PCD 1210 Digital Asset Management Solutions (BOX)

PCD 1210 Digital Asset Management Solutions  (BOX)

The MPS receives, creates and stores large volumes of data in a wide variety of formats. The MPS needs a digital asset management platform to store its data and ensure that documents and media can be shared both internally and externally with trusted partners.  

The MPS initially used Box as a Digital Asset Management Services (DAMS) tool in a proof of concept in 2016. The product was subsequently procured through G-Cloud, initially in July 2017, then again in June 2019, each time on a 2 year contract. The current Contract, awarded in June 2021, expires 30th June 2022. The MPS is seeking to procure a new 2 year contract with Box.com (UK) Ltd (with option for a further two-year extension). 

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve the award of a new two-year call off contract with Box.com (UK) Ltd (with an option for a further two-year extension) via the G-Cloud 12 Framework, fully funded in the DP (Digital Policing) MOPAC approved revenue budget.  

2. Approve total spend to a maximum total of £12,651,264 over 4 years fully funded from the approved Digital Policing revenue budget.

PART I - NON-CONFIDENTIAL FACTS AND ADVICE TO THE DMPC 

1. Introduction and background  

1. The MPS receives, creates and stores large volumes of data in a wide variety of formats. The MPS needs a digital asset management platform to store its data and ensure that documents and media can be shared both internally and externally with trusted partners.   

2. The MPS Box platform has 51,000 internal users and over 11,000 external users. The contract with Box is due to expire in June 2022. This service remains critical to how the MPS manage and share information both internally and externally, so a further contract with Box is required. 

2. Issues for consideration  

1. This information is contained in the restricted section of the report. 

3. Financial Comments  

1. The request is for a new two-year contract with Box.com (UK) Ltd (with option for a further two-year extension) for Digital Asset Management Services fully funded in the DP (Digital Policing) MOPAC approved revenue budget. The service will be procured through G-Cloud 12. Further information is contained in the restricted section of the report. As a renewal to an existing service this work does not change any aspects relating to responsible procurement. 

2. This is not a request for additional funding or budget growth. Revenue costs of up to £12.651m over 2 years plus 2 year extension (if exercised) to renew the existing contract with Box will be funded from the MOPAC Approved Digital Policing (DP) Application Management Services Revenue Budget. 

4. Legal Comments  

1. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (“MOPAC”) is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (“the Regulations”).  All awards of public contracts for goods and/or services valued at £213,477 or above shall be procured in accordance All awards of public contracts for goods and/or services valued at £213,477 (inclusive of VAT) or above will be procured in accordance with the Regulations. 

2. Paragraph 4.8 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime has delegated authority to approve business cases for revenue or capital expenditure of £500,000 and above. 

3. Paragraph 4.13 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime has delegated authority to approve the procurement strategy for all revenue and capital contracts of a total value of £500,000 or above. 

4. Paragraph 7.23 of the Scheme provides that the Director of Strategic Procurement has consent for the approval of the award of all contracts, with the exception of those called in through the agreed call in procedure.  Paragraph 4.14 of the Scheme provides the DMPC reserves the right to call in any MPS proposal to award a contract for £500,000 or above. 

5. MPS Legal Services have reviewed this request and confirmed that the use of G-Cloud 12 is compliant with procurement regulations. 

6. Additional legal considerations can be found in Part 2. 

5. Commercial Issues  

1. In 2019 the MPS devised a storage strategy encompassing multimedia and other storage. This identified that Box was it’s preferred solution for external collaboration due to its range of functionality and unlimited storage. The MPS also use evidence.com to provide multimedia evidence to the CPS, supplied by Axon as part of their Body Worn Video solution and additional evidence can also be added. Evidence.com does not however include the range of functionality necessary for wider use cases and for non CJS partners. 

2. The MPS constructed a comparator and consulted with a leading content management supplier over the most appropriate approach. They stated that MPS assumptions indicated the likely cost and risk meant that it looked unlikely that an alternative solution could compete with Box.  

3. The MPS sought the view of an independent technology consultancy with the same data to further validate it’s technical and commercial assumption that: procuring an alternative DAMS solution would provide no additional benefit and Box was aligned to industry and market trends. It was agreed that MPS assumptions mirrored other clients of comparable number of licences (50k+), confirming that the critical areas the Met were focusing on to differentiate and support the Box strategy; security augmentation, third party products, specific file types, configuration, migration and number of FTE to maintain a comparable solution in  an alternative market leading solution, were correct. This is in line with industry trends and moving from Box would have no technical or commercial benefit. 

4. In addition, it was advised the MPS have a very large and fairly complex Box implementation that would be very costly and time consuming to move and would not provide a significantly better user experience. Their analysis found it was unlikely that the real cost to MPS would decrease. The MPS has high compliance and security requirements and it is likely there would be an increase in cost to augment the capabilities of an alternative market leading content management solution. 

5. The 2-year term offered carries a fixed annual price which is protected from the impact of inflation for that period. There is an optional extension (if exercised) of an additional period of 2 years.      

6. Additional key commercial considerations can be found in Part 2.  

6. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. The MPS is subject to the requirements and conditions placed on it as a 'State' body to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. Both legislative requirements place an obligation on the MPS to process personal data fairly and lawfully in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals. 

2. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Section 57 of the DPA 2018, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) become mandatory for organisations with technologies and processes that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights of the data subjects. 

3. The Information Assurance and Information Rights units within MPS have been consulted at all stages to ensure the service meets its compliance requirements. 

4. A DPIA has been completed for this service and remains under regular review. The MPS continue to ensure a privacy by design approach, which will allow the MPS to find and fix problems at the early stages of any project, ensuring compliance with GDPR. DPIAs support the accountability principle, as they will ensure the MPS complies with the requirements of GDPR and they demonstrate that appropriate measures have been taken to ensure compliance.  

7. Equality Comments  

1. As this is a renewal of an existing service this work does not change any aspects relating to equality or diversity. 

8. Background/supporting papers 

1. Report