Performance Tools and Enablers Project

Concepts

• information technology
• performance tools and enablers project
• a performance management tool
• tool
• enablers
• tools
• software programming
• data services
• consultancy services
• employee activity

Location

London

Description

The Financial Ombudsman Service recently launched productivity and workflow solutions to part of its workforce. These solutions were successfully delivered by Advantiq Solutions Limited via a project awarded through an existing Framework Agreement. The project included a significant discovery and process improvement phase prior to development. The Financial Ombudsman Service is now entering into contractual arrangements with Advantiq Solutions Limited to further develop these solutions. The contract will be for a term of 12 months. The contract is to develop and enhance a workflow management solution and a performance management tool using the Microsoft Power Platform.

Total Quantity or Scope

The supplier will provide enhancements to the existing workflow solution to capture skills and activities as well as a dashboard to display performance. The services to be delivered are: 1. A Power App to capture activities completed by the Financial Ombudsman Service employees. 2. A Power BI Dashboard to display a summary of employee activity. 3. A Power App to capture individual Financial Ombudsman Service employee skills. 4. A Virtual Agent and Power Automate flow to allocate work to employees. 5. A Power BI Dashboard to display a summary of skills and automatically allocate work to employees. 6. Enhancements to the existing Investigator auto-allocation solution. 7. Thought leadership to drive connectivity and synergies across the COO, Transformation and IT teams. The works consist of the repetition of similar services delivered under a previous contract that concluded in the last year, and the works and services are in conformity with a basic project for which the original contract was awarded following a competitive procedure.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
• 72200000 - Software programming and consultancy services
• 72300000 - Data services

Indicators

• Award on basis of price and quality.

Legal Justification

We are awarding a contract via a VEAT notice to widen the scope of these solutions and leverage the knowledge gained from the discovery and process improvement phase to our current supplier, Advantiq, without prior publication on the government’s Contract Finder website because: 1) Specialised Expertise: Advantiq possesses unique knowledge crucial for the project, which cannot be easily found in the market. This includes expertise of processes integral to the Service’s operations and how specific technology can add value. 2) Cost Efficiency: It is economically advantageous to continue with Advantiq due to the whole life cost considerations, including the costs of transitioning to a new supplier, training, and system integration, outweighing the benefits of switching. 3) Risk Mitigation: The direct award to Advantiq significantly reduces the risk associated with project delivery. Given its intimate familiarity with our IT estate and the critical nature of the systems involved, engaging Advantiq directly ensures continuity, reduces the learning curve, and mitigates the risk of delays or project failure. 4) Innovation Partnership: The Service seeks to establish an innovation partnership where Advantiqs’s research and development capabilities are crucial for co-developing a new and innovative solutions that cannot be met by existing market solutions. 5) Continuity of Service: Awarding to Advantiq is necessary to ensure continuity of a critical service, where changing suppliers could lead to unacceptable risks or service gaps. 6) Compatibility and Integration: The project requires compatibility with existing systems or services that only Advantiq can provide effectively, ensuring seamless integration without the risk of operational disruptions. 7) Time-Sensitive Project Delivery: The solutions serve as foundational capability for follow on projects. The urgency of the project timelines necessitates a partner who can mobilise quickly and efficiently. Advantiq’s existing knowledge and experience with the Service enable us to commence work immediately, ensuring that critical deadlines are met without compromising on quality or strategic objectives. 8) The protection of exclusive intellectual property rights. In addition the whole life cost of moving to a new supplier will be higher because: • There was a significant ramp-up phase during the original project to integrate internal and external teams and transfer knowledge of the Financial Ombudsman Service’s process and extensive products. As such we’d to need to invest in additional time and resource to get a new supplier up to speed. • Moving to a new supplier / solution may cause outage of the existing solution. As the solution underpins the Financial Ombudsman Service’s performance management framework this leads to significant risks. • Not leveraging the knowledge and investment made in the original solution would not provide value for money for our customers Given the current work already delivered by Advantiq, achieving better value for money via a competition process is not considered economically viable.