Imperial NHS Foundation Trust

Injectable medicine guide website

17 Incomplete applications

16 SME, 1 large

2 Completed applications

2 SME, 0 large

• Published: Monday 13 June 2022
• Deadline for asking questions: Monday 20 June 2022 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Monday 27 June 2022 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Off-payroll (IR35) determination: Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply
• Summary of the work: The successful provider will become the strategic digital partner for the NHS Injectable Medicines Guide (IMG). The digital partner will provide hosting and support for the existing IMG software, redevelop the existing software in phases and then provide hosting, support, maintenance and continued development on the new software.
• Latest start date: Saturday 1 October 2022
• Expected contract length: 24 months
• Location: No specific location, for example they can work remotely
• Organisation the work is for: Imperial NHS Foundation Trust
• Budget range: up to £350,000 for all deliverables over the life of the contract

About the work

• Why the work is being done: Full handover from existing supplier must take place by September 2022; ; Phase 1 - User facing aspects of the website - May 2023; ; Phase 2 – Organisation author facing aspects of the website -Jan 2024; ; Phase 3 – Central authoring aspects of the website - September 24; ; Our existing IT partner is an IT provider within the NHS who can no longer support this work and we are moving to take advantage of the strengths that a commercial IT partner can bring.; ; The IMG is looking for a new strategic digital partner to:; ; • maintain our existing suite of digital products and services; ; • work with Imperial throughout all stages of the development cycle to redevelop our digital offering (both the website and a mobile device app).
• Problem to be solved: The two major problems to be solved are:; ; · To move the existing website and database to new host so we can exit from the existing IT supplier; ; · To re-write the website in a new technology as the existing software is written in an old technology; ; The work is spread across two domains: hosting and support of the existing website and the development of replacement software. In addition, there is an option to develop a mobile device version of the website.; ; The provider would be expected to:; ; • host and support the existing software and database and other products (mainly email) ; ; • redevelop the existing website and refresh the database and provide the hosting, support, maintenance and development of the new software. We envisage this redevelopment taking place in a number of phases to run alongside the existing software.; ; • In addition, there is an option to develop a mobile device version of the website. We envisage this app downloading the information from the website, holding the information on the mobile device and displaying the monographs to the user.; ; The provider is not asked to maintain the existing website and database; this will be undertaken by the existing staff.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: System users are of three types: end-users; the individual authors and main contacts in Trusts and other organisation with extended functionality and the small central authoring and admin team.; ; End-users; ; The primary end-users of IMG’s services are healthcare professionals (as opposed to patients directly). The main users are nurses and other healthcare professionals who prepare and administer injectable medicines. Other healthcare professionals particularly medicine prescribers and pharmacists access the information.; ; Most UK NHS Trusts have access to the IMG but also a number of hospitals in the Republic of Ireland. Private hospitals and some other healthcare organisations have access and also by special arrangement with some hospitals, humanitarian aid charities and pharmacy organisations overseas. The IMG is provided free of charge to hospices and manufacturers so they can comment on monographs for drugs they supply.; ; Authors and main contacts in organisations; ; The authors and main contacts use the editing facilities within the website to create and edit content that is specific to their organisation. They have access to a progress table page that summarises all the information relevant to their Trusts.; ; The IMG central team use the editing facilities
• Existing team: Existing team; ; IMG has a dedicated digital team of 1 part-time product specialist and developer who developed the existing software. The product specialist is technical and can act as a link point between the current and future supplier. The IMG staff also consists of a part-time coordinator, part-time managing pharmacist, part-time administrator and a small authoring / QA team.; ; The provider would also be expected to interact with other colleagues across IMG as appropriate and would need to interact with a broad range of healthcare professionals.
• Current phase: Not started

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: Work will be predominantly undertaken remotely.; ; If travel permits, there may be some attendance at workshops or other infrequent meetings at NHS offices (primarily in London). In addition, the NHS IMG team is spread across the UK and there may be occasional need to travel outside of London to meet individuals.; ; User testing may need to be undertaken in person at users’ NHS work locations across the UK in some instances, although the expectation would be for remote user testing in most instances.
• Working arrangements: See: Address where the work will take place
• Security clearance: N/A

Additional information

• Additional terms and conditions: n/a

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:
  • Recent experience of taking over the hosting, support, maintenance and development of a website developed by another supplier
  • Recent experience of hosting a website and managing the infrastructure to ensure sub-second response speeds and 24/7 uptime with appropriate contingency (backups / restores).
  • Recent experience of supporting a website and managing the calls and incidents to ensure that users’ problems are resolved in a timely manner.
  • Recent experience of maintaining a website and managing the change requests to ensure that users’ requests are implemented in a timely manner
  • Recent experience of working with ASP and Visual Basic, Microsoft SQL Server and front-end JavaScript technologies and CSS style sheets and the existing technology stack.
  • Recent experience of working with a suitable replacement technology for ASP and Visual Basic.
  • Recent experience of developing a complex website using an existing website and documentation as the basis for the replacement website.
  • Recent experience in staging development, from prototyping through to production release
  • Recent experience in UX, UI and interaction design services that meet accessibility legislation and best practice guidance
  • If including the option to produce the mobile-device app, recent experience (within 3 years) of producing such an app and the technologies used to do so.
  • Recent experience (within 3 years) of working within environments with complex hierarchal decision-making structures and where multiple stakeholders have differing levels of digital awareness.
  • Providers must demonstrate commitment to Sustainability and Social Value to be considered for this opportunity
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Recent experience (within 3 years) of working across stakeholders including healthcare experts, healthcare providers, digital development teams and NHS professionals.
  • Recent experience (within 3 years) of working in the medicines landscape.
  • Recent experience (within 3 years) of working with interdisciplinary and cross disciplinarily project teams including clinical and policy teams.

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 7
• Proposal criteria:
  • Case Study
  • Past Work
  • Presentation
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Recent experience (within 3 years) of working across stakeholders including healthcare experts, healthcare providers, digital development teams and NHS professionals.
  • Recent experience (within 3 years) of working in the medicines landscape.
  • Recent experience (within 3 years) of working with interdisciplinary and cross disciplinarily project teams including clinical and policy teams.
• Payment approach: Fixed price
• 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 you explain a little more about the products needing supporting. You reference email and the databases. Can you say more about what they are built on and size of email accounts to be supported.: The products and services currently include:; ; A production website and a development environment.; ; A shared directory hosting documents that are linked to from the website.; ; The existing website is in Visual Basic within Classic ASP; ; The existing database is Microsoft SQL Server; ; A variety of front-end tools including: ckeditor and fckeditor, client-side javascript and CSS modules; ; Developed Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server; ; The website is via Microsoft IIS; ; Email is sent via an SMTP email server; ; The website is hosted in our core servers and in the Cloud running Windows and IIS. The current IT suppliers provide SMTP mail
• 2. Can you provide access to the current website that this project is to support and ultimately replace?: The website is at https://injmed.wales.nhs.uk; ; Username: ivgdemo; ; Password: bolus7; ; This provides a sample of about 9 monographs, access to the Documents and links page where the User guides (Use documents under Adult - Introduction (IV) , Paediatric - Introduction (IV), Introduction (IM) and Introduction (Ocular)), website stats (under IMG national statistics) and full procurement requirements can be found.
• 3. Will additional remuneration be for hosting, support, and maintenance or do we need to consider this in the proposal?: Budget stated is for all elements
• 4. Do you have a list of must-have or good-to-have features or requirements for the website?’: Further information can be found in the full procurement requirements document and the website statistics which can be downloaded from the website using the credentials already given in a previous answer.; ; The website is at https://injmed.wales.nhs.uk; ; Username: ivgdemo; ; Password: bolus7; ; This provides a sample of about 9 monographs, access to the Documents and links page where the User guides (Use documents under Adult - Introduction (IV) , Paediatric - Introduction (IV), Introduction (IM) and Introduction (Ocular)), website stats (under IMG national statistics) and full procurement requirements can be found.
• 5. Could you please help us to identify the current database, i.e, MSSQL, Oracle, etc.,? Would you need to store any information in the db?: The current website data base is Microsoft SQL Server. The monograph editing is via the website and this is stored in the database.; ; For the mobile app option, the database is for the supplier to select a suitable database. The app will need to store the downloaded monographs in the database but there is no requirement to collect data on the app except data required to run the app and maybe usage stats.; ; Further information can be found in the full procurement requirements document which can be downloaded from the website using the credentials already given in a previous answer
• 6. Why have you marked the mobile app component as optional? For example, do you imagine that it will not be well used, or do you imagine that a web-only version could be sufficient: The current website has no mobile app, we seek to understand what innovative solutions will be presented that could incorporate a mobile app development into the initial project,; ; if suppliers are unable to present a mobile app development in parallel with the website rebuild then we will consider each tender on the net benefit that could be delivered.
• 7. When you ask for experience of working in the medicines landscape do you mean experience of working with medicines data, or experience of, for example, the regulatory requirements around medicine approval?: Working with medicines data, e.g. NHS dictionary of medicines and devices (dm+d)

The deadline for asking questions about this opportunity was Monday 20 June 2022.