GPASS / SCI / ISD

DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK

Request for Bids

Issued by

Information Systems Support Group

Information and Statistics Division

Common Services Agency

Trinity Park House

South Trinity Road

Edinburgh EH5 3SQ

1.Introduction

This brief paper has been produced as a terms of reference for a piece of work to produce an accreditation pack to be used to support and accredit third party (non SCI) developers wanting to use SCI Gateway to support electronic communications. This accreditation pack will form the basis of a generic one for subsequent SCI applications as interfaces and APIs are developed.

Third party access to Gateway, for example, to get discharge, referral and other classes of message has always been seen as part of the SCI Gateway package. Until recently there has been little or no interest from third parties in using Gateway. This has now changed and there are increasing numbers of third parties showing interest. A block of work is now needed to support and encourage, but at the same time regulate and test this interest.

2.Aims and Objectives

The aim of work is to provide:

  • A process for licensing third parties to use the Gateway, based upon the existing GPASS ‘Developer Edition’ licence and process.
  • A robust ‘tool-kit’ including; documentation, software, data and other environment components need to support the third party developers inter-working with SCI Gateway. This would reflect the GP and PMR vendor toolkits produced in the SCI Prescriptions project.
  • An accreditation process to test/evaluate third parties to ensure that their use of the Gateway is appropriate and will not cause damage to the SCI Gateway and its users. Live usage of the SCI Gateway would be limited to accredited third parties.
  • Support for the first one or two (depending on timing) third parties to test and enhance as necessary the other products based on actual usage.

The end point of the block of work will be a set of products, to be maintained as part of any on-going developments of SCI Gateway. A separate exercise (outwith this piece of work) will be required to ensure that these products are used. That is, to administer on-going licensing and accreditation.

3.Approach to the work

Development of the initial third party licence is not envisaged as being a substantial piece of work as all the building blocks exist. The approach will be to review existing documentation, liase with NHS staff and produce new and revised documentation. At this time this is envisaged as 2-3 days effort.

Development of the tool kit will be the biggest area of effort. At this stage it is envisaged that the tool kit will have two elements:

  1. A CD or equivalent that will be given to the third party and
  2. A central (i.e. remote to the third party) test Gateway system.

An existing tool-kit for another SCI product, SCI Prescriptions, will provide a useful starting point for both.

With regard to the CD or equivalent an effort of 15-20 days is envisaged, though this will depend upon the experience of the resource and may need to be revisited during the work. Effort will be required to:

  • review and decide what relevant documentation exists (and ensure that they are in a consistent look and feel and of sufficient quality for external inspection).
  • Define prerequisites and constraints (i.e. to defined what they can and cant do, and the level of skills they need before they start). Little of this exists so will need to be produced in conjunction with SCI staff
  • Produce developer guides. Some of this exists for Discharge letters but will need to be developed for everything else.
  • Produce the necessary test harness or set of stubs to allow the developer to test early version of their software locally some of this has already been produced by the SCI Test team.
  • Define a set of FAQ, This does not exist and will need to be created perhaps with the help of the first third parties.
  • Create very high level development plans based on the SCI Prescriptions tool kit.

With regard to the test environment, discussions are underway with SchlumbergerSema about them hosting a test and production environment. The effort here will be to liase with Sema. This is envisaged as taking 1-3 days

The accreditation process will need to be developed but a comprehensive model already exists. Effort will be required to review the existing documentation liase with NHS staff and produce new and revised documentation. An effort of 2-3 days is envisaged for this.

The approach and effort required to support is unknown at this stage and the level of effort will depend upon the suppliers and how quickly they can react. At this time an effort of 5 man days over the duration of the contract is envisaged for this. But will need to be reviewed during the work.

The consultant undertaking the work should have:-

  • Experience of producing professional documentation
  • Experience of the SCI Gateway environment. Including XML, SOAP, MS SQL, MS IIS, MS visual basic
  • Experience of similar exercises or equivalent consultancy work
  • The necessary inter personal skills to work effectively with the SCI Staff

Ideally the consultant would have been actively involved in the development of an equivalent system to SCI Gateway..

Documentation about the GPASS licence and Accreditation process are available at Useful background information about SCI gateway, the Discharge developer guide, and the process for requesting other SCI licences are available at

4.Deliverables

4.1A licence to access to the SCI Gateway and Tool-kit by any third parties. The purpose of this is three fold: To protect the interests of NHS Scotland, to protect appropriate interests of the third party and to help deflect nuisance requests for information.

4.2A tool kit that will be provided to all licensed third parties. It is intended to provide all the documentation and other essentials to support them developing (or modifying existing) applications to work with the Gateway. Note the tool kit is intended to support rather than do their development. The entire development cycle (including testing) will be their responsibility. The third party will be constrained by the published tool kit. That is, they will ‘need to do it our way’ or not at all. However, this will not preclude requests for enhancements/different ways of doing things that may be considered for possible future releases.

4.3An accreditation process to test that the third parties can interface to the Gateway properly. That is, that the prerequisites are met, the system works appropriately and other uses of the Gateway will not be effected. Only third parties that have passed accreditation will be allowed to access the live Gateway. The accreditation process would consist of:

Inspection of the application working with the test environment. This to confirm is correct function but also to monitor impact on the Gateway.

  • Inspection that all the pre-requisites have been adhered to.
  • Inspection of third party development documentation in particular design and test documentation

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4.4Since the tool kit and accreditation process cannot be developed in isolation a period of on-going support for a limited number of third parties to use the tool-kit and be accredited is also required.

5.Response

You are invited to respond to this document with the following information:-

1. An estimate of the number of days work required to produce the deliverables. Explaining any divergence from that envisaged in section 3.

2. The total cost of the work exclusive of any expenses.

3. The CV/s of the individual/s who will undertake the work.

4. A relevant reference for similar work undertaken, detailing contact information (name and telephone number or email address) and a brief summary of the nature of the work.

The work will be undertaken under the terms of the GPASS/SCI/ISD Framework Agreement

One paper copy of the response and tender, together with an electronic copy on diskette/CD in Word 2000 format, should be sent to:-

Business Advisory Group

Room C002

Trinity Park House

South Trinity Road

Edinburgh EH5 3SQ

The plain envelope containing your response should be clearly marked “SCI 03” to arrive by noon on Thursday, 16 December 2002. Tenders which are posted must bear a postmark or be posted by recorded delivery. Those delivered by hand will be recorded and a receipt given. Tenders received after the closing date will not be considered. Fax or telex tenders are not acceptable. Tenders must be held open for a period of 60 days from the closing date.
Any questions regarding the content of this OR should be addressed to Iain Murray, Procurement Consultant, Information Systems Support Group (ISSG), telephone:0131 551 8553, Fax: 0131 551 8548, e-mail: questions of simple clarification of understanding will be addressed by telephone. Any questions of interpretation must be put in writing and faxed, and will be subject to a written response which will also be provided to other bidders.

6.Evaluation of Responses

The responses to this OR will be evaluated with a view to awarding a contract to the Contractor adjudged to have made the economically most advantageous bid. Bidding Contractors may be invited to discuss their proposal. The NHSiS Common Services Agency reserves the rights not to accept the lowest tender or not to award any contract as a result of this OR.

Criteria taken into account in the evaluation will include:

  1. Experience of undertaking similar work
  1. Price and delivery timetable.

To assist with the completion of your response, you may contact Iain Murray, telephone 0131 551 8553 or e-mail for further information.

7.Appendix - Further information on the tool kit

The tool kit will be provided to all licensed third parties. It is intended to provide all the documentation and other essentials to support them developing (or modifying existing) applications to work with the Gateway. Note the tool kit is intended to support rather than do their development. The entire development cycle (including testing) will be their responsibility. The third party will be constrained by the published tool kit. That is, they will ‘need to do it our way’ or not at all. However, this will not preclude requests for enhancements/different ways of doing things that may be considered for possible future releases.

At this stage it is envisaged that the tool kit will have two elements. A CD or equivalent that will be given to the third party and a central (i.e. remote to the third party) test Gateway system. The ‘CD’ should provide:

  • Relevant back ground documentation, product descriptions, technical architecture docs, design docs, etc.
  • Prerequisites and constraints (this is our chance to defined what they can and cant do, and the level of skills they need before they start).
  • Developer guides. What is required is documentation of, and worked examples for, each of the messages supported by the Gateway.
  • Development environment, any software or configuration data required (in the same way as the protocol builder includes upgrades to MS IE to support XML and SOAP). This would be limited to ‘free’ elements. If any purchase is required this would form part of the prerequisites.
  • Test environment, a local test harness or set of stubs to allow the developer to test early version of their software locally.
  • FAQ, Anything that we can think of that would support the developers. I.e. to stop them asking for support.
  • Very high level development plans, in the form of start here, do this then do that.

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