The Arts Council of England: Arts Access Scheme - Digital Membership System

UK-Manchester: 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:
       Arts Council England
       The Hive, 49 Lever Street, Manchester, M1 1FN, United Kingdom
       Tel. +44 1619344317, Email: Procurement.Services@artscouncil.org.uk
       Contact: Phil Lofthouse
       Main Address: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/supplying-arts-council
       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    
   Other type:: National development agency for creativity and culture
I.5) Main activity:    
   Recreation, culture and religion

Section II: Object
      
II.1) Scope of the procurement - 1
   II.1.1) Title: Arts Access Scheme - Digital Membership System    
          Reference number: ACE 504 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:    
      Arts Council England intends to commission a Digital Membership System (DMS), as part of a programme of work to develop a UK-wide access scheme, which will improve access, usability, and inclusion for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people to creative and cultural activity across the UK. The access scheme will improve the D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent audience experience of creative and cultural organisations by offering practical tools that will help organisations offer better access provisions in a more efficient manner, underpinned by industry backed access standards for the sector as well as training and support to meet those standards. It will also provide audience insights for partners and participating venues. The scheme’s DMS will be one of the cornerstones of the scheme, as a tool which facilitates the connection between creative and cultural organisations and their customers. The DMS will allow customers to sign up to the scheme and create a profile giving details of their access requirements. Organisations will also sign up via the DMS and create profiles for their access provisions and performances. The database of organisations and their provisions will be used to create access directories to aid customers to find events and activities that meet their requirements. Organisations will also be able to subscribe to the access scheme, giving them access to the database of customers and their requirements. The DMS will therefore be a tool which allows customers to quickly and easily share their requirements with any arts or cultural organisation they wish to attend, either through tech integrations with their existing ticketing and CRM software or by manual look up. We are open to different approaches to delivering a DMS either being procured from a consortium or a single multi-disciplined supplier, with the development work occurring within the UK. We would welcome the opportunity to talk with a supplier or suppliers about potential solutions, either using existing technology or developing a new system for the task. We are particularly interested in speaking with disabled-led or organisations with a particular focus on disability and accessibility. We would like to engage in Pre-market engagement in August/September 2023 to explore the available options for developing the DMS. Please note, this early market engagement is not the start of the formal procurement process, but an opportunity to discuss the project more openly before the formal process begins. We do, however, have a developed scope of requirements that we will share with those we invite to take part in the pre-market engagement to inform the discussion. Please forward some brief information (max 2 sides of A4) about your organisation and your experience of developing similar digital systems to procurement.services@artscouncil.org.uk . Please put "Access Scheme; Digital Membership System" in the email title.          
   II.1.5) Estimated total value:       
      Value excluding VAT (give figures only) : 760,000 - 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.       
   II.2.3) Place of performance:       
      Region Codes:               
         UK - UNITED KINGDOM    
   II.2.4) Description of the procurement:       
      Arts Council England intends to commission a Digital Membership System (DMS), as part of a programme of work to develop a UK-wide access scheme, which will improve access, usability, and inclusion for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people to creative and cultural activity across the UK. The access scheme will improve the D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent audience experience of creative and cultural organisations by offering practical tools that will help organisations offer better access provisions in a more efficient manner, underpinned by industry backed access standards for the sector as well as training and support to meet those standards. It will also provide audience insights for partners and participating venues. The scheme’s DMS will be one of the cornerstones of the scheme, as a tool which facilitates the connection between creative and cultural organisations and their customers. The DMS will allow customers to sign up to the scheme and create a profile giving details of their access requirements. Organisations will also sign up via the DMS and create profiles for their access provisions and performances. The database of organisations and their provisions will be used to create access directories to aid customers to find events and activities that meet their requirements. Organisations will also be able to subscribe to the access scheme, giving them access to the database of customers and their requirements. The DMS will therefore be a tool which allows customers to quickly and easily share their requirements with any arts or cultural organisation they wish to attend, either through tech integrations with their existing ticketing and CRM software or by manual look up. We are open to different approaches to delivering a DMS either being procured from a consortium or a single multi-disciplined supplier, with the development work occurring within the UK. We would welcome the opportunity to talk with a supplier or suppliers about potential solutions, either using existing technology or developing a new system for the task. We are particularly interested in speaking with disabled-led or organisations with a particular focus on disability and accessibility. We would like to engage in Pre-market engagement in August/September 2023 to explore the available options for developing the DMS. Please note, this early market engagement is not the start of the formal procurement process, but an opportunity to discuss the project more openly before the formal process begins. We do, however, have a developed scope of requirements that we will share with those we invite to take part in the pre-market engagement to inform the discussion. Please forward some brief information (max 2 sides of A4) about your organisation and your experience of developing similar digital systems to procurement.services@artscouncil.org.uk . Please put "Access Scheme; Digital Membership System" in the email title.    
   II.2.14) Additional information       
      Not Provided


II.3) Estimated Date of publication
         16/10/2023
      
      
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:       
   To view this notice, please click here:
https://www.delta-esourcing.com/delta/viewNotice.html?noticeId=802507879
GO-2023815-PRO-23653137 TKR-2023815-PRO-23653136        

VI.5) Date Of Dispatch Of This Notice: 15/08/2023