HM Coastguard Website

Description

Summary of the work Design and develop HM Coastguard (HMCG) branded website, with CMS for MCA staff to manage content, hosted and support by supplier. Adhering to latest brand guidelines and GDS Service Manual, the supplier will work closely with MCA Communications Team to publish public-facing website around the time of HMCG 200th anniversary. Expected Contract Length 2 years hosting/support Latest start date Monday 1 November 2021 Budget Range £45k - build & developmenet £6kpa hosting and support Why the Work is Being Done HM Coastguard (HMCG) provides 24-hour maritime and coastal search and rescue emergency coordination and response service for the United Kingdom. HMCG is a lesser-known emergency service when compared to Ambulance, Police and Fire Brigade and is currently the only emergency service not to have its own website. HMCG requires a branded website to increase brand awareness and provide clear messaging and updates to the public, ideally the website should launch as close as possible to the HMCG 200th anniversary (15 Jan 2022). Problem to Be Solved We are seeking an experienced delivery partner who can provide us with an exceptionally designed website that enhances the HM Coastguard brand and helps to raise the profile of the UK's national emergency service. The MCA requires a robust future-proof open source CMS solution that will enable team members to quickly and easily update content on the website so that it's relevant and up to date for our users. Hosting, support and SEO optimisation will also be delivered by the supplier. Who Are the Users Coastal user I need access to relevant safety advice for my activity so that I can stay safe at the coast. Member of the public I need to understand the role of HM Coastguard and know that I must call 999 and ask for the Coastguard for any emergency on the coast. Potential volunteer or staff member I need to understand more about the service so that I know if I should apply or not. As an MCA person I need a clear, simple content publishing process so that information published is timely and appropriate for the relevant audience. Early Market Engagement None Work Already Done This project has received an exemption from GDS and will be hosted independently from GOV.UK on a HMCG domain. The MCA Communications team have already developed content and identified necessary site structure. In addition the team has also developed new brand guidelines, including accessible colours. A digital ‘discovery’ report has already been conducted. This discovery coupled with annual research confirms that only 50% of the public are aware of the “Call 999 and ask for the Coastguard” message. A coastguard website with a strong identity, is an essential step towards addressing this problem. Existing Team Internal MCA teams only Current Phase Alpha Skills & Experience • Demonstrate experience of developing cutting edge, engaging, dynamic templates that reflect an organisation’s brand • Have a proven successful development of open source CMS including build of responsive templates and site publishing tools that meet the needs of content editors and website managers • Have experience of delivering cloud based or SaaS based website solutions • Have experience of planning, documenting and communicating the design process and concepts in a clear, concise manner • Have expertise in delivering services that meet Level AA of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and government accessibility requirements • Have the technical ability to set up a secure hosting environment Nice to Haves • Have experience in training users for CMS • Have experience of GDS guidelines and principles • Have experience of developing interactive maps e.g. google map api • Have experience of working with RSS and formatting xml feeds • Have previous experience working with Public Sector clients Work Location Remote. Internal teams are based in Southampton, UK. Working Arrangments Daily standups for development with additional discussions for design and content Security Clearance N/A Additional T&Cs You should use the standard contract unless your organisation needs to include additional terms and conditions. Read about how the terms and conditions work: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/terms-and-conditions-of-digital-marketplace-frameworks 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 HMCG goals • 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 • Be transparent, honest and collaborative • Embrace our no blame culture and share learnings from mistakes • Open to discussion with both technical and non technical team Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method • Case study • Work history • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Has HMCG evaluated any CMS systems and do they have any preference? We have not evaluated any specific content management systems. In line with government guidelines, we have a preference for open source technologies. 2. Who completed the Discovery stage? If another supplier, please confirm who it was. We are unable to disclose this information. 3. Can you share a copy of the digital discovery report with bidders please? A copy of the discovery report will be made available to shortlisted suppliers. 4. Will there be an opportunity to talk with your team about the project, for example once you have shortlisted suppliers? The shortlisted suppliers will have the opportunity to talk to the internal team at the interview/presentation stage. 5. You note your Communications team have worked on content & site structure. Do you have any thoughts on how much content is changing and have you estimated how long this will take your team to work on? Can you share any of this content planning work? Content has been drafted previously and will be refined as part of the project with the MCA Communications team working closely with the supplier. Content planning work will be made available to shortlisted suppliers. 6. Do you have any thoughts on what content would be displayed on an interactive map and what users needs the map will meet? We see interactive maps being utilised to help illustrate HMCG’s coverage of the UK, as a national emergency service. We envisage maps or layers on a single map could include operation centres, helicopter bases and local teams. Map place markers could also be extended using potential API data to include relevant stats about a base/area. 7. You note RSS feeds, do you plan to consume RSS feeds to display content on your website or is this requirement to make RSS feeds available for users to keep up-to-date with your news? Atom/RSS feeds are required to syndicate latest press releases, news posts and other content to users (including our stakeholders), in a similar way to how Gov.uk permits users to follow topics. This would also replace the function and need for our current blog site. 8. Are you happy to share the digital ‘discovery’ report that has been produced for this project? A copy of the discovery reports will be made available to shortlisted suppliers. 9. Will shortlisted suppliers have the opportunity to view the Alpha report ahead of a formal proposal/presentation? A copy of the discovery report will be made available to shortlisted suppliers. 10. Are you able to share who carried out the Discovery, and who is carrying out the Alpha? We are unable to disclose who carried out the discovery. The successful supplier of this opportunity will deliver the site from alpha through to live effectively. 11. Is it possible to share the outputs of discovery / alpha for this project? A copy of the discovery report will be made available to shortlisted suppliers. 12. Can you please clarify what you’ll be expecting from suppliers within the £6kpa hosting and support budget? In addition to secure and reliable hosting, the website will also require additional development/support hours to continuously improve and make enhancements to the website design and functionality, as well as any security updates and patching to maintain the CMS. 13. Do you have a timeframe after 21 Oct for the shortlisting process and can you detail how this will work? Shortlisting will take place around 22 October, shortlisted suppliers will be contacted thereafter and invited to give a virtual presentation on an agreeable date. 14. Will there be additional budget for ongoing SEO support, after the site launches outside of what has already detailed for budgets? The budget range is as listed in the overview. After initial development of the site, there would not be a requirement for additional SEO support. 15. Do you have a timeframe after 21 Oct for the shortlisting process and can you detail how this will work? Shortlisting will take place around 22 October, shortlisted suppliers will be contacted thereafter and invited to give a virtual presentation on an agreeable date. 16. Will there be additional budget for ongoing SEO support, after the site launches outside of what --has already detailed for budgets? The budget range is as listed in the overview. After initial development of the site, there would not be a requirement for additional SEO support. 17. The delivery timeline of 15 Jan 2022 is very ambitious for a project of this complexity. Is this a hard deadline or is there flexibility here? Based on benchmarking, we would assume a 4-6 month delivery time. 15 January 2022 is the HM Coastguard 200-year anniversary and our ideal outcome would have been to have had a website live for this date, however we appreciate this date is fast approaching and as such would consider a static holding page live for this date with the complete website to follow thereafter. We acknowledge and would accept an estimated project length of around 4 months but would not expect the project to exceed 6 months including CMS training. 18. If your deadline is for 15 Jan 2022, would you consider a phased approach to site function delivery? We anticipate a phased approach to delivering the website in a few stages over the course of the project. The deadline is not specified, our ideal outcome would have been to deliver the site for 15 Jan 2022 when considered in earlier stages of the project, however we appreciate this date is fast approaching. We would consider a static holding page live for the 15 Jan 2022 and the complete website delivered in following phases. 19. Will the branding guidelines be available to shortlisted suppliers? A copy of the latest HM Coastguard brand guidelines will be made available to shortlisted suppliers. 20. Aside from RSS, formatting XML feeds and maps, are there any other technical systems that need integration with the site? This information can be found in our personal information charter https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/maritime-and-coastguard-agency/about/personal-information-charter 21. What sort and what kind of volume of data is being produced for dissemination by RSS? Primarily news articles, press releases and blog-type content. Around 12-15 timestamped articles a month at peak time of year (summer). Examples of press content can be seen on the present HM Coastguard blog. 22. What experience does the HMCG team have in working on user-centric projects? The MCA follows GDS standards to create user centric services for all projects. The internal team for this project has a variety of experience that can be shared with the shortlisted suppliers. 23. How many staff members would be attending site training and what is their general level of CMS/digital literacy? The internal team includes around 12-15 people, most of whom are highly digital-literate already, working across MCA channels and other websites. 24. Some of your evidence statements suggest multiple examples, but your instructions ask us to provide only one. Would you want to see multiple examples of our work when relevant? Including multiple examples where relevant is welcome. 25. How have you adopted the GDS service manual in your working methods to date? There is no development thus far, the user groups have been considered and surveyed during discovery. The team has been set up to include a variety of skills and knowledge,