Arts Council England Invitation to Tender Title: Consultancy and technical support to Arts Council England’s intranet and internal communication technologies, including intranet development, staff training programme and on-going support Reference number: ART011-0035 Deadline for receipt of tender proposals 12.00hrs Noon on 23/05/2014 Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people's lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries - from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2011 and 2015, we are investing £1.4 billion of public money from Government and an estimated £1 billion from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. Background In 2013 Arts Council England implemented a new organisational structure. The change came as a result of the Government’s requirement – made as part of Arts Council England’s settlement for 2011-15 – that the Arts Council reduces its administrative costs, as applied to its grant in aid for the arts by the end of March 2015. Making savings on this scale required a major restructure and a substantial reduction in staff numbers, as well as calling for new ways of working. Key features of the new organisation included: an overall reduction in staff numbers across the organisation of 21 per cent from 559.5 full time posts to 442 (117.5 posts) four Executive Directors, reducing from eight, accountable for delivering the Arts Council’s overall strategy, with the Chief Executive leadership of art form and cultural geographically across the organisation In shaping the new structure, we were guided by the principle of remaining one national organisation with local presence. Our major offices are now in London, Manchester, Birmingham, and Bristol, plus some smaller local offices. policy expertise distributed 1 Internal communications has an important part to play in embedding the aims of the organisation review, and in ensuring that Arts Council England is a porous, learning and adaptive organisation, open to the flow of information, insight and ideas. We also want to support staff to be able to exploit the opportunities offered by new media and other technologies. Internal communications works with IT to ensure the infrastructure is in place to enable more collaborative and remote working, and with HR to ensure that training is provided to enable the new ways of working. Our key internal communications channel is the intranet - OnePlace – which was moved onto a Sharepoint platform in July 2013. We also have Lync available to all staff via their PCs, laptops and smart phones. There is currently a low-medium level of engagement with these new channels. We are running on-premise versions SharePoint 2010 Enterprise, Lync 2013, Exchange 2010, Office 2010 and Windows 7. We have leveraged the power of enterprise voice and unified communications through the integration of Exchange and Lync with our VOIP telephone system, Cisco Call Manager. Arts Council England has the internal expertise to administer the Microsoft server and application infrastructure and some SharePoint development capability. Support for, or hosting of, our SharePoint environment is not within the scope of this tender. The intranet was developed by a Sharepoint partner, who customised a number of the ‘out of the box’ elements and features. We are not looking for a full redevelopment of the intranet, but improvements and changes to what is in place, and importantly, training and support to make the most of what we have. Some people feel under-trained and are hesitant to try new ways of working provided by OnePlace (e.g. document sharing). Some have created team sites and wish to take them to the next level. Others have received no formal training and don’t see the need to engage with the intranet. Further training and support is needed at all levels of the Arts Council to make the most from the technology, in order to support the changes to our culture needed to embed the aims of the organisation review. Some of the behaviours Arts Council England want to encourage internally are: Engagement in online group conversations on discussion boards. This could include commenting on intranet articles, online polls and newsfeeds, and social discussions. Collaboration across and within teams through team sites, instant messaging, desktop conferencing, document sharing and team news feeds. 2 Developed leadership communication and engagement, for example through MySites, blogging, interactive discussions, video messages, podcasting. An increase in individual use of MySites, so that all colleagues have access to improved information about who is responsible for what, and who they can ask for information or feedback on specific issues and projects. We also want to encourage staff to get to know each other by sharing some of their personal interests and experiences. The use of network or reference groups to develop or test ideas, and the development of OnePlace / SharePoint champions across the organisation. We are shortly to undertake a staff digital culture survey, which will provide a more detailed picture of the current state of staff confidence with, and use of, digital technology - both within and outside the organisation. The results of the survey will inform the detailed training requirements as set out below. Section 1: Specification 1. Introduction Arts Council England is seeking an experienced Service Provider to perform services related to consultancy and technical support for its intranet and other internal communication technology, Microsoft SharePoint and Lync. Arts Council England requires bespoke support in the internal communications engagement, training and technical support for its intranet - OnePlace - which is based on a new SharePoint platform. The Services required include intranet development, staff training and on-going support. The objectives of the Services are to support Arts Council England’s staff to work collaboratively from remote locations, and to share information, insight and ideas encourage and support more widespread use of new technology; the Arts Council’s intranet – OnePlace – and Lync suggest ways that the existing technology can be further exploited to benefit staff and ways of working 3 2. The Service Provider Arts Council England is looking for a Microsoft SharePoint Approved Partner. We would also expect the supplier to have experience of similar projects with similar sized organisations to Arts Council England. Arts Council England is looking for a Service Provider that has experience of embedding Sharepoint within an organisation to positively affect employee engagement and/or experience of working with organisations that need to work collaboratively, but are spread across several sites / locations. The Service Provider must bring expertise in Sharepoint and Lync – both at a strategic level, but also from an end-user perspective. Arts Council England is looking for a provider who is good at working one-to-one, or with larger groups, and can pass on skills, techniques and knowledge to people with a wide range of current abilities. 3. Arts Council England’s Requirements 3.1 The following services are required by Arts Council England under this ITT: Advise on, and support, an internal communications campaign using existing channels the internal communications team has, to promote the use of OnePlace and Lync as tools to embed the aims of the Arts Council’s review. The purpose of the campaign is to describe, explain and ‘sell’ the benefits of Sharepoint and Lync, as tools for collaborative working and communication. List the benefits available in terms that can be shown to be achievable once implemented, so that maximum buy-in for the improvements and training can be achieved, and so that the ‘campaign’ (as per bullet point above) mirrors the up-coming activity. Develop OnePlace’s usability and end-user experience and include homepage usability, navigation, team site development, interactivity etc as per the Arts Council’s requests. Scope out, design and provide a programme of bespoke training sessions in both Sharepoint and Lync, to fit in with the fluctuating workloads of Arts Council staff. This programme will include: o 1:1 coaching for individuals, including the Chief Executive and Executive Board 4 o ‘Super user’ training for internal comms, IT and customer service teams – to enable them to provide on-going in-house training and support. o Up to 15 bespoke training sessions on using OnePlace / Sharepoint and Lync for collaborative working. These sessions will be held in all the Arts Council’s offices across England and with all teams, and include staff members with different levels of confidence and skill. Provide on-going technical support for both internal comms and IT for the duration of the Contract, including potential future SharePoint up-grades, OnePlace redesigns and/or additions, further training as and when required by the Arts Council. 3.2. Deliverables / outputs required by the Arts Council under this ITT will include: List of specific and detailed benefits achievable from enhanced use of existing technology / systems Detailed report of any necessary remedial work and fixes, with estimated timescales Site usability advice and suggestions for improvements Improvements agreed with Arts Council and implemented within reasonable timescales Agreed programme of training (as detailed above) with the level of that training fully scoped Training days at Arts Council England offices across England (London, Brighton, Cambridge, Bristol, Birmingham, Nottingham, Dewsbury, Newcastle, Manchester), and three to five at the National offices (London, Birmingham, Manchester) On-going support to be provided either remotely, or in person 3.3. All bidders are required to submit their proposals on how they will meet our requirements specified in Clause 3.1 above and deliver required deliverables /outputs specified in Clause 3.2 above. 3.4. Outside of scope under this ITT: Support for, or hosting of, our SharePoint environment is not within the scope of this tender. 5 3.5. Project Timetable End of May - Diagnostics to take place Beginning of June – Produce report, scheme of proposed remedial and developmental work Beginning of June – Agree scope / timescales of work for intranet repair / development Beginning of June – Agree timetable / schedule for training programme Mid–end of June – carry out remedial / developmental work Beginning of July – Commence training programme with IT, Internal Comms, Customer Services teams in Manchester or potentially off-site Late July – First wave of organisation-wide training programme carried out at all Arts Council offices September – Second wave of training sessions for those not available in July August 2014- August 2015 – ongoing support 3.6. Hours of Service For the initial consultancy / development work – no specified hours For the training work 09.00 – 17.00hrs on training days For subsequent support contract 09.00 – 17.00hrs For subsequent consultancy / development work – no specified hours 3.7. Escalation Procedures In the event of a major problem, a list of contacts will be required to manage any problem to a successful conclusion. 3.8. Account Management In performing the services required under this contract the supplier will report to Toby Ross, Manager, Internal Communications & Planning, Arts Council England, The Hive, Lever Street, Manchester, MI IFN. The Service Provider will be required to allocate the named individual who will be responsible for the account management of this contract on behalf of the Service Provider. 6 3.9. Customer Support / Service Levels Customer support and Service levels will be applicable to Services and the details of the level of service a bidder is able to provide will be required as part of tender submission. 3.10 Management Reporting/review meetings There will be regular weekly review meetings during the development work part of the contract. After that, regular monthly review meetings for the remainder of the contract to discuss progress, issues arising etc. Contract Duration and Value Contract duration is estimated for 15 months. Arts Council England reserves its right to renew the Contract for a further 24 months and / or request additional services related to SharePoint development and training. The total costs of services under the Contract for the contract duration of 15 months is estimated in the range of £30,000 -£35,000 inclusive of VAT and all associated expenses. For the price evaluation purposes the total fees in your bid shall not exceed £35,000 inclusive of VAT and all associated expenses. If Arts Council England decides to renew or request additional services the total value of such additional services or 24 months extension will be up to £50,000 inclusive of VAT and all associated expenses. Payment Structure and billing requirements Payment for the initial diagnostic work, status report and subsequent remedial action will be made on successful completion of this stage of the work. Payment for the training programme will be made separately at the successful conclusion of the programme. Payment for any support contract will be invoiced separately and paid monthly in arrears. 7 Section 2: Evaluation Criteria You are required to respond to ALL of the criteria below. Initially we will evaluate your tender for a relevant Lot to see if you meet our minimum PASS/FAIL CRITERIA set out below. Bidders who do not pass all the Pass/Fail criteria (A, B, C and D) below will be excluded from further consideration in the competition (i.e. their tenders will not be evaluated further and will be excluded from the competition). Pass Fail Criteria A Arts Council England is looking for an organisation with: Experience of designing, implementing and maintaining Sharepoint based intranets, preferably for medium sized organisations based on multiple sites. The capability to perform a technical and user-experience current state assessment on the intranet The skills and capacity to carry out a programme of training across multi-sites on a bespoke basis Please provide Evidence of the experience of undertaking similar projects (similar in scale, value and complexity) successfully and supporting references demonstrating this. The customer contact should be prepared to speak to the purchasing organisation to confirm the accuracy of the information provided. Pass Fail Criteria B Bidder has submitted a complete tender that accords with every instruction and requirement set out in this ITT. Pass Fail Criteria C The Bidder’s Total Costs in Table A for the term of 15 months does not exceed £35,000 (including VAT and expenses). Bidders whose costs exceed this amount will be excluded from further consideration in the tender process. If you pass all of the pass/fail criteria set out above, we will evaluate your tender response using quality and price criteria which are set out below. 8 Your Bid will be scored out of 100. 70% of the marks will be allocated to your response to the Quality Questions Below. Each question will be scored using the methodology in the Table below. Your overall score for each question will be calculated by multiplying the quality score you receive with the weighting for that question, set out below. This score will then be divided by the total maximum available score for the Quality Criterions and multiplied by 70% to get your final score for that question. Example: assume Bidder A scores 3 for Question 1: the formula is 3 x 10 = 30, 30/ 235 x 70 = 8.9% for Question 1. 30% of the marks will be available for your Price Proposal. The methodology for scoring price is set out further below. Your responses should be supported by evidence/previous successful implementation of proposed solution for meeting our requirements. Please note – Though criteria are numbered, this does not relate to any order of importance Evaluation Criteria Quality: 70% Weighting Question 1 Please detail how you meet all of our requirements as detailed above in Specification. 10 Question 2 Please provide a clear and realistic project plan to perform all required consultancy, training and support services specified in Clause 3.1 above that responds to the aims and constraints set out in Specification and within the budget and timescale. 10 Question 3 Please identify the risk to delivering this project to time and budget and your proposals for mitigating them. 5 Question 4 How will you ensure you have adequate resources to meet our requirements set out in Specification? Please provide details of your delivery team and their capacity to provide services for the duration of the contract (resource allocation). 10 Question 5 Demonstrate how you will monitor quality and provide details of your quality assurances procedures 5 Question 6 Demonstrate how you will meet high levels of customer service standards throughout the implementation and development services and please provide details of suggested service level agreements, management information and reporting based on any existing arrangements you may have. 7 Total maximum available scores 235 Responses to each question above will be allocated a score based on the methodology contained in the table below. This score will then be multiplied by the weighting in the column on the right. 9 Quality Questions scoring methodology 0 1 2 3 4 5 Poor No response or partial response and poor evidence provided in support of it. Does not give the Arts Council confidence in the ability of the Bidder to deliver the Contract. Weak Response is supported by a weak standard of evidence in several areas giving rise to concern about the ability of the Bidder to deliver the Contract. Satisfactory Response is supported by a satisfactory standard of evidence in most areas but a few areas lacking detail/evidence giving rise to some concerns about the ability of the Bidder to deliver the Contract. Good Response is comprehensive and supported by good standard of evidence. Gives the Arts Council confidence in the ability of the Bidder to deliver the contract. Meets the Fund’s requirements. Very good Response is comprehensive and supported by a high standard of evidence. Gives ACE a high level of confidence in the ability of the Bidder to deliver the contract. Exceeds ACE’s requirements in some respects. Excellent Response is very comprehensive and supported by a very high standard of evidence. Gives Arts Council England a very high level of confidence the ability of the Bidder to deliver the contract. Exceeds the Arts Council’s requirements in most respects. 10 Price scoring methodology: 30% overall Price: The evaluation of price will be carried out on the Schedule of charges you provide in response to Table A below Price Criterion 30 marks will be awarded to the lowest priced bid and the remaining bidders will be allocated scores based on their deviation from this figure. Your fixed and total costs figure in Table A will be used to score this question. 30% For example, if the lowest price is £100 and the second lowest price is £108 then the lowest priced bidder gets 30% (full marks) for price and the second placed bidder gets 27.6% and so on. (8/100 x 30 = 2.4 marks; 30-2.4 = 27.6 marks) The scores for quality and price will be added together to obtain the overall score for each Bidder. The Bidder with the highest score will be the preferred Bidder. 11 Schedule of Charges Bidders must complete the schedule of charges table A below estimating the number of days and travel and subsistence costs associated with their bid. The total fixed price will be inclusive of VAT and inclusive of expenses and all costs to be incurred. TABLE A: e.g. e.g. Senior Consultant/ manager/re searcher Junior Consulta nt/equiva Total Days lent e.g. £500 e.g. £300 e.g. £200 e.g. 0.5 1 1.5 (firm and fixed costs to meet all Project ACE’s requirements under this Manager/ ITT) Director Total Fees Quantity Inception meeting to agree plans and finalise requirements with ACE [Insert additional rows to include other activities and deliverables as listed in Section 3.1 and 3.2] Expenses Travel and subsistence 1 3 850 [Add as necessary] Sub-total VAT Total Costs including VAT and expenses (this figure will be used for the purposes of allocating your score for the price criterion and must cover the cost of meeting all our requirements ) Notes: Arts Council England reserves the right to reject abnormally low tenders. You should not submit additional assumptions with your pricing submission. If you submit assumptions you will be asked to withdraw them. Failure to withdraw them will lead to your exclusion from further participation in this competition. * Arts Council England reserves the right to amend this timetable where required. Please note any contract awarded will be based on the Art Council’s standard terms and conditions of contract and you will be required to sign up to these if successful. 12 Section 3: Instructions to tenderers Please submit your tender offer in accordance with all of the instructions, requirements and specifications set out in the enclosed documentation. You must treat these documents and any further information provided by Arts Council England as confidential at all times and only disclose them if necessary to prepare a compliant response to the tender. Nothing in the enclosed documentation or appendixes, or any other communication made between Arts Council England and any other party, can be considered a contract or agreement at this stage. All correspondence in relation to this tender, including tender submissions, should be address to: Toby Ross Manager, Internal Communications & Planning Arts Council England The Hive 49 Lever Street Manchester MI IFN Tel: 0161 934 4330 Email: Internal.Communications@artscouncil.org.uk Tender Timetable Please see below a detailed timetable of when specific events will take place and specific deadlines which must be met in order to participate in this tender. Event Date/Time Tender Notice posted 2 May 2014 Tender response deadline Noon 23 May 2014 Clarification meetings (if applicable)* Week commencing 26 May 2014 Anticipated contract award End of May 2014 *Arts Council England reserves the right to carry out clarifications via email or by inviting Bidders to a clarification meeting. In order to ensure that both the Arts Council’s and Bidder’s resources are used appropriately, Arts Council England will only invite the top two or three (depending on the closeness of scores) highest scoring bidders to attend a clarification meeting 13 Compliance Arts Council England reserves the right to disqualify or reduce the evaluation score of any tenderers who do not fully comply with the requirements in the tender documentation, in particular the closing time and date. If you propose alternative goods or services for consideration, you must clearly mark these as non-compliant. Arts Council England reserves the right to reject any proposals with non-compliant alternatives. Tenders that are received are not automatically accepted. Arts Council England reserves the right to evaluate proposals on a variety of criteria. The tender with the lowest price will not automatically be accepted. Prices You should provide a fixed price cost for meeting all our contract requirements. Submit all prices in pounds sterling and indicate VAT separately, if applicable. Prices should be fixed and firm for the duration of the contract. Please note: Arts Council England reserves the right to purchase all or any parts of the tendered goods or services at the prices and specifications submitted in your response. Contract and duration Arts Council England will award the contract to the successful tenderer for the period of 15 months with a right to extend the contract for another 24 months period. The Arts Council’s standard terms and conditions for services will form part of the contract to be awarded. These can be downloaded and reviewed from our website:http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/media/uploads/pdf/Contract_for_Services_o ver_10K_v1_March_2012.pdf. The Arts Council may also require further terms to be included in the contract that are specific to the successful supplier‘s application. The Preferred Supplier will not be permitted to enter into any negotiations on the terms of the Contract. Any attempt to negotiate amendments will breach the terms of this ITT and will result in the Preferred Supplier being excluded from the tender process. In such circumstances Arts Council England reserves the right to invite the next highest scoring Bidder to enter into the Contract. Please note that Arts Council England are required to publish online the final awarded contract and any associated documentation. If you have any concerns about the future publication of sensitive information you should raise these within your tender proposal, highlighting which areas within your proposal you consider may be subject to exemption, and subsequent redaction, in line with the provisions 14 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). More information about FOIA can be found at www.ico.gov.uk. Validity of offer You must offer your tender for acceptance for 60 days from the deadline for tender submission. Please note that by submitting a tender response for consideration you are confirming that, as an officer for the company/organisation that you represent, you have read and understood the tender documents and that your offer to Arts Council England is open for acceptance for 60 days from the tender closing date. Tendering If we need to amend any tender documents before the closing date, we will write to you with any changes. If we extend the deadline for tender responses, we will advise you. Arts Council England reserves the right, in its absolute discretion, to cancel or suspend this tender process at any time and for any reason. If we need to do this we will notify you in writing as soon as reasonably practicably. Arts Council England is not responsible, and will not pay for any expenses or losses you incur during, but not limited to, the tender preparation, site visits, posttender clarification meetings. Information and questions If you need us to clarify the documentation or if you have further questions regarding the tender process, write to the lead officer quoting the tender reference number. We will try to respond to reasonable requests for further information within the timescale of the tender. Arts Council England reserves the right to advise all other tenderers of material questions and the answers supplied without disclosing the source of the enquiry. These will be issued via the contracts finder website. Site visits If you require a site visit to Arts Council England before submitting your tender, write to the lead officer. Arts Council England reserves the right to refuse any site visit requests, but we will explain why we refused. 15 Return of Tender Send your tender, including all documentation, by email to: Internal.Communications@artscouncil.org.uk to arrive no later than 12.00 Noon on 23 May 2014. Any tender received after that time for any reason may be discounted. In your tender response, clearly indicate the names and addresses of any subcontractors you intend to use to provide the services, and the scope of work you will employ them for. The Arts Council is not responsible if all or part of your tender is not received. In the event of a dispute, you are responsible to prove the tender was delivered. Post-tender clarification meetings Arts Council England reserves the right to ask you to attend post-tender clarification meetings if necessary these may be carried out via email or by inviting bidders to attend a clarification meeting. In order to ensure that both Arts Council England’s and Bidder’s resources are used appropriately, Arts Council England will only invite the top one or two (the ultimate number will depend on the closeness of scores) highest scoring bidders to attend a clarification meeting. Scores will be moderated based on any clarifications provided during this meeting. You are responsible for all your expenses when attending such clarification meetings. If required, interviews will take place on w/c 26 May 2014 at The Hive, Lever Street, Manchester, M1 1FN. Arts Council England reserves the right to vary all dates in this Invitation to tender, to terminate this procurement process and/or decide not to award a contract. 16