The Provision of an Engagement Monitoring Software Solution

Concepts

• software package
• southampton
• ukvi
• academic engagement of students
• provision of an engagement monitoring software solution
• end-to-end solution
• student of academic engagement information
• new engagement monitoring system
• academic engagement
• new academic engagement policy

Location

Southampton, Hampshire, UK

Description

The University would like to be able to monitor the academic engagement of students, whilst partaking in academic activities on campus, off campus or academic activities whilst working online. Monitoring academic engagement has also been introduced as part of the new immigration system on 5 October 2020 by the Home Office (UKVI). The new academic engagement policy requires sponsors (University of Southampton) to ensure that all sponsored students are academically engaged for the entirety of their course, including activities they consider would indicate academic engagement such as: • Attending required lectures, seminars, or tutorials • Undertaking required laboratory work • Undertaking research or fieldwork • Submitting essays, assignments and attending examinations The monitoring needs to be simple for students to use and give visibility to the student of academic engagement information being collected. The university needs to be able collect the data required, use appropriate technology and to be able to report on the data quickly and efficiently. Our plan is to have the appropriate, technological solution in place for September 2023.

Total Quantity or Scope

To procure and implement a new engagement monitoring system for all students across the university to ensure that the data which is collected is consistent across all faculties and schools and it is fully inclusive. The system would need to: • Be a cloud-based SaaS solution. • Have an end-to-end solution operating over Wi-Fi or Mobile Data connections requiring no hardware such as beacons or card readers. • Be accessible from mobile device, tablet or laptop or university owned device. • Have the ability for staff to manually amend the record where students do not have any IT device access for the class. • Be compliant with Student visa/Tier 4 reporting requirements and have recent proven acceptance from the Home Office. • Integrate with other University systems such as student records, timetabling, VLE, Lecture Capture, Library Management, Reading list software, Blackboard and MS365. • Provide a comprehensive range of reports which can be used in visualisations for different audiences such as Student Hub, Visa Compliance, Student Engagement. • Must be able to record several university attendance parameters such as attended/absent/late/left early/not required. • Have notifications feature to highlight low attendance of a student. • Able to produce data to enable an email to be sent from the system or from the University CRM. • Able to extract attendance data from the system to use as part of institutional workflows. • Ability to add 'adhoc' events directly into the system. • Be currently used by several UK Universities with a proven track record of providing user groups. • Be continually developed to adapt to the changing needs of the University. • Ensure that the University has sufficient oversight of student attendance to instigate an early warning system for unauthorised absent students. Procurement Process: This procurement process is being conducted as an Open procedure. Contract Period: The University proposes to enter into a Contract for five years - this will be the maximum contract period, including any potential extensions with the successful tenderer(s). This will comprise of an initial contract period of three (3) years with an option to extend by a further two (2) 12 month periods subject to satisfactory performance and at the discretion of the University. Contract Value: The estimated Contract value is in the region of £300,000 - £500,000 GBP (excluding VAT). This is the total available for the full contract term including any potential extensions. Additional information: Lots: This contract is NOT suitable for splitting into lots. The risk of dividing the requirement into Lots would render the execution of the contract excessively technically difficult, not cost effective and would undermine proper execution of the contract.

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 48000000 - Software package and information systems
• 31711310 - System for recording attendance

Indicators

• This is a recurring contract.
• Renewals are not available.
• Financial restrictions apply.
• Technical restrictions apply.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. ** E-Tendering Portal: The University is utilising an electronic tendering tool, In-Tend (https://in-tendhost.co.uk/universityofsouthampton/aspx/Home ) to manage this procurement and to communicate with potential suppliers and/or tenderers (as appropriate). All documentation in relation to this tender can be downloaded from In-Tend. Potential suppliers/tenderers are advised that there will be no hard copy documents issued and all communications with the University, including the submission of Selection Stage and/or Invitation to Tender responses will be conducted via In-Tend. Regular monitoring of the portal is the responsibility of the potential supplier/tenderer. If you are not already registered as a supplier with the University of Southampton, you will need to register in In-Tend in order to access the procurement documentation. Once you have logged in as a supplier: click on 'Tenders'; locate the relevant project; and click 'View Details'. Once you are in the project screen, you will be able to register your organisation against the project and access all documentation by clicking 'Express Interest'. Potential suppliers/tenderers are advised that formal expressions of interest in the project must be by way of completion and return of the relevant documents via In-Tend. Further instructions for the submission of responses are below: To submit your return: 1. Log in 2. Click 'Tenders' 3. Locate the relevant project 4. View details 5. Click on the tab relating to the relevant project stage (e.g. 'Invitation to Tender') 6. Click on the 'Attach Documents' button and upload your return. 7. Check ALL your response documents are uploaded and displayed in the 'My Tender Return' panel. The system will only permit your organisation to make one return. 8. Click the red 'Submit Return' button. Please note, to preserve the integrity of the procurement, all communications with the University must be made via the correspondence function within In-Tend. Publication of Award Details: In accordance with Regulation 50, paragraph (2) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and subject to Article 5 and Annex 5, Part D (13) of Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (if applicable), the University intends to publish the value of any resulting contract at the award stage, and reserves the right to do so. By submitting a response, potential suppliers/tenderers are consenting to publication of this information unless otherwise agreed in advance with the University. Costs and Expenses: Potential suppliers/tenderers are solely responsible for their costs and expenses incurred in connection with the preparation and submission of responses and participation in this and all future stages of this procurement. Under no circumstances will the University be liable for any costs or expenses borne by potential suppliers/tenderers or any of their supply chain, partners or advisers in this procurement process. The University is not liable for any costs in the event of the cancellation of this procurement process.