Provision of a Utilities Engineering Service – PS/21/74

Description

Summary of the work DVLA requires a supplier to provide a supply of specialised resource to support the delivery of the department’s ambitious IT-Transformation programme. The programme broadly looks to re-architect and re-engineer all IT systems onto new,open-source,cloud-hosted commodity IT platforms. These systems are to integrate together and into a number of common components. Expected Contract Length 24-month contract. All work will be managed via individual Statements of Work. Latest start date Monday 13 September 2021 Budget Range Estimated contract value of £1.6 million. The total value of all Statements of Work commissioned under the proposed call-off agreement will not exceed £1.6 million. Why the Work is Being Done DVLA is building new services and moving away from its legacy technology onto new, cloud-based platforms utilising modern technologies like containers and serverless and is seeking a supplier to provide expertise and specialism to boost capacity and enhance capability in order to meet the outcomes of this requirement. We require a supplier who is able to help us to uplift our internal capability with a range of skills, whilst providing a short-term uplift in capacity to assist in the delivery of a number of technical deliverables. DVLA will take the lead responsibility for delivery of programmes. The supplier will work as part of DVLA blended teams (work will be agreed via individual Statements of Work). We are therefore looking for a supplier who will be able to provide these capabilities in one contract. This service provision needs to be able to provide technically skilled, experienced resource to deliver the technical solutions to meet DVLAs ambitious IT transformation programme. Problem to Be Solved DVLA requires a supplier to provide a flexible delivery of highly skilled Engineering developers/support services to aide in the design, development and support of the Utilities solutions. Capability provided under SOWs will need to work closely with the current Utilities product team to deliver functionality that enables DVLA to build the following utilities components in line with chosen architectures: • API Gateway and secure Web platform • Printing • Addressing • Common image service • Notifications • Customer communications • Workflow • Scanning The supplier will also be required to support the utilities components. This would cover 4th line support (primarily investigation and code changes) in hours (between 9am and 6pm Monday to Friday). All deliverables will be in line with DVLA solutions. The appointed supplier shall have the ability to deliver a mix of engineering services in line with outcome-based deliverables, as set out in the individual Statements of Work as well as having the ability to interact and give guidance on best practice and react to technical challenges. DVLA is responsible for the overall business requirements and solution architecture. Who Are the Users DVLA Business transformation projects, Information Assurance Group, Cyber Security, existing business areas (e.g. Human Resources, Finance, Estates), General Public, Other government departments. Mixture of internal and external facing systems: Internal – transactional processing, data sharing, reporting and MI. External – Public facing applications and enquiries. Early Market Engagement There has been no early market engagement. Work Already Done The Utilities are a set of products fulfilling DVLA service needs. In line with consumer need they consist of server-based (Java Spring Boot) and serverless (lambda/node) components. Squad members need to build using these tech-stacks, and fulfil the entire SDLC, from requirements through to deploy and live-support. The current suite of ‘utility’ products: - Addressing: common addressing service, including address look-up. - Notifications: providing ability to send Notifications (email and SMS) from DVLA services. - Image Utility: central Image repository, holding drivers’ images, signatures and forms. - Print Hub: central print tool, enabling the printing of all DVLA’s outputs. Existing Team DVLA has in place a number of digital development teams working on a range of different projects and business as usual activities using Agile methodology. The existing utilities team in DVLA includes Technical Product Managers, Agile Delivery Managers, Delivery Managers, Business Analysts, Software Engineers, Infrastructure Engineers and Testers, Cloud Engineers, Platform Engineers and Solution Architects. The utilities team is a blended squad. A typical DVLA squad consists of Software Engineers, Architect, an Agile Delivery Manager, Product Owner, SDET and Technical Product Manager. There is a current incumbent Supplier. Current Phase Beta Skills & Experience • Provide demonstrable evidence and experience (minimum 3 years) in delivering integration solutions at pace, supported by delivery examples. • Provide demonstrable evidence and experience (minimum 3 years) of working in a successful agile delivery environment. • Provide demonstrable evidence and experience (minimum 3 years) of delivering projects using modern delivery concepts such as Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery pipelines. • Provide demonstrable evidence and experience (minimum 1 year) of construction of delivering enterprise scale integration solutions using serverless and java technologies. • Evidence and experience over a period of 3 or more years of being up-to-date with current and future trends of software tooling and frameworks used to build integration solutions. • Provide demonstrable evidence and experience (minimum 1 year) of delivering public cloud, including AWS and Microsoft Azure/365. • Provide demonstrable evidence and experience (minimum 1 year) of delivering into AWS (Amazon Web Services) with a particular focus on API Gateway, Cognito, Lamdba, S3, Dynamo & other Serverless technologies. Nice to Haves • Provide demonstrable evidence and experience (minimum 2 years) of delivering solutions using Java, REST API, OpenAPI specs. • Provide demonstrable evidence and experience (minimum 1 year) of test automation using Ruby and Cucumber. • Provide demonstrable evidence and experience of OAuth 2 security (minimum 1 example). • Provide demonstrable evidence and experience of Atlassian toolset (with a focus on JIRA, bitbucket) and Git (minimum 1 example). Work Location The work will take place in DVLA offices in Swansea (DVLA, Morriston, Swansea & DVLA, RLDC, Swansea), however in light of the current COVID-19 outbreak and in line with Government guidance in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, supplier resource will work remotely (within the UK). At the point where ‘working from home’ restrictions are lifted the supplier resource could be required to work onsite at the DVLA’s Swansea offices. This will be agreed within further Statement of Work iterations. Working Arrangments Full Time, 5 days a week. The charging mechanism in place for the Call-Off Contract and any agreed Statements of Work will be Time & Materials. Suppliers shall provide transparency to the Buyer on the rates paid to resources & any third-parties in the supply-chain on request. Where applicable expenses shall be submitted in line with the Buyers Standard T&S policy and agreed in advance. Statements of Work will be issued to define the deliverables. The supplier’s team will need to work effectively with existing and future teams (both civil servants & other suppliers). Security Clearance DBS-BPSS with Basic Disclosure (issued by Disclosure &Barring Service) SC may be required for further work but will be sponsored by DVLA if needed. All resource will be required to achieve three months residency in the UK in addition to BPSS prior to working with or on behalf of DVLA. Additional T&Cs Suppliers must be able to provide resources within a 2-week notice period with the necessary skills to minimise impact on delivery. We have determined that this procurement represents a supply of resource – therefore the off-payroll rules will apply (workers will be assessed as ‘inside IR35’ where appropriate). No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 10 Proposal Criteria • Describe how you will ensure that DVLA is supplied with high quality and appropriately skilled resources. • Describe how you will provide specific expertise along with operational experience, clearly demonstrating the essential skills outlined in the requirement. • Explain your method for attracting/recruiting/retaining/replacing high quality, appropriately skilled resources in line with the 2-week notice and what internal processes you’ll undertake to ensure they match our requirements. • Provide up to three client focused examples where your organisation has provided the desired service capability. Cultural Fit Criteria • Social Value - criteria drawn from Procurement Policy Note 06/20 Taking Account of Social Value in the Award of Central Government Contracts – Theme 5 Wellbeing, Sub-Criteria for MAC 8.2: • Provide demonstrable evidence of transferring knowledge to permanent staff within a client organisation (minimum of 1 example). • Provide demonstrable evidence of the ability to manage stakeholder expectations, ensure clarity of communication and ensure any risks are appropriately raised. (minimum of 1 example). • Provide demonstrable evidence of being able to work as part of an integrated, effective and efficient delivery team (minimum of 1 example). Payment Approach Time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 15% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers 1. Who is the incumbent and how long they have been the incumbent? The details of the incumbent supplier are available on contracts finder via this link: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/bec1872d-fb00-425a-abc4-f25757356b7a?origin=SearchResults&p=1 2. Will the authority be seeking to award to multiple or single suppliers. The intention is to award to a single Supplier. 3. Who from your team will be scoring applications for this opportunity and what positions do they hold? The evaluation panel members are yet to be finalised. Additionally, this information is not required to gain further information or understanding of the tender requirements and therefore, will not be provided. 4. Can you please advise the timelines of this procurement (e.g. shortlisted companies notified, anticipated contract award)? Closing date for applications on DOS - 07/06/21Shortlisting and Phase 1 of Evaluation - Estimated end of June 2021Second Stage of Evaluation - Estimated early August 2021End of 10 day Standstill - Estimated end of August 2021Contract Award and onboarding - Mid to end of September 2021 All the above dates are subject to change 5. Please can you outline how evaluation will happen for nice-to-have skills.?i.e. – Will suppliers who can’t say “Yes” to all nice-to-haves be excluded for suppliers who can meet all criteria even before scoring takes place. Or if we score “0” for one entry, is it still the total score given over “Essential” and “nice-to-have ” that will determine the shortlist? Please see following framework guidance regarding Nice-to-have skills for the evaluation process:Order the list of suppliers by those that meet the most of your nice-to-have skills and experience requirements. You can exclude suppliers with the fewest nice-to-have skills and experience to get to the number of suppliers you said you’d evaluate when you published your requirements. 6. Are suppliers permitted to use multiple examples for each answer? Yes, suppliers can submit multiple examples 7. Can you confirm if shortlisted suppliers will have the opportunity to present? Shortlisted suppliers will not be required to present. 8. The opportunity mentions the current stage is Beta. Could you please confirm whether it is public or private beta? Private/Public Beta states will apply to the overarching online digital services being developed where the Utilities components integrating into them are in ongoing development (general beta). 9. Will there be a presentation round as part of additional assessment methods? A presentation will not be requested as an additional assessment method. 10. Will there be a base need for constant resource (with ability to flex up and back down) or will there be periods where the supplier will have to stand down the team and not be actively engaged with DVLA during the term of the contract? Work will be agreed via individual Statements of Work that will be issued to define the deliverables of each phase with the current expectation that there will be a base need within these. 11. How is the integration with systems currently being done? Do you have preferred technology? Any scope of external integrations? Backend: Java SpringBoot; Serverless Backend: AWS with Serverless framework Lambda/Node.js; Front-end: Ruby on Rails with React with legacy services on mainframe. Tools and technology evaluated against the opportunity.