Innovation Portal challengeCopy Link

Background

Smart DCC has built and maintained the secure national infrastructure that underpins the roll-out of smart meters across Great Britain. It’s a highly secure end to end solution that will ultimately connect every home and small business to the same network. This provides a unique platform for industry innovators to create new products and services that leverage the data and connectivity that the technology infrastructure provides.

At present, development and innovation around the smart metering system is challenging – it’s a complex ecosystem which is difficult to understand and even harder to develop on. DCC has been working on tools and services to try and make this easier. SmartDCC believe a key component to this success is an ‘Innovator Development Portal’ which would act as the first point of contact for innovators, providing access to guidance, information and development tools.

The portal that DCC is planning to build will help users develop new products and services that make use of the smart metering infrastructure. The portal will be a first point of contact for Innovators, where they can eventually progress to DCC’s test labs to verify the physical product or service with the smart metering infrastructure. 

Statement of need
DCC is aiming to facilitate re-use of the smart metering infrastructure, whilst encouraging innovation in the energy and other parallel markets. DCC has a license obligation to facilitate innovation in the market and aim to do this across the whole of UK industry, not just energy.

DCC’s innovator portal will be cloud hosted, providing an avenue for all prospective innovators to develop products utilising the value of its infrastructure. It will be accessible to everybody and easy to innovate on, ensuring a level playing field that operates for the public good. DCC requires somewhere to direct innovators to, where they can learn about the infrastructure, collaborate with the market, and develop products and services.

Smart DCC are looking for solutions that will provide an easy to use, and easy to innovate on experience. Smart DCC are looking to solutions that ensure accessibility to everyone, creating a fair playing field and maximizing the opportunity for innovators looking to re-use our network.

Rewards and benefits
Successful applicants will be given an opportunity to pitch to the Challenger. The package may also include:

• Support from the Catapult networks and the KTN
• Support in the development of a prototype or pilot
• Technical support
• Invitation to attend or present at KTN or Catapult events
• A potential business collaboration
• Investor introductions (if investment is required)
  

Solution Requirements
Introduction and purpose of the challenge document

The Innovation Portal challenge is being delivered by the Knowledge Transfer Network in partnership with Innovate UK and Smart DCC. Smart DCC are identifying innovative solutions to significant challenges relations to enabling innovation through the smart meter network. These innovations will lead to environmentally sustainable innovations being implemented across Great Britain.

The purpose of this challenge document is to understand your company background and high-level capability, as well as understanding broadly what solutions are available in the market that can meet DCC’s requirements. The same information will be gathered from different organisations and will be used to help shape the RFP and shortlist bidders.

This challenge document will focus on the ability of your company to deliver an innovation portal for Smart DCC. This portal would enable Smart DCC to facilitate innovation across Great Britain by utilising the value of the smart metering network. Further detail can be found in the requirements section.

Scope

This challenge document will focus on the ability of your company to deliver an innovation portal for Smart DCC. This portal would enable Smart DCC to facilitate innovation across Great Britain by utilising the value of the smart metering network. Further detail can be found in the requirements section.

Specific information is requested according to the form below. This form will enable DCC to shape the RFP and determine whether you are likely to be suitable for our procurement process as we progress with this concept. It is important to note that we are specifically looking at the ability to deliver a customer facing portal that enables innovation for those customers who use it.

Requirements

The high-level requirements for the innovation portal are as follows. DCC welcomes suggestions of additional functionality, or variations to the current requirements that would enhance the solution DCC is aiming to deliver.

• Community of people – where people can give and rate answers
• Verified users – twitter style model to demonstrate trusted users
• Expansion – ability to add new sections and functionality over time
• Pricing – mixture of free and paid services, such as bronze, silver, gold services
• Document repository – containing specifications and standards
• Broadcast messaging – DCC to have the ability to post messages to a host of innovators
• User guide – a learning section containing user guides for the portal
• Onboarding process – for new suppliers to register and agree to terms of use
• Data capture and visualisation – DCC to be able to capture data from the portal to understand adoption and usage
• Sandbox – area for products and services to be developed and tested
• APIs – the ability to connect and integrate with data APIs
• Self-serving – Needs to be as light touch for DCC as possible
• Support – How might you provide services to manage incident resolution and uptime of the service

Challenge Response Procedure

To respond to this challenge please complete the IX portal questions and in addition please include an appendices to show the Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) Cost and Pricing and and how you have addressed the requirements defined by Smart DCC. Please contact louise.jones@ktn-uk.org for a more complete list (for those that didn't attend the workshop)

The response to this challenge document will be evaluated by staff from different functions in Smart DCC, with support from The Knowledge Transfer Network, and a maximum of 8 suppliers will be invited to the next stage of the process, which is the RFP.

For further information on DCC Innovation and the Brabazon house test site, go to the website where you can register interest in using or having a tour of the labs:

https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/smart-future/enabling-innovation/

Conditions which will be terms for future RFPs or RFQs

• Payment term: 30 days
• Delivery location: Manchester

How to deliver the answer

Submit proposals through the https://www.ktninnovationexchange.co.uk/challenges 

Contacts

For questions regarding this challenge document, you are welcome to contact:

• Name: Nathan Fox                                                       
• Job title: Procurement Manager
• Email: procurement@smartdcc.co.uk

Timeframe

Stage Date Challenge Document issued 21/11/19 

KTN Challenge workshop 28/11/19 

Clarification Question Deadline 02/12/19 

Challenge document response deadline 13/12/19 

Supplier Workshops 18/12/19 – 19/12/19 

Shortlisted bidder notification 20/12/19 

RFP Issue 08/01/20 
Clarification Question Deadline 15/01/20 

RFP Response Deadline 29/01/20 

Shortlisted Bidder Notification 11/02/20 

Shortlisted Bidder Presentation 17/02/20 – 18/02/20 

BAFO Deadline 24/02/20 

Preferred Supplier Notification 04/03/20 

Service Commencement May 2020

Abbreviation and terminology

• DCC – Data Communications Company
• RFP – Request for Proposal

All information included in this Challenge Document is confidential and only for the recipient’s knowledge. No information included in this document or in discussions connected to it may be disclosed to any other party

Eligibility and assessment criteria Entrants to this competition must be:

- Established businesses, startups, SMEs or individual entrepreneurs
- UK based or have the intention to set up a UK base
Applications will be assessed on:
- Relevance to the challenge
- Innovative nature of the solution
- Technology Readiness level
- Intellectual Property/Freedom to Operate
- Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) Cost and Pricing

IP and Potential Commercial Route 

- Existing background IP associated with a potential solution will remain with Solution Provider(s). Where any new IP generation is envisaged, it will be subject to the mutual IP agreement of the Solution Provider(s) and Innovation Challenger.
- Any commercial deployment of transferred solution or newly developed solution, through licensing, joint venture, partnership or direct investment, will be subject to the commercial agreement between the Solution Provider(s) and Innovation Challenger.
- Where necessary, a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) may be signed to uphold confidentiality in the engagement between the Solution Provider(s) and Innovation Challenger.
- Innovate UK and KTN do not take any share of IP ownership or enter into commercial venture through the iX programme.