dxw digital delivers for the Small Business Commissioner Service
dxw digital provides a digital solution for the newly established Small Business Commissioner
Customer:
SME Growth Team, Business Growth Directorate, BEIS
Supplier:
dxw digital
Contract description:
To provide discovery, alpha and beta phases to deliver a service for the newly established Small Business Commissioner.
Contract delivery area:
UK wide
Contract value for SME:
£450,000
CCS Framework through which business was won:
DoS2
Supplier factfile:
SME:
dxw digital
CEO/MD:
David Mann
What the company does:
dxw digital is a digital agency working with the public sector to research, design, build and operate services that make life better for people
Company HQ:
London
Website:
www.dxw.com
Social media:
www.facebook.com/thedxw www.twitter.com/dxw https://www.linkedin.com/company/dxw/
Annual turnover of company:
£3.23 million
Number of employees:
53
Type of SME:
Small
Supplier’s experience
In relation to the contract awarded, how did you find the procurement process?
Straightforward and thorough. It was clear from the description on DoS as to what BEIS wanted a supplier to deliver, and there were clear instructions about what was required at each stage of the process (proposal, pitch etc.) We were also given enough notice for producing the proposal and pitch - the deadlines were realistic. We’ve had experiences in the past where a brief has been unclear, or we’ve been given a days notice to write a lengthy proposal which was not the case here.
What worked well and what could have been done better?
We delivered on time and under budget, using a multi-disciplinary and agile team which worked with the client at their offices.
The user’s needs were at the centre of our work - user research informed the service that we built and the advice content that was written.
What benefit does your company receive from supplying to the public sector?
We are a digital agency solely for public sector clients. We help organisations research, design, build and operate digital public services. By only working with public sector clients, we’re able to focus on bidding on opportunities on DoS3 and G-Cloud 10 rather than our work being diluted with private sector projects.
What was the outcome of the contract for the client?
The outcome was positive: discovery, alpha, beta phases to deliver a service for the newly established Small Business Commissioner. We provided them with a team of researchers, developers, designers, content designers, product manager and delivery manager. We partnered with their policy team, and then the Small Business Commissioner’s team when that came into place in Sept/Oct time.
How would you like to work with the public sector in the future?
Over the next year, we will continue to work with all public sector clients - current and past clients include NHS England, Department of Health, Department for Education, Hackney Council, Thames Valley Housing and more. We’ll be focusing on Local Government and Housing projects.
We’ve learned how to structure good 100 word answers, how to write better proposals, how to understand what the buyer wants by asking for clarification.
I would advise other SMEs to always ask for feedback when you lose a contract or are unsuccessful in getting shortlisted. Learn the language used by buyers in their bids and reflect that language back when you’re making your bid. Answer the questions that are being asked – this IS an exam!
Internal retrospectives with the team involved in the procurement are of huge importance these help you learn what went wrong, and what you can improve on in the future.
Customer’s testimonial
“Working with dxw was a pleasure. As a small business themselves they had a clear understanding of the audience we needed to reach with the product, and they were able to mobilise their networks very quickly so that no time was wasted in the early days of the project. Their knowledge of government digital standards and principles was impressive, and hugely helpful when we needed to make content and design decisions. As the head of the policy team, I felt like an integral part of the delivery effort, and dxw colleagues were great at planning and working around my availability.
The product was delivered on time and under budget. This meant we could launch the website at the same time as the new non-departmental public body that it was designed to support – the Small Business Commissioner. We were delighted to get a positive comment in the House of Lords just a month after going live which described the service during a debate as ‘an excellent website, full of advice for businesses struggling with payments’. This was high praise and fantastic recognition for a job well done.”
Hannah Robins-Frank
SME Growth Team, Business Growth Directorate, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy