Awarded to Cognizant Worldwide Limited

Start date: Wednesday 5 December 2018
Value: £150,000
Company size: large

Post Office Limited

Agent Portal / HGNT

6 Incomplete applications

3 SME, 3 large

15 Completed applications

7 SME, 8 large

• Published: Monday 20 August 2018
• Deadline for asking questions: Monday 27 August 2018 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Monday 3 September 2018 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Summary of the work: Post Office requires a supplier to lead on the UX/UI design on Digital Transformation Programmes, including a new b2b Agent Portal and retailer point of sale application.
• Latest start date: Monday 1 October 2018
• Expected contract length: Up to 2 years
• Location: London
• Organisation the work is for: Post Office Limited

About the work

• Why the work is being done: Post Office is seeking a supplier to provide the design capability for web and app journeys for new propositions as part of our retail digital transformation programmes. This will include designing the user experience (UX) for a portal used by our branch network and point of sale application, rolling out to c.11.5k branches across the UK. Work to start as soon as possible
• Problem to be solved: The transformation programmes involves 2 projects for our retail network. For Portal:; • We rely on manual, paper and telephone interactions with our agents to peform back-office functions (ordering cash/stock, comms, raising IT incidents); • Our Agent lifecycle is currently costly, time-intensive and a poor customer experience; HNGT:; • Customers are unable to purchase from a retailer and Post Office in one transaction; • Provides the first opportunity for Post Office to make its products and services available through third party access points; The goal is to see high adoption by end users and a frictionless transition to new processes
• Who the users are and what they need to do: Please note the below user stories are only for context/illustrative purposes, a maintained product backlog exists for both projects; • As a Postmaster I want a seemless digital experience to access back office functions digitally so that it is easier to run my Post Office; • As a Postmaster I want to manage my IT incidents online so that I can save time by self-serving and use that to serve more customers; • As a call centre operator I want digital self service alternative for Postmaster queries so that call volume and operating cost is reduced
• Early market engagement: For Agent portal 3 sprints have been completed to develop a proof of concept on accessing branch performance reports on the online portal with our deliery partner, testing the output with end users. We have also gained input from a UX agency who designed a 3 week tappable prototype.
• Any work that’s already been done: For Agent Portal a Hackathon with agent involvement fed a number of requirements into the backlog, helping priortise the focus for the 3 sprint proof of concept. We have a clear product roadmap for releasing a pilot MVP in Q3, including access to performance, IT service management and communications.; HNGT has worked with a number of users and is looking to do a small live pilot to a partner retailer in September.; Agent Portal likely to require more resource than HNGT, however, you must be able to demonstrate flexibility in scaling your team to enable us to deliver these products.
• Existing team: Our delivery partner are working with our internal solution architects to design the architecture in line with Post Office strategic ambitions of building an open source API cloud based platform. If selected, you would be working closely with our partner's development team, currently based in Seville for Agent Portal and London for HNGT, along with a range of Post Office stakeholders who are mainly London based.
• Current phase: Beta

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: Finsbury Dials, London. Travel to Chesterfield may sometimes be required.
• Working arrangements: The team will work with the selected supplier to outline a clear set of weekly deliverables along with longer term goals and give continuous feedback. Progress on activities will be monitored daily through a stand-up and end of day review, weekly through reporting and workshops when required to ensure UX design is incorporated into the user stories/technical requirements. The supplier will be expected to participate in the standard agile practices of sprint planning, retrospectives, demos etc.; ; You will be expected to document feedback from stakeholders, document RAID items as they are raised and user stories relating to the UX requirements

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:
  • Experience in using UX design best practices to design solutions, and a deep understanding of mobile-first and responsive design.
  • Have demonstratable experience of working within an agile environment and cross-functional teams
  • Ability to collaborate closely with UI Designers on Design Pattern Library and Style Guide definition.
  • Expertise in standard UX software such as Sketch, Axure and Marvel and a working knowledge of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript
  • Ability to iterate designs and solutions efficiently and intelligently
  • Rapid development of prototypes, informed by research and testing
  • Creating customer-centric design
  • Experienced users of Jira
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Previous experience working with an near/off-shore development team
  • Experience working on designing an internal/b2b website/portal
  • Previous experience working with a retailer client
  • Present engaging output to stakeholders at all levels and gain buy-in
  • Commitment to decisive delivery
  • Quickly learn and understand the project vision and detail along with end user needs
  • Evidence on working on a technically complex product development and how you help inform prioritisation of UX in a fast-paced sprint enivornment

How suppliers will be evaluated

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 3
• Proposal criteria:
  • Proposed technical solution
  • Proposed methodology and approach to the project
  • How the approachmeets the goals of the project
  • How the approach meets user needs
  • Ability to work to our timeframes
  • Proposed team structure
  • Value for money
  • How the supplier has identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Ability to be frank and honest, while also being diplomatic
  • Be able to work collaboratively with a range of internal and external stakeholders at all levels
  • Promote an environment of openess and knowledge sharing between the project team
  • Ability to be engage in complex technical issues and translate these to non-technical stakeholders
• Payment approach: Time and materials
• Assessment methods:
  • Written proposal
  • Case study
  • Work history
  • Reference
  • Presentation
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  50%

  Cultural fit

  15%

  Price

  35%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Can you confirm the procurement process?. We are assuming that you’ll down select to 3 suppliers based on the 100 word answers (which don’t include any pricing), and those down selected would be asked to submit a costed proposal.: As a supplier, you submit your responses. Then, as a buyer, we shortlist the 3 suppliers who:; • can start work when we need them to; • Costs will be taken into account at this stage; • meet all essential skills and experience; • provide the most nice-to-have skills and experience; • provide the highest-scoring evidence of their skills and experience; Following this, we will notify the suppliers who have been unsuccessful and those who have been successful. The successful suppliers will then be invited to:; • an interview and/or; • give a presentation and/or; • provide a written proposal
• 2. As stated in the opportunity details, this will be a T&M engagement. Is POL expecting a rate card for the proposed roles? Is POL expecting any specific details in the pricing proposal?: Yes suppliers must show their rate cards - which should be broken in to levels of seniority and rate card.
• 3. POL has specified the work location as 'Finsbury Dials, London' and that travel to Chesterfield may sometimes be required. Is POL also open to the option of the in scope services being provided from an offshore location? Does POL have a preference for any location?: POL prefers that there the team proposed by suppliers provides some on site presence at the Post Office for the majority of the working week, given the location of the core project team is London based. We would be open to review proposals that suggest some off/near-shore resources to supplement.
• 4. Does the design for the portal already exist or are you looking to create a UX/UI design for the portal from scratch?: We have a high-level view of what the products could look like and a common style-guide but we would be open to suggestions/recommendations from suppliers on enhancements.
• 5. In the summary of work you mention "Post Office requires a supplier to lead on the UX/UI design on Digital Transformation Programmes”. Will this person be required to lead a team of UX Designers, or will they be the sole UX Designer on a project?: The supplier is expect to propose their own capability to lead the UX across these products, we would expect this to be a team but also expect the supplier to use their expertise to recommend an appropriate team structure based on the scope.
• 6. Can you share any detail on the methodology, scale and output of the existing work undertaken for Discovery and Alpha?: We have worked with end users and business stakeholders to build the product backlogs, using agile methodologies. Agent Portal has completed a 3 sprint PoC, tested with users and is now in development for a release to c.300 branches. HNGT is in a similar position and is looking to go live to some retailers pre-Christmas.
• 7. Please could you give a breakdown of the project roadmap, including timelines and milestones?: Agent Portal has a clearly defined MVP of 3 epics – IT incident/service management, branch communications and branch performance. The next epic in January will be online cash ordering. HNGT is focusing on bill payment transactions, following this the focus is on Lottery (currently in discovery phase). Further details on these will be provided to suppliers at the next stage.
• 8. What is the current structure of A. The whole project team and B. More specifically – the Design, UI and UX teams?: Agent Portal project team – 1 senior product owner, 1 product owner, 2 BAs, 2 IT delivery, 1 scrum team (based in Seville), 1 UX designer, 3 SAs ; ; HNGT – 1 scrum team (London based), 1 product owner, programme manager, delivery lead, agile coach. Currently no UX designer.
• 9. Have you defined and documented persona's and user journeys as part of the work to inform this Beta phase?: we are in the process of defining and validating journeys for the MVPs of the project. Personas are still being defined.
• 10. Please could you describe any research work already completed directly with users?: for Agent Portal we started the project with a Hackathon with Postmasters to understand their needs a create an initial product backlog. Since then we’ve included these users in sprint demos and are now trying to get into a more regular cycle of user feedback. HNGT hold regular ‘voice of the agent’ sessions to include users/retailers in the development
• 11. Please could you give an outline of the budget for this opportunity?: This is a time and materials contract, please share your suggested team structure and rate card for these. Potential duration is up to 24 months.
• 12. • Can you please share the budget range for this opportunity?• Please outline the make-up of the current delivery team in terms of Post Office and partner resources?• What roles and capability do the near/offshore team provide?• Is there a Discovery report available to review?: T+M basis ; ; Agent Portal project team – 1 senior product owner, 1 product owner, 2 BAs, 2 IT delivery, 1 scrum team (based in Seville), 1 UX designer, 3 SAs ; ; HNGT – 1 scrum team (London based), 1 product owner, programme manager, delivery lead, agile coach. Currently no UX designer. ; ; Seville provide all the development capabilities. Everything else is provided by onshore teams.; ; There is no formal report but we can answer specific questions/share various insight documents with suppliers at the next stage
• 13. • Please share more detail with regards the branch portal and point of sale application – what services/experiences will they provide the internal and external users?: Agent Portal – the services in scope currently are management IT service incidents, receiving branch communication alerts, accessing branch performance reports. We want to provide a seamless, digital experience for our branches, we the portal being the hub.; HNGT – It provides a thin client Post Office retailer system which enables retailers to provide Post Office transactions on their tills. This means customers can purchase retailers goods/services and Post Office goods/services through a single transaction.
• 14. • Are you able to please share detail with regards the proof of concepts and ‘tappable’ prototypes already developed?: The proof of concept for Agent Portal was 3 x sprints that provided the Agent with access to Mails and branch performance reports. The prototype was a conceptual ‘art of the possible’ to demonstrate the functionality and experience of the portal
• 15. Could you please specify the budget for the Discovery and Alpha?: We are unable to share that information at this stage. Please provide rate cards, the project duration will be up to 24 months.
• 16. Would it be possible to share the product road map?: Agent Portal has a clearly defined MVP of 3 epics – IT incident/service management, branch communications and branch performance. The next epic in January will be online cash ordering. HNGT is focusing on bill payment transactions, following this the focus is on Lottery (currently in discovery phase). Further details on these will be provided to suppliers at the next stage.
• 17. Are there currently any incumbent suppliers and are you currently working with anyone else?: Yes, we are working predominantly with Fujitsu who are responsible for the code development and have solution architects working with Post Office architects. The nature of the projects means that they will touch various third parties in some way throughout the lifecycle.
• 18. As stated in the opportunity details, this will be a T&M engagement. Is POL expecting a rate card for the proposed roles? Is POL expecting any specific details in the pricing proposal?: Yes we are expecting a rate card and levels of seniority / skill against each rate card