The Digital Services for Integrated Care (DSIC) Onboarding Process is the journey, the milestones and the set of assessments that a Solution has to go through to get onto the Buying Catalogue.

The Buying Catalogue allows Health and Care Organisations to browse clinical IT systems, which have been assured using the DSIC process, including those accepted onto DSIC procurement Frameworks. It allows users to find, compare and order Solutions from any of these Frameworks.

The DSIC Onboarding Process is known to be long and involve numerous manual tasks. Previous analysis has identified that the use of digital tools and platforms would alleviate many of the pain points and resource demands caused by these manual tasks. It could also streamline and clarify both the Supplier journey and the internal workstreams by providing greater visibility and automation of routine activities.

Goal

The goal of this current exercise is to select a Provider which will subsequently provide a working Minimal Viable Product (MVP) of an Onboarding Toolset that will support the DSIC Onboarding Process.

Process

The steps we expect to follow, from initial investigations to delivery of an MVP Onboarding Toolset, are:

1. Initial Engagement - this Engagement Pack has been shared to Providers, and Engagement Sessions will be held in order to identify which platform(s) will be invited to build a Proof of Capability demonstration piece.

2. Proof of Capability - we will invite Provider(s) to build and showcase a Proof of Capability demonstration piece, based on the Proof of Capability Requirements.

3. Minimum Viable Product - we will invite a single Provider to build an Onboarding Toolset based on a more comprehensive set of MVP requirements.

Engagement Pack

This Engagement Pack includes three sets of information: Contextual Information, Proof of Capability Requirements, and the Assessment Method.

Contextual Information

A range of Contextual Information has been provided to give Providers context and understanding about the Onboarding Process and the different activities that a Toolset would be expected to support. The Contextual Information is intended to place the requirements in context; Providers should feel free to request additional information about the Onboarding Process, requirements and expectations.

Proof of Capability Requirements

The Proof of Capability Requirements outline the functionality that a candidate toolset would be expected to deliver in the Proof of Capability. The requirements focus on the Solution Registration stage of the Onboarding Process and are not exhaustive, but are broad enough that successful delivery would demonstrate that the platform should be able to deliver a comprehensive Onboarding Toolset in the long-term.

We do not expect Providers to build anything to these requirements. Instead, we will ask for demonstrations and assurances that the Provider’s platform can deliver the desired functionality. This will determine our level of confidence in the candidate platform.

Additional Questions

The Proof of Capability Requirements are accompanied by Additional Questions; these cover a range of business and relationship factors that we have, regarding the service and delivery providers can offer.

Assessment Method

A decision on which Provider(s) to progress to the Proof of Capability stage will be made based on the demonstration seen in the Engagement Sessions and responses to Additional Questions.

Engagement Sessions

Providers will be invited to provide a visual demonstration of their platform, via a video call, to representatives of the DSIC Programme.

The Engagement Sessions are intended to be formal but conversational, to explore what is already possible on the candidate platforms, and to understand what can or cannot be developed.

To this end, the candidate platforms will be assessed against the Proof of Capability requirements.

We do not expect Providers to build any bespoke demonstration pieces for the Engagement Session, and are happy to see demonstrations of the closest existing functionality. If no such existing functionality exists or can be demonstrated, we are happy to discuss what is and is not possible and factor this into our assessment.

Additional Questions

Providers are also asked to review and answer the Additional Questions and submit written answers in the template file provided, and may do so before or after the Engagement Sessions.