Market Research Contract - Provision of a Stations Made Easy Service

Market Research Contract – Provision of a Stations Made Easy Service

As the current SME contract is nearing its term NRE seeks to procure a replacement for the existing application that will meet the following objectives: Increase reputation of the industry primarily amongst disabled customers; Increase TOC revenue by removing barriers to train travel by disabled people; Improve user experience of SME.

United Kingdom-London: Survey services

2014/S 247-437243

Contract notice – utilities

Services

Directive 2004/17/EC

Section I: Contracting entity

I.1)Name, addresses and contact point(s)

Train Information Services Limited
200 Aldersgate Street
For the attention of: Maria Mlynarska
EC1A 4HD London
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 2078418093
E-mail: maria.mlynarska@atoc.org

Further information can be obtained from: Train Information Services Limited
200 Aldersgate Street
For the attention of: Maria Mlynarska
EC1A 4HD London
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 2078418093
E-mail: maria.mlynarska@atoc.org

Specifications and additional documents (including documents for a dynamic purchasing system) can be obtained from: Train Information Services Limited
200 Aldersgate Street
For the attention of: Maria Mlynarska
EC1A 4HD London
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 2078418093
E-mail: maria.mlynarska@atoc.org

Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to: Train Information Services Limited
200 Aldersgate Street
For the attention of: Maria Mlynarska
EC1A 4HD London
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 2078418093
E-mail: maria.mlynarska@atoc.org

I.2)Main activity

Railway services

I.3)Contract award on behalf of other contracting entities

Section II: Object of the contract

II.1)Description

II.1.1)Title attributed to the contract by the contracting entity:

Provision of a Stations Made Easy Service.

II.1.2)Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of performance

Services
Service category No 27: Other services
Main site or location of works, place of delivery or of performance: Nationwide.

NUTS code UK

II.1.3)Information about a public contract, a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system (DPS)

The notice involves a public contract

II.1.4)Information on framework agreement

II.1.5)Short description of the contract or purchase(s):

Train Information Services Limited (TISL), trading as National Rail Enquiries (NRE), is a company wholly owned by Train Operating Companies (TOCs) responsible for providing a range of services to TOCs and their customers. The main service is the www.nationalrail.co.uk online service providing rail journey planner, live train information and comprehensive information about the rail industry including service disruption and station facilities information, special offers and conditions of carriage.

The service receives on average 19 000 000 visits per month across the web and mobile channels with significant short-term peaks driven by travel disruption. One of the main systems supporting NRE website is the Knowledgebase (KB) which provides disruption, station and other static information. KB is available to the public via www.nationalrail.co.uk and has an industry only internal version that includes additional, industry-specific information in addition to the data already available to the public. KB data is maintained by NRE and the TOC editors via customised OpenText content management system (CMS).

Together with the Commercial Department of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), NRE supplies the Stations Made Easy (SME) application that provides station layout information for the railway network across Great Britain (2 500+ stations of varied size and complexity) to disabled and elderly passengers. Currently the application has usage of approximately 800 000 visits per year and is available on the desktop site only. Station information provided via SME comes from 2 sources:

— Station surveys carried out by a third party; collected data is then uploaded into KB (pre-defined routeing data, route descriptions, images, HTML code; example files can be found on www.nationalrail.co.uk/SME); and

— KB station information updated by NRE and station editors via OpenText CMS.
SME is largely integrated into KB. Station survey data is uploaded into a separate data base and so is the relevant station information provided by CMS editors. Data is then published on the site via OpenText. SME data can be edited via CMS and overwrites survey data.
Both KB and SME are hosted on Amazon Webservices (AWS) infrastructure and supported by an NRE contracted service integration and management (SIAM) provider.
As the current SME contract is nearing its term NRE seeks to procure a replacement for the existing application that will meet the following objectives:
— Increase reputation of the industry primarily amongst disabled customers;
— Increase TOC revenue by removing barriers to train travel by disabled people;
— Improve user experience of SME;
— Improve data maintenance process to make it easier and more accessible to TOCs and Network Rail and thus easier and cheaper to keep up-to-date;
— Ensure that implemented solution is cost effective in meeting its requirements;
— Increase SME user base and usage; and
— Increase customer satisfaction.
Delivery of the project will include the following Components:
— Component 1 Data collection and updates (note that NRE are looking to re-use as much of the existing data as possible.)
Station surveying services will be required for stations that undergo major refurbishment work or for new stations. Initial scope of a survey will include physical layout of the station, accessibility related features at a stations, main station facilities, platforms, barrier free routes/routeing data across the station. Full scope of surveys will be fully defined as part of the tender and delivery phase but will include assessing station plan and. Data collected will need to be delivered to the central repository (Component 2 below) for processing, collation and integration through SME.
— Component 2 Data aggregation and processing:
Survey data collected via component 1 above will be processed by combining with any open /crowd sourced/CMS data and uploaded into the SME application. This will include interpretation of routing data. If crowd sourcing is used, moderation services may be required. Layout information will be translated into Component 3.
— Component 3 Station plan editing:
It is envisaged that a mapping tool will be used by the station surveyors in Component 1. In addition NRE wishes to give the ability to edit features within station plans to station staff. Therefore we require a tool, be that off-the-shelf or custom-built solution, that will allow easy manipulation of station features, comply with the overall front-end design (Component 4) and can be integrated as appropriate with KB CMS.
— Component 4 Front-end design and build:
Provision of UX, designs, front end code — includes design of station plans (optionally with interactive features and routeing) as well as other features of the application. New SME will be available on desktop and portable devices preferably responsive site.

NRE wish to use the existing OpenText CMS as a tool to manage SME data. An extent of integration with the OpenText CMS will be required and will be defined as part of delivery. A visual representation of a hypothetical solution can be found on www.nationalrail.co.uk/SME)

It is envisaged that detail of station information will differ for various stations, for example, large stations such as London Bridge are likely to require more detailed information and more features than small stations such as Drayton Park. Information standards will be defined as part of the full tender documentation. Insofar as appropriate station data updates will be completed by NRE-appointed staff.
The new SME service will be hosted on the existing AWS infrastructure and will be supported by the existing the NRE service management processes. This includes all hosting and first line support services. Any awarded party will be required to provide 2^nd/3^rd line support on ongoing basis as appropriate.

II.1.6)Common procurement vocabulary (CPV)

79311000

II.1.7)Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

II.1.8)Information about lots

II.1.9)Information about variants

II.2)Quantity or scope of the contract

II.2.1)Total quantity or scope:

II.2.2)Information about options

Options: no

II.2.3)Information about renewals

This contract is subject to renewal: no

II.3)Duration of the contract or time limit for completion

Section III: Legal, economic, financial and technical information

III.1)Conditions relating to the contract

III.1.1)Deposits and guarantees required:

III.1.2)Main financing conditions and payment arrangements and/or reference to the relevant provisions governing them:

III.1.3)Legal form to be taken by the group of economic operators to whom the contract is to be awarded:

III.1.4)Other particular conditions:

The performance of the contract is subject to particular conditions: no

III.2)Conditions for participation

III.2.1)Personal situation of economic operators, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers

III.2.2)Economic and financial ability

III.2.3)Technical capacity

III.2.4)Information about reserved contracts

III.3)Conditions specific to services contracts

III.3.1)Information about a particular profession

III.3.2)Staff responsible for the execution of the service

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)Type of procedure

IV.1.1)Type of procedure

Negotiated
Some candidates have already been selected (if appropriate under certain types of negotiated procedures): no

IV.2)Award criteria

IV.2.1)Award criteria

The most economically advantageous tender in terms of the criteria stated in the specifications or in the invitation to tender or to negotiate

IV.2.2)Information about electronic auction

IV.3)Administrative information

IV.3.1)File reference number attributed by the contracting entity:

IV.3.2)Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

IV.3.3)Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents

IV.3.4)Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate

16.1.2015 – 12:00

IV.3.5)Language(s) in which tenders or requests to participate may be drawn up

English.

IV.3.6)Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender

IV.3.7)Conditions for opening of tenders

Section VI: Complementary information

VI.1)Information about recurrence

VI.2)Information about European Union funds

VI.3)Additional information:

NRE require suppliers with a strong focus on accessibility and inclusion and with extensive prior experience in the area that they wish to bid for. They should be able to deploy a team led by senior personnel that demonstrates an appropriate skill set, demonstrate an ability to work with other systems integrators and design agencies, a proven track record of project and service delivery and offer excellent value for money. Suppliers selected for Invitation to Tender (ITT) at the conclusion of this pre-qualification exercise will have the opportunity to tender for one or more of the components described above.
The current contract expires in March 2016 which is the target delivery date. The initial length of the contract shall be 3 years, with an option for TISL to extend on an annual basis for the following 5 subsequent years.
Interested parties are required to answer the pre-qualification questions below in their response to this notice.
Pre-qualification Questions.
If you plan to bid for the service with subcontractors please include all parties involved.
Full Company Name.
Registration Number.
Address.
Brief description and % of Services to be Provided (incl. component that each of the companies is intending to bid for).
Provide annual turnover for the last 3 years (GBP). Please provide official accounts statement as attachment to this questionnaire:
— 2014/2013,
— 2013/2012,
— 2012/2011.
Provide number of full time employees.
UK:
Worldwide (total):
Please provide average tenure of your technical staff:
In the past 2 years what percentage of your revenue came from provision of the services included in the Component(s) you wish to bid for? Please provide the percentage for each of those years per Component:
— 2014/2013,
— 2013/2012.
Provide details of 2 recent projects of a similar scale and nature that you provided in the past 4 years. (Maximum 500 words per reference).
Delivery 1 (Overview of the delivery, URL where relevant).
Year completed.
Contract value.
Client name.
Specific services provided as part of the delivery.
Performance metrics (response times, availability, ticket fixing timescales etc.).
Contact details for referencing purposes.
Delivery 2 (Overview of the delivery, URL where relevant).
Year completed.
Contract value.
Client name.
Specific services provided as part of the delivery.
Performance metrics (response times, availability, ticket fixing timescales etc.).
Contact details for referencing purposes.
List your Critical Success Factors for delivering successful projects and good services (max 500 words).
Do you have a documented knowledge transfer process? Provide details (max 500 words).
Do you have a staff knowledge management system? Provide details (max 500 words).
Have you provided solution hosted in a public cloud environment? Provide example (max 500 words).
Please provide 2 examples of deliveries that you completed that were focused on accessibility. Provide details on accessibility requirements and how you met them. (Maximum 500 words per reference).
Delivery 1 (Summary of the project and URL where applicable).
Year completed.
Contract value.
Client name.
Performance metrics (response times, availability, ticket fixing timescales etc.).
Contact details for referencing purposes.
Delivery 2 (Summary of the project and URL where applicable).
Year completed.
Contract value.
Client name.
Performance metrics (response times, availability, ticket fixing timescales etc.).
Contact details for referencing purposes.
Please provide 1 example of a delivery that you completed that was focused on the Component that you intend to bid for. Provide details on requirements and how you met them. (Maximum 500 words per reference).
Delivery (Summary of the project and URL where applicable).
Year completed.
Contract value.
Client name.
Performance metrics (response times, availability, ticket fixing timescales etc.).
Contact details for referencing purposes.
Minimum acceptance criteria.
In order to qualify for the full tender procedure bidders will have successfully at least one project specific to the component they are bidding for. If a party wishes to bid for more than 1 component they will have completed at least 1 project specific to each of the components they intend to bid for.
In addition, all parties bidding for components 1 and 4 will have completed at least one successful accessibility related project.
(MT Ref: 145912).

VI.4)Procedures for appeal

VI.4.1)Body responsible for appeal procedures

VI.4.2)Lodging of appeals

VI.4.3)Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained

VI.5)Date of dispatch of this notice:

18.12.2014