Technology Solution for Local Price Data Collection

Local Price Collection is vital to the production of the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH), Household Costs Indices (HCIs) and Retail Prices Index (RPI). These measures are important indicators of how prices are changing within the UK economy. ONS currently collects approximately 100,000 prices each month from retail outlets across 141 locations, using a field workforce of fewer than 300 collectors. The Local Price Collection service involves ONS identifying the products and retail locations from which information needs to be collected. Collection activity is allocated to field collectors, who record price and product information and associated metadata using mobile devices. The supporting technology enables collected information to be validated, collated and quality checked before being transferred into ONS systems. ONS is developing its future operating model for Local Price Collection. The future model may involve elements of data collection being undertaken in-house alongside separately procured outsourced data collection services. As part of this work, ONS is undertaking preliminary market engagement specifically to understand the market for the technology capabilities required to support Local Price Collection. At a high level, ONS is looking to understand market capability to support: allocation of products and retail locations to field collectors for monthly collection activity; collection of price, product and associated metadata using a mobile device; validation of collected information, including identification of potential anomalies requiring review; secure transmission of information from mobile devices for central collation and quality checking; and onward transfer of collated and quality-checked data into ONS systems. ONS has identified two related technology capabilities for this market engagement: 1. Mobile data collection capability; and 2. Data validation and consistency-checking capability. Suppliers do not need to provide both capabilities. ONS welcomes engagement from organisations capable of providing either individual capability or both. A separate preliminary market engagement exercise is being undertaken in relation to the outsourced field data collection service. This exercise is specifically intended to help ONS understand the technology market, available solutions, indicative implementation timescales and considerations that should inform development of the future technical requirement 1 – Mobile data collection capability ONS requires a mobile application capable of enabling field collectors to capture price and product information together with associated metadata. At a high level, the capability would need to: receive information required to support collection activity, including product and location information; enable field collectors to record price, product and associated metadata; support local validation of collected information; support data collection where continuous connectivity may not be available; support integration with ONS authentication requirements, including single sign-on where applicable; and securely transmit collected information for onward collation, validation and processing. For use by ONS field collectors, the solution would need to support iOS. However, through this engagement ONS is also interested in understanding which other operating systems suppliers currently support, including Android. Through this engagement, ONS wishes to understand whether suitable solutions already exist in the market or would require configuration, customisation or bespoke development. 2 – Data validation and consistency checking ONS also requires capability to undertake validation and consistency checks on collected information before it is transferred into downstream ONS systems, supporting the quality and completeness of the collected data. ONS is considering how this capability could best be delivered and welcomes information from suppliers on available solutions and recommended approaches. Where elements of the capability are delivered within the ONS technical environment, ONS can support deployment within Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) environments. Common elements of the ONS technical environment include: Python; Terraform; and GitHub. Relevant GCP technologies include: Cloud Build; and appropriate native GCP services. Relevant AWS technologies include: Concourse CI; and appropriate native AWS services. Interfaces between the technology solution and downstream ONS services would need to support secure transfer of data through agreed mechanisms, including APIs where appropriate. Implementation timescales A key purpose of this preliminary market engagement is to understand the indicative implementation timescales associated with available technology solutions. ONS would like suppliers to provide an indication of the period they would reasonably require, following contract award, to configure and/or develop, integrate, test and implement their proposed solution to a point where it would be ready to support a parallel operational run. ONS is particularly interested in understanding: overall indicative implementation timescales; the principal stages contributing to that timescale; whether the timescale would differ between an existing/configurable product and a bespoke solution; and any significant dependencies on ONS or other delivery partners that would materially affect implementation. ONS may explore implementation assumptions and the flexibility of indicative timescales further through subsequent individual supplier engagement sessions.