HMPO Enterprise and Solution Architecture Services

Description

Summary of the work Provision of Enterprise and Solution Architecture Services to support HMPO's in-house TDA in providing technical direction and assurance of HMPO's Transformation Programme. Expected Contract Length 2 Years, with option to extend by up-to 6 months Latest start date Monday 13 February 2023 Budget Range £7,500,000 Why the Work is Being Done HMPO is transforming its IT services, adopting a more agile, Product centric, cloud first architecture, and is significantly advanced in the implementation of this transformation. This is being delivered through multiple portfolios (passports, civil registration, enablers), building in-house capability where it is unique to HMPO, and utilising shared services where there is a common need. Passport transformation is significantly advanced and at a stage where target and legacy systems are co-existing. Civil registration transformation is in its first year with initial betas planned and other Products to be introduced in later years. Problem to Be Solved Enterprise Architecture - IT Portfolio Management (Inventory, Application Lifecycle Current State, Target state) - Architecture repository management - Setting policies, standards, patterns - Technical Assurance and review of designs - Design Governance - Enterprise Roadmaps - Technical risk management Solution Architecture - Technical options assessment - High Level design - Detailed design - Transition Architectures - Drafting technical requirements for suppliers - Solution documentation - Support and troubleshooting transition and go live N.B Whilst the focus is on Software, Infrastructure and Data architecture the service should include the ability to call off Business Architecture services too. Who Are the Users HMPO needs Enterprise and Solution Architecture Services to support the in-house TDA team in (1) setting overall technical direction, (2) promoting and assuring alignment and convergence to the HO technology strategy, (3) defining High Level Design and, where required, detailed solution architectures for new Digital Products and architecturally significant enhancements to existing Digital Products (4) assuring consistency, reliability, security and interoperability of HMPO's end-to-end solutions. Early market engagement Work Already Done Internal Home Office capability exists. This service is fulfilled by an incumbent supplier, with the average team size over the past 12 months of 13.3 FTE. Portfolios are at various stages of delivery with some nearing completion and others at inception. Existing Team HMPO's transformation is being delivered by a mixture of in-house resources and other suppliers, the successful bidder will need to work with, including level 1 and level 2 support, delivery teams for Digital Products, Technical Design Authorities and cyber functions. Current Phase Live Skills & Experience • The Supplier’s Service delivery team must have demonstrable experience of (modifier statement applies to question 2-14): • providing architecture services in a scaled agile environment, and application of GDS principles and best practices including the leading of initial architecture envisioning efforts; • defining technical strategies to migrate off legacy infrastructure including Oracle (OIM/OAM, Weblogic, Database), Tibco (BusinessWorks); • cloud first and Hybrid Cloud/On-Premise architecture best practices, ensuring systems are Reliable, Secure, Cost effective, Operationally efficient and interoperable; • software engineering best practices including microservice architectures, applying DevOps tools, culture and automation (Terraform, AWS CDK, Puppet, ansible, scripting, Jenkin) and development workflows, CI/CD and other open source tools; • one or more programming languages (e.g Java, Javascript, NodeJS) and design and implementation of open source software for business critical services (e.g Business Process Management tools). • AWS services (e.g EC2, IAM, RDS, VPC, Direct Connect, GuardDuty, Lambda) and best practices; • design of Azure Stack based solutions for highly secure environments; • networks, network hardware, network tools and Network Security encryption Load Balancing, DNS, Firewalls, SSL/TLS, CSOC protective monitoring technologies LDAP, PKI etc • working in containerised environments using Kubernetes and surrounding ecosystem: Docker, Helm, KOPS etc. • of tools and environments Linux, Relational and non-relational Databases, Monitoring systems, Queueing systems, LDAP, IDAM, Hashicorp products: Vault, Consul, Packer; • applying Security by Design and application of NCSC best practices; • end user computing solutions (e.g End User Devices, Voice, Office, Windows OS, Citrix, Active Directory, File storage); and • virtualisation technologies including Application, Network and Storage including VxRail, NSX, ESX, vSAN. • The Supplier shall provide confirmation that it is Cyber Essentials certified. Nice to Haves • The Supplier’s service delivery team should have demonstrable experience of working with a wide range of user groups including NCSC and other GCHQ agencies. • The Supplier should provide confirmation that it is Cyber Essentials Plus certified. Work Location Westminster, London. Remote working is acceptable, the Supplier may work remotely or within a HMPO office hub(s). Working Arrangments Some on-site work may be required but much of the work can be completed remotely. Security Clearance SC clearance as a minimum and will be required for all resources delivering services. Additional T&Cs Note: Home Office DDaT are applying target rates to all procurements. Although these are not mandated, it will be factored into the pricing evaluation at written proposal stage. Target Rates as follows: • Architecture SFIA 3: £690 • Architecture SFIA 4: £980 • Architecture SFIA 5: £1095 No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • How you would ensure your approach would deliver a solution that meets HMPO’s needs. • Team structure, capability and knowledge of the technologies required to deliver the services. • Approach to transition/ mobilisation to the new delivery model. • Approach to a flexible and responsive service, including how you will identify and obtain SC clearance for resources. • Experience and approach to setting architrave direction for an agile product team, against the technology used at HMPO. • Experience and ability to innovate in cloud and on-premises infrastructure architecture. • Value for money and how it would be maintained or improved. • Experience and approach to articulating technical requirements for third-party suppliers to HMPO and assuring of value for money. • Collaboration Requirement: Provide evidence of experience of sharing knowledge and experience with other team members. • Collaboration Requirement: Provide evidence of experience of being transparent and collaborative with colleagues and Product owners. • Collaboration Requirement: Provide evidence of experience of seeking to innovate and improve. • Collaboration Requirement: Social Values and commitment to supporting innovation and disruptive technologies through the supply chain. • Social Values and commitment to supporting innovation and disruptive technologies through the supply chain. Cultural Fit Criteria Under the Model Award Criteria (MAC) 3.2, the Supplier shall support innovation and disruptive technologies throughout the supply chain to deliver lower cost and/or higher quality goods and services. Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 55% Cultural fit 10% Price 35% Questions from Suppliers 1. Please share the name of the incumbent. The incumbent supplier is A&A Digital Tech Ltd. 2. "Is the enclosed link associated with the previous procurement? https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/digital-outcomes-and-specialists/opportunities/12625?" The link referenced is the prior procurement activity for HMPO, which was awarded to A&A Digital Tech Ltd. 3. What is the link between HMPO Data Architecture Partner (due Friday 4 November 2022) and HMPO Enterprise and Solution Architecture Services (due 15th November)? These are separate procurements with different requirements. The end customer and the Buyer is HMPO (HM Passport Office) is the same for both services. 4. Can you provide the an anticipated timeline for this procurement? "The anticipated timelines (subject to change) are:24 November 2022 - Shortlist Notification for Stage 225 November 2022- Publication of the Further Competition Invitation1 December 2022- Clarification period closes (“Tender Clarification Deadline”)7 December 2022- Deadline for submission of a Tender to the Authority Contract (“Tender Submission Deadline”)18 January 2022- Bidder Presentations (subject to invitation and change)16 December 2023- completion of evaluation1 February 2023 - Award notification and start date of 10-day Standstill period13 February 2023 - Award/signature process commences13 February 2023- Earliest estimated commencement date for the Contract" 5. Could the Authority please confirm that the questions listed in the ‘Written Proposal’ section of the initial DOS 5 notice are final for the ITT phase? The information in the 'written proposal' is only an indication of the technical areas explored within Further Competition. These are not the ITT questions. 6. Can you confirm if shortlisted suppliers will have the opportunity to present? Three (3) short-listed suppliers will, subject to submitting Tenders which are fully compliant and meet the minimum criteria, be required to give presentations to clarify written elements of their bid submission. 7. Does HMPO have Architecture tooling in place for IT Portfolio Management and Architecture repository management or are you seeking for this to be provided within bids? The Home Office does not expect the supplier to provide Architecture tooling. 8. Please note the correction to the answer provided to question 4.The question is:Can you provide the an anticipated timeline for this procurement? The anticipated timelines (subject to change) are:24 November 2022 - Shortlist Notification for Stage 225 November 2022- Publication of the Further Competition Invitation1 December 2022- Clarification period closes (“Tender Clarification Deadline”)7 December 2022- Deadline for submission of a Tender to the Authority Contract (“Tender Submission Deadline”)18 January 2023- Bidder Presentations (subject to invitation and change)1 February 2023- Award notification and start date of 10-day Standstill period13 February 2023 - Award/signature process commences13 February 2023- Earliest estimated commencement date for the Contract 9. What is the current maturity of Enterprise Architecture within HMPO at the moment? HMPO is not adopting a full-blown heavyweight Enterprise Architecture methodology so in that sense it is immature, but that has been a conscious choice. Enterprise Architecture in HMPO refers to the activities that are needed that are cross cutting and organisation wide, some of which are more well defined than others. 10. What are the expected FTE requirements as part of this contract – the existing contract averaged 13.3 FTE but what is the future demand likely to be? The future utilisation of the service is not anticipated to materially change, although the nature of the services means that it may increase or decrease for periods of time based upon the needs of the Home Office. 11. "Under “Essential skills and experience” bullet point 1 state“The Supplier’s Service delivery team must have demonstrable experience of (modifier statement applies to question 2-14):”Could the Authority please confirm the expected response for this bullet point?" Please respond with 'No answer applicable'. A blank response is also acceptable as this question will not be scored. 12. "N.B Whilst the focus is on Software, Infrastructure and Data architecture the service should include the ability to call off Business Architecture services too.”Could the Authority please confirm that call off Business Architecture services includes onboarding of Business Architects, Business Product Owners and Business Analysts?" Yes it could although to date Business Product Owners have not been called off. 13. Please can you confirm what you mean by scaled agile? By scaled we mean that HMPO has multiple agile teams and product families all contributing to common value chains requiring significant dependency management and consistent architectural approaches across the families. 14. Is the HMPO asking for experience of open-source BPM tooling in this question? ‘one or more programming languages (e.g Java, Javascript, NodeJS) and design and implementation of open source software for business critical services (e.g Business Process Management tools).’ Yes 15. With regards to ‘design of Azure Stack based solutions for highly secure environments’ please advise whether specifically for HMPO, this relates to Azure Stack Hub, Azure Stack HCI or both?” Azure Stack Hub 16. Can the authority provide a count of the projects within “Passports”, “Civil Registration” and “Enablers” that are requiring Enterprise Architecture and Solution Architecture services? The count isn’t fixed and is split between projects and products. The number is in the dozens. 17. Will the projects / portfolios in scope be following the digital service standard and associated assessments and will Enterprise Architects, Solution Architects and service delivery team personnel fielded for this opportunity be assisting in service assessments? Yes and in certain scenarios the Solution Architects will support assessments that are led by Product Managers. 18. Can the authority name the Enterprise Architecture / Solution Architecture modelling, notation standards or associated tooling that are currently used on this opportunity? Typically use C4 modelling notation. No particular tooling used that the supplier needs to be expert in. More detail can be provided to successful bidders.