Original Tender Description
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is seeking to engage with the market to inform the development of a TfGM owned Unified Data Model (UDM) that will provide a robust, reusable data foundation for the Bee Network and wider organisational needs.
TfGM manages a complex, multi modal transport network covering highways, bus, tram, and active travel, supported by a diverse technology estate and multiple third party suppliers. TfGM is increasingly dependent on timely, reliable and coherent data to support operational decision making, performance management, planning, and future digital capabilities.
This engagement seeks to draw on market experience and expertise to help TfGM refine its thinking, validate assumptions, and shape a sustainable approach to developing and governing a UDM that can meet both current and future business objectives.
Strategic Context
TfGM has defined three strategic objectives for the Bee Network and the wider organisation by 2030:
1. Create a single view of the transport network across modes and operational domains
2. Establish a single source of truth for operational, performance and asset information
3. Develop a digital twin capability to support planning, simulation and assurance
TfGM recognises that achieving these objectives requires a strong and coherent data foundation, rather than a dependence on individual systems or suppliers.
A TfGM owned Unified Data Model is being explored as a key enabler that can:
• Provide a canonical representation of the transport network and its components
• Support consistent interpretation of data across systems and functional areas
• Enable reuse of data across operational, analytical and strategic use cases
• Underpin digital twin capabilities over time
Unified Data Model (UDM) - Current Thinking
TfGM is exploring the establishment of a TfGM owned and governed Unified Data Model, defined at a conceptual and logical level, independent of any single vendor or technology.
Key principles being considered include:
• The UDM represents core network entities, events, states and relationships in a consistent and extensible way
• It acts as a canonical or reference model, against which data from multiple sources and platforms can be aligned
• It is owned and governed by TfGM, allowing long term stability and control
• It is designed to support both real time and historical views of the transport network
While initial thinking has been informed by Highways together with Operational Control Centre use cases, TfGM is now considering the need to evolve this thinking into a business wide UDM, capable of supporting a much broader range of consumers and use cases across the organisation.
Relationship to Vendor Provided Solutions
TfGM anticipates that different suppliers may provide solutions that utilise their own internal or proprietary data models.
The intent of a TfGM owned UDM is not to replace or mandate supplier data models, but to:
• Enable federation, mapping or abstraction across multiple vendor data models
• Facilitate portability of data and capability between solutions over time
• Reduce dependency on tightly coupled, proprietary representations of TfGM's network
• Support coexistence of multiple platforms while maintaining a consistent enterprise view
TfGM is therefore particularly interested in approaches that allow vendor solutions to:
• Integrate with, publish to, or consume from a TfGM UDM
• Map or transform data between proprietary models and the TfGM canonical model
• Operate independently while still contributing to a single, coherent picture of the network
Business Drivers and Challenges
TfGM is seeking to address a number of challenges through this work, including:
• Fragmented and inconsistent representations of the transport network across systems
• Duplication of data modelling effort between projects and suppliers
• Difficulty reusing data across operational, analytical and planning contexts
• Limited ability to decouple strategic data assets from individual vendor solutions
• Risk of long term vendor lock in as new platforms are introduced
The UDM is seen as a potential mechanism to centralise meaning without centralising systems, enabling TfGM to evolve its digital landscape in a controlled and flexible manner.
Purpose of this Market Engagement
TfGM is not undertaking a procurement through this engagement.
The purpose is to engage with organisations that have experience supporting large, complex, data intensive organisations to:
• Shape, validate or implement unified or canonical data models
• Align data architecture with long term digital strategy and roadmaps
• Design governance models that balance consistency with flexibility
• Enable interoperability across supplier ecosystems
TfGM wishes to use this engagement to test and refine its thinking around:
• Whether a TfGM owned UDM is the right strategic approach
• How such a model should be scoped, structured and governed
• How it should evolve from domain specific (e.g. Highways) to enterprise wide
• How it can practically support digital twin ambitions over time
What TfGM Is Asking the Market to Respond To
Suppliers are invited to provide high level responses covering:
• Relevant experience of delivering or supporting unified data models or similar constructs at scale
• How they would support TfGM in shaping, validating or maturing a TfGM owned UDM
• How a UDM can support:
o Federation across multiple vendor platforms
o Portability of data and capability over time
o Long term digital twin development
• Views on governance, ownership and change control for an enterprise UDM
• What a typical engagement and delivery model might look like (e.g. discovery, assurance, roadmap definition)
Responses should focus on approach, principles and experience, rather than promotion of specific proprietary products or platforms.
Next Steps
Feedback from this market engagement will be used to inform TfGM's future strategy, roadmap and potential commissioning of advisory or delivery support for building a strong data foundation.
Participation in this engagement does not guarantee involvement in any subsequent procurement.