment, Capability Exploration and Research) environment and need to be migrated into NCDS, and are also not built to support a national service. ; ; Once the wider ICR Team have concluded their analysis of the trial capabilities, the Technical Migration team (to be sourced under this Outcome) will be responsible for: ; - Migrating those existing capabilities to be reused for the national service; - Rebuilding any other capabilities that are not being migrated, and ; - Building any additional capabilities as required.; ; To support the NCDS ICR Team to deliver this work, we have identified the need for a Technical Migration team (to be sourced under this Outcome) which we anticipate to include: Product Manager, Scrum Master, Lead Developer, Developer x 2, Dev Ops x 2, Security Architect.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: NCDS User of the existing wider ICR Team:; ; As an NCDS user, I need to build and offer a national ICR service to the LEAs giving them ability to request ICR data (as defined within the IP Act), so that I continue to deliver strategic Communications Data capabilities to the LEAs. ; ; LEA User of the National ICR Service:; ; As an LEA user, I need access to ICR data, so that I can use ICR data to support criminal investigations and identify where I may need to send requests for other data on other systems.
• Any work that’s already been done: There is existing capability for the Filtering Arrangement and Results Platform that was delivered by the trial led by TRACER. This will be the basis for at least part of the national service, and work is in progress to determine exactly which elements from the trial will be used and how. We expect this analysis to conclude imminently.; The Technical Migration team (to be sourced under this Outcome) will be responsible for the technical implementation of the national service once this analysis has been completed by the wider ICR Team.
• Existing team: The Technical Migration team will work within the existing NCDS ICR Team of both Civil Servants and Contractors, and consists of a Project Manager, a Business Architect, a Stakeholder/User Engagement Lead, a Business Analyst, an Engineering Lead/Enterprise Architect, Tech Assurance, a Solution Architect, an AWS Architect, and our Information Assurance team.
• Current phase: Not applicable

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: Base location is 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF.
• Working arrangements: Flexible/hybrid working with approximately 2 days a week for face-to-face team meetings at our base location or suitable alternative London location as required. The Supplier may work at their offices or at home, and are only required to attend our base location for face-to-face meetings as required and requested.
• Security clearance: SC is required for all members of the team. Given current timescales for receiving clearance, please consider proposing individuals with existing SC wherever possible. Please note, if individuals do not possess Home Office SC they will have to go through a Confirmation of Clearance process before they can start 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:
  • Please evidence your experience delivering mutli-component technical migrations of on-premise solutions to AWS Cloud
  • Please evidence your experience working on data focused - preferably Internet Protocol data focused or similar - projects or programmes
  • Please evidence your experience working with data processing, storage and visualisation technologies. Some of the technologies used in the current proof-of-concept in include Python, Elastic-Logtash-Kibana (ELK), Apache airflow etc.
  • Please evidence your experience supporting customers in developing and delivering product strategy in conjuction with a range of stakeholders with differing areas of focus or priority
  • Please evidence your experience supporting customers in developing and delivering product roadmaps in conjuction with a range of stakeholders with differing areas of focus or priority
  • Please evidence your experience working with CICD pipeline in deploying solutions to AWS using Jenkins (or similar technology)
  • Please evidence your experience building and delivering complex solutions using agile ways of working
  • Please evidence your experience building secure solutions in AWS that meet the technical security measures required to hold Official-Sensitive classified information.
  • Please evidence your experience supporting the transition of solutions to the support/sustainment arm of the business, including delivering knowledge transfer, making considerations for service design, and meeting service acceptance criteria
  • Please evidence your experience using Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
  • Experience developing solutions using with native AWS technologies, such as S3, RDS, Lambda, EC2, AWS API Gateway, VPCs, Route 53, Amazon Directory Service, CloudWatch, CloudTrail, DynamoDB, ECS, SNS, SQS etc.
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Please evidence your experience working on projects in the Law Enforcement space or an alternative sector with similar security and public focus considerations
  • Please evidence your experience working on projects in the Communications Data or Telecommunications sector or similar
  • Please evidence your experience working as a part of an interdisciplinary team consisting of Civil Servants and multiple Suppliers

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 3
• Proposal criteria:
  • Describe the proposed team structure and for each role include work history, clearance status, date they can start work, and where their expertise can support the project (35%)
  • Describe the proposed approach for the selection and onboarding of resources into the team, ensuring timescales are provided and clearance status is factored in (15%)
  • Team have skills in developing multi-component applications using languages such as JAVA,Python,etc, the referenced AWS technologies, skills working within agile ways-of-working and using appropriate tools&technologies including CICD pipelines,IaC,JIRA,Confluence (30%)
  • Long-term changes delivered to improve workplace conditions, utilising what’s been learned during COVID-19 recovery, to enable a more resilient and efficient workforce with increased support for the health and wellbeing-(10%)
  • Describe how you will deliver value for money for the Buyer across the contract term, such as free of charge resource, duration/volume based reduced margins, or alternative approaches (10%)
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Describe the approach you will use to share knowledge, skills and experience with our team of Civil Servants.
  • Describe how you will approach working on a project in its nascent stage, with requirements that may be subject to change
• Payment approach: Time and materials
• Additional assessment methods:
  • Work history
  • Presentation
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  70%

  Cultural fit

  10%

  Price

  20%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Off-payroll (IR35) determination - Clarification: Please note that the IR35 determination has not yet been signed off by our Tax Team and therefore may be subject to change.
• 2. Who from your team will be scoring applications for this opportunity and what positions do they hold?: Our evaluation panel consists of ICR Programme Director, ICR FA Project Manager, NCDS Platform Product Manager and NCDS Lead Engineer. Our NCDS Live Services Commercial Lead will be supporting throughout the process and will conduct price evaluation.
• 3. Who is the incumbent and how long they have been the incumbent?: ICR Technical Migration is a new requirement and there is no incumbent Supplier.
• 4. Can you please provide an anticipated timeline for this procurement that includes dates for: 1) Shortlisting Notification for Stage 2 2) Submission Deadline for Stage 2 3) Presentation 4) Evaluation period 5) Award Notification: 1) Wednesday 1st June 2022; 2) Monday 13th June 2022; 3) Tuesday 14th June 2022 (if required); 4) 13th June 2022 to 22nd June 2022; 5) 22nd June 2022; ; Please note that this is an indicative timeline and an update will be provided as we progress through each stage of the process. It is our intention to conduct an evaluation that is as efficient as possible, as we wish for the Supplier to start work as soon as possible.
• 5. Can you confirm if shortlisted suppliers will have the opportunity to present?: We have included the possibility of giving Suppliers the opportunity to present, but have not yet determined whether they will be required. We intend to make that decision as soon as possible, and in the event we identify the need for presentations, we will endeavour to ensure shortlisted Suppliers are provided with the necessary notice in order to prepare.
• 6. Has any external supplier been involved in the initial scoping work? If so, who?: Nil response. The scoping work was part of a project delivered by a separate organisation and we are unable to respond on their behalf.
• 7. Is the trial analysis being carried out by an inhouse team and/or another supplier? If another supplier is involved, who are they please?: The trial assessment is being carried out by client side resources with ethical walls between them and their parent organisations (of which there are a variety).
• 8. Can you please confirm the Optimus Rate Card maximum permitted rates?: Architecture roles: SFIA3 £740, SFIA4 £865; Delivery roles: SFIA3 £635, SFIA4 £855; Engineering roles: SFIA3 £605, SFIA4 £715; Product roles: SFIA3 £620, SFIA4 £740; ; It should be noted that the Home Office expects the majority of the services to priced at or below the target rates.; ; All rates mentioned exclude VAT.
• 9. Can you please confirm the Optimus Rate Card target rates?: Architecture roles: SFIA3 £585, SFIA4 £735; Delivery roles: SFIA3 £490, SFIA4 £685; Engineering roles: SFIA3 £440, SFIA4 £635; Product roles: SFIA3 £530, SFIA4 £665; ; It should be noted that the HO expects the majority of the services to priced at or below the target rates.; ; All rates mentioned exclude VAT.