Section one: Contracting authority
one.1) Name and addresses
THE ARTS COUNCIL OF ENGLAND
The Hive,49 Lever Street
MANCHESTER
M11FN
Contact
Angela Porter
angela.porter@artscouncil.org.uk
Country
United Kingdom
Region code
UKD33 - Manchester
Justification for not providing organisation identifier
Not on any register
Internet address(es)
Main address
https://www.artscouncil.org.uk
one.3) Communication
The procurement documents are available for unrestricted and full direct access, free of charge, at
Additional information can be obtained from the above-mentioned address
one.4) Type of the contracting authority
Other type
national development agency for creativity and culture
one.5) Main activity
Recreation, culture and religion
Section two: Object
two.1) Scope of the procurement
two.1.1) Title
ACE 495 ITT On Line Platform
Reference number
ACE 495 ITT
two.1.2) Main CPV code
- 72212222 - Web server software development services
two.1.3) Type of contract
Services
two.1.4) Short description
We seek a development partner to provide the online platform for the Access Scheme that acts as a hub to showcase the different strands of work that fall under the umbrella of the Access Scheme.
The online platform will use branding and assets that we are procuring separately. The branding exercise will also provide the final name for the scheme, which will by default also dictate the scheme's URL. For ease we will refer to the scheme throughout this document as the Access Scheme, but by the time development work begins we expect to have a defined name for the scheme.
Further information will be found within the Suite of documents on Delta (our E-Sourcing Tool)
two.1.5) Estimated total value
Value excluding VAT: £100,000
two.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots: No
two.2) Description
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UKD33 - Manchester
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
The online platform for the scheme will host the public facing elements of the other strands of the project, examples of which are given at 4.3, (contained in the suite of documents loaded on Delta, but will also deliver distinct elements of the scheme, most notably listings for accessible events.
We are looking to work with a partner with the following qualities:
• Proven ability to work with a variety of secured APIs
• Proven ability to meet a high level of accessibility (at least WCAG AA)
• Proven ability to work with and interpret existing branding and style guides
• Experience of working within the Arts and Culture Sector
• More specifically experience of creating high quality event listings, pulling information from a variety of different ticketing systems.
The core element of our online platform, which is the subject of this tender, will be a responsive website, but we could also consider other platforms further down the line, such as an app.
When we consider our primary users of the websites, these will fall into two distinct groups:
• Customers of the arts and culture sector (who we will refer to as 'customers' from here), and;
• The workforce of creative and cultural organisations (who we will refer to collectively as part of 'organisations').
Customers will be able to become members of the scheme, whilst organisations will be able to become paid subscribers to the scheme. The website will need to reflect this status and respond appropriately (i.e. some elements of the website may only be available once logged in to an account). The status and details about members and subscribers will be controlled by a Digital Membership System (DMS), which we a procuring separately and the website will need to integrate with (most likely via API). The DMS will be being developed at the same time as the online platform and the successful bidder will have option to inform that development and input around the specification of any API endpoints required for the website.
The website should be broadly divided into two distinct sections to serve these two separate user bases, with one portal focussed on customers and a separate portal aimed at organisations. It is likely that the expectations of these two groups will be almost entirely different.
For customers, the site should be a stepping-stone, where they pass through on the way to their end goal, which will most likely to be booking tickets or participating in arts and culture. The focus for this part of the site should be getting them to where they need to go, so the quality of the tools available, the clarity of any call to action and speed they can navigate through and away from the site are key to the experience.
For organisations, there will be some similar 'stepping-stone' elements, where to goal is to direct them to external resources, but for this segment of users there will be more reason to remain on the site, as the home of the scheme's standards charter and support offerings. For this group, dwell time is likely to be much higher, so the focus should be on clear navigation and how we link up relevant resources to extend the customer journey.
The following is a proposed hierarchy for the scheme's website, based on our research so far. We would expect our chosen supplier to use our initial research and vision as part of a discovery process to flesh out our ideas, combined with their industry expertise and additional user research as necessary, to refine this model to produce a best-in-class website that would meet and exceed the expectation of our users:
two.3) Estimated date of publication of contract notice
7 February 2023
Section four. Procedure
four.1) Description
four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: No