Awarded to LA International Computer Consultants Limited

Start date: Monday 20 November 2017
Value: £83,246
Company size: large

Defence Equipment & Support ISN

Unified Comms Specialist

6 Incomplete applications

5 SME, 1 large

5 Completed applications

4 SME, 1 large

• Published: Wednesday 1 November 2017
• Deadline for asking questions: Friday 3 November 2017 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Wednesday 8 November 2017 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Specialist role: Technical Architect
• Summary of the work: Provide specialist IT skills within a System Design Authority for Information Systems and Networks (ISN) Delivery Team. The ISN remit is to deliver an exciting new IT capability based on Evergreen and Agile principles. Design and deliver specific services and technologies within a dynamic and specialist team.
• Latest start date: Monday 20 November 2017
• Expected contract length: Approximately 6 months with the option to extend.
• Location: South West England
• Organisation the work is for: Defence Equipment & Support ISN
• Maximum day rate: £778.00

About the work

• Who the specialist will work with: Working closely as part of the System Design Authority, alongside architects, system designers and business analysts. The specialist will also need to work with the Service Transition and Service operations team, and have engagement with procurement and project management functions.
• What the specialist will work on: Providing support to the System Design Authority; assisting service transition, continuous service improvement and change initiatives. Specific role responsibilities include Change Management: manage and evaluate change, maintain configuration control. Release and deployment management: manage system release and deployment events and record outcomes. Knowledge Management: Support capture, development and use of knowledgebase articles. Service Catalogue Management: Support other technical specialists in SCM. Service Level management: Contribute to and report on service levels for services and technologies alongside wider support team. Capacity Management: Monitor and forecast capacity demand Information Security Management: Work within and maintain appropriate security configuration.

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: Bristol, South West and Hereford, West Midlands
• Working arrangements: 5 days a week between 0830 - 1730. Fridays will be no earlier than 4pm finish. Regular work with technical specialists in support team, face to face meetings and workshops. Occasional meetings in other customer locations, travelling within the working day where possible.
• Security clearance: *IMPORTANT* Candidates must supply Current/Valid MOD assigned DV clearance which will be valid for the expected duration of the contract. This will require you to provide the Candidates full name and date of birth along with details of their clearance Prior to the deadline of this competition to giles.towers100@mod.gov.uk.

Additional information

• Additional terms and conditions: The Supplier undertakes to abide by the provisions of the Official Secrets Act 1911 to 1989 and Section 182 of the Finance Act 1989. In the event that the Supplier fails to comply with this Condition, the Buyer reserves the right to terminate this contract by giving notice in writing to the supplier. The Supplier will comply with DEFCON 659A along with the appropriate Security Aspects Letter. DEFCON 659A will be provided to applicants on request. The SAL will be provided to the successful Supplier.

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:
  • Significant experience with design, maintenance and operations of Lync 2010 & Skype for Business 2015
  • Significant experience with CISCO communications & collaboration systems (Desirable: CCIE Unified Communications)
  • Significant experience with Cisco IOS
  • Experience with Network Boundary Technologies & Session Border Controllers
  • Experience with Active Directory
  • Experience with Exchange 2013
  • Experience with Certificate Services
  • Experience with DNS/DHCP
  • Experience with Windows 10
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Experience with Windows 8.1
  • Experience with App-V

How suppliers will be evaluated

• How many specialists to evaluate: 3
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Work as a team with our organisation and other Suppliers
  • Transparent and collaborative when making decisions
  • Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes
• Assessment methods: Work history
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  70%

  Cultural fit

  5%

  Price

  25%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Is there an incumbent in this role?: There is currently a Unified Comms Specialist working with the SDA, however their contract will have expired before this task commences.
• 2. Which location will be the main place of business/Where will the majority of the work take place.: The majority of the work will take place in Hereford.
• 3. Will T&S be paid on a expenses basis or should be incorporated into the Day Rate?: For this contract anticipated travel should be incorporated into the proposed Day Rate.
• 4. Is this role deemed outside IR35?: IR35 will not apply to this engagement.
• 5. Would you be able to sponsor the Candidate through security clearance?: Although the MOD can sponsor Candidates for Clearance over the course of a longer tendering processes for a larger engagement due to; the fast paced nature of this competition, the short contract term, and the length of time required to secure appropriate clearance it would be disproportionate to do so in this case.
• 6. Can a Candidate be accepted who does not have active/current MOD DV clearance or has a clearance from a different source or at a different level be accepted?: It is essential to this requirement that the Candidate has active/current MOD provided DV clearance.
• 7. What is the anticipated turn around on applications?: Assuming a full work history is provided to giles.towers100@mod.gov.uk on or before the 8th November 2017 it is anticipated we will down-select and have completed evaluation by 15th November 2017.
• 8. Can the start date be altered?: No due to program pressures at this time the start date cannot be altered. If this changes over the course of this week a further response will be posted.
• 9. What other expenses will be paid?: No expenses beyond travel (commuting only) and subsistence will occur in this role, these should be incorporated into the proposed Day Rate.
• 10. What is the preferred format in which CV's/Work Histories are to be submitted?: Please submit all documents in either PDF or Word (.doc).
• 11. Is remote working possible in this role?: No the nature of this role requires the Candidate to be on site.
• 12. Is any travel in this role and if so will travel expenses be paid?: These is no travel in this role beyond commuting to one site or the other (with the majority of the work taking place in Hereford) and the cost of doing so should be incorporated into the Candidates proposed Day Rate.
• 13. Would you consider work permit holders (e.g. Tier 2 General Visa) and EU passport holders for this role?: Unfortunately that will not be possible with this requirement.
• 14. Is the rate inclusive or exclusive of VAT?: The proposed Day Rate is exclusive of VAT.