The Buying Catalogue Onboarding Process is the fixed set of tasks and milestones which have to be completed by a Solution which is onboarding to the Buying Catalogue.

The visual outlines the key activities of the Onboarding Process, with further detail provided below:

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Solution Registration

Registers a Solution and any Additional Services for the Onboarding Process. Includes gathering information about the products, and the selection of Capabilities and Epics to be assessed in later stages. This information is used to identify all of the assessment and assurance tasks to follow. A planned addition is the “Preliminary Assurance” task, in which Suppliers provide important assurance evidence which demonstrates that they are sufficiently prepared to proceed with onboarding.

Solution Registration must be completed before the Solution proceeds to any of the assessment activities.

Solution Registration is the focus of this Proof of Capability exercise. For more information see Solution Registration Overview.

Capability Assessment

Assessment of functional requirements, measuring the Solution against Epics and Acceptance Criteria. Suppliers are required to deliver a live or recorded demonstration of their Solution meeting the Acceptance Criteria. Demonstrations are stored for future reference and the results for each Epic and Acceptance Criteria are currently shared via email and spreadsheet.

Capability Assessment, Capability Risk Logs and Standards Assurance can all be worked on simultaneously.

Capability Risk Logs

Assessment of additional requirements relating to Epics and Acceptance Criteria. Suppliers are currently required to complete spreadsheet-based risk logs, providing evidence for specific requirements and any anticipated risks.

Standards Assurance

Assessment of a range of technical and non-functional requirements described in Standards. Suppliers are required to complete spreadsheet-based forms (Traceability Matrixes, TMs), providing evidence for the specified requirements.

Work Off Plan

If a requirement or risk is not passed during Capability Assessment, Capability Risk Logs or Standards Assurance, the Programme may permit the requirement to be added to a Work Off Plan.

A Work Off Plan is an agreement between the Supplier and the Programme that the Solution may be published on the Buying Catalogue without passing all necessary requirements. The requirements in the Work Off Plan must then be delivered by an agreed date. Failure to deliver can result in the Solution being removed from the Buying Catalogue. The Buying Catalogue provides details of the Work Off Plan to Buyers.

Prepare Solutions Listing Page

Gathers the information necessary for adding the Solution to the Buying Catalogue. Includes information already collected during onboarding (e.g. Epic results, Work Off Plan details) and additional information from the Supplier (e.g. marketing description of the Solution).

Publication to Catalogue

Creates the Solution’s Listing Page on the Buying Catalogue.

Change Requests

The formal process by which Suppliers request to make changes to their Solution (e.g. requesting to add more Capabilities or Epics to their selection). Suppliers are required to specify and justify their requested change, which may be rejected or approved by the Programme. Suppliers are typically discouraged from making Change Requests until after their Solution is on the Buying Catalogue.

Challenges

The three primary challenges faced by the Onboarding Process at present are…

1. A reliance on spreadsheet forms which…

   1. May need to be recreated for each Framework or Roadmap Change.

   2. Must be manually created, duplicated and stored for version controlling.

   3. Must be emailed between Suppliers and the Programme.

   4. Can be filled in incorrectly by Suppliers and have little to no validation controls.

   5. Contain large amounts of information not easily displayed in spreadsheets.

2. A reliance on email communication which…

   1. Can easily be lost or confused, particularly if multiple people are involved.

   2. Often means that decisions or agreements documented in emails may not be adequately attached to records of the associated activity within the Onboarding Process.

3. Lack of progress tracking and visibility for Suppliers, who must rely on their Supplier Manager to inform and update them on the outstanding tasks.

4. Extensive storage of evidence (spreadsheets, documents, recordings, emails) in SharePoint environments which Suppliers cannot access.

   1. Currently, each Supplier has their own SharePoint environment for depositing files, but these must be copied over into a single NHS SharePoint where they are version controlled for long-term storage.

5. Evidence submitted during a previous onboarding journey (for a different Framework) may be valid for the current onboarding journey, but is not easily identifiable or collected as the data sits in multiple different records. For more information see Additional Frameworks and Reusing Evidence.

These are challenges we believe a toolset can help resolve, in part or in full.