Open Source Feasibility for a Revenues and Benefits solution - invitation to quote

Description

Summary of the work We are looking for a supplier with experience of open-source, to advise on the feasibility of creating and sustaining an open-source solution for a Revenues and Benefits system. Expected Contract Length 5 days Latest start date Monday 3 February 2020 Budget Range £5000 Why the Work is Being Done The work is funded by MHCLG’s Local Digital Fund. The purpose of this funding is to support digital projects that address common local service challenges, in common reusable ways. https://localdigital.gov.uk/fund The full application for the project can be found at https://localdigital.gov.uk/funded-projects-round-3/a-new-system-for-processing-revenues-and-benefits-data/ 339 Local Authorities in England and Wales run services to collect Council Tax and Business Rates, and provide a welfare service for Housing Benefits and Council Tax Support. Together, these services are known as ‘Revs and Bens’. Each Local Authority operates software to support these services; currently, there are three suppliers of Revs and Bens software. The Teignbridge project will explore the feasibility of introducing a new open-source option for Local Authorities. Problem to Be Solved The focus is to examine the success factors, and risks, when creating and sustaining an open-source solution for Revs and Bens, and the likely associated costs. This then will inform the Business Case that is put back to MHCLG. The expectation is that a modern approach should be a set of components, made inter-operable by standards and APIs so that councils can build solutions into their digital platform. The use of a digital platform means that a Revs and Bens solution can focus on the business logic, and not be concerned with peripheral capabilities such as identity management records /document management workflow payments Government regularly introduce new or changed policies that require that systems need to be changed. Systems must always be updated in good time to ensure that residents, business and claimants are treated correctly and that the council is acting within regulations. A solution should be capable of coping with change, at minimal cost to the community, whilst giving confidence that change has been thoroughly tested. Councils may choose to adopt local policies, and processes, which better meet the needs and circumstances of their residents. A solution should be capable of plugging in localised components and calculations. Who Are the Users As a Chief Digital Officer of a Local Authority, I need to ... break computer systems into digital components so that we can change the way we work and serve our local customers. set up a community of practitioners and developers so that open source software is supported and continually improving Work Already Done One of the project’s partners, Sedgemoor District Council, is one of two councils in England, who operate their own ‘in-house’ system for ‘Revs and Bens’. Sedgemoor will be happy to spend a day, either at their offices in Somerset, or over a video link, walking through their systems to establish scope complexity volatility i.e. how often changes are required The project is seperately appointing consultants to conduct user-research with other councils to understand their needs and likelihood of takeup. You work will feed into their report. Existing Team • Amanda Pujol-Project Lead-Head of Community services and Improvement, Teignbridge District Council • Tracey Hooper-Revenue, Benefits and Customer Services Manager, Teignbridge District Council • Libby Jarret, Service Lead Revenues and Benefits, East Devon Council • Laura Fricker, Service Lead Revenues and Benefits and Customer Access, Exeter City Council • Robert Manser, Shared Service Revenue and Benefits Manager, Basildon and Brentwood Council • Paul Davidson, Chief Information Officer Sedgemoor District Council • Kay O Flaherty, Business Improvement & Development Team Leader, Teignbridge District Council • Laurence Whitlock, IT Director Strata • David Sercombe, Head of Business Systems, Strata Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • have expertise and experience developing and sustaining open source solutions • have experience of delivering a detailes cased busines • have experience of providing services as APIs and an understanding of Governnment API standards Nice to Haves • demonstrate an understanding of the re-usable digital capabilities that a typical council would need, that would interoperate with a Revs and Bens system • demonstrate experience delivering digital services to GDS service standard and design principles. Work Location The lead organisation will be Teignbridge District Council, Newton Abbott. Sedgemoor District Council are based in Bridgwater. The work can be carried out on-site and/or remotely over a video link. All associated expenses, including travel costs, should be included in your costs and will not be reimbursed separately. Working Arrangments The supplier will report on the feasibility of producing and maintaining an open source solution, highlighting success factors, and risks; propose how a technical and practitioner community could be formed around the solution; propose the type of ‘value-add’ services that could be established to make the solution attractive to local authorities; give an indication of the costs involved; present findings to the project, either at Teignbridge’s offices, or via a video link. We expect that a supplier with extensive knowledge and experience of open source solutions will be able to complete these requirements within 5 days of effort. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Team structure • How the approach meets our requirement Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers • Share knowledge and experience with other team members Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 75% Cultural fit 5% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Can you please clarify the following requirement?"have experience of delivering a detailes cased busines" Apologies for the typo - it should read "detailed business case" 2. Please can you confirm if the supplier appointed to carry out this work cannot also be awarded the separate 12 week user research work (which has already been published as a separate DOS opportunity). A supplier can apply for both pieces of work 3. How does this opportunity tie into the "Open Source Solution for a Revenue and Benefits System" that is due to close on the 5th December 2020? The other contract focuses on user-research, to draw out the requirements from councils, that would make a solution attractive. This contract is about open-source expertise to advise on how achievable a solution would be. This part would be expanded on in a later ‘Alpha’ phase if MHCLG decided to fund that. 4. Can you please list 3rd party existing systems which are meant to be examined/over-viewed? There is no requirement to examine existing systems. Sedgemoor District Council are offering access to their in-house Revs and Bens system if a supplier would find that helpful to gauge scope/complexity/volatility. Team members from partner councils will be on-hand to discuss what a Revs and Bens system does. A more detailed examination may occur in a later ‘Alpha’ phase if MHCLG decided to fund that. At this ‘Discovery’ phase, we need to understand the approach to open-source, and an indication of costs, but not a quote against a detailed specification. 5. Please can you clarify question number two – 'Have experience of delivering a detailes cased busines', do we need to just confirm our experience in delivering detailed business cases or are there any evidences required? Firstly, we apologise for the typo. It should read "detailed business case". Responses that include evidence are likely to score higher – you may include links to published work as examples.