DFT - Digital Service Portfolio Delivery Partner 2022-24

Description

Summary of the work To provide challenge/support/insight and expertise, across all roles in a multidisciplinary team, to work within blended teams to deliver the outcomes/customer value, including: o Improved user experience o Empowered collaboration o Innovation culture o Data Driven Decisions o Excellent Service o Enhanced security For more information please see: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CbbnM3kwEDHM-5jP1EQMyKn3JpfbJyuH/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=111430753754160400781&rtpof=true&sd=true Expected Contract Length 24 months Latest start date Thursday 1 December 2022 Budget Range Minimum commitment to spend is £1m per annum. DfT can increase this up to £4m per annum if required. Why the Work is Being Done DfT’s Digital Service are looking for a supplier to support the delivery of their portfolio of work and the associated outcomes. The supplier will work as part of a blended supplier portfolio. They will support DfT’s delivery of improvements to transport users and policy makers, in line with the departmental plan. DfT’s strategic priorities are: • Grow and Level Up the Economy • Improving Transport for the User • Reduce Environmental Impacts • Increase our Global Impact • Be an Excellent Department All work will need to work within DfTc Technology Stack and guided by the DfTc Architecture Principles, standards and cloud strategy. *Please request copies of these documents to understand this alignment. Adherence to the following standards/governance is required: • Technology Code of Practise - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technology-code-of-practice/technology-code-of-practice • Service Standard – https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/service-standard • Accessibility Guide - https://accessibility.18f.gov/checklist/ Problem to Be Solved DfTc have a broad portfolio of Digital and Technology work and regularly support the delivery of urgent work to underpin the Governments response to emergencies/critical needs. The unplanned and often critical nature of demand require a supplier to work at pace to meet user needs, in line with wider Government Digital Service Standards and assurances. In order to meet new demand quickly, we often need to call on a partners skills, support, challenge and experience for a short time to deliver the outcomes of projects and the general portfolio. On other occasions, the supplier may be working to support the delivery of longer term outcomes on a strategic project, as part of a blended team. Who Are the Users The users of the digital services which we build include Citizens of UK and World, internal DfT staff, transport operators, data consuming/publishing organisations, Local Authorities and other Government Departments. All need to be able to use the service safely, to achieve their particular outcome, via the most efficient journey possible. Objectives of the projects and services are aligned to the DDaT priorities for Government. The portfolio is likely to change over the course of the partnership contract. We need to deliver the proposed outcomes from Digital products and services (delivered to the GDS Service Standard) and technology projects in line with the technology code of practice. Early Market Engagement No early market engagement undertaken. Work Already Done The agreed 2022/23 portfolio of 31 projects/services is being delivered by blended teams from multiple suppliers. The incumbent supplier has approx 25 resources delivering outcomes against 19 SoW. The successful supplier will be expected to support the delivery of these projects/services working closely with the DfT resources in those teams. The Digital Service portfolio of work is made up of 5 programmes; • Digital Services • Technology • Capability • Security and • Data The programmes also contain some business as usual. Alongside this is emergency and urgent work as well as a desire to continually promote DDaT good practice. Existing Team The Head of Digital Portfolio will ensure expectations/outcomes are clear in all SoW’s. The Deputy Director of digital delivery is accountable for delivery of the DS portfolio. Other key contacts include the Portfolio Office Manager/Head of Delivery/Delivery or Project Managers/Development Manager. DS are a team of 120 staff, spanning many different skills, practices and capabilities, working to deliver the portfolio, aligned to the DS Strategic blueprints/Technology Strategy. We work with several suppliers and lines of business in agile service teams, operational teams and traditional waterfall project teams. The supplier is expected to flex and work with these teams as required. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Demonstrable experience of delivering technology and digital services adhering to all standards and governance referenced in the, "Why the work is being done" section. • Demonstrate experience of delivering digital services as part of a blended team, passing GDS service assessments at discovery, alpha, private and public beta phases. • Demonstrate experience of working flexibly and at pace, across portfolio’s, delivering relevant skills/experience needed to best meet outcomes and user need. • Demonstrate experience of working in partnership to deliver outcomes, whilst building capability within the purchasing organisation. • Due to the time critical nature of this work, all staff working on live systems, must have SC clearance at the point of onboarding. • Please confirm if you can provide 20-40 roles, at any time, with short notice, to support DfTc Portfolio delivery, and flex quickly up and down as required. Nice to Haves • Experience of coaching teams/individuals with limited experience of agile methodologies. • Experience of delivering a service across different government organisations, for example both a central department and an arms length body. • Have demonstrable experience of working in a culture of continuous delivery and improvement. • Experience in scaling agile delivery from projects and programmes to the portfolio level. • Experience of drafting business cases in Government (or equivalent). • Experience of working with a PROSCI change management methodology. Work Location Work should be conducted at the supplier’s own site/ from home, or on-site at our offices (London, Hastings, Birmingham, Leeds or Swansea) as agreed for each statement of work with the SoW owner/manager. Main Office Address: Department for Transport, Great Minster House, Horseferry Road, Westminster, London, SW1P 4DR Working Arrangments The supplier will have regular portfolio/performance reviews with the Head of Digital Portfolio to discuss progress against delivering intended outcomes for each project and suggest/deliver interventions to ensure outcomes are delivered in time, at lowest cost, realising value for the customer. It is important to provide continuity of resources on any given SoW, for knowledge transfer/efficiency. Resources should not be rolled off, unless with agreement of the customer. Expenses will only be paid where there is prior agreement with the SoW owner and travel to sites required outside of expectations set. All expenses will be in line with DfT policy. Security Clearance For Discovery/Alpha, team members will need BPSS clearance as a minimum. Any team members accessing live data need to hold SC clearance. For Beta, some team members will need SC clearance. Evidence of clearance will be requested at proposal stage and must exist before access to accounts/systems can be provided. Additional T&Cs The SoW (contributions of the supplier to the delivery of the shared outcomes, within the blended team) will be agreed for each project/ project phase in conversation between the Head of Digital Portfolio, commissioner (usually DM, PM, PO) and the supplier. Any roles not captured in the pricing schedule can be discussed between the successful supplier and DfTc. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Describe how will you ensure DfTc is supplied with high-quality and appropriately skilled resources, including experienced developers, to compliment Digital Service resources, ensuring outcomes are delivered to benefit users. (15%) • Explain how you plan to retain key resources and how you can commit to meet DfT's continuous need for support delivering portfolio objectives. (5%) • Provide a range of sample CVs to demonstrate the typical resource quality that will be provided to meet the requirements. (10%) • Provide up to three referenceable Government-focussed case studies where your organisation has provided the desired service capability. Please included testimonies and contact details. (10%) Cultural Fit Criteria • Highlight your experience of working as a team with our organisation and other suppliers - 10% • Provide examples of your experience of transparent and collaborative decision making – 5% • Demonstrate your experience of supporting Departments to be ‘Better Everyday’ through sharing approach/knowledge/skills with other team members and with the department by example – 5% Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 40% Cultural fit 20% Price 40% Questions from Suppliers 1. Please supply copies of the Architecture Principles / Standards and Cloud Strategy. To request copies of these documents please email:Ollie.Hughes@dft.gov.uk 2. Who from your team will be scoring applications for this opportunity and what positions do they hold. The following team will be scoring applications:• Deputy Director Digital Delivery, Digital, Information and Security Directorate• Head of Architecture • Senior Project Manager • Head of Digital Delivery• Technical Delivery Lead 3. Can you confirm if shortlisted suppliers will have the opportunity to present? Yes shortlisted supplier will have an opportunity to present. 4. Has any external supplier been involved in the initial scoping work? If so, who? No supplier has been involved in scoping work. 5. You mention that “all work will need to work within DfTc Technology Stack and guided by the DfTc Architecture Principles, standards and cloud strategy”.And you added that bidders “please request copies of these documents to understand this alignment”.Can you please provide copies of these documents to all bidders; or confirm how/where we can obtain copies please? Documents can be requested from Ollie.Hughes@dft.gov.uk 6. Please could you let us know who the incumbent supplier mentioned is? The incumbent supplier is Level 5. 7. Would you be interested in a partner providing services in the area of Data Quality, through the use of its DQ tool and associated implementation services? Possibly, though this would be as part of an outcome we were commissioning and there is current SoW/outcome focussed on this alone. 8. Could you provide some indication of your preferred and/or existing tech stack please? DfT's existing tech stack for bespoke application development and transport data is the Google Cloud Platform and it’s tools. Our development language is .net core and python. In addition, DfT's architecture principles and standards provide details of the tech stack in dev, data and infrastructure.DfT are also investing in the MS Power Platform and Azure for internal, productivity style services and have some externally developed services hosted in AWS. 9. Can you please provide an anticipated timeline for this procurement that includes dates for: 1) Shortlisting Notification for Stage 2 2) Submission Deadline for Stage 2 3) Presentation 4) Evaluation period 5) Award Notification Indicative timeline:1) Shortlisting Notification for stage 2 - 17/18 Oct 222)Submission Deadline for Stage 2 - 01 Nov 223)Presentations - 8 & 9 Nov 224) Evaluation Period - 2/3 Nov 22 (Proposals) 9 Nov (final evaluation/moderation following presentations)5) Award notification - Week Commencing 10 Nov 10. As previous procurements are a matter of public record, and as per DOS guidance, could you please advise who the incumbent supplier(s) are, and / or provide a link to the original procurement(s). The incumber supplier is Level 5. 11. The notice for this opportunity invites us to request your documents relating to DfT Technology Stack and guided by the DfTc Architecture Principles, standards and cloud strategy.We look forward to receiving them from you. Documents must be request via email to Ollie.Hughes@dft.gov.uk 12. 1. Are DfT content to support supplier security clearance such that non List X organisations can bid for this work on a level playing field? Yes 13. To help bidders understand what a typical SOW is like, please could you share at a high level of few recent example scopes of work? DfT will provide examples of current/potential SoW’s at stage 2 of this procurement. 14. Based upon this statement “The agreed 2022/23 portfolio of 31 projects/services is being delivered by blended teams from multiple suppliers. The incumbent supplier has approx 25 resources delivering outcomes against 19 SoW.” does this suggest that a typical SOW is for one person? (With more than one person being a small proportion of SOW) This can vary depending on the nature and complexity of the work. This can range from one individual to a team, and may also change over time. It is important that the supplier can flex up and down in scale as required in order to deliver the outcomes sought. 15. For question “Demonstrate experience of delivering digital services as part of a blended team, passing GDS service assessments at discovery, alpha, private and public beta phases.”, is the inclusion of “discovery” in this list in error? As we understand it, there isn’t a formal discovery assessment? Yes, this is a mistake. There will be internal governance gateways at all stages, but service assessment at Discovery is not required 16. How will price be assessed? Will it be purely rate card based, or will you be seeking a price for an initial SOW as part of the assessment? DfT will provide a list of roles for suppliers to provide rates against and evaluate this list. There will be a facility to add other roles as required via the contract. 17. Are you content for suppliers to cite examples of their private sector work if they are relevant to the question being posed? Yes providing the examples are relevant to the question. 18. For question “Please confirm if you can provide 20-40 roles, at any time, with short notice, to support DfTc Portfolio delivery, and flex quickly up and down as required”, what is the typical notice period you would require? New SoW’s/demand can be urgent, with onboarding and delivery required in 2 weeks, whilst normally we can plan ahead and 4-6 weeks to onboard is acceptable. 19. How long is a typical SOW in duration? There is no typical duration for a SOW. This is dependent on the complexity of the outcome sought. 20. Can you please share the role details and approximate count across each technology? Also, can you please let us know expected timeline indicating short notice. Many roles provided to deliver outcomes are not technology specific. At present, the incumbent provides individuals with skills/experience in GCP and .net core and Power Platform. 21. We assume current landscape have these technologies GCP, AWS, Azure,.Net Core, Python, M365, Power Platform. Can you please confirm and share application count across these technologies? The focus of the portfolio support at present is on the GCP, Azure, .Net Core and Power Platform technologies. We will provide breakdown of applications as required to deliver particular SoW's. 22. Could you provide approximate ticket count for all above streams? If by tickets you are thinking of incidents reported by users, this is not relevant to this contract. This supplier will not be part of the support function managing our live services. 23. Could you share support professional count in current engagement? This supplier will not be part of the support function managing our live services. 24. Can you please share approx. current storage for your document storage system? This is not relevant to this opportunity. 25. What existing practices/structures/governance do you have in place to support a blended supplier portfolio approach? (i.e key working groups, steering groups, reporting lines)? Governance is overseen by Portfolio Delivery Group (Delivery meetings and demand meetings). Portfolio is structured in 5 programmes. Projects all have boards or steering groups/agile ceremonies. CoP's for professions/capabilities to share knowledge (all resources from all suppliers engage). Fortnightly portfolio and contract review sessions with incumbent. 26. When does the incumbent suppliers’ (Level 5) contract run to? 08/12/2022. 27. How many CVs would you expect to see at proposal phase? Between 3 and 5. 28. Do scores achieved within the PQQ element of this submission count towards final scoring for shortlisted suppliers? No, this used for short listing suppliers. 29. Some of the listed essential skills and experiences which we will be evaluated against are more suited to yes/no, short response answers rather than the usual STAR approach expected (e.g. Please confirm if you can provide 20-40 roles, at any time, with short notice, to support DfTc Portfolio delivery, and flex quickly up and down as required). Do you require a fully evidenced response for questions such as this, or a more basic yes/no? Same for your SC clearance question. DfT require an answer to the question and rationale as on how this will be met. 30. What are the key priorities to achieve in the first year of the contract? 1) Deliver max outcome within constraints of budget, time, resource etc by end March 23 as per current portfolio of work. 2) Shape/ influence/support the business planning and portfolio design for 23-24 and support delivery against agreed SoW's 31. Are we able to utilise nearshore resources, as part of our delivery team. Possibly, it depends on the role and clearace needed to satisfy Govt/DfT. If SC clearance is required (which tends to apply where a role is interacting with live data and live services e.g. software developers) then to get the clearance, individuals need to be UK based. Data and services also need to be compliant with our Architectural Principals and Standards and Data protection constraints of UK Government. 32. Are you able to elaborate on the projects that exist within the 5 programmes as below? • Digital Services• Technology• Capability• Security and• DataAre you able to detail any key role capabilities required? We will provide this as part of the portfolio plan, at stage 2Role capabilities required by the contract include all in the Governments DDaT profession as well as some from the Government Project Delivery Profession, Information Assurance and Security professions. The requirement will vary per SoW and the supplier will advise on the best roles to obtain the required outcome. 33. Can you share an indicative profile over the 2 years for the various services/programmes that will be requested including likely key skills? We will provide this as part of the portfolio plan, at stage 2. The programmes are likely to remain broadly the same. 34. Is this staff augmentation or will the requests be outcome based? Who is accountable for the end to end delivery of each engagement, is that agency or the supplier? SoW's are outcome based. Where there are blended teams of supplier and DfT resources, there are clear expectations of the supplier and recognition of a need for maturity and partnership working for all to be successful. Each SoW/team will have a project manager, delivery manager or SRO from DfT and they will monitor performance and ensure that the engagement is delivered, addressing risks and issues with suppliers as required. 35. If successful at stage 1 will we need to provide indicative profiles of typical resources together with rate cards etc? Yes this need to be included in your proposal for stage 2. 36. Will there be an offboarding / transition plan from the incumbent ‘Level 5’? If so, can you indicate the timeline and approach for this? Yes, there will be a need to transition knowledge/awareness from the incumbent. 2 weeks have been planned for this. DfTc have been mindful of the contract end date and many SoW's will deliver an outcome ahead of this, mitigating risk and challenge of transition. There maybe instances where the projects continue, but the new supplier starts work on the next outcome. The incumbent expects to support transition activities under their existing agreement. All documentation will be available via DfT's records management system and Teams sites and internal resources will remain consistent in delivery teams to facilitate continuity and knowledge share.