Customer Digital Services – Report to Creditors (RTC) and Proof of Debt (POD)

Description

Summary of the work To work with the Insolvency Service to design and deliver a new customer-facing digital service to allow creditors to send and receive information from the Agency, and to provide a period of hypercare when service is transitioned into Public Beta Expected Contract Length 9 months - Build and deliver service and provide a period of hypercare Latest start date Tuesday 31 January 2023 Why the Work is Being Done The Customer Digital Services project was set up to support the Agency’s Five Year Strategy (The Insolvency Service Strategy 2021 to 2026 - GOV.UK), with the aim to identify and deliver technology related improvements to how we interact with our customers. The improvements we deliver will be in line with the agency vision to be digital first and easy to do business with. This may involve improving existing digital external contact points or digitising services which are currently paper based. Two of our key goals are to: • Minimise avoidable customer contact by providing customers with what they need through greater automated communication and self-serve opportunities • Identify opportunities to enhance our existing external contact points to ensure customers are directed to the appropriate channel and can provide the right information first time. After successful Pre-Discovery, Discovery, and Alpha phases, the project has identified a solution to digitise our Report to Creditors (RTC) and Proof of Debt (POD) processes. These processes are high-volume, paper-based, and heavily reliant on manual activities which use unnecessary resource throughout the existing processes. There is an expectation to move to Public Beta July 2023 Problem to Be Solved This procurement is to secure a supplier to develop and deliver a new customer-facing digital service which will allow creditors to access and view digital copies of key documents that we are legally required to provide. This service will also allow creditors to submit documentation to the Agency digitally in order to provide evidence of their claim in bankruptcy and liquidation cases. This will remove a high-volume paper-based process that is time-consuming, delivers cost savings to the Agency and our service users, and will contribute to the Government’s environmental and sustainability ambitions. A 3 month period of hypercare is required following the move to Public Beta Who Are the Users Our users are creditors, split into groups based on size which reflects the regularity with which they engage with the processes, and our internal users who process the claims. As an indication of volumes, we anticipate 300,000-350,000 RTCs will be issued across our cases per year. At a high level, our user stories indicate the following: - As a creditor... I need to register my interest in a bankruptcy or liquidation case... so that I can make a claim for payment. - As a creditor.... I want to access information and digitally, so that I can understand my position and expected outcomes - As a creditor... I want to receive my Report to Creditors digitally, so that I can extract the information more easily - As a creditor... I want to submit my Proof of Debt with supporting evidence digitally, so that I can protect my interest Based on user research, this could be via a portal with a dashboard of key information and prompts for the user to take action. Early Market Engagement Early market engagement took place based on high level requirements to obtain an estimate for cost and timeframes to deliver the service, and an estimate on costs for a managed service. In summary, this indicated that meeting the requirements was feasible, a hypercare period was a more viable option, and that the work could be completed within the required timescales through an agile approach. Work Already Done An internal project team completed a Discovery and Alpha phase. We have passed the GDS Alpha Assessment and have designed a solution which aligns with Insolvency Service strategies and IT ambitions. This is a user-centric design that is based heavily on user research with all of our creditor types (external users) and internal teams. Existing Team The established team will move with the project into Private Beta. The team currently consists of: - 1x Senior Project Manager - 1x Project Manager - 1 x Solution Architect - 1x User Researcher - 1x Project Support A Business Analyst, Service Designer and Content Designer will be onboarded to the team when Private Beta commences Current Phase Alpha Skills & Experience • Have experience of building and designing external facing services that integrate with case management systems, following standard integration patterns • Have extensive experience with Azure technologies • Experience in Agile iterative development methods building on a user-centric design with feedback loops • Have experience in running requirements workshops, collating requirements catalogues and defining user stories • Have experience of data ingestion and data migration • Have experience of deployment into public Beta phase and hypercare support • Have experience of delivering and developing training for end users and train-the-trainer • Have experience of quality assurance through system testing, user acceptance testing, automated end-to-end testing, code quality checks • Have experience of delivering performance testing, scalability testing, operational acceptance testing and wider non-functional requirement testing • Have experience and technical support for a hypercare period, including software deployments, patching and version upgrades • Have experience in Data management support to ensure that data is appropriately segregated, its lifecycle and security managed appropriately, and that storage costs are optimised • Have experience in Governance support to ensure that the prior elements are being properly managed, and are seen to be so • Have experience of supporting the system handover to a suite of service providers under a SIAM model including knowledge transfer • Experience of complying with GDS Service Standards in the design and build of new services • Experience in transitioning a service from integration from one system to a new one • Experience working with Architecture Governance Framework Nice to Haves • Have experience of delivering project adhering to government IT security standards and patterns • Have experience of supporting assurance activities through Architectural Review Boards and OGC Gateway Reviews • Have experience of participating and chairing stakeholder engagement events across internal and external users • Have experience of creation of delivery plans and roadmaps • Experience with the GDS Service Standards Assessment processes • Understanding of Insolvency legislation • Have experience in facilitating secure data movement between internal and external bodies Work Location All work will be completed remotely, and the supplier will be responsible for the location of their staff. There will be a regular requirement for key supplier personnel to attend the Insolvency Service offices in Manchester and Birmingham as required. The supplier will periodically be invited to attend and present at key stakeholder meetings, both remotely and at the Insolvency Service offices. Working Arrangments The suppliers will be expected to work to Insolvency core hours, usually 9 - 5 daily. Some resource to be available to participate in extended hours where required. The Agency requires there to be a minimum of quarterly review meetings between the agencies representative and suppliers, these review meetings can be held via telephone / Video Conference. At least one quarterly review meeting within a 12-month period to be held face to face. The agency requires quarterly performance review packs to be provided by the suppliers 1 week in advance to the review meeting, with additional stats agreed in advance. Security Clearance Minimum BPSS, limited engagements may need SC. Supplier must be willing and able to undergo to SC clearance and provide suitably cleared personnel, if or when required under this contract. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Your approach to a hypercare service for the solution • Your approach to quality assuring the solution against functional and non-functional requirements • Your approach to designing and delivering the solution while following the appropriate NCSC Cyber Security Guidance as closely as possible • Your approach to collecting requirements and engaging stakeholders, managing Agile backlogs, sprint planning, estimation and prioritisation • Your proposed delivery plan and roadmap and how you will report ongoing progress and status • Your proposed resource profile for project delivery and how you will structure the project team • Your approach to transition to operations • Describe your previous experience in building similar solutions • Your approach to transitioning the service from integrations with one case management system to another • Approach to designing and delivering the solution, adhering to government digital standards, including optional deliverable of POD receipt, automation, processing into file repository and case management system updated with location Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers • Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes • Take responsibility for their work • Share knowledge and experience with other team members • Can work with clients with low technical expertise • Your approach to optimising the user journey to minimise the environmental footprint (for example; optimising download / export formatting for efficient printing, minimising click-throughs to reduce system engagement time) • Your organisation’s approach to demonstrating a commitment to Carbon reduction (in line with Procurement Policy Note 06/2021) • Your organisation’s approach to working in partnership with customers and stakeholders • Your organisation's approach to tackling workplace inequality through training, employment, skills and the reduction of pay inequality Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Work history • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 10% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. Would you be able to provide the expected budget range for this work? We are not able to provide a defined set budget for this opportunity. We will be assessing cost/value for money as part of the scoring at the proposal stage. 2. Is there incumbent vendor? We do not have an incumbent vendor, we have an internal project team who have been working across the wider development of the Insolvency Services Customer Digital Services portfolio and will also work closely with the future supplier for the Report to Creditors (RTC) and Proof of Debt (POD) requirements. 3. The team have completed a successful Alpha and have a full design for the next phase and a team lined up to control it – what’s the rationale for procuring a supplier at this stage rather than a series of contractors? A supplier will have an established team of all required roles, and be providing expertise with a proven track record in this area. Supplier procurement is also in line with Agency’s strategic IT principles 4. What are the existing digital contact points and what improvements to them are you looking for? There are no existing digital contact points for creditors in the service. We plan to design and build new capabilities 5. What are currently paper based services that needs to be digitised? This is a two way service, the Agency issue Report to Creditors, a mandatory document to all creditors on a case, and creditors send us a Proof of Debt document with supporting evidence lodging their claim on a case 6. If it is capped time and material payment, are you expecting a rate card for various roles/team members? Yes, we are expecting a rate card for various roles/team members. 7. What automated communication and self-serve functionality is required on the portal? Functionality that allows a user to provide required information, view case information, submit documents and functions as defined in requirements catalogue. 8. Are the documents submitted by creditors following any format/template and do we need to automatically read these documents and get claim information to integrate with the case management system? Templates will gather information and soultion will manage passing information to case management system. Uploaded documents will be read for key information which will also be passed to the case management system. 9. What case management system(s) is currently used that needs to be integrated with this portal? The current case management system is ISCIS (Insolvency Service Case Information System). 10. Do you need personalisation on the portal based on creditor/user login? The same format will be displayed to all creditors however the document details will be creditor specific 11. Are you open to use any vendor based customer facing portal platform? The portal must be GDS compliant and satisfy agreed patterns by the Agency 12. Do you need a content translation tool? Is this technical translation or language translation? 13. How is the content (FAQs, Static or dynamic content, etc.) on the portal created, published and managed? Do you need any back-end CMS platform? Information will be called from existing repositories and case management systems. A back end CMS platform is not required. 14. Do you display lot of documents (Knowledge Base Articles, Manuals, etc.) on the customer portal? And do you need any back-end DMS platform to create, publish and manage these documents? Information generated by the case management system will need to displayed within the portal. Generated RTC documents will need to linked and served from the portal with the right level of access and security. 15. Is there any dynamic content displayed on the customer portal? The portal will display dynamically generated content. It is dependent on user access rights and case status. This will be clearer when portal user journeys and requirements are better defined. 16. Will the portal integrate with other applications? If so, please provide details. Portal may integrate with API's or event message queues for passing and receiving information. Most information will come from the case management application. 17. Do we need to expose the content of the portal for other applications? Content is currently not intended to be exposed to other applications 18. How is the content (FAQs, Static or dynamic content, etc.) on the portal created, published and managed? Do you need any back-end CMS platform? Information will be called from existing repositories and case management systems. A back end CMS platform is not required. 19. Do we need to expose the content of the portal for other applications? No, it is not expected that we need to expose the content of the portal to other applications. 20. Do you need mobile app for this? If so, please provide details The web solution must be the response (i.e. mobile first). 21. Do you want to track customer behaviour/activity on the portal using web analytics tool? Yes, we need to be able to call this data for management information purposes. 22. What is the technology stack preference for this portal development? (front-end, back-end, database, integration, etc.) The solution will be hosted within Microsoft Azure and must use Microsoft web application framework subject to GDS certification 23. How many team members are required along with their skill, experience and duration? The supplier should formulate their team based on the roles required, providing the skills and experience needed for the supplier-determined build time with hypercare 24. Could you please clarify: are you expecting the chosen supplier to provide a team that can deliver the service or are you expecting they will provide roles to augment the capabilities of the established team? Furthermore, will the supplier be empowered to work with the IS team to advise on the approach that will lead to successful delivery? The supplier will provide the team to deliver the service, and will work in collaboration with the existing IS team regarding the approach, subject to governance and approvals boards. 25. What are the existing digital contact points and what improvements to them are you looking for? There are no existing digital contact points for creditors in the service. We plan to design and build new capabilities 26. What are currently paper based services that needs to be digitised? This is a two way service – the Agency issues Report to Creditors, a mandatory document to all creditors on a case, and Proof of Debt. Creditors send us a document with supporting evidence lodging their claim on a case. 27. If it is capped time and material payment, are you expecting a rate card for various roles/team members? Yes, we do expect a rate card for carious roles/team members. 28. What automated communication and self-serve functionality is required on the portal? Functionality that allows a user to provide required information, view case information, submit documents and functions as defined in requirements catalogue 29. Are the documents submitted by creditors follow any format/template and do we need to automatically read these documents and get claim information to integrate with the case management system? Template will gather information and solution will manage passing information to case management system. Uploaded documents will be read for key information which will also be passed to the case management system. 30. What case management system(s) is currently used that needs to be integrated with this portal? ISCIS (Insolvency Service Case Information System) 31. Do you need personalisation on the portal based on creditor/user login? The same format will be displayed to all creditors however the document details will be creditor specific. 32. Are you open to use any vendor based customer facing portal platform? The portal must be GDS compliant and satisfy agreed patterns by the Agency. 33. Do you need a content translation tool? We may require this for Welsh 34. How is the content (FAQs, Static or dynamic content, etc.) on the portal created, published and managed? Do you need any back-end CMS platform? Information will be called from existing repositories and case management systems. A back end CMS platform is not required. 35. Do you display lot of documents (Knowledge Base Articles, Manuals, etc.) on the customer portal? And do you need any back-end DMS platform to create, publish and manage these documents? Information generated by the case management system will need to displayed within the portal. Generated RTC documents will need to linked and served from the portal with the right level of access and security. 36. Is there any dynamic content displayed on the customer portal? The portal will display dynamically generated content. It is dependent on user access rights and case status. This will be clearer when portal user journeys and requirements are better defined. 37. Will the portal integrate with other applications? If so, please provide details. Portal may integrate with API's or event message queues for passing and receiving information. Most information will come from the case management application 38. Do we need to expose the content of the portal for other applications? Content is currently not intended to be exposed to other applications 39. Do you need mobile app for this? If so, please provide details No, but the web solution should be responsive and mobile first (suitable for both Apple and Android devices) 40. Do you want to track customer behaviour/activity on the portal using web analytics tool? Yes, we need to be able to call this data for management information purposes. 41. What is the technology stack preference for this portal development? (front-end, back-end, database, integration, etc.) The solution will be hosted within Microsoft Azure and must use Microsoft web application framework subject to GDS certification. 42. How many team members are required along with their skill, experience and duration? The supplier should formulate their team based on the roles required, providing the skills and experience needed for the supplier-determined build time with hypercare. 43. You state that you are expecting a BA, Service Designer and Content Designer to join your existing internal team. Is the requirement therefore for a Supplier to provide these three specialists (along with others if the need arises?) No - these roles would be part of the Agency's project team. 44. Is the Insolvency Service managing the project but requiring supplementary specialist skills, to support the delivery of this next phase? There will be an Agency project team and they will work collaboratively with the supplier who will be responsible for the design and development of the solution. 45. We understand you have done early market engagement, have you therefore now ruled out a Managed Service Approach? The Agency now has an internal team who will support the service, therefore an outsourced managed service will no longer be required 46. Could you please provide a timeline for the remainder of procurement? We are intending to commence requirements in early January, to facilitate this, we are looking to issue the 2nd stage of the procurement process in late November with a view to awarding a contract before Christmas. 47. Are suppliers permitted to use multiple examples in their answers to questions? ‘Multiple examples are permitted however it is important to clearly demonstrate how each example is responding to an element of the requirements. 48. In regards to the expectation that suppliers have an ‘Understanding of insolvency legislation’ – do you expect suppliers to evidence this understanding or to demonstrate their understanding in their answer to the question? Suppliers do not need to have a detailed understanding of Insolvency Legislation but an appreciation and/or grasp of the legislation. 49. Are suppliers able to gain sight of the early market engagement information and any appropriate Q&As from this activity? For information, we received 4 responses to our request for information and early market engagement, while we are not able to share the full details on these responses via the forum, should you wish to receive a copy of the RFI template used for requesting information then please email commercial@insolvency.gov.uk, quoting CDS - RTC and POD request for RFI template and also mark for the attention of James Leadbeater