Awarded to BT PLC

Start date: Monday 30 October 2017
Value: £199,907
Company size: large

DoF, DAERA, Public Health Agency (PHA) and potentially other Departments.

DoF - ESS - Social Web Project - Beta Phase

7 Incomplete applications

5 SME, 2 large

1 Completed application

0 SME, 1 large

• Published: Tuesday 19 September 2017
• Deadline for asking questions: Tuesday 26 September 2017 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Tuesday 3 October 2017 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Summary of the work: Manage, test and evaluate the prototype Drupal Social Web Platform and supporting social channels in Beta including platform support and development, brand development and quality content creation. Evaluate against objectives, test and refine editorial processes and policies. Develop and manage live campaigns, and evaluate and refine to further amplify success.
• Latest start date: Monday 23 October 2017
• Expected contract length: 12 months
• Location: Northern Ireland
• Organisation the work is for: DoF, DAERA, Public Health Agency (PHA) and potentially other Departments.
• Budget range: Maximum budget allowed is £200,000; (Any proposal must be inclusive of all travel and substance)

About the work

• Why the work is being done: The Northern Ireland 'Fresh Start' agreement and the OECD NI Governance report recommend better engagement with citizens, channel shift, and an amplification in the uptake of Citizen Services. ; DAERA has a target to ensure that 50% of all household waste in Northern Ireland is recycled by 2020. ; DoF, DAERA and PHA are keen for the social web system to be live from before the end of November 2017.The results and findings will provide valuable evidence of the potential of the platform. The test period will also identify and mitigate any risks or challenges to be addressed and refine governance.
• Problem to be solved: Citizens are not having the seamless, transparent, personalised and two-way experience with Government that they would expect to have when they seek information and services online. Today's Government websites are one-way and transactional, which is proving to be a very ineffective way to communicate with today's digital citizens. The digital platform/ solution being sought will aim to effectively communicate, promote and amplify uptake of Government services and information. It will drive behaviour change that will help meet Government objectives and benefit citizens; and it will enable formal and informal engagement online. i.e Channel shift and the resulting savings.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: As a member of the public I want to engage with government so my opinion can be heard. I want government to let me know about services and information on food waste recycling, dairy farming, pain management (and possibly 2 or 3 other Government policy areas) so that I can share this with others and take appropriate action. I will want to receive information that I need, when I need it and in a way it fits in with my life. I will want to use this information or take action that will make my life better.
• Early market engagement: The Programme for Government outcomes 1, 2, 4, 8 and 11 underpin these campaigns for food waste recycling, dairy farming and pain management. For food waste recycling, the key barriers are: perception that not enough food waste is produced to recycle; it is perceived as being too smelly and messy; some don’t see the point in it; and here are some barriers such as not having bin caddies or liners. Appealing particularly to the human-environment connection and consumers’ sense of personal responsibility towards dealing with climate change will influence their behaviour. In view of the dairy farming industry in Northern Ireland, there are approximately 3,000 active dairy farms. These would tend to be family owned and run, passing from generation to generation. Key aims are making a profit, complying with regulations and competing post-Brexit. ; In view of pain management, it is estimated that 1 in 5 or 400,000 people could be affected by long term pain in Northern Ireland. Long-term pain sufferers want to connect with other people living with pain in Northern Ireland. They want a ‘one-stop shop’ of information from trusted sources and peers on services, advice and resources.
• Any work that’s already been done: Discovery and Alpha have been completed resulting in a functioning prototype site or platform, as well as two campaign briefs and prioritised user stories for Dairy Farming and Food Waste Recycling. A third campaign brief and user stories for Pain Management are in progress. Alpha delivered (draft) policies, processes, a style guide/ quality standards, roles and responsibilities. All of these will be tested in Beta. Alpha did not deliver any social media channels. These will be created and tested in Beta. Alpha delivered a recommended brand, identity and guidelines. These will also be tested in the market in Beta.
• Existing team: The supplier will be expected to work with staff from various parts of NICS, including Staff from Digital Transformation Service, Public Sector Reform Division, subject area experts from DAERA, as well as technical staff from ESS and IT Assist, and potentially other Departments and stakeholders as the work progresses
• Current phase: Alpha

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: Belfast primarily, Goodwood House, 44-58 May Street; Belfast , BT1 4NN, but there will be a requirement also to attend meetings at Dundonald House, Clare House, Klondyke Building and potentially other buildings used by DOF, DAERA and HPA within Belfast.
• Working arrangements: Supplier staff will be required to work on site as part of a diverse project team reporting to a NICS member of staff. Working hours are between 9am-5pm Monday to Friday excluding Northern Ireland Public Holidays. All necessary additional costs such as flights, day to day travel, subsistence and accommodation costs to get to and from place of work must be included to establish total cost of engagement.
• Security clearance: Baseline Personnel Security Standard – Standard Disclosure

Additional information

• Additional terms and conditions: Any outputs will be considered to be the property of the Department of Finance.

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:
  • Two years’ experience in the last 3 years of strategic digital marketing and engagement skills and including analysis and evaluation (2.4%).
  • Two years’ experience in the last 3 years of developing high level campaign briefs for a diverse range of subject areas with a focus on delivering outcomes (2.4%).
  • Two years’ experience in the last 3 of developing and implementing digital marketing plans. These would include strategic communication approaches, user-focused messages, calendar activity plan and measurement techniques (2.4%).
  • Two years’ experience in the last 3 of establishing integrated communications plans across a range of digital channels to ensure that communication is ongoing, open, responsive and coordinated (2.4%).
  • Two years’ experience in the last 3 years of creating and delivering scheduled and ad hoc, high quality multimedia content that meets users’ needs, to brief and deadline (2.4%).
  • Two years’ experience in the last 3 years of providing high quality front end design services, including user-centred interaction design, service design and graphical content generation expertise (1.2%).
  • Two years’ experience in the last 3 years of brand definition, development and testing (1.2%).
  • Two years’ experience in the last 3 of designing, conducting and analysing user research using a range of techniques, for example one-to-one interviews, focus groups or usability tests (1.2%).
  • Experience of assisting organisations to become digitally self-reliant, through skills transfer and other relevant methods (1.2%).
  • Experience within the last 2 years of supporting a Drupal 8 digital platform, continually improving the service by identifying new tools and techniques, and updating, and maintaining code (1.2%).
  • Experience within the last 2 years of complying with UKGov standards, including to Accessibility, Security, Data Protection, user experience and responsive and adaptive application design. (1.2%).
  • Experience within the last 2 years of ensuring information is protected against unauthorised or unintended access, data destruction or disruption, minimising the chance of information systems security breaches (1.2%).
  • Experience within the last 2 years of preparing systems in readiness for proportionate accreditation processes (1.2%).
  • Experience within the last 2 years of breaking down complex problems, identifying solutions with in-house technical staff to develop infrastructure & support, identifying & reusing existing resources without duplication (1.2%).
  • Experience within the last 2 years of adapting and delivering projects that are under time and budget constraints (1.2%).
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • The Supplier must be registered on eTenders NI (https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps/home.do).
  • At least 1 project demonstrating experience within the last 2 years of delivering an innovative digital solution for one or more public sector organisations.
  • At least 1 project demonstrating experience within the last 2 years in delivering and managing a high profile digital marketing campaign for a public sector organisation.

How suppliers will be evaluated

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 10
• Proposal criteria:
  • Overview of the proposed solution that will meet the given requirements, including the budget, the start and completion dates (12%).
  • List of deliverables taking full consideration of the “essential skills and experience”, as well as the “Problem to be solved” (12%).
  • Detailed timeline, clearly outlining expected activities and outputs during project delivery (9.6%).
  • Defined roles and responsibilities of all those involved in the project (9.6%).
  • Outline of how value for money will be achieved for NICS (4.8%).
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Evidence of a committed friendly team focused on the work to be delivered; who are keen to adapt or identify innovative reusable quality solutions to problems. (3.2%).
  • Evidence of ability to communicate clearly with all those involved in the project, at all levels, understanding their priorities, whilst enabling the project to progress (2.4%).
  • Evidence of encouraging a collaborative approach and no-blame culture to problem-solving (2.4%).
• Payment approach: Capped time and materials
• Assessment methods:
  • Written proposal
  • Work history
  • Reference
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  72%

  Cultural fit

  8%

  Price

  20%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Re. Essential Criteria- • Experience within the last 2 years of supporting a Drupal 8 digital platform, continually improving the service by identifying new tools and techniques, and updating, and maintaining code (1.2%). Is this experience in supporting an existing drupal platform? Or can this experience be in developing and supporting a new drupal platform?: Our Client has an existing Drupal 8 platform, which in this part of the project needs to be supported and maintained. They require experience in supporting Drupal 8, so the platform continues to function. Some minor development of functionality may be required, but would not be expecting a platform to be developed from scratch. To clarify, our client require experience of supporting/maintaining any platform that has been built using Drupal 8, as well as the experience required to enhance its functionality if the need is identified.
• 2. The Framework and Call Off include provisions regarding Conflicts of Interest. We, and our sub-contractors, have been involved in the earlier phases of the Social Web Project and it is intended that the same personnel will be used for the Beta Phase. We are adhering to the procurement process and we do not believe there is an ethical wall arrangement that can be put in place other than our strict adherence to the procurement process. Please can you confirm that our approach is acceptable and will not constitute a conflict of interest under the Framework Agreement or Call Off Contract?: 1/2; 12.3 of the Framework Agreement ; Call-Off Contract states that “a conflict of interest may arise in situations including where a member of the Supplier Staff is providing, or has provided, Services to the Buyer for the discovery phase”.; ; In order for the contracting authority to remain compliant with the Framework Agreement Call-Off Contract, particularly 12.1 and 12.4, we must request that suppliers who identify a risk of a conflict or potential conflict prior to submitting a tender response, provide details as to what the perceived conflicts of interest are and what are their plans to mitigate the risk.
• 3. The Framework and Call Off include provisions regarding Conflicts of Interest. We, and our sub-contractors, have been involved in the earlier phases of the Social Web Project and it is intended that the same personnel will be used for the Beta Phase. We are adhering to the procurement process and we do not believe there is an ethical wall arrangement that can be put in place other than our strict adherence to the procurement process. Please can you confirm that our approach is acceptable and will not constitute a conflict of interest under the Framework Agreement or Call Off Contract?: 2/2; Once this information has been received, the contracting authority will be in a position to fully understand the conflict or potential conflict, and therefore be able to advise if the proposed mitigation arrangements are acceptable.