Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2017-09-12
Buyer: Department for Work and Pensions
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 72222300: Information technology services
Submission deadline: 2017-10-09
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: To support the provision of Universal Credit full service (UC full service), the Department for Work and Pensions requires an Appointment Booking System for the creation and management of claimants' appointments with DWP staff. The Appointment Booking System will host staff locations, availability and skill sets which define the types of appointments the DWP staff are trained to handle. This information will be used to find a DWP member of staff, within a JobCentre, that is available and trained to handle the appointment.
DWP staff will create and manage appointments through UC full service, and will utilise the Appointment Booking System's Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to create and manage appointments. In late 2017/early 2018 claimants will be provided with the ability to book and manage their own appointments online through UC full service.
The Appointment Booking System will be integrated into UC full service and its platforms. The entire booking process will be performed via the UC full service user interface. Universal Credit will utilise the Appointment Booking System APIs to create and manage appointments. Administration and Management functions are not expected to be integrated into UC full service.
The Department requires a cloud-based, commercial ‘off-the-shelf’ Appointment Booking System. Due to the timescales and need for UC full service to utilise the Appointment Booking System's APIs, the system must meet the stated requirements with minimal additional development work and customisation. The Department does not require a booking system to be built and custom-designed.
The Department requires a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year system with a service level agreement (SLA) that provides 99.90 percent availability, as the Appointment Booking System will be supporting the UC full service which allows claimants to access their online claim at any time.
There will also be a requirement for data to be migrated from DWP's current Appointment Booking System to the new Appointment Booking System. As a minimum, this will include all current and future appointments, plus related data (e.g. DWP staff availability, JobCentre information, appointment types etc.
There are currently around 750 JobCentres across the UK and Northern Ireland, with around 23,000 DWP staff in total supporting claimants. Each member of DWP staff who supports claimants will have a calendar in the Appointment Booking System. A JobCentre can have up to 120 Work Coaches. Work Coaches all require diaries.
From October 2017, UC full service will be rolled out to 50 job centres a month. When UC full service is fully rolled out in June 2018, it is anticipated that 30 million appointments (2.5 million appointments per month) will be created and managed on an annual basis via the Appointment Booking System.
The contract will have an initial term of 3 years, with 2 extension periods of 12 months each subject to satisfactory performance and with the agreement of both parties. The maximum length of the contract, including all possible extensions, is 5 years.
The contract will have an initial term of 3 years, including the implementation period, unless terminated by the Authority in accordance with the terms of the contract. The contract will contain two extension periods of 12 months each subject to satisfactory performance and with the agreement of both parties. The maximum length of the contract, including all possible extensions, is 5 years.
The Authority expects this to be a contract of substantial financial value; for the maximum 5-year duration, it is expected that the whole-life cost will be a 7-figure sum (in GBP and exclusive of VAT). The Authority invites Potential Suppliers to submit a Pricing Proposal based on the Statement of Requirements and information within the procurement documents.

Eligibility requirements: Potential Suppliers will be evaluated against the criteria set out in the procurement documents.