Data capture (keying) of Welsh Assembly Government administered agricultural and horticultural surve

Descriptions

Title of the contractKeying contract for agricultural and horticultural survey forms for WAG.The Welsh Assembly Government on behalf of the Welsh Ministers (the Client) requires data on returned agricultural and horticultural survey forms to be manually keyed.There are legal and statutory obligations for this data to be collected.The data has been collected in the past by another government organisation for and on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government under a reciprocal agreement.The Welsh Assembly Government now is to undertake this work themselves.Due to existing procedures, the data on the received survey forms needs to be manually keyed i.e not electronically captured (scanned).Therefore we would like suppliers to receive hard copies of forms from us by secure courier to key then return the forms by our secure courier then transfer the raw data via Afon, a secure FTP platform which is currently used by the Statistical Directorate.We would give training and appropriate user access to Afon to the successful bidder.The main surveys run in June and December of each year - 2010 and 2013 being larger surveys than normal.There could be potentially 7 to 9 of these surveys over the life of the contract.For example, in June 2010 we are looking to dispatch a 12 page form to c. 22,000 customers - at a 60% response rate, we would have the requirement of 13,200 forms to be keyed.This data would need to be keyed from the life of the survey to the survey shutdown i.e 3-4 months.Around this time, another survey, the December Survey would start.Occasionally, like in September 2010, another survey will run concurrently at the same time as the June Survey and will also need to be keyed.There will be downtime i.e. times when the surveys do not run - typically between March and June of each year.We would, however, like to reserve the right to add (or suspend) surveys or ad-hoc new surveys as required.All data from all surveys would need to be returned rapidly however data quality control and assurance controls would be in place.Some forms are single sheet, 2, 4, 8 or 12 pages long and are in English and/or Welsh.All forms have a variety of formats, including numeric, alpha numeric, coded and/or text; any text fields in Welsh will be appropriately translated by the Statistical Directorate prior to capture.We are looking for information regarding the cost to key the data in terms of single entry keying, dual entry keying and two person data entry.Information security is paramount in all discussions and we are looking for relevant ISO accreditation wherever possible.We have copied of historical forms on the internet for viewing but it is not indicative of current or future surveys:http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/about/data-collection/agriculture/?lang=enThe awarding Authority reserves the right to request parent company and/or other guarantees of performance and financial liabilityPayment terms will be indicated in the contract documents. Tenders to be priced in Sterling. Payment made in Sterling only.No special legal form required but joint and several liability assumed by all group bidders before acceptance.The Authority reserves the right to consider variant bidsThe Authority reserves the right to split the requirement into lots