Learner CRM / booking system

Description

Summary of the work We require enhancements and additional functionality for our existing digital learning platform. We want a learner CRM to improve the booking process and ensure we can scale as we onboard larger cohorts of learners. Expected Contract Length 6 months - with scope for longer term support Latest start date Monday 1 March 2021 Budget Range £100K - £150K Why the Work is Being Done We require a development team to deliver enhancements and additional functionality for our existing digital learning platform. Specifically, we want to improve our learner management functionality to ensure we can scale as we onboard larger cohorts of learners. Problem to Be Solved Currently, the team manage approximately 200 learners on the platform at a time but this is expected to increase to 600 over the next financial period. Longer term, we expect to have up to 10,000 users a year. During the beta phase the team put in place a series of manual processes, managing learners through individual emails and spreadsheets. However, this approach will not be viable once the volume of learners increases. The new booking system will reduce this administrative burden and ensure we can create a platform for growth. Our learning platform uses the Open edX system which is built using server-side code in Python, with Django as the web application framework. We are open-minded about what technology we use to build out our offer. We want to continue to improve the service, so it’s important that the solution helps us understand more about our users and can support multiple user journeys as we continue to grow. Users might be from a UK government agency booking the next available place on a self-directed course, through to a cohort of 30 participants in Oman, taking a coached course in Arabic and enrolled as part of one or our international projects. Who Are the Users As a delivery lead, I want to reduce the administrative burden of onboarding, so that we can scale effectively. As a delivery lead, I want to quickly onboard new learners, so that I can book a course start date, add a list of participants and organise payment. As a learner, I want to receive timely communications, so that I know when the course is to start, any preparations that I need to make, and when to complete sections and/or tasks. As a Product Manager, I want to ensure the platform follows data protection best practice, so that the service is compliant. As a delivery lead, I want to follow up on leads, so that we can increase takeup. Early Market Engagement The e-learning platform in use is the Open edX platform. Open edX is a not-for-profit organisation and it aggregates a list of software companies that specialise in the development for the Open edX platform. Work Already Done Online research of edX specialists and course-booking systems. Existing Team The Cabinet Office team for the Global Communications Academy consists of approximately 10 people who design learning content, manage delivery of courses, manage participants and promote the offer. There is an existing supplier ConstructEducation.com which creates course-assets (images, video) and some aspects of course-build (using the Open edX content/course tool Studio). The existing platform infrastructure runs on AWS, currently managed via a third party supplier. Current Phase Beta Skills & Experience • Significant experience of integrating with open-source / non-mainstream systems. • Proven track record of delivering projects at speed using an agile project management methodology with clearly identified deliverables and timescales. • Experience of integrating web applications with business systems such as CRM, Email and the potential to accommodate Payment Gateways. • Experience of working collaboratively with an in-house team, building skills and capabilities to support a smooth handover. • Have experience of developing ‘in the open’ - using tools such as Github. • Have experience of designing to meet the public sector accessibility guidelines. • Demonstrate how they put security first in their work. Nice to Haves • Very desirable if supplier has experience of the e-learning platform Open edX. • Demonstrate how they have worked collaboratively in a multi-vendor environment. • Experience of creating external website as a gateway into booking. • Experience of the Transifex system for translation of online content. • Experience of a user research/data-driven approach to development, including use of prototyping and proof of concepts. • Experience of successful offboarding and hand-over to an in-house team. Work Location Remote working welcome. Working Arrangments - Remote working is encouraged with regular contact between the Dev teams and Cabinet Office colleagues - Agile team - Daily Stand ups - Fortnightly Sprints, Retrospectives and Show and Tells No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • technical solution • approach and methodology • how the approach or solution meets user needs • how the approach or solution meets your organisation’s policy or goal • estimated timeframes for the work • how they’ve identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them • team structure • value for money Cultural Fit Criteria • work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers • be transparent and collaborative when making decisions • take responsibility for their work • share knowledge and experience with other team members • challenge the status quo • can work with clients with low technical expertise Payment Approach Fixed price Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Could you please outline what specific security clearance is required to deliver this project? No specific security clearance required. 2. Is there an incumbent supplier? The learner CRM / booking system will be new functionality, so there is no incumbent supplier for this. Our existing learning platform for digital learning uses the Open edX platform. There is a supplier relationship with ConstructEducation.com which creates course-assets (images, video) and some aspects of course-build (using the Open edX content/course tool Studio). 3. Does the underlying platform in this case need to be EdX, or would you be open to a submission which proposes a Totara-based learning management platform? The learner CRM / booking system will be new functionality but will need to integrate with the open-source edX platform through which we’ll continue to deliver our existing suite of digital learning courses. We are open-minded about which technology we use to build the learner CRM / booking system as long as it can facilitate an end to end journey. 4. What is the process of capturing learner details? Currently, learner details are captured manually. Information is collected from a range of sources including email requests and online forms. These are then manually collated into spreadsheets for use by the team. 5. Who will have access rights to publish the course? Course publishing management is not a requirement of the learner CRM / booking system. It will use a simple data-feed from the live Open edX platform to be able to generate the list of 10-50 live courses. 6. What is the process of converting lead to learner? There are 2 main user-groups: UK and international.UK: most learners will register an interest as individuals via an online form. The internal training team will need to use the learner CRM / booking system to match the requests to course-availability and notify individuals of the allocated course start-date.International: most learners will be aggregated as a list by a coordinator who will need to use the CRM to add/update the details of individuals or a group.In both user-groups, common ‘case-management’ tasks will need to be accommodated: provisional booking, confirmation, postponement, withdrawal, transfer to a different course etc. 7. How many total CRM users are expected? In year one, we estimate there will be approximately 20 CRM users. 8. What is the marketing process of new course getting added to edX? When a new course is developed, it is added to the platform and reflected in marketing assets. Using data gathered via the booking system, we will promote participants joining our alumni community, and will expect notifications to be sent to these community members promoting the new course. As such, there will be a need to include GDPR-compliance/acceptance by UK learners for such future use. 9. We need to understand the possibilities of integration between edX and course booking system platform to CRM. This documentation should indicate the capability and potential for external tools to integrate with the edX platform: https://edx-salesforce.readthedocs.io/en/latest/readme.html Please be aware that we are not proposing/recommending that the solution uses Salesforce but we are sharing the documentation as an example of a CRM integration with edX. 10. What would be the preferred channel of Communication with the learner? Based on our user needs, communication preferences might include:- Online form for initial input by the learner- Ticket-queries within the CRM for subsequent questions- Ticket-replies within the CRM replicated as email from the CRM 11. Could you provide a sample data of Learner details currently captured in excel format? We aren’t able to share a data sample, but fields could include:- First name- Surname - Email- Organisation- Role- Course(s) of interest- Any periods of >1 week not availableThis is not a complete list and we will likely want to expand this so that we can easily contact previous learners with new opportunities. As such, there will be a need to include GDPR-compliance/acceptance by UK learners for such future use.