Railway Operations - Service Design Support

HS2 Ltd’s Railway Operations Team is currently seeking to develop a Service Design approach to support its Proxy Operator Strategy and to inform, via the Operational Concept, early inputs during 2016/17 to the requirements for the upcoming Stations and Rolling Stock procurements.

Service Design will be a critical component of the Programme’s success – establishing a consistent design context for customers' experience of HS2.

The Service Design approach is to sit within the context of the overall HS2 Design Vision and therefore its development needs to be integral to the wider design development work that is currently foreseen across the Company.

Whilst the Service Design approach will not define the final consumer brand (that will be a matter for whatever organisation is determined by Government to be the operator of the train and station services) it will effectively create the brand “essence” providing all of the core features of the experience – visual, aural, touch, and smell that will become embedded in the technical designs against which the Railway is built.

To assist HS2 Ltd in the development of the Service Design approach, HS2 Ltd wish to procure the support of a Supplier who will be required to feed into and support the following main activities: - Creation of an overarching story for HS2 Service Design; - Identification of the exact nature of the information requirements needed for the PQQ and ITT Stages of the Stations and Rolling Stock contract tender process; - Identification of the key parameters for embodying visual and reference design work within the tender information packages; - Creation of a Service Design programme built around the critical path for information requirements; - Population of a hierarchy of design priorities; - Completion of a Service and Experience Audit; - Creation of a “Design Studio” environment within which elements of the customer experience can be trialled and communicated to key stakeholders.

Whilst a formal procurement process is intended to be conducted in due course (and therefore a separate notice will be published to cover this requirement should HS2 Ltd elect to conduct an open tender process), HS2 Ltd is keen to initially ascertain potential interest from the supply base in relation to this requirement.

The interest expressed from amongst potential suppliers is intended to shape the procurement route going forward (i.e. in terms of whether an open tender process or framework will be used).

Should you therefore be interested in tendering for this contract, suppliers are requested to express an interest by emailing Michelle Brankovic (michelle.brankovic@hs2.org.uk) by no later than 30 September 2016.