Preamble
This ITQ forms the second in a series of similar pieces of work. NE-BIC has already commissioned an organisation to deliver activity as set out below to bricks and mortar retail businesses in Sunderland, which has been very well received by the business community. This ITQ seeks to complement that by providing an identical service to service sector, bricks and mortar businesses, based in the Town Centres of Sunderland and who are providing services rather than a retail offer. Examples of these are businesses trading in the hair and beauty sector, or in non-primary health care such as chiropodists, physiotherapists etc. This is an illustrative, not exclusive, list of potential beneficiaries, none of which are currently supported by the existing retail programme.
The appointed delivery organisation will be required to work closely with the provider of the existing service, so that learning and best practice can be shared.
Requirements
Extensive research conducted both nationally and across the North East reveals a low level of digital skills. According to a 2021 report undertaken by North East LEP, around 200,000 individuals have never used the internet or have not accessed it within the last three months. Further, research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that the North East region has the second highest number of individuals without basic digital skills and the second lowest number of individuals with five or more basic digital skills in 2018. This has a clear domino effect into the business community where scepticism is rife amongst small business owners with regard to digital marketing, in part because of limited education around the use of digital tools, whether that be social media or technical digital products such as AI driven automated services or an over-reliance on traditional social media for personal use leading to a lack of understanding around data driven results. Many smaller businesses have been over promised and under delivered to in the digital market place and have been put off by the excessive use of “tech speak” which has served to marginalise those business owners with low digital literacy, which means they turn away from the opportunities that are presented.
It is against this backdrop that we propose to create and procure the delivery of a town centre service business commission. This proposal will work with town centre service businesses from across Sunderland to increase their digital skills and drive more traffic into their store and therefore the town centre as a whole. Such traders have historically benefited from their town centre presence and the resultant footfall and not always had a need, let alone a desire, to develop their online presence. We understand the feelings the business owner has and can readily identify with them through our work with the small business community of the North East.
The successful provider will be required to deliver a targeted programme with several key elements:
- An initial diagnostic which looks at several key elements: understanding the business and its current business model; the volume of traffic that is entering the premises; assessing their digital assets and assessing their non-digital marketing to analyse the different strands of their business and how/where customers are accessing their store.
- A digital audit – pending the outcome of the diagnostic, this will incorporate some desk based advisor work alongside direct dialogue with the beneficiary. It is envisaged this will be conducted across approximately a three-week period and will consist of the following core elements:
- Digital market goals: developing an understanding with the business owner of how their digital marketing strategy aligns with their broader marketing strategy.
- Website audit: a review of the business’s current website, where one exists, and wherever available this would access usage statistics through Google Search Console or similar to assess the number of unique visitors per month, frequency of visits, timings etc.
- An SEO analysis ensuring the current site is optimised for primary search terms.
- Social Channel Audit: an analysis of the existing social media channels deployed by the business, their frequency of use, engagement and optimisation.
- An advertising audit reviewing any digital paid advertising channels and their ROI.
- Competitor analysis: a review of their likely competitors and their digital performance.
- Access details: ensuring that the business and the applicable staff have all the relevant log in details and administrative permissions for all channels which represent their business.
- Administrator details: ensuring that digital accounts have updated administrator rights with any legacy administrators removed. Checks will be undertaken to ensure that the correct account security and protocols are in place for website, social media and all other web accounts.
- Reviewing chains of command to identify who has responsibility for drafting and then approving digital content alongside checks on who has responsibility for managing digital enquiries for each platform and that mitigations are in place for periods of absence such as holidays and sickness.
- Undertaking a review of the brand message and positioning to ensure a consistent message is in place across all social media channels and that the brand aligns with the business’s target markets
- Ensuring any website is fully compliant with GDPR legislation and Data Privacy regulations. This will include the user content for the website’s use of first party cookies, third-party cookies and third-party requests to collect and share data.
- Identification of the business’s ideal customer developing a detailed profile and identifying routes to reach this customer. It is envisaged this will be undertaken in parallel with the digital audit.
- These two strands of work will culminate in a report being written up for each beneficiary outlining key findings from the digital audit, the strengths of their current approach and opportunities available through this, potentially new, ideal customer.
- The procured supplier will work with the beneficiary to jointly review the findings of the audit and develop an action plan with a thorough breakdown of practical recommendations and a clear structure outlining how these strategies can be effectively implemented. This will include the use of digital assets alongside non-digital to reach their target audience. In many cases it is likely to be a new target customer and it is feasible that this could represent a significant organisational change.
- Ongoing support to implement this strategy which will be available for the remainder of the programme. This will include support with data project management techniques which are geared towards equipping businesses with the practical skills needed to effectively manage their marketing analytics specifically Google Analytics and data from social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Given the desire to maximise the numbers who can benefit from this support and the inevitable budgetary constraints, this support strand will be capped at 10 hours. However, Enterprising Sunderland will ensure that any business seeking additional support can access other provision, whether that be activities commissioned under this Call or otherwise, and managed referrals will take place with partner organisations where an applicable support offer is available. On their last support session, their action plan will be evaluated, and an updated version will be provided. This version will detail their accomplishments and establish new objectives for future progress.
Note that a grant may be available to support some of the costs of implementation. This will be separately managed by Enterprising Sunderland, and applications will be considered on a case by case basis, subject to need and business case.
Outputs and Outcomes
On the basis of a procured commission of up to £40,000, which will need to include irrecoverable VAT if the commissioned deliverer is required to charge this (thus a nett of c£33,300), and based on the requirement to
- Identify the businesses to benefit – to be clear, it is the sole responsibility of the provider to identify such businesses and, prior to commencing work with them, to confirm their eligibility with Enterprising Sunderland management.
- Carry out the digital audit
- Compile the resulting report
- Work with each beneficiary business for average 10 hours
we estimate that a minimum of 8 existing town centre service sector businesses can be supported at a level which provides appropriate depth and scope of activity. The successful tenderer will therefore be required to provide evidence, in a format agreed with Enterprising Sunderland, of a minimum of 8 each of enterprises receiving non-financial support; enterprises adopting new to the firm technologies and up 8 jobs safeguarded (this latter on the basis that the intervention will support the safeguarding of the vulnerable job of the individual owner/managers at a minimum)
Budget
The maximum budget for this activity is a maximum of £40,000 inclusive of all expenses and any VAT which the successful tenderer is required to charge. Payment will be made to the successful tenderer on the basis of an agreed hourly rate required to implement the contracted workplan as it is signed off by Enterprising Sunderland management. Your hourly rate should include all your office and travelling costs and incidental expenses. Payment terms will be discussed with the preferred supplier at mobilisation but will be based on a mixed consumption/output-based model.
Response requirements
Please set out in detail in a quotation:
- Provide a delivery plan including timelines, milestones and a breakdown of costings. Set out the number of hours/days allocated to specific functions within your delivery plan and the proposed balance of time between team members for the commission.
- Set out who would be undertaking the work, and, if this is a team of people, clearly identify specific roles and responsibilities. Provide CVs for all team members. Provide specific detail on the team’s experience of undertaking similar activities
- What added social value you would agree to bring to delivery.
- The hourly rate you would charge for the work and an estimate of the number of hours that would be required to complete the work as suggested. This should be inclusive of VAT and of any incidental expenses such as travelling or your office costs.
- Confirmation, assuming delivery commences in December 2024, that you have capacity to fully resource delivery immediately or, if you would you require lead-in time, what precisely would be required
Please submit your response electronically to contracts@ne-bic.co.uk by 5pm on Thursday, 28 November 2024. Late submissions will not be accepted. Requests for clarification will be only accepted through this email address, and the requests and responses will be openly published here with these tender details, and thus available to any interested party.
Please note that the winning tenderer will be required to attend an inception meeting online on Thursday, 12 December 2024, and please take account of this when preparing your response.
Scoring
Quotations will be scored by a Panel consisting of representatives of Enterprising Sunderland. In selecting the winning quotation, the panel will employ the following weighting to its scores:
Quality criteria (90% of overall score) :
Delivery methodology of requirement/ Project plan and timeline (40% weighting)
Evidence of Delivering Similar Projects and of the Team (40% weighting)
Social Value (10% weighting)
Price criteria (10% of overall score)
Scoring Grades will be utilised as follows:
| Unacceptable | Unanswered or failed to adequately address the requirement | 0 |
| Poor | The information submitted is very limited, inconsistent with the rest of the submission, and/or no supporting documentation has been provided | 1 |
| Fair | The information submitted is limited, has some inconsistencies with the rest of the submission and/or insufficient supporting documentation has been provided. | 2 |
| Satisfactory | Satisfactory response to the requirements which provides adequate evidence but contains inconsistencies. | 3 |
| Good | Good response to the requirements which provides evidence which is clear but has minor inconsistencies. | 4 |
| Excellent | Excellent response to the requirements which provides detailed evidence which is clear, complete and consistent. | 5 |