The Arts Council of England: Audience Data & Insights

UK-London: Software programming and consultancy services.


Preliminary Questions
   This notice is for prior information only: Yes
   This notice aims at reducing time-limits for receipt of tenders: No
   This notice is a call for competition: No
         
Section I: Contracting Authority

I.1) Name and addresses:
       The Arts Council of England
       21 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3HF, United Kingdom
       Tel. +44 1615374120, Email: amanda.jones@artscouncil.org.uk
       Contact: Amanda Jones
       Main Address: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/
       NUTS Code: UK
      Specifications and additional documents: As Above
I.2) Joint procurement:
   The contract involves joint procurement: No.
   The contract is awarded by a central purchasing body: No .

I.3) Communication          
   Further information can be obtained from: the above mentioned address

I.4) Type of the contracting authority    
   Body governed by public law
I.5) Main activity:    
   Other activity: Grant Funding

Section II: Object
      
II.1) Scope of the procurement - 1
   II.1.1) Title: Audience Data & Insights    
          Reference number: 405 ACE ITT
   II.1.2) Common Procurement Vocabulary:       
      72200000 - Software programming and consultancy services.
   II.1.3) Type of contract: SERVICES
   II.1.4) Short description:    
      Audience Data & Insights 2023+: A system that enables National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) (including Creative People & Places (CPPs)) to collect and submit their total audience volumes as well as the postcode and demographics data (ethnicity, age, gender, disability, socio-economic background) of a fully representative sample of their audience to Arts Council. The system should enable organisations to derive insights from the collected data.          
   II.1.5) Estimated total value:       
      Value excluding VAT (give figures only) : 1,600,000 - GBP
   II.1.6) Information about lots:
      This contract is divided into lots: No          
      Maximum number of lots that may be awarded to one tenderer: Not Provided       
      The contracting authority reserves the right to award contracts combining the following lots or groups of lots: Not Provided

II.2) Lot Description          
   II.2.2) Additional CPV code(s):       
      48900000 - Miscellaneous software package and computer systems.          
      72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support.          
      79310000 - Market research services.          
      79311000 - Survey services.          
      73110000 - Research services.          
      73210000 - Research consultancy services.       
   II.2.3) Place of performance:       
      Region Codes:               
         UK - UNITED KINGDOM    
   II.2.4) Description of the procurement:       
      This notice is not a call for competition. Arts Council England intend to issue the call for competition with procurement documentation including a formal invitation to tender and contract terms on or after 14.3.2022. This notice is for information only, to allow bidders time to consider their tendering strategy and, where applicable, to discuss with joint venture partners or sub-contractors how the services may be delivered before the tender is published. Arts Council England reserves the right not to proceed with the procurement or procure the services through alternative procurement arrangements.

Bidders may also raise questions about the procurement and Arts Council England’s requirements by contacting us via the Delta e-sourcing portal: https://www.delta-esourcing.com/respond/WP286MRH85    
   II.2.14) Additional information          
      If you are interested in the opportunity, please submit the typical terms and conditions that you would enter into with customers for similar services. Arts Council England may review these to help develop its own contract, but is under no obligation to incorporate any potential supplier terms into its own contract.    


II.3) Estimated Date of publication
         15/03/2022
      
      
Section IV: Procedure   

IV.1) Description       
   IV.1.8) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA )
         The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) - YES

Section VI: Complementary Information    
VI.3) Additional Information:       
   ACE is seeking a suitably qualified service provider, consortium or contractor (which may be a joint venture comprising of a number of suppliers, or a prime contractor that may sub-contract certain elements of the services) to provide a system that enables National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) (including Creative People and Places (CPPs)) to collect and submit audience data to ACE. This will include their total audience volumes, postcode and demographics data (ethnicity, age, gender, disability, socio-economic information) of a fully representative sample of their audience, and box office transaction data.

This contract will include provision of two main elements:
a)Provision of a digital platform (to enable the collection, upload and submission of data as well as an integrated insights tool)
b)Consultancy and support services (supporting organisations to use the platform effectively and technical support)

The service must support users to be able to collect the data either directly through the system (e.g., in built surveys, box office connections) or by uploading an export from a third-party platform e.g., box office system, surveying platform. It will also require the ability for direct data entry for the total audience volumes and other related data as specified by ACE.

The system should include an integrated insights tool. This would include the ability for organisations to analyse transactional data from their box office and capture additional audience information beyond the specifications detailed above at no additional charge. The collected data should be available directly to the submitting organisation as both raw data and through insight reporting (dashboards, reports etc.), as well as appropriately anonymised versions made publicly available on a regular basis. The tool should support benchmarking against relevant population statistics as well as the aggregated dataset.

The service should include the provision of a technical support functionality, which includes a helpdesk, alongside guidance materials, webinars etc. The supplier should also support the users to use the tool effectively, for example guides on best practice for surveying audiences and extracting insights from the collected data.

The service provider must be able to share the NPO data with ACE at an individual NPO level on a quarterly basis. Ideally the data will be shared via a direct pipeline to ACE data platform, however csv. file sharing could also be a viable option.

The purpose of this procurement is to identify the most economically advantageous provider to enable NPOs to collect and submit mandatory data on their audiences to ACE, whilst also utilising the collected data in audience development activity.

The system must be fully functional and in operation by 1 April 2023. Any required system development, testing and onboarding must be scheduled to take place before this date.
To view this notice, please click here:
https://www.delta-esourcing.com/delta/viewNotice.html?noticeId=669221786
GO-2022223-PRO-19700349 TKR-2022223-PRO-19700348        

VI.5) Date Of Dispatch Of This Notice: 23/02/2022