Design, Implementation and Support of the LocalGov Drupal Platform for West Sussex County Council

Description

Pre-market engagement The Council has carried out a desktop review of other Content Management Systems on the market and made a decision to move to the LocalGov Drupal platform based on its fit as part of a wider transactional information-led ecosystem the Council wishes to move to. Work done so far The Council is undertaking a large-scale investment in digital services to enable its modernisation of the provision of services to residents. Central to the modernisation is the management of data, information and knowledge and the provision of accurate content via an omni-channel experience to drive adoption of self-service for residents, members, staff and partners across all digital channels. The selection of LocalGov Drupal was based on the following factors; Flexibility, Security, Open Source, Scaleability and User Community. Additionally LocalGov Drupal is also aligned with the Local Digital Declaration Which phase the project is in Not started Existing team The delivery team consists of a Project Manager, Head of IT, IT Product Manager, Information Architect, IT Business System Architect with additional representation from Council content owners. Some interaction with the current CMS support provider may be required. This Project Team will report into the Council's Digital Strategy Programme Governance. The Programme Sponsors are the Assistant Director of Communities, the Director of Finance and Support Services and the Director of HR and Organisational Development. Address where the work will be done The delivery team is based at County Hall, West Street, Chichester, West Sussex. PO19 1RG. The expectation is that most of the work will be carried out remotely with some limited on-site collaboration required at key phases of the project. Working arrangements The expectation is that most of the work will be carried out remotely with some limited on-site collaboration at key phases of the project. MS Teams will be the collaboration tool and some Sharepoint access can be organised to support joint working. Bidders are able to suggest tools and accelerators that will support the implementation of the platform (e.g. project management software, collaborative design tools etc) as part of their bid whilst being clear on how they will be administered and how the charging will work. Provide more information about your security requirements: No security clearance needed Latest start date 2025-04-07 Enter the expected contract length: 2 years Extension period: 1 year Are you prepared to show your budget details?: Yes Indicative maximum: The total capped value of the contract is £250,000. This is intended to cover the implementation of the platform, hosting and support for the contracting period and allow scope for uncommitted development work that arises during the contract term. Any bid received that exceeds this amount will be rejected. Confirm if you require a contracted out service or supply of resource Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply Summary of work West Sussex County Council (The Council) is seeking a delivery partner to design, implement and support the LocalGov Drupal Platform which will form part of a wider Council's digital ecosystem. The Council will adopt the LocalGov Drupal platform to: -Implement a decoupled/headless website providing a consistent omni-channel experience. This is required to support recently implemented AI Technologies. -Enhance the Council's digital presence and provide a user-friendly omnichannel experience for our residents, members, staff, partners and businesses. -Streamline information management and improve operational efficiency; -Leverage the benefits of an open-source platform with a strong community and established best practices for local government; -Enable the Council to play an active role in the LocalGov Drupal Community and in doing so growing its partnership opportunities with other public and private sector bodies; -Gather meaningful insights into the value of our information and services to shape future offers; More details can be found in the Draft Stage 2 Further Competition Documentation in the attachment area. The Council is looking for support to implement the core modules and front-end features no later than 30 September 2025 with a public launch by 03 November 2025 (date is subject to approval by the Council’s Digital Strategy Programme). Bidders that are shortlisted at Stage 1 of the process will be invited to a 1hr Market Briefing session at 14.30 on 05 February 2025. A MS Teams invite will be issued as part of the Stage 1 outcome notification. The Council reserves the right to make minor alterations to the contents prior to the publication of Stage 2. Where the supplied staff will work South East England Where the supplied staff will work No specific location (for example they can work remotely) Who the organisation using the products or services is West Sussex County Council only Why the work is being done The Council is undertaking a large-scale investment in digital services to enable its modernisation of the provision of services to residents. Central to the modernisation is the management of data, information and knowledge and the provision of accurate content via an omni-channel experience to drive adoption of self-service for residents, members, staff and partners across all digital channels. The business problem you need to solve -There is no single or effective signposted resident journey. -There is limited insightful analytics on demand drivers or assistance with service forecasting. -Corporate knowledge is a core commodity for the Council and at present it is not joined up. -A need to bring greater efficiencies in servicing failure demand. First user type: West Sussex resident/business/visitor First user type: West Sussex resident with low digital capability First user type: IT Product Manager First user type: Content Creator First user type: Content owner Questions and Clarifications 0. Please can the council confirm if the 750 character count including spaces for each question will be enforced for Stage 1? Yes it will. This is actually a CAS system restriction. Last Updated: <strong>15 January 2025, 11:14</strong> 1. For the essential criteria questions asking for bidders to confirm their credentials, could you please clarify if you are expecting full 750 character responses (ie a previous example to demonstrate capability)? Or simply provide confirmation (yes/no) at this stage? Kind regards, In order to score a 2, we would expect a confirmatory statement of the Bidder’s ability to meet the requirement. Supporting commentary is welcome but optional Last Updated: <strong>15 January 2025, 11:20</strong> 2. We can confirm that we have delivered Drupal projects for Local Government organisations, however we are not on the LocalGov supplier list (and will not be able to join in time for the RFP). Are you open to bids from suppliers not on the LocalGov supplier list? At this stage no. You may choose to partner with a supplier on the directory if that is an option Last Updated: <strong>2025-01-15T11:43:07.20432Z</strong> 3. 1) Is the idam solution in place, if so which one? 2) Which Channels are in use for omni channel comms, and which will query the headless CMS? 3) What channels are in scope e.g. do you use whatsapp and is this in scope? 4) Is there a solution architect in place for the project and is this within the council or via a supplier? 5) re. item 6 : Is this in regards to onsite search results/keyword analysis or for external SEO 6) is q7 this in reference to usage of Metadata for RAG optimisation 7) What technology is in use for the 50 subsites and are these part of the ETL work in terms of tool recommendations? 8) As part of the meta schema definitions has the ontological / taxonomy work been completed or does this form part of the schema work? 9) Are SLA's in place for API/external data sources to ensure performance requirements can be met? 10) Has interface requirements been completed / confirmed for 3rd party systems such as CRUD on library system? If so what API tech are in use e.g. Rest, GraphQL etc.? 11) Re. the AI solution been defined, if so which approach / stack has been selected? 12) Is there an preferred approach to the ESB / Ochestration layer? 13) Do you have any examples of local authoritie's LGD instance that West Sussex think works particularly well? 14) what is the expected interplay between the AI intent engine and the UI? 15) What is the current AI solution/ supplier (is this gemini?) 16) Can we confirm how the tagging is to be compeleted and by who as part of the ETL? 17) Do you have a preferred hosting service (e.g. Azure, AWS, Platform.sh)? 18) Do you have internal Drupal expertise? 19) To create persona-based access, what will diffrentiate the different personas (e.g. age, parental status, busines owners, parents etc)? 20) Which third party suppliers will be involved in the project? 21) Do you want service design included in this project such as creating an implementing a blueprint that integrates LGD with wider platforms such as Idox, uniform etc? 1No, we do not currently have an IDAM solution 2Please refer to Appendix C of Document 02a - Specification 3Please refer to Appendix C of Document 02a - Specification 4Yes 5Both 6The solution must utilise metadata and APIs to enable AI driven search functionality. 7All activity relating to sub or micro-site will be part of a separate SOW. 8The ontological / taxonomy work has not been completed, it needs to be part of the schema work. 9Basic system SLAs are in place for business systems, some of which will cover API/external data sources 10No, detailed interface requirements analysis has not been undertaken at this point 11Google Gemini is currently being utilised for AI 12The diagram at Appendix A describes a future state and is not a Day 1 deliverable. 13No 14The AI engine will source knowledge directly from the Drupal CMS to train the engine. Engagement with the AI by a customer on the website would generally be achieved via an embedded chat interface. 15Yes, Gemini 16Tagging will be completed by WSCC. The approach will be confirmed later. 17 Azure 18No. On this basis knowledge transfer activity has been given a significant weighting in the Stage 2 Technical assessment. 19WSCC will confirm this at the start of the project. 20Confirmed at start of project 21No We will be looking to integrate line of business systems as the platform mature. The Councils assumes that we will use a selection of open API’s in conjunction with AI, aggregation and orchestration components to enable end to end transactions. All activity relating to sub or micro-site will be part of a separate future SOW. 22We do anticipate them being migrated into the Microsite module. Details about number and content are still to be confirmed. 23All activity relating to sub or micro-site will be part of a separate future SOW. 24We are in the process of reviewing site pages. The commercial response is based on data loaded rather than page number 25Confirmed at start of project Last Updated: <strong>15 January 2025, 12:15</strong> 4. Can you confirm if the Business Requirements and Outcomes spreadsheet needs to be completed as part of the Stage 1 response? It does not need to be complete. It has been provided for information only at Stage 1. There is an expectation as part of Stage 2 that bidders will complete the document in the context of the further assessment questions. Last Updated: <strong>15 January 2025, 12:17</strong> 5. We can't find the LocalGov Drupal Democracy module requested. Do you mean https://github.com/localgovdrupal/localgov_consultations ? However, that does not provide all the functionality referred to Please disregard LocalGov Drupal Democracy module. It will be removed from the Stage 2 Specification This was originally included to capture insights to evaluate possible alternatives or a consolidation away from our existing online democracy component (ModernGov). Last Updated: <strong>15 January 2025, 12:21</strong> 6. The document mentions that loading activity for the sub- and micro-sites are out of scope. However, can you confirm if the design and implementation of these are in scope? The design and implementation is also out of scope. The focus of this engagement is the transition of the corporate website to the LocalGov Drupal platform. All activity relating to sub or micro site will be dealt with via a separate SOW. Last Updated: <strong>15 January 2025, 12:22</strong> 7. Can you provide more details on the traffic volumes the site receives including average monthly page views? This will be provided at the start of the project. Last Updated: <strong>15 January 2025, 12:24</strong> 8. Can you provide specifications on the incoming and outgoing API schemas? In particular the list of different API methods/calls available and their structure. Discovery work for interface API schemas will be undertaken at a later stage. Last Updated: <strong>15 January 2025, 12:25</strong> 9. Are we to understand that the entirety of the website frontend should be a headless application with LocalGov Drupal only used for data storage? This approach considerably reduces the benefits to be gained from using the LocalGov Drupal platform, particularly of the requested Directories feature. LocalGov Drupal will not only be used for data storage. We would like to reap the benefits of using LocalGov Drupal platform to provide the front end access for web users including Directories feature. Last Updated: <strong>15 January 2025, 12:26</strong> 10. Will all of the content for the site come from the API endpoint(s) and not from the CMS itself? Or will it just be certain elements/areas of each page that are driven by the API content? The CMS will provide all of the standard website content to the Drupal web headend and to other platforms such as AI. APIs will be used where specific functionality from 3rd party systems is required (such as being able to renew library books) Last Updated: <strong>15 January 2025, 12:29</strong> 11. 1. Does the solution provided need to be decoupled / headless - while perfectly possible we're aware that the majority of LDG solutions do not follow this approach. If this is a requirement can the Council outline the benefits they are looking to achieve via the decoupled / headless approach so we can ensure this is factored into our delivery plan? 2. We note that the solution is "required to support recently implemented AI Technologies" - can you outline what technologies these are and how any integrations should operate? 3. With the above in mind, does the Council have a chosen search solution for "AI driven search functionality"? 4. Will the Council confirm how many suppliers are shortlisted to Stage 2 at that point in time? 5. Can we confirm whether content migration / upload is required as part of this project (we note "Content Loading Services based on a volume of content migrated" is mentioned in the main ITT). If this is required can you confirm the number of pages that will need to be migrated, the format of how this data will be shared with the supplier, and that no content rewrite is required (just upload)? We note that you use Umbraco currently but will require a breakdown across the main site and any microsites to fully scope and cost this activity. 6. Can we confirm that the Council requires SSO via Active Directory (or similar)? 7. When integrating with Granicus forms this is generally a seamless pass off to the Granicus solution (which can be themed inline with the LGD platform) rather than surfacing this data within LGD - is that acceptable? 8. Does the Council require a separate LGD microsites installation (https://localgovdrupal.org/products/microsites) as part of this project or will sub-sites be sufficient? We ask because the microsites distribution will require a separate hosting/support phase to be considered from a commercial perspective along with design and implementation (this is quite a significant project in its own right). 1The solution must be a hybrid headless website providing a consistent omni-channel experience. 2This is required to support recently implemented Contact and AI Technologies. The AI engine will source knowledge directly from the Drupal CMS to train the engine. Engagement with the AI by a customer on the website would generally be achieved via an embedded chat interface. 3Google Gemini 4This will not be possible until the closing date of Stage 1. The requirement to be a LocalGov Drupal supplier will provide some indication of the shortlisting process. 5Supplier will be responsible for loading the transformed data into the knowledge base. No content rewrite is required (just upload).All activity relating to sub or micro-site will be part of a separate SOW. 6SSO capability for content managers would be preferred. At a later point it is expected to migrate the Intranet to the new solution and therefore SSO will be required at that point and therefore beneficial to implement during initial configuration. WSCC use Active Directory and Azure Entra for corporate accounts. 7Yes 8All activity relating to sub or micro-site will be part of a separate SOW. Last Updated: <strong>2025-01-15T12:52:39.89307Z</strong> 12. 9. Can you outline what personalisation concepts you are thinking would be introduced (an example or two would be helpful to scope the scale of this)? 10. We usually suggest that penetration testing is directly procured via the Council to ensure the tests are independent - will this be acceptable? We do however complete vulnerability scans ourselves in case that is sufficient. 11. How regular would programme / governance boards be? 12. Can we assume that the initial discovery phase should be relatively light touch given delivery timelines, building on the wider knowledge across LGD and from our previous clients? With that in mind, is end user testing / engagement required and if so how extensive should this be and at what points in the process? We can propose an approach here based on timelines and budget if useful. 13. Can you share a link to the following modules so we can review these in more detail (we generally integrate with a service like ModernGov for this in case this is the requirement)? - LocalGov Meetings - LocalGov Democracy 14. Is the expectation to use forms across a third party system (e.g. Granicus) as well as Drupal Webforms, or otherwise? 15. In terms of supporting “movement to alternative hosting provider in the future” - hosting could be re-setup on any hosting provider in the future, but this would require a new supplier to implement that new setup. Is that acceptable, or does the Council want to retain account ownership of the new solution (within AWS or Azure for example) and then be able to switch this to a new supplier? 9This will be confirmed at the start of the project. 10The Council commissions and executes an IT Health check including penetration testing on at least annual basis, this will continue going forward. Proposed supplier vulnerability scans backed by the appropriate policy would be acceptable. 11Monthly. These are in additional to regular project meetings, the frequency of which will be informed by the Bidders Implementation Plan 12Yes, the initial discovery phase can be relatively light touch. 13Please disregard LocalGov Drupal Democracy module and LocalGov Meetings. This will be removed from the Stage 02 Specification. 14Our primary form solution is GovService Granicus, however Drupal Webforms can be used for services such as website feedback. 15The expectation is that the supplier will initially host the solution. At a later point WSCC would need the option to move that hosting either to an alternative supplier or to WSCCs own managed hosting environment (currently Azure). Last Updated: <strong>15 January 2025, 12:54</strong>