II.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS code:
UKE32
Main site or place of performance:
Sheffield
II.2.4) Description of the procurement
Current position
Sheffield Hallam University's web estate serves a wide range of audiences, including prospective students; current students; business and research partners; alumni; global partners; jobseekers; local residents; and external stakeholders in national and regional government and the HE sector.
The site is currently built and managed in Sitecore, and we began transitioning to a new design system in 2018. Design is managed through a small team of UX, content and digital operations staff ("Digital Experience / DX"), working with back-end analysts and developers ("DTS Applications Team") to scope and deliver new features and performance improvements, with a goal of internal publishers working independently within a stable, compliant framework. The successful supplier would work closely with both of these teams, with design requirements led by DX and development requirements led by DTS Applications Team.
The University also supports a number of other publishing platforms and technologies for smaller-scale activity, including SharePoint and Wordpress.
With very limited visual design or front-end development resource in house, support is needed to expand and maintain the design system for use on shu.ac.uk and other public sites, delivering new elements to meet user and organisational needs, and ensuring quality and consistency across the system.
Opportunities
We have a number of strategic priorities that rely on website development over the coming years including, but not limited to:
Ongoing improvements of our prospective student journey across course and experience pages, bringing to life our offer and enhancing our reputation as a quality institution. It is important that we grow market share outside our local region and our website is a crucial channel for these new audiences. This also elevates the importance of our accommodation offer which needs a significant amount of work to improve the user experience.
A new London campus is due to open in 2026 and our web presence has been identified as an enabler project for this work. Consideration in terms of how we represent our offer to this new audience is a priority, as is the interplay between showcasing Hallam in Sheffield and Hallam in London on our website.
Alongside this we are diversifying into online learning, developing a partnership with an elearning provider to help us increase income by reaching new markets. Clear user journeys between our site and our partner site will be vital to this project, as will a comprehensive and well-maintained design system that we can share with our partner.
We have recently migrated our CRM system to Microsoft Dynamics and there is ongoing work to integrate the system with front end experiences delivered through Sitecore. Our current priorities are around forms but there is the potential for this to move into development of an applicant portal. This and other projects could require integration with other corporate systems, such as SITS.
We have prioritised projects which will require a significant amount of website development, including micro-sites to support our new sub-brands, an improved user experience for staff recruitment and a sector-led approach for business engagement.
Alongside all of this accessibility continues to be a core objective. The University's external website is 92% compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA criteria at time of writing, and our ambition is to achieve and maintain 100% compliance across all our web properties.
Activity
The University has a five-year requirement for front-end design and development services to enhance its websites, digital services and underlying design system. We expect this to include some or all of the following :
• Support the design or improvement of small-scale web interfaces and templates, including prototyping and testing. The successful supplier will take an active role in developing and maintaining our design system, with input into the purpose of and rationale behind its constituent parts.
• Provide consultancy on larger design and development projects, participating in discovery, definition and design activity such as stakeholder and user interviews, journey mapping and cross-function design critiques
• Support future-proofing and ongoing compliance of design system through scheduled review processes, and through sharing new approaches, technologies and compliance needs with senior managers from Recruitment, Comms and Marketing (RCM) and Digital Technology Services (DTS).
• Supply standardised, front-end code to support design and functionality changes, working closely with back-end developers.
• Provide a range of UX design and/or technical design options for each project, according to project needs.
• Provide clear documentation for all front-end design and development work to support transparency and continuity across the University's web services.
• Provide full access to final code and design files, to ensure the University can self-manage outputs.
• Collaborate with University teams through University-managed work management systems, to be agreed at initiation stage of each project. These include Jira, Git and DevOps.
Ways of working
The University is a complex environment with a wide range of stakeholders, processes and workflows.
The successful supplier will need to work within the constraints of the University's technologies and processes, and may need to adapt to different styles between projects.
They will be expected to document and update on their work using channels and formats specified by project leads at initiation stage of each project. These may include but are not limited to Jira, DevOps, Git, shared activity logs and scheduled stand-ups.
They will also be expected to attend scheduled account meetings, usually held every quarter.
Requirements
Portfolio
• Strong portfolio of sites and applications covering a range of page types and interfaces.
• We are particularly interested in examples of user centred design and problem-solving in:
o Complex product searches
o Complex item detail pages
o Multi-stage booking forms
o Multi-level navigation
o Account management, particularly management of orders and event bookings
o Complex documentation (terms and conditions, policy documents)
o Media galleries
Design capability
• Ability to support creation, maintenance and extension of formal design systems.
• Ability to clearly communicate design options, decisions and principles, including to stakeholders outside design functions.
• Ability to produce low-fidelity prototypes to support user testing and internal decision making.
• Evidence-based approach to design, drawing on both third party and primary research.
Technical capability
• Experience of front-end design and development for database applications, including authentication processes, forms and user profiles
• Ability to build, publish and align development environments and system test/quality assure the development prior to submission for user acceptance testing
• SQL knowledge to be able to backup, migrate and update local databases.
• Knowledge of Sitecore CMS
• Experience of working with Dynamics 365 and SITS
Transparency and documentation
• Deliver clear and thorough documentation with all design and technical solutions.
• Provide direct access to developers and designers responsible for project outputs within mutually agreed contact hours, including any sub-contractors assigned senior or lead roles
• Provide clear, prompt work updates through agreed channels (these will be agreed with project leads at initiation stage of each project - see 2.4 Ways of working)
Capacity
• Provide prompt response to bug reports, working to service level agreements to be negotiated at contract stage, and including emergency provision for business-critical issues
• Be able to resource small, medium and large front-end projects, ideally with clear resource models for a range of project types and sizes to support estimation
• Have a clear process for managing resource risk, to minimise impact of staff absence or departure on client projects
• Be able to scale up design and development support should our needs grow unexpectedly, within reasonable notice period to be agreed at contract stage
Standards and compliance
• Deliver work that meets complex regulations and standards, including but not limited to security, accessibility, data and privacy, and brand guidelines
• Deliver designs to a minimum WCAG 2.1 AA standard, including carrying out and documenting compliance checks.
• Knowledge of digital design conventions and standards specific to the HE sector.
Ways of working
• Adapt to complex, varied processes, and update on issues and progress through channels specified by University project leads (see note under 2.4 Ways of working)
• Work in multidisciplinary teams, including UX writers, researchers, analysts, business analysts and back-end developers
• Attend scheduled account meetings. For most partners these are held quarterly.
Out of Scope
• Back-end development - this area is handled internally by our Digital Technology Systems department
• Project management - this part of the service is handled internally by the Transformation department
• Hosting - shu.ac.uk is currently hosted on Sitecore Managed Cloud
The University reserves the right to make any award that may result from this Invitation to Tender, on a single supplier award basis, or not at all, at its sole discretion.
II.2.5) Award criteria
Criteria below:
Quality criterion: Portfolio
/ Weighting: 10
Quality criterion: Design
/ Weighting: 15
Quality criterion: Technical
/ Weighting: 15
Quality criterion: Transparency
/ Weighting: 10
Quality criterion: Capacity
/ Weighting: 5
Quality criterion: Ways of working
/ Weighting: 5
Quality criterion: Standards
/ Weighting: 10
Quality criterion: Social value
/ Weighting: 5
Cost criterion: Pricing
/ Weighting: 25
II.2.6) Estimated value
Value excluding VAT:
1 041 667.00
GBP
II.2.7) Duration of the contract, framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system
Duration in months: 60
This contract is subject to renewal: Yes
Description of renewals:
The Contract is expected to commence on 1 September 2023, initially for a period of 2 years, with a total anticipated duration of 5 years (2 + 2 + 1).
II.2.9) Information about the limits on the number of candidates to be invited
II.2.10) Information about variants
Variants will be accepted:
No
II.2.11) Information about options
Options:
No
II.2.13) Information about European Union funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds:
No