New Livin website

Description

Summary of the work We are looking for a creative team to work with us to develop a new website. The site will respond to customer interactions and generate data to help understand consumer behaviour/preferences. The site will provide visitors with an excellent online experience that is accessible, responsive, reliable, helpful, knowledgeable and future-proofed. Expected Contract Length 2 years Latest start date Tuesday 1 January 2019 Budget Range Initial project cost - approx. £40,000 (fixed price). Please also provide daily rate for ongoing development post-live. Why the Work is Being Done Customer experience is at the heart of our digital and business transformation. We need an enthusiastic team who will put our customer needs at the heart of all online experiences, who share our digital principles and want to develop a true collaborative and agile approach to digital service delivery. Integration and the adoption of new and emerging technologies will push the boundaries to provide personalised experiences. Data and site analytics will be easily accessible and informative to inform the future development of service design, improving processes based on how users interact with our site and our services. Problem to Be Solved User journeys/conversion paths unclear through various content updates/changes. Users often can't complete what they came online to do. The site has become an information tool as opposed to a transactional site. Inconsistent experience across different devices. Navigational and analytical issues with tabbed sections – the site looks dated. Problems tracking user journeys/conversion paths due to legacy third party systems. Data tracking only available at page level not page section level. Property search function unreliable. Mobile performance e.g. screen jump, image size. SEO ranking (non-Livin search). On-site search not intelligent. High number of visits result in inbound contact by webchat/telephone. Who Are the Users As a prospective tenant, I want to search for a home on any device, so that I don’t go elsewhere for my next home. As a tenant, I want to be directed to what I’m looking for without having to think, so that I don’t have to ring Livin. As a community partner I want to be directed quickly to the support livin can offer me and my clients, so that I can get in touch. As the regulator I want to understand Livin’s business strategy, performance and financial position so that I am reassured of their rating. Work Already Done Discovery has been done, including content audit and user research. We would like the new supplier to enhance this through a shortened Discovery phase before going into Alpha. Existing Team Business Sponsor – Alan Boddy, Executive Director Housing and Business Development Business Visionary - Helen Darby, Head of HR and Business Development Project Manager and User Researcher - Anna Robson, Digital Transformation Manager Business Ambassador – Roslyn Littledyke, Head of Customer Experience User Ambassador – Eileen Cotterill, Marketing and Communications Advisor and Claire Shovelin, Customer Services Manager Technical Advisor - Dan Evans, ICT Infrastructure Manager Business Analyst and Technical Coordinator - Graham Dutton, ICT Applications Development Manager Content Designer – supplier User Experience Designer – supplier Solution Developer – supplier Solution Tester – supplier Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Successful delivery of projects using specific Agile project management techniques involving third party clients • Knowledge of a range of website platforms/CMS with a client-centred approach to platform selection • Ability to build low-maintenance websites • Ability to work in partnership with the client to design and develop service driven websites via clearly mapped user journeys and drive self-serve • Ability to develop bespoke features quickly post-live, producing a prototype to enable user testing • Evidence of leading on user research working with clients to fully understand user needs and translating these to website requirements • Expert UX skills – providing examples of techniques used and outcomes achieved as a result • Expert SEO skills and the ability to knowledge transfer and advise on on-site and off-site SEO best practices • Expert in Google Analytics and HotJar and the ability to advise on, support the set up and ensure optimisation of goal conversions • Evidence of designing solutions for users with low level digital literacy • Understanding of non-functional requirements and experience of building these into a web project i.e. usability, data quality, security, accessibility, interoperability, reliability, maintainability, availability, scalability, portability and compatibility • Experience of delivering innovative website projects both in the public and private sector that have transformed the online experience for users • Examples of proactively recognising relevant opportunities for innovation and trying new/emerging technologies with clients • Experience of building websites with AI/machine learning built in and the ability to show examples of this • Minimal downtime and hosting and support that is responsive 24 hours a day Nice to Haves Chat bot developed Work Location On-site meetings will take place at Livin, Farrell House, Arlington Way, DurhamGate, Spennymoor, Durham, DL16 6NL. Some meetings can take place virtually and visits to the supplier's work place are expected to enable collaborative working. Working Arrangments Face-to-face meetings as required (anticipated once a month). Stand-ups (virtual if required) to be held weekly. Online collaboration tools to provide continuous, open conversation. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Technical solution – platform, CMS, emerging technologies • Rapid prototyping/development post-live • Project management approach/methodology • Approach to ensuring user needs are centric to overall solution • Approach to ensuring the website drives self-serve as well as an excellent customer experience • Estimated timeframes for the work • How risks have been identified and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them • Team structure – should include Agile certified Project Manager, expert UX/UI roles • Value for money Cultural Fit Criteria • How you propose to work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers and partners • Challenging the norm • Transparency and collaboration when making decisions • Taking responsibility for your work • Sharing of knowledge and experience with other team members to enable us to be self-sufficient in maintaining the site as far as possible Payment Approach Fixed price Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 10% Price 40% Questions from Suppliers 1. As this is for a fixed price, can you clarify on whether the would be bearing any license and hosting costs associated with development and testing environments plus for any software tools required for collaboration? The budget provided is a maximum budget up to live, so should include all costs up to this point. 2. Out of the 2 year period what is the envisioned duration for core development work prior to the system being live? It is expected that the new website is ready to move to public beta in April 2019. 3. Do you have any envisioned team composition in terms of experience and skills for this? Please see “existing team” for expected project structure. It is expected that the new supplier can provide the skills and experience required to carry out the required supplier roles to a high standard. 4. Do you have any preferred technologies/tools in the development of this website? No – we are open to options/expert opinion as to what will best help us to deliver a site that meets our user needs. 5. Under the existing team there are 4 roles marked as supplier. Does this mean that there is an existing supplier that the supplier selected from this application will be required to work with? No – these roles are to be fulfilled by the new supplier. 6. With regard to this requirement:'Experience of building websites with AI/machine learning built in and the ability to show examples of this'.Can you please explain how you envision AI being utilised on the new website? We would like suppliers to demonstrate to us what AI could do to enhance the service our website visitors, in particular our customers, receive on the site. This could include using AI to provide a more intuitive search experience, or to learn what people are looking for and order content accordingly. 7. We would like to seek clarification on the following items please:Is there a separate budget for the 24/7 support or is this included in the disclosed budget of £40,000The start date is 1st January 2019 and therefore are you looking for suppliers to start on this actual date (Bank Holiday) and will this be part of the decision processIs Housing experience essential and will the final outcome after the proposal/presentation stage be marked lower based on this criteria Once live, there will be a budget allocated for hosting and support. These costs should be included in the written responses after shortlisting is complete. We aim to start the project as quickly as possible following the bank holiday.Housing experience is not essential. 8. Please can you clarify if the budget available for this opportunity (£40,000) is for the discovery phase only or for the entire website project development costs? This is the budget for the entire project up to the point of going live. 9. Are you considering the team to be working in nearshore? We would expect the team to be based in the UK. 10. Please detail the roadmap for the website implementation and what deliverables contains the initial phase of 40.000 GBP. The website should be in public beta by April 2019, and should be delivered within the maximum budget stated. The exact deliverables will be defined during Discovery. 11. Given that you have a content supplier already on your team, can you explain a bit more about this requirement:'Expert SEO skills and the ability to knowledge transfer and advise on on-site and off-site SEO best practices'. I assume you mean “Content Designer”. If so, there is no Content Designer on the team currently, this is a role to be fulfilled by the new supplier. All roles that state they will be fulfilled by the supplier mean the new supplier. 12. The budget of £40,000 is that for the CMS, design and build or just for the design of the website? This is for CMS, design and build. 13. ‘The site will respond to customer interactions and generate data to help understand consumer behaviour/preferences.’In what way? There could be many ways of achieving this and we are inviting suppliers to demonstrate how they would do this. 14. With regard to AI – it seems you have not determined that AI definitely has a role to play in this project yet it is a mandatory requirement to be able to demonstrate experience in AI.Are you sure this mandatory requirement is necessary to find a partner that is able to improve your website? Yes. We want to explore the potential use of AI on our website either now or in the future, to improve efficiency and provide the best possible user experience. We want to work with a supplier who is already working with such technologies. 15. Please underline if the request for experience of building websites with AI/ machine learning (ML) needs to have embedded AI / ML in the website and to be public in order to be tested by the evaluation team. Yes we would like to see examples of how this could enhance the user experience/achievement of website objectives so would need to be live. 16. What is the buyer's Agile methods fluency? Has the buyer employed agile working before? Has the buyer used concepts such as Lean-Startup, multivariate testing or Hypothesis Driven Development? If not, would the buyer be open to a supplier using these methods? We have a team of Agile DS Practitioners and run all appropriate projects using this methodology. As we don’t tend to develop in-house, we have not used those techniques specifically but would be happy to explore further and consider whether these would be appropriate should the successful supplier wish to use them. 17. Are you looking for an off the shelf CMS or would you be open to a bespoke built CMS? We require a CMS that is secure, well developed, has a proven track record of delivering up-to-date functionality and is actively maintained/upgraded. This is most likely to be achieved through adoption of an off the shelf solution. 18. You state that you would like to see examples of how AI and/or ML could benefit this project. Do these examples need to be from specific projects the supplier has been involved in, or can they be examples which use techniques, tools and methods the supplier is skilled in? They need to be examples that demonstrate that the supplier has the skills and experience to be able to apply such technologies in improving the website user experience. 19. Can the work be delivered remotely with online meetings, with a company representative (Director level) at the monthly meetings? The supplier is not expected to work from our offices, but we would expect representation as required at meetings. It is anticipated that face-to-face meetings will be held approximately once a month. Stand-ups (virtual if required) will be held weekly. Should the need arise for additional workshops/meetings we would expect the supplier to be present where required. 20. For the first essential skills bullet point, what is meant by third party clients? Successful delivery of projects using specific Agile project management techniques, not just in-house but involving the client in the process as well (in this case Livin as the client).