The authority are seeking a supplier to help us build and implement a new Digital Experience Platform (DXP), including a public website, content management system, digital asset management system, and workflow tools.

The intended contract will be for a initial 5-year term, with two potential 12-month extensions.

The intended release date for the live tender is 18 January 2021.

As such, the authority is seeking expressions of interest at this stage, with early engagement from the market on our draft requirements.

The draft requirements and contract documentation shall be published to all interested parties w/e 11 December. It should be noted that the authority are not looking to materially change the terms and conditions, nor the content of the requirements, and interested parties should feedback to the authority on any particular concerns regarding the markets general ability to meet any particular elements.

All clarifications and feedback should be provided via www.kentbusinessportal.org messaging facility.

The authority’s current web Content Management System (CMS), used to generate the KFRS public website, does not meet our current requirements. In addition, due to changes in technology since its original procurement, there are now stricter requirements from HM Government for accessibility of information presented on the internet which affects new and existing public sector websites since September 2018 (Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018).

The proposal is therefore to procure a Digital Experience Platform (DXP) which centralises and streamlines a number of currently separate tools and function, providing the flexibility for the authority to adapt to new and emerging technologies.

Scope:

Discovery, user engagement, system design, build and implementation of an open-source DXP, and related development and test environments. The open source DXP will include:

• a unified workflow management (WFM) tool for content production, scheduling and retention and review that integrates with the other components below;

• a headless or headless-hybrid content management system (CMS) able to push content via APIs to a new public-facing website and social media platforms with scope to adapt to new and emerging channels as they become available and viable;

• a new, mobile-friendly, public-facing website at https://www.kent.fire-uk.org that meets WCAG 2.1 AA-standard for accessibility, as well as the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 and HM Government Digital Service recommendations for designing for accessibility;

• a GDPR-compliant Digital Asset Management (DAM) system that integrates with the CMS and workflow tools.

Continuous improvement and pro-active supplier engagement throughout the term of the contract to deliver innovation and efficiencies.

User training

Ongoing support and maintenance for the solution.

Out of scope

• intranet site and any related content management tool;

• migration and/or management, or creation of any content/transactions for the new solution, other than those detailed within the requirements;

• a payment platform is not required.