A partner agency to work with us to develop a new Case Management system for the Witness Service

Description

Summary of the work Citizens Advice needs a team to develop, run and support a new case management system from the discovery phase to live service, to enable the Witness Service to function. Expected Contract Length Confirmed scope of work: 2 years with option to extend for 6 months. Optional scope of work: 1 year Latest start date Monday 10 October 2022 Budget Range Confirmed scope of work: The maximum budget for this work is £447,500 over two years with an option to extend the contract for an additional 6 months. Optional scope of work: If Citizens Advice requires the implementation of the activities under the optional scope of work, the total estimated price of the work is a maximum of £15,000 over one year. Why the Work is Being Done Confirmed scope of work: Following a period of discovery in which off-the-shelf solutions were ruled out, we have identified the need to develop a bespoke case management system (Witness Box 2.0) to replace the current system (Witness Box 1.0). This will include the following: - Development of the platform in its entirety - Iterative discovery, including gathering requirements and adapting to user needs - Migrating data to the new system - Inputting into the creation of training materials for the new system - Maintaining and upgrading the current data input platform known as the LWAC - a Word document (.docx) file parsing and data extraction feature) The new application aims to rectify many pain points within the current system and provide a simplified and more intuitive experience to its users. The ultimate objective is to reduce the number of time-consuming and complex tasks so that our users can spend more time supporting witnesses and less time on admin. Optional scope of work: Maintenance and support of the existing Witness Box application until its end of life, responding to any critical bugs or small feature requests. Then undertaking a decommissioning process with our internal DevOps team once no longer in use. Problem to Be Solved Confirmed scope of work The current case management system (Witness Box 1.0) will reach its end of life by the end of December 2023. It is written in PHP 7.4 and we are unable to sustain it beyond this date. Witness Box is fundamental to the running of the Witness Service The Witness Service provides witnesses with the support they need so that they can have a greater chance of giving evidence in court and ensuring justice is done. Witness Box is the system that facilitates the contact and support offered by the service. Optional scope of work By undertaking the maintenance and support of the existing Witness Box application you will ensure that the service is supported by a stable platform until it is replaced by the new system, resolving any critical issues or small pieces of development where any urgent items occur. Who Are the Users As a Witness, I require support from the Witness Service so that I can give evidence in court As an internal member of the Witness Service, I require referral and trial information via the LWAC (data input feed). I need to contact the witness and start their support journey. As a member of the Senior Leadership team, I require operational-level reporting and info on whether KPIs are being met. I also need to provide reporting to our funder on these items. Early Market Engagement We have undertaken desk research into potential off-the-shelf solutions and reviewed the outputs from ongoing discovery and testing work, which has informed the details of this procurement specification. We, therefore, don't plan to complete any additional early market engagement ahead of undertaking this procurement process. Work Already Done A discovery phase is in progress, involving interviews with users, wireframing, testing, and iterating designs. The findings from this discovery are available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15Ud94XnHoapH3h00gqFs_wVQzgQPxsJg?usp=sharing And here: https://www.figma.com/proto/hYs2nj80alCQDU8lIskIVH/WB-2.0-Prototype?page-id=422%3A3844&node-id=1302%3A80731&viewport=-7745%2C-5246%2C0.34&scaling=contain&starting-point-node-id=1302%3A80731 Outputs of both discovery periods will be available to the successful supplier. Existing Team The existing in-house team consists of a Product Manager and Agile Delivery Manager - both full-time. There will also be an extended working group involved consisting of technical support, operations, cyber security, and information governance colleagues. Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Experience taking a product from Discovery to Live within 12 months, including validating requirements through research, development of the application, data migration, onboarding, iterating and user testing. Please give examples. • Experience developing products following the 12-factor specifications: https://12factor.net/ Please give examples. • At least 3 years of expertise in iteratively prototyping, designing and building digital products that meet user needs and follow industry best-practice for product development. Please give examples. • Evidence of a strong background in collaborative working with a client's in-house teams, including coaching, mentoring and knowledge sharing. Please give examples. • At least 3 years of experience in accessible web design, following WCAG 2.1 guidelines and with a good understanding of wider accessibility principles. Please give examples. • At least 3 years of experience delivering digital products using Agile principles: minimising upfront investment/risk, working toward MVPs, and adapting the plan based on real-world observations. Please give examples. • At least 3 years of experience in architecting, transforming and maintaining applications deployed in multiple public cloud platforms including Amazon Web Services (AWS). Please give examples. • Experience of working in collaboration with a team doing continuous delivery (continuous integration and continuous deployment). Please give examples. • For the LWAC (data import system) we will need experience with using PHP to build both web and headless applications, preferably using Laravel. Please give examples. • For the LWAC (data import system) we will need experience with word document (.docx) file parsing and data extraction. Please give examples. • At least 3 years building web applications with Javascript. Please give examples. • Experience of developing systems based on the principle of security and data protection by design and development of secure coding based on open standards, including web application security. • Experience of working with extremely high levels of uncertainty and being comfortable with adapting to changing specifications without it impacting the go-live date. Please give examples. Nice to Haves • Experience working with the complexities of the criminal justice sector or equivalent sector. Please give examples. • Experience working with some of the tech stacks we currently use, which include Ruby, Rails, Rspec, React, Cucumber, Webpack, CSS, SASS, PHP, Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, and AWS. Please give examples. Work Location No specific location - flexible within England and Wales Working Arrangments The supplier staff will work remotely, alongside our existing in-house product team who are also primarily remote. We expect the team to be available during core working hours 10am - 4pm in order to maximise shared working time and integrate with the in-house team. No travel and subsistence costs are required or included. The primary digital tools supplier staff will use are: Google Meet video, Slack, Trello, Jira, Github, Docker, Kubernetes, and Jenkins. Security Clearance All members of the team must have BPSS as a minimum to be supplied by the contractor with a preference for personnel who hold a current certification against BS7858:2019. Ideally, at least one person in the team should have current screening certification against BS7858:2019. Additional T&Cs The supplier shall sign a non-disclosure agreement and agree to Citizens Advice's supplier code of conduct. Suppliers shall guarantee to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures (including the application of security controls) so that the processing meets the requirements of GDPR and ensures the protection of the rights of data subjects. For the duration of the contract the successful supplier will: 1) be a Data Processor and Citizens Advice will be the Data Controller, 2) sign a data processing agreement, and 3) ensure any sub-processors are located ideally in UK or within EEA. For further information see ICO’s website: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/ No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Evidence of working with users to understand their work, their operating context and constraints, and identifying and implementing improvements • Clarity of the proposed approach, project plan, and timelines • Clarity on how you handle the mitigation of risks, including security risks, and their remediation through the application of security enforcing controls • Ability to meet the technical requirements • Ability to meet the data protection requirements • Describe the team structure you would propose and the roles you feel are relevant to the completion of this work • Demonstrate the ability to adapt a team's skill set based on changing needs • Demonstrate value for money of the confirmed scope of work and of the optional scope of work • Demonstrate the ability to understand vastly complex and changing requirements, and turn these into technical solutions Cultural Fit Criteria • Be passionate about innovation and the potential to use technology to help people • Have a robust policy for equity, diversity and inclusion, and work actively to embed this into digital products and teams • Understand the need for products to be sustainable: continually developing and iterating to keep the technology modern and relevant, and avoid the accrual of technical debt • Be collaborative with internal stakeholders • Be able to show resilience and adaptability when facing changing needs and requirements • Share knowledge and be keen to learn from others • Please provide any further information on how your proposal aligns with Citizens Advices values and principles (for example, any examples of innovation (including environmental and social benefits) Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 65% Cultural fit 15% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Is there any incumbent supplier? A supplier is currently maintaining Witness Box 1.0. The same supplier is producing the discovery outputs for Witness Box 2.0. 2. Is there a requirement to continue further development in PHP or are other programming languages being considered? No, there isn't a requirement for new development to be in PHP. The existing LWAC (data import system) is built in PHP and so relevant experience in PHP will be needed to integrate with, maintain and upgrade as per the requirements of the new system.We would prefer alignment to our existing tech stacks, which have been outlined in the “Nice-to-have skills and experience” section. 3. Given the word count, is it OK to provide one detailed example for questions that ask for “examples”? Yes, we require a minimum of one example, so that would be fine. 4. What’s the desired hosting solution for the platform? The desired hosting solution is Kubernetes (EKS) / AWS. The app code itself must be able to run in containers, and follow the 12 factor methodology (https://12factor.net/). We will use AWS native services for any supporting services e.g. databases, storage. 5. Why was an off-the-shelf solution deemed unsuitable? Due to the unique nature of the Witness Service, the off-the-shelf solutions we explored required a significant amount of customisation to be fit for purpose. On this basis we decided a bespoke solution would be a better fit and more cost effective. 6. Do you have a preferred team profile, or is this something you’d like to see as part of a proposal? We do not have a preferred team profile. The team structure will be assessed as part of the shortlisted suppliers’ proposals during phase 2 of this procurement process. Suppliers shall outline the team structure and the roles they feel are relevant to the completion of this work as part of their proposal. 7. Who delivered the discovery? Please see the answer to question 1. 8. Can you provide any background regarding the question about “extremely high levels of uncertainty” is there a particular set of circumstances that make this pertinent? The Witness Service will be going through a period of transformation, adapting its service offering to meet the changing needs of its users. The new product will need the functionality to facilitate the new journeys. However, at the start of development, these requirements will not have been defined. The product team will need to work collaboratively with the service on this area of uncertainty.Moreover, the processes in which courts and trials operate are extremely complex. Multiple rounds of discovery have revealed a large variety of specific user cases, experiences and issues. All must be understood and prioritised accordingly. 9. There is a requirement that any remote work be carried out in England and Wales. Is there any reason why Scotland and Northern Ireland are excluded? Citizens Advice is an operating name of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, a charity registered in England and operating in England and Wales. More information about Citizens Advice can be found here: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/about-us1/introduction-to-the-citizens-advice-service/