This opportunity is closed for applications

The deadline was Friday 15 July 2022

Crown Commercial Service

CCZN22A14 – Spend data service discovery

9 Incomplete applications

8 SME, 1 large

56 Completed applications

45 SME, 11 large

• Published: Friday 1 July 2022
• Deadline for asking questions: Friday 8 July 2022 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Friday 15 July 2022 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Off-payroll (IR35) determination: Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply
• Summary of the work: CCS require a team to complete discovery for a spend data service for the public sector
• Latest start date: Wednesday 31 August 2022
• Expected contract length: 6 weeks
• Location: No specific location, for example they can work remotely
• Organisation the work is for: Crown Commercial Service
• Budget range: £150000

About the work

• Why the work is being done: The Spend Data service is intended to allow users from across the public sector to submit their spend data so it can be collated in one place and categorised using common definitions so the data can be reused in other services and made available to users across the public sector and the public.
• Problem to be solved: Currently, public sector spend data is published across many websites, in many formats, using many methods of categorisation.; This makes it difficult for public sector organisations to publish spend data and for those who want to use the data to obtain and analyse it. ; As a result, public sector bodies are unable to compare their spending profiles with other bodies to assess value.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: As a service user, I need to submit my spend data so it is appropriately categorised and published.; As a public sector body, I need to be able to compare my spend profile against other organisation to compare value.; As CCS, I need to access this data to analyse, reuse and publish it so that I can make data available to the public sector and the public and refine my strategy to better support the public sector.
• Existing team: The existing team consists of a service owner
• Current phase: Not started

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: Crown Commercial Service, 10 South Colonnade; London E14 4PU
• Working arrangements: The supplier staff are able to work remotely, with travel to the Crown Commercial Service offices in London as required for workshops and so on.
• Security clearance: All must have BPSS as a minimum.

Additional information

• Additional terms and conditions: Rates submitted must be inclusive of expenses but exclusive of VAT

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:
  • Demonstrable expertise in prototyping, designing and building services meeting user needs and GOV.UK guidelines for content design, service design and accessibility. Provide details of your experience.
  • Demonstrate your team's experience of conducting discovery, including how you conduct user research and your methodologies, in accordance with GDS/CDDO and GOV.UK standards.
  • Demonstrate experience in building a strong understanding of technological constraints, existing contracts, legislation and other existing processes within the context of the Authority’s requirement.

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 5
• Proposal criteria: Describe how you gather requirements, identify options and assess them while conducting discovery for a digital service .
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Describe how you have provided clear communications; detailed work undertaken and mitigated blockages to achieve customer aims within the context of a similar scope.
  • Demonstrate, how on previous projects you have challenged your customer organisation’s assumptions and required outputs and offered alternatives in a constructive manner.
• Payment approach: Capped time and materials
• Additional assessment methods:
  • Case study
  • Presentation
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  65%

  Cultural fit

  15%

  Price

  20%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Has any external supplier been involved in any capacity leading up to this planned Discovery phase?: No there has not been any external supplier involved in any capacity leading up to this phase.
• 2. Can I seek clarification on the meaning of public sector within this request please? What does the definition include? e.g. Is it Central Government, and all their associated agencies, Local Government, Public Health Services, Education establishments and so on. Therefore, what would you estimate to be the number of stakeholders associated with this project nationwide and their distribution within these sectors?: We intend to make this service available to all parts of the UK public sector, so we would work with the appointed supplier to select a representative and proportionate sample of potential users for this discovery stage.
• 3. What do you mean by ‘within the context of the Authority’s requirement’ – are you looking for suppliers specifically with experience in public procurement / public spend, or wider discovery experience, or something else?: This is about experience of completing discoveries, not necessarily related to the specific business area this opportunity sits in.
• 4. Given the significant breadth of potential stakeholders, and the high volume of existing data sources, six weeks is a short time period for this discovery to fully understand user needs and today’s landscape, and map out potential options for the future. Are you open to extending discovery timelines?: We think the budget we have available for this opportunity should allow for an appropriate discovery phase to be conducted, but we are not necessarily wedded to the timeframe, if there are good reasons to amend it.
• 5. Can you please clarify what you mean by “existing contracts, legislation and other existing processes”? do you want to know about suppliers’ experience in dealing with similar contracts from the governance/legal/management point of view?: We're looking for evidence here of suppliers completing discoveries and taking into account contractual, legal, technical and other constraints.
• 6. Are there any specific themes or examples you’d like to see within suppliers’ responses?: One example please, given the low word limit.
• 7. Within our individual 100-word responses, would you like to see one, more detailed example or multiple examples with less detail?: One example please, given the low word limit.
• 8. Are there any specific themes or examples you’d like to see within suppliers’ responses?: We don't have a prescriptive list of themes or examples in mind, but examples that are relevant to the context described in the opportunity would be ideal.
• 9. Can you provide a procurement schedule for this opportunity?: Once the requirement on the digital marketplace has ended, interested parties will be invited to tender. The aim for the contract to be awarded is 30th August although the procurement schedule currently has not been agreed so dates are subject to change.
• 10. Please can you confirm if suppliers can include multiple examples in their response to each question?: Yes although please take into account the limited word count.
• 11. Are there any existing user groups / communities which reflect the (or part of) the user base.: Yes, there is a central government user group.
• 12. Are any of the users (either data providers or consumers based overseas / users of english as a second language / non english speakers.: No.
• 13. Are there any constraints on any part of the work being performed offshore?: Some existing data is commercial sensitive and some personal data may be used, in which case CCS policies will apply and may limit some aspects of the work being performed offshore.
• 14. Are protoypes required to be fully functional, or service design focused, or technical functionality (eg security / authentication / scaleability)?: No
• 15. Are there any platform limitations?: No
• 16. Is there a CCS required / preferred hosting solution?: No
• 17. Are there a current set of spend data categories which will be carried forward, or are these expected to be defined by the discovery?: Yes, they are available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/987885/Procurement_CAS_Definition_Release_9_v1__2_.pdf
• 18. Is there a defined standard format for the publishing of data or is this to be defined by the discovery?: This is to be defined
• 19. Is it anticipated that the solution will provide the ability for secure analysis, constraining the data, or is it anticipated that the appropriately cleared users will be able to download the data for offline analysis. Or is it expected that this need will be researched during the discovery?: This will be researched during discovery but the main aim of this discovery is to look at submission rather than publication
• 20. Can Graphics of previous work be used during the submission process?: If the platform allows then yes.
• 21. In the discovery phase is the value in knowing a lot about a smaller selection of users, or less about all types of users?: This can be determined early on in discovery
• 22. Is the adoption of OCDS in scope for the proposed Spend Data service?: We would want data that is collected to be mappable to OCDS yes
• 23. What timelines are being considered for making the Spend Data service available to the public and private sectors?: These are to be confirmed - this discovery is just about collecting data and storing it.
• 24. Will the publication of spend data by public sector users be mandated as part of this approach?: This is a commercial policy decision which sits outside this project.
• 25. Is the expectation that spend data will be published via existing services such as Find a Tender or Contracts Finder or via an alternative platform?: This is to be determined - this discovery is not looking at publication, only data submission.
• 26. Is there an expectation that the service will collate spend data not published directly through the proposed service by authorities?: Our hypothesis at this stage is that this service could collect data and potentially aggregate it for publication externally.
• 27. What is the threshold value of spend data anticipated to be included within the proposed Spend Data service?: This is to be determined by commercial policy.
• 28. Does the scope for this project consider legacy, published spend data or new spend data?: The collection service would only look at new data - data migration is not in scope.
• 29. Following submission of stage 1 responses on 15th July, please could you share an indicative procurement timeline for the proposal stage, presentations and contract award notification?: Please refer to question 9.
• 30. Is there a pressing time commitment that necessitates the discovery be completed within 6 weeks, or are you content for suppliers to propose a slightly longer duration as long as it is within budget? Running the Discovery over a slightly longer period would enable greater flexibility for engaging with key users and stakeholders and more time for validating and consolidating findings.: Due to contractual commitments with existing services, we would prefer to complete discovery within the 6-week timeframe specified, but we will consider longer timeframes.
• 31. Are Crown Commercial Service content to arrange access to users and stakeholders for the purposes of user research?: Yes, we will support this to the best of our ability.
• 32. How will price be assessed (e.g. price for delivery, rate card, combination of both): The price for delivery is what we are most interested here.
• 33. Would you prefer suppliers submit one example per question or are you content with multiple examples?: That is up to suppliers, whatever you feel would best showcase your suitability within the word limits.
• 34. Please can you confirm if Stage 1 scores will be included as part of the stage 2 evaluation?: Yes they will be included as part of stage 2 to provide an overall score.
• 35. Given that the Stage 1 response is comprised of only 3 questions and the advert states you intend to shortlist 5 suppliers to Stage 2, please can you provide further detail regarding what criteria you will use to “...score a 3-exceeds marks”?: Stage 1 scores will be combined with stage 2 scores to provide an overall score. The criteria to score 3-exceeds will be from the panels evaluation based on the evaluation criteria laid out in the requirement and they will come to a consensus on the responses.