Sharepoint online intranet creation for Essex Fire and Rescue Service

Description

Summary of the work We require a SharePoint online intranet to be created for the Essex Police,Fire&CrimeCommissionerFire&RescueAuthority. This will be within our current single Office 365 tenancy and will need to include site templates,structure,navigation,&access-management to-enable-the-Service-to-carry-out-content-migration. Delivery of the intranet&knowledge transfer must be completed within a four-month window. You-will-demonstrate-your continuous progress to us throughout delivery. Latest start date Monday 12 September 2022 Budget Range Up to £30,000 Why the Work is Being Done The ECFRS Intranet is an internal platform to enable communication of key service news and to share essential policies and process information with all ECFRS personnel. This Project will: • Design a SharePoint digital hub for transparent communications and inclusive engagement • Provide the primary place that ECFRS colleagues visit when seeking information • Provide a central location for employees to find and share information that empowers and enables colleagues to be digital by default. We want to implement a modern intranet(s) that exploits our established M365 platform and offers staff a more engaging experience than our currently disconnected intranet, where they can easily search for and find up-to-date and relevant information through SharePoint. Problem to Be Solved • Replace the existing intranet, which will be decommissioned by 1st April 2023. • Provide a homepage and intuitive access to key information such as news, staff notice boards, reference information, documents, videos, blogs, calendars etc. to circa 1500 members of staff. • Deliver a powerful natural language search function, site-wide navigation, and the ability to define and track metadata. • The whole intranet will meet the WCAF 2.1 AA accessibility standard, and ideally support our aim to be as accessible as possible for every user. • Intranet structure is to be established to enable ECFRS staff to manage the environment independently, including page templates, web parts, third party widgets (such as Workplace), access control, and standardised mechanisms to easily signpost separate SharePoint sites and document libraries within the M365 tenancy. • The majority of content will be available to all staff, however there may be some content requiring restricted access to meet operational needs. • You will configure SharePoint Online’s out-of-the-box analytics capability to provide meaningful data on usage of the intranet. • During the design and delivery phases you will carry out knowledge transfer sessions with ICT support personnel as required. Who Are the Users The-ECFRS-intranet-needs-to-be-the-place-to-go-for-our-people-to-access-whatever-they-need-to-do-their-jobs-or-to-gain-guidance-and-advice,-view-service-wide-communication,-policies,-and-news. This-will-become-a-new-digital-hub-for-collaborative-working-and-to-promote-inclusion-and-diversity-for-all,-one-of-our-core-values. As-a-support-staff-member,-I-want-to-be-able-to-access-the-intranet-and-find-out-information-from-across-the-organisation-so-that-I-can-do-my-job-effectively.-This-could-be-keeping-updated-on-latest-news-or-finding-out-key-policy-details-or-process-advice.-What-I-can-see-may-be-limited-using-security-permissions-for-specific-service-areas,-groups-or-individuals. As-an-On-Call-Firefighter-I-also-have-a-day-job-outside-of-ECFRS,-so-I-have-very-limited-network-access.-I-want-to-be-able-to-access-the-intranet-and-it’s functionality using my mobile device so that I can keep up to date with and update information while out and about at any time of day or night. As a Wholetime Firefighter I have access to the Intranet at my home station when on shift, however, off shift I want to be able to keep up to date with service news and updates to policies and procedures. I will gain access via my personal device, away from my place of work at any time of day or night. As a Site Owner/administrator I need a full understanding of the intranet so I can insert and manage my organisational content or link/signpost existing content from an established site in the platform. I will need to edit web parts, layout and content for my specific service area so that I can keep my service content up to date, relevant and understand which content needs to be reviewed or archived. As an ICT Service Desk Technician I need to have the ability to access and view the intranet content across all sites owned by my organisation so I can support all content and templates and resolve end user issues. Work Already Done High level requirements have been investigated and discussed with ECFRS staff to identify current issues to be solved with a new system. We have completed migration of stored documents from on premise storage to SharePoint. We are committed to review content on our existing intranet as the new intranet is established. There will be a requirement for some migration of service wide content, namely the Daily News and Pingala Intranet. Existing Team ECFRS Project Manager, project team including project sponsor, Senior Users from Corporate Communications Team, and ICT representatives. Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Demonstrable experience of successfully designing, developing, and implementing SharePoint Online intranet sites aligned to large document storage, meeting brand and design principles. • Extensive understanding of the SharePoint out-of-the-box features and functionality. • Ability to delivery integration with other M365 applications such as Teams, Forms, Planner etc • Knowledge and experience of optimising SharePoint for document storage and management • Microsoft Partner • Experience of delivering knowledge transfer, and providing documentation for the client • Evidence of certification such as Cyber Essentials Plus or Cyber Essentials with ISO27001 • Evidence of delivering a website or intranet to WCAG 2.1 standard at level AA or greater. Nice to Haves • Capacity for custom development, scripting languages (JavaScript, c#, .NET etc), forms, HTML5, CSS, XML. • Knowledge of web services, best practices, and governance • The supplier should have at least 2 years’ experience of successfully designing and implementing SharePoint/intranet solutions to similar sized organisations, preferably in blue light services and local government. Work Location ECFRS Headquarters, Kelvedon Park, London Road, Rivenhall, Essex CM8 3HB and remote working as appropriate Working Arrangments We anticipate the majority of delivery will be remote, although a number of days on site at our Headquarters should be expected. We will establish and manage your access to our M365 environment. You are expected to use your own devices and agree to both our Information Security and Acceptable Use policies. Reasonable expenses should be included in the fixed price. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Demonstrate and explain how the proposed solution meets customer and user needs • Provide evidence of the skills, experience and ability to deliver our required outcomes • Demonstrate how project timescales will be met and outcomes will be delivered in budget • Explain how you will work in partnership with the Service to deliver the right outcomes • Describe the process for a smooth handover to support including assurance on the provision of quality documentation Cultural Fit Criteria • You must be committed to working within our values and your own organisational values must not be at odds with ours. • You will be collaborative in all aspects, focussing on the best outcomes for our staff and their ability to work for the people of Essex • You will be able to communicate effectively to non-technical people without the use of complex technical jargon • You will share knowledge and experience to improve delivery Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 15% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers 1. What M365 licences does the ECFRS have and how many? All users have either Microsoft 365 E3 (circa 900) or Microsoft 365 F3 (circa 800) 2. How much content is likely to need migrating? Daily News is made up of thousands of news stories since late 2015 - realistically/ideally, we'd like to move across the last 2 years or so to ensure continuity. So, let's say the start of 2020 for now, that'd be circa 1,400 stories. Each includes pictures and sometimes videos - I'm not sure how we'd go about quantifying this in a more empirical way. Intranet wise - keeping in mind that there is both the Servicenet and HR Intranet which need to be moved across, most crucial here are the policies and operational guidance documents (among other areas). 3. Does the ECFRS have an incumbent supplier for M365 solutions? If so, will they be competing for this opportunity? The ECFRS has no incumbent supplier for Microsoft 365 solutions. 4. The evaluation states that price is 25% of the mark – where should we add pricing? In an attached document with a high level proposal – this will be used to shortlist suppliers for the next stage. 5. Is the requirement to be a Microsoft Partner essential? It is desirable and will provide more weighting in favour of a supplier during evaluation. 6. Is migration execution required from the Pingala system? How much content will be migrating? There will be a requirement to migrate some core service content, such as Daily News, key operational information, policies and procedures. 7. Will News be created centrally by one team, or will it be de-centralised to teams across ECFRS (and therefore how many teams?). News is created centrally by the ECFRS Corporate Communications team. 8. Will ECFRS be sharing the high-level requirements you already discussed with staff, to support suppliers responses? The high level requirements will be shared with all shortlisted suppliers in the next phase of the process. 9. Do Essex Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner and Fire & Rescue Authority represent separate intranet audiences, with differing intranet requirements? Yes – this intranet is specifically for employees of Essex County Fire and Rescue Service. 10. Will the successful supplier be expected to complete document migration and tagging as part of the engagement? There will be a requirement to migrate some core service content, such as Daily News, key operational information, policies and procedures. 11. Will the successful supplier be expected to complete intranet page content as part of the engagement? No – this will be overseen by our Corporate Communications team, alongside the respective leads for areas of the organisation (for example Human Resources, Health and Safety). 12. Are Essex Fire and Rescue service happy to accept exceptions in WCAG 2.1 standards where these cannot be met by SharePoint Online? Only if the absent functionality or other non-compliance is proved to be a Microsoft SharePoint defect without workaround. We believe all parts of the standard are achievable through SharePoint, the wider M365 tools or third party tools available to the Service. Because we strongly value accessibility for all, we already use Texthelp’s Read & Write product on devices and in browser across the Service, and if meeting all elements of the WCAG 2.1 standard requires the use of a third party (not Microsoft) product, it must be that one. 13. Will the successful supplier be expected to implement process automation / workflows for tasks such as document review and approval? There may be a requirement to implement this and will require further engagement with the successful supplier and business representatives. 14. in response to this answer from question ISQ04 “ In an attached document with a high level proposal – this will be used to shortlist suppliers for the next stage.”, can you clarify if this will be requested after the initial 100 word answer stage and if not, how should this be submitted? THIS-IS-A-CLARIFICATION-ON-THE-ALREADY-ANSWERED-QUESTION “The evaluation states that price is 25% of the mark – where should we add pricing?” Under the section How suppliers will be evaluated the opportunity states All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal. Having assessed that there may be no functionality in Digital Marketplace for suppliers to upload a proposal, we intend to shortlist on the scores we assign to responses received through Digital Marketplace alone. Suppliers who proceed to the shortlist will be given an email address to send their high level proposal which will then be used as part of the final evaluation-and-selection.