Alpha Phase of Seafarer Services

Seafarer Services is splitting the seafarer oral exam into two parts, an online assessment (Part A) and a shorted face-to-face oral exam (Part B).MCA is purchasing the services of a third-partycontractor/ developer to deliver an alpha phase systemthat will lead to Seafarer Services customers (Officer of the Watch and Chief Mates -Navigation) to sit their Part A assessment online, leading to efficiencies as described below.

The cost of the contract to deliver the alpha phase systemisas follows:£108,662.50 (Exc.VAT)£21,732.50 (VAT)£130,395 (Inc VAT)The Business Case spend was approved up to 200k.Optional extras:To effectively deliver an alpha systemand pass GDS requirements,sufficient user research/ testingmust be conducted. This will require engagement from a wide range of our customers(public).To help achieve sufficient user input tomeet GDS requirements. It is likely that the supplier will need to incentivize prospective users and compensate them for their time during this process. Specialist content designers will also be required todevelop the'look andfeel' of online systems.Costsfor these aspects are as follows:The project aims to utilize £20k of the approved 200k budgetfor user research and 10k for contend design, these costs include VAT therefore the cost for the optional extras have been broken down below:(Recruitment incentives for user research:£16,666.67(Exc. VAT)£3333.33VAT£20,000(Inc. VAT)(At £170 per participant this will pay for up to 94 participants)Content Designerfor 10 days@ £750 per day:£7,500 (Exc. VAT)£1,500 VAT£9,000 (Inc. VAT)Summary of costsContract Cost: £108,662.50Optional extrasUser Researcher Incentives:£16,666.67Content Designer£7,500Total£132,829.17Exc. VAT£26,565.83VATTotal£159,395.00Inc. VAT