InfoTown™
Sam's journey · Winning the work (tender) · Lesson 2

Whose system is it anyway?

Before you start

In the story

Three systems nobody priced, and a whiteboard full of spaghetti.

Back to the story

The right way

Tender

Sam lists every system the client requires, and beside them our own, with what each one is for.

Tender

Sam maps the routes between them: what moves where, who moves it, and how often. Gaps and doubles get spotted on paper, not on site.

Get readyGet ready: Day one…
Day one

The bid priced the licences, the training and the routes. Stevie uploads once, and the route does the rest.

Ours, as usualThree systems nobody priced, and everything typed twice.
Mapped at tenderEvery system known, priced, and joined by a route someone owns.
Think like Sam

For every system the client names, can you say what it's for, who uses it, and how information gets in and out of it? A route nobody draws becomes a back alley.

Continue Sam's journey

Story 3: Who's actually doing this?

The bid says information will be managed by "the IM team". The IM team is Sam, on four other bids.
The right way, explained

The right way, explained

Before you move into a town, you look at the map: which buildings are already there, which ones you're bringing, and which roads join them up. Draw the roads before the traffic arrives.

If you're the client

If you're the client

List the systems you require in the tender, what each is for, and which ones bidders can't swap for their own.

In the town See it in the town: every building, every road, and the roads made of paper.

Sam's view: our buildings, the client's buildings at the edge of town, and every road between them. Some of the roads are a person retyping things.

The buildings, district by district Buildings sitting in their districts, left to right: Assurance with the Quality System, Engineering with the Design System, Information Governance with the Records Office (your organisation's CDE), Commercial with the Commercial System, and Operations with the Planning System. Beyond the edge of town, outside every district: the Quality System, the Design System, the Records Office (your organisation's CDE), the Commercial System, the Planning System with people talking outside, and a person walking past with a parcel stuck in their bag. ASSURANCEENGINEERINGINFO GOVERNANCECOMMERCIALOPERATIONS OUTSIDE ANY DISTRICT QUALITY SYSTEM DESIGN SYSTEM CDE RECORDS OFFICE COMMERCIAL SYSTEM PLANNING SYSTEM SOMEONE'S BAG
Look inside a buildingAround the districts

The Records Office

What lives here
IM calls it
Watch out for

This is your Information Landscape Map!

Every system, tool and connection on the job, paper included: defined, agreed and built before day one.

For the audit What the auditor will ask
  • Which systems are used on this job, who decided, and how does information move between them?
  • How did the bid account for the client's systems?
For the audit What good evidence looks like
  • A one-page systems map from the tender, kept up to date.
  • Licences and training in the price.
  • Routes between systems, each with an owner.
From the standard
ISO 19650 Systems in the tender response

ISO 19650 expects the bid to show the team has the technology to do the job, and how the shared system and its workflows will work. That includes the client's systems, not just ours.

The bid should showIn plain words
The IT the team will useEvery system, ours and theirs, and what each is for
How the shared system will workWhich one is the master, and how things move through it
How systems connectThe routes between them, and who looks after each one
What it costsLicences, set-up and training, priced

Based on the ISO 19650 series: the ideas come from the standard; the plain-English wording, examples and advice are InfoTown's. ISO 19650 is © ISO and BSI. You'll hear the same language across the industry. Read more for free in the Information Management Initiative (IMI) Framework guidance from BSI and nima. For the full requirements, use the standard itself.