Website Design, Build, and On-Going Support and Maintenance

Description

Summary of the work The build, hosting and maintenance of a market leading rail website. Expected Contract Length 24 Months and possible extension for 6 months Latest start date Thursday 1 July 2021 Budget Range It is estimated that the build development work can be delivered within the budget range of £250,000 to £300,000 and annual on-going hosting, maintenance and development of £90,000 to £125,000. Why the Work is Being Done Northern calls at 500 stations across the North of England, 20 per cent of the total in the country and plays a vital role in the north of England by connecting tens of thousands of people to work, leisure, education and more every day. Northern has transformed its fleet with a multi-million pound investment in brand new trains, completed the refurbishment of more than 250 trains, retired its Pacers, and continued to extend platforms to make way for better, longer trains. Northern has invested in a series of new projects and upgrades across the network to further improve customers’ experience. These include a £2.5million facelift of more than 40 sites and £650,000 of car park improvements. The operator has proudly introduced an industry leading mobility scooter policy, opening up 140 stations across 21 routes to customers using mobility scooters. Northern are searching for a partner to build a new, customer focused website which supports and reflects the business’ transformational change as the demand for digital rail travel services continues to grow. We are looking for a partner to deliver market leading travel information services to our wide customer base. Problem to Be Solved • The retail engine and new Salesforce CRM platform are developing at a fast rate and the website must be able to support these functions to deliver personalised, customer focused services. • Website usage has grown significantly since its introduction in early 2016 and usage has shifted heavily to mobile. Northern require a website which not just mobile optimised, but built mobile-first, with intuitive UI for customers on-the-go. • The existing Content Management System used is Joomla V3.9 and requires updating to maintain future support levels and development opportunities. This presents an opportunity to consider a new, easier to use and manipulate CMS platform. • Details of current roadmap items will be shared with shortlisted applicants as part of the proposal stage. Who Are the Users External – • As a regional railway, Northern typically offer short distance rail services for leisure and commuting purposes. Customers must be able to self-manage their rail journeys, being able to check travel information and proceed to purchase on the move, without friction. • Community and Press members - Require secure access to content sections not available to the public. Internal (CMS access) – • Internal Marketing Team – Requires full access to create, edit and publish new content with minimum requirement for developer support. • Supporting Digital Agencies – Require access to support with SEO and other optimisation practices. • Internal Communications Team – Requiring CMS access from any location and at any time to publish urgent customer information updates with ease. • CMS access levels must be variable by publisher and contributor levels. Early Market Engagement N/A Work Already Done The exisiting website northernrailway.co.uk demonstrates the minimum viable product, including all API's, travel tools and services required as a minimum. The retail engine which the website passes off to already exists and is not in scope for this project. Existing Team A variety of suppliers and internal teams as follows: - - Digital Project (Website) Manager - Senior Digital Marketing Manager - Customer Communications Manager (Communications) - Media Manager (Communications) - Customer Experience Team - IT and Information Security teams - Supporting Agencies - Incumbent Creative, Content, SEO and Digital Marketing Services. Current Phase Not started Skills & Experience • Demonstrate experience within the last 3 years of building scaleable mobile-first websites with e-commerce functionality • Demonstrate experience within the last 3 years of working closely with supporting agencies to embed SEO reccomendations and make updates which compliment digital marketing activity (PPC, Digital Display, Social Media) • Show/demonstrate expertise of delivering products to relevant industry regulations including but not limited to PCI DSS, DPA, GDPR, ISO27001 and PSD2. • Demonstrate ability to produce secure content areas accessible by username/password. • Demonstrate experience within the last 3 years of proactively designing and developing inclusive web solutions which meet or exceed accesibility standards for public sector bodies: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/accessibility-requirements-for-public-sector-websites-and-apps • Evidence a 24/7/365 support function for the internal team, ensuring support is available for on-call teams. • Demonstrate ability to facilitate personalised customer experiences though CRM integration. • Demonstrate experience within the last 3 years of producing quality front-end website builds delivered in frequent sprint cycles, able to be tested on dedicated UAT systems. • Evidence experience hosting websites on Amazon Web Services, maintaining a minimum 99.5% up-time. • Demonstrate production of websites with easy-to-use CMS platforms, which offer internal updates. • Demonstrate ability to scale up resource when larger development projects or short lead time projects require. • Demonstrate experience within the last 3 years of building scaleable mobile-first websites with e-commerce functionality. • Web security side it needs to at a minimum to be TLSv1.2 (TLSv1.3 if it's capable). Pen testing will be arranged to ensure it is secure with the awarded supplier. Nice to Haves • Demonstrate integration with Salesforce CRM Marketing Cloud, Help Centre and Messenger Services (Salesforce are current incumbent CRM agency). • Demonstratable experience working developing travel and tourism websites. • Demonstratable experience working within the travel industry and/or other regulated industries. • Provide expertise in Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) best practices to improve sales metrics. • Demonstrate experience within the last 3 years of utilising market leading conversion optimisation tools e.g. Crazy Egg, SEM Rush, Visual Web Optimiser etc… to deliver best UX/UI for the customer. Work Location Northern HQ's are York and Manchester, but work can be carried out remotely. Working Arrangments Typical working arrangements will involve weekly/periodic project status meetings, exclusively via Microsoft Teams and at our offices in York, Leeds, Manchester and/or other agreed support agency locations. Our partners are expected to be available remotely or on-site to manage relationships with senior stakeholders, project managers and our customers. Support services agreements must be in place to allow 24/7/365 support emergency support. Security Clearance N/A Additional T&Cs • NTL Drug & Alcohol policy • NTL responsible procurement policy • NTL code of conduct No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Approach to briefed project, including indicative roadmap with timescales. • Evidenced successful delivery of similar projects. • Confidence the supplier can build and deliver a solution to seamlessly replace the existing website without disruption to the customer. • Confidence the supplier can collaborate well with internal teams and incumbent agencies. • Value for money and quality, assessed in comparison to other pitching suppliers. • Answers to questions during the interview/presentation stage. • Team structure, support levels and confidence in consistent and on-going delivery. Cultural Fit Criteria • The supplier will share knowledge and experience with other team members, being able to work with and support colleagues with low technical expertise. • Confidence the supplier understands the Northern Trains Ltd brand and values, and will deliver work which meets these criteria. • Confidence the supplier will be passionate about delivering easy-to-use, accessible solutions for any potential user. • Be pro-active and collaborative when making decisions and working with colleagues and other supporting agencies. • Confidence the supplier will understand and meet briefs on time and budget. • Be comfortable standing up for their discipline. • A good working knowledge and strategic understanding of Northern and the North is preferred. • Understanding our targeting and also the variations across our region would be helpful when working through our targeting and delivering media plans. Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Work history • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 20% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. 1. If the decision is made to move away from Joomla, is there currently a preference for an alternative CMS? No, we do not have a preferred CMS. Internal user feedback is that Joomla is not an easy to use editor and we are looking for something more intuitive which offers more self-serving production. 2. Please provide detailed scope of work for Development of Website, Hosting (Server Configuration) and Maintenance of Website (along with duration). Detailed scope will be provided in phase 2 of this opportunity. Please see exisitng website as a guide to our current offering. 3. We hope that resources can work from outside UK (offshore) also. Please confirm. We would prefer the supplier to be UK based for face-to-face meetings. But would consider offshore suppliers however hosting must be UK/EU based. 4. As there are 100 words only, how you want bidder to submit evidence of their experience in various fields? Please limit phase 1 responses to 100 words only. 5. Think we’ve spotted a duplicate question in the response. ‘Demonstrate experience within the last 3 years of building scaleable mobile-first websites with e-commerce functionality’ – Can you confirm if you’d like 2 examples? One in each response? Thanks! We can confirm this a duplicate question and will only be scored once - please state "duplicate" in the response 6. Is there an incumbent supplier for this service, and if so, who? Yes - Hitch Marketing Limited 7. Two of the proposal cultural fit criteria seem to favour someone who is already working with you or has done in the recent past: firstly, an understanding of the Northern brand and values, and secondly a good working knowledge and strategic understanding of Northern. Could you tell us how you’ll evaluate a bidder who would be a new supplier on these criteria, and how they could build a “working knowledge” of you if they haven’t worked with you before? The second stage requirements will brief business and brand values and further information on the business. These cultural fit requirements are not proposing the supplier must have worked with Northern before, but that they evidence understand of the business and it's complexities in their submissions. 8. The tender lists accreditations including PCI DSS, DPA, ISO27001 and PSD2). If we don’t have all of those will that rule us out? The requirements include processing of personal data and card transactions from our customers. PCI DSS can be outsourced by the supplier to a specialist card payment provider but the primary supplier must hold an ISO27001 certificate for the service in scope and be able to comply with UK GDPR (DPA 2018) 9. You mention 24/7/365 support – are you able to share some more information about your expectations? Is this mainly to cover the site being down etc. Or would you want access to an account manager over weekends and evenings? We would prefer the ability to communicate with an account manager and/or support services at all times in case of emergency. We operate a 24/hr railway and have on-call customer communications teams who use the website. It is a rare occurence, but the option is required. 10. You mention ‘frequent sprint cycles’ which implies you’d want to adopt an agile methodology in terms of approach. We work to waterfall methodology – would that rule us out? No, this does not rule you out. We are open to discussion on release processes. 11. There’s a question listed twice: “Demonstrate experience within the last 3 years of building scaleable mobile-first websites with e-commerce functionality.”Shall we give the same answer twice, or can we use to expand our answer beyond 100 words? Please see previous response to Q5. 12. Could you expand upon what you mean by “which offer internal updates” at the end of this Q: “Demonstrate production of websites with easy-to-use CMS platforms, which offer internal updates.” Are you referring to wanting a CMS which can be updated easily? Correct, we are looking for an intuitive CMS which is easy to update. Please see response to Q1. 13. Are you open to a WordPress CMS platform? We are open to reccomendations on all CMS solutions. 14. Can you please confirm your preference for the CMS? And also your preference for the commercial or open CMS? We do not have a preffered platform. We are looking for something which is both secure and easy to use. Please see response to Q1. 15. Question “Demonstrate experience within the last 3 years of building scaleable mobile-first websites with e-commerce functionality.” is twice in the list. Is this a duplication or is there a question accidentally being replaced with this question? Please see previous response to Q5. 16. In terms of AWS experience – would Azure be an acceptable alternative please? Yes we would find this acceptable and Azure or any other service must be based in the UK or EU. In your response to the question (which specifically states AWS) please state which service you have experience hosting in, how long you have used it and it's up time and what you would propose on this agreement. 17. In terms of AWS experience – are you happy for us to work with our preferred partner to supply this service? Yes - Please see response to Q16 18. We intend to propose a commercial DXP rather than an open source platform. Please confirm this is acceptable? We are open to discussion on all CMS solutions. 19. Amazon Web Services (AWS) are referenced in context of the hosting platform. We would propose a PaaS solution based on Microsoft Azure. Will this be ok? Yes - Please see response to Q16 20. Please can you confirm the number of annual page views of the sites in scope and anticipated growth for the next 2-3 years? 2019 (pre-covid) northernrailway.co.uk had 54 millon page views and grew 38% YoY vs 2018. 21. Please can you confirm that the scope is only for www.northernrailway.co.uk and doesn’t include the ticketing (buytickets.), help (help.) careers or media (media.) sites? Or indeed, if any of these are in scope, which? The scope does not include the retail platform /buytickets, the /careers application portal, or the help platform /help. Though with better publishing capabilities we hope to reduce the need for other sub-domains. 22. Please can you confirm if there are any existing dependencies between the app and the site? Currently the app only hyperlinks to the mobile site. But we would like to connect some of the information pages into the app. 23. Are there any intentions to make the app and the new site a single seamless customer experience? Yes, see response to Q22 24. Please can you confirm the role of the incumbent creative agency within the process in context of website UX and design? The incumbent creative agency supports with brand and creative assets only in reference to the website. 25. Please can you clarify if the 24/7/365 support for the internal team is to address site availability or whether the internal team may need editor or end user support within this service? Please see response to question 9 26. Is there a defined vision for digital that you are able to share with us at this stage? More information regarding transformation goals may be shared at phase 2 of this exercise. 27. Have you done any user research to evidence the rationale to redevelop the website user experience? If so, are you able to provide a description of this research to support responses at this stage? Optimisation testing forms part of our on-going digital improvement strategy. Some further insights may be shared at phase 2 of this exercise. The appointed supplier will be expected to undergo further user research as part of the scope of this project. 28. What is the business case primarily driven by? e.g reduction of operational overheads, increase of revenue of a certain user group? Demand continues to grow for digital travel information services and ticketing and more will be provided in phase 2 of this opportunity 29. How well do you know your digital audiences? CRM driven audience personas may be shared for stage 2. 30. To help us understand the type of service that may be appropriate for Northern Rail, please can you provide a high level overview of the volume of support and maintenance requests that are raised on a monthly basis? Also, if possible, the nature and priority of these requests. Monthly support and maintenance varies from development projects to smaller bug fix and change requests which fit under agreed monthly hours. 31. Could you please advise if there is an agency that currently supports the website for Northern Rail & if they will be involved in the selection process for the new design & build? Please see previous response to Q6, this opportunity is only open to suppliers on the digital marketplace to apply for. 32. You mentioned in the details that you would like to replatform to a user friendly CMS, is there any current platforms that you are considering based on internal capabilities? Please see response to Q1. 33. What do you mean by “internal updates” for the easy-to-use CMS platform question? Please see response to Q1. 34. Are you able to share more information on your transformation agenda? More detail will be shared as part of the 2nd stage process. 35. Could you please give more information about the retail engine and new Salesforce CRM platform and how they’re connected to the website? The retail engine is a separate, white-label platform. The ticket widgets on the website feed data to the retail engine to deliver appropriate results to customer searches. Salesforce CRM integration will be part of this project. 36. The current build is mentioned as MVP. What are the current elements of the website that need to be carried over to the new one apart from data? A more detailed site map will be made available at stage two of this 37. Existing APIs as part of the MVP has been mentioned. Is the functionality of this API available somewhere? Could you please share more information. Yes, the majority of Data feeds for this project will be available via exisiting rail industry feeds. 38. Why are you looking for a new partner at this stage? The business has taken the decision to invest in a new website and as we are goverened by the UCRs we have to run a competive exercise. 39. Can you clarify what the question about TLSv1.2 is asking? The whole web site as minimum must offer TLSv1.2 with TLSv1.3 if possible. All relevant security headers should also be present such as HSTS, Content-Security-Policy, Frame Options, XSS Protection etc. 40. Does the budget include software licenses, such as CMS platform? Yes, the budget is all-inclusive. 41. Do live timetable and ticket prices need to be surfaced through the site and if so what will be providing this data? Yes, API's are available for this as well as the provision of PDF timetables. 42. Does the site require login? Not to use the majority of services, but access to user accounts is required. 43. You mention an existing optimisation agency. What role, if any, will they play in this project? We currently have a retained SEO agency who provide on-going support and reccomendations. We also directly use several optimisation tools including VWO, Crazy Egg and more. We are open to new tools to improve optimisation. 44. What optimisation tool do you use, or would you be looking for recommendations from us within the scope of this project? We currently have a retained SEO agency and use several optimisation tools including VWO, Crazy Egg and more. We are open to new tools to improve optimisation. 45. Will there be an incumbent SEO agency who will have a role in the project? Yes - there is an incumbent retained SEO agency who support with on-going reccomendations. 46. Does the scope include rebuilding existing APIs? No API feeds come from rail industry data. 47. If looking for a CMS platform recommendation, do you have any requirements from a licensing, capabilities, technology or hosting perspective (other than that mentioned in the brief)? No, please see response to Q1. 48. Do you have a preference that the site is hosted on AWS over another cloud provider? Please see response to Q16. 49. Is experience design in scope of work or subject to seperate procurement process? User Experience design is in scope of this project. 50. Have you already shortlisted some prefered CMS platforms? If not, is a platform selection process part of the scope for this project? No we have not shortlisted platforms and are open to recommendations as part of this project. Please see response to question 1. 51. Do you have any preference for a CMS solution. Is an open-source platform preferred? Please see response to question 1. 52. What parts of the Salesforce platform are you using – ie.e Sales Cloud / Marketing Cloud? Marketing Cloud, Datorama, Knowledge Base, Service Cloud