Request for Proposal (RFP)
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NHSBT Core Systems Transformation
APPENDIX A – CUSTOMER SPECIFICATION
This document forms Appendix A to the Request for Proposal (RFP) for Digital Services Framework
Agreement – RM1043, along with Pricing Matrix (Appendix B) and an Award Questionnaire (Appendix C).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROJECT START DATE AND TIMEFRAME...................................................................................................... 2
CURRENT SITUATION / BACKGROUND INFORMATION................................................................................ 2
USER STORIES .................................................................................................................................................. 5
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPI’S) ..................................................................................................... 8
CURRENT ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITES OF THE CUSTOMER ................................................................ 8
CURRENT TECHNOLOGIES AND LANGUAGES ............................................................................................. 8
REQUIRED OUTCOMES .................................................................................................................................... 9
CAPABILITIES AND ROLES ............................................................................................................................. 11
PRICING MODEL .............................................................................................................................................. 14
CUSTOMER LOCATIONS ................................................................................................................................ 14
TEST & DEVELOPMENT REQUIREMENTS .................................................................................................... 14
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS........................................................................................................................... 14
Request for Proposal
RFP
PROJECT START DATE AND TIMEFRAME
This project must commence immediately after NHSBT has completed its Lean Value Stream Analysis of
Blood Supply Chain and Tissues Services on 5th December and produce its deliverables by mid February in
order to set out the manner in which Core Systems (Pulse) will be managed during future support contracts.
These future support contracts are to be let in February 2015 and completion of this Discovery Phase is a precondition for approval of that support contract.
Key delivery dates
PROJECT PHASES
START DATE
RFP
15/10/2014
Discovery
08/12/2015
COMPLETION DATE
13/02/2015
A Discovery Phase interim findings report is required for 16th January
CURRENT SITUATION / BACKGROUND INFORMATION
NHSBT is at the outset of its journey in modernising the Pulse Core System, entering the Discovery Phase. At
the commencement of this project NHSBT will have performed its user needs analysis research (via a series
of Lean “Value Stream Analysis” workshops) and developed its overall information flow for the Blood Supply
and Tissues Services businesses.
At the point of releasing this Customer Specification document, NHSBT has a hypothesis for the future state
set of application types and user needs to be fulfilled and a set of indicative user stories.
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Applications
The overlay of current applications to processes is set out in the following diagram:
Current and In-Progress Applications Process Overlay
Transport Management
Request
Shipping
Plan session
Optimise
Shipping
Manage
Delivery
Promote and
Attribute
Key
Pulse
TMS
OBS
Hematos
PCS
SO99
OBOS
Book
Donor
Portal
Oracle
Financials
Attend
Manage
Session
Donate
Feedback
Maintain
Donor
Record
Donor
Testing
Process
Validation &
Labelling
Leads
Management
Order
Order
Management
Customer
Satisfaction
Customer
Master Data
Issue
Management
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Scheduling
Demand
Management
AR
Patient
Testing
Planning and Control
Forecasting
Invoicing
VMI and
Inventory
Management
Plan
Resource
Mgt
Resource Management
Administer
Record
Resource
Resource
Mgt
Mgt
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NHSBT uses Business Objects for the assembly and presentation of performance data and has linked Hematos, Pulse and Financial Data to the Business
Objects Universe. Business Objects extracts have also become used for a number of transactional business processes executed outside the Core Systems.
The hypothetical future state overlay of applications to processes is set out in the following diagram. Prior to completing user research to determine benefits
of any individual capability and determining the cost to achieve such solutions, none of the following future state overlay is proved. NHSBT is entirely open to
a different conclusion proved as part of this Transformation Discovery project.
Hypothetical Future State Applications Process Overlay
Transport Management
Request
Shipping
Plan session
Optimise
Shipping
Manage
Delivery
Promote and
Attribute
Book
Manage
Session
Donate
Feedback
Maintain
Donor
Record
Donor
Testing
Process
Validation &
Labelling
Leads
Management
Order
Order
Management
Customer
Satisfaction
Customer
Master Data
Issue
Management
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TMS
OBS
Hematos
PCS
SO99
eCommerce
Session
Applications
Donor
Portal
CRM/Order
Mgmt
Demand
Management
Invoicing
AR
Patient
Testing
Planning and Control
Scheduling
Pulse
Finance
Modules
Attend
Forecasting
Key
VMI and
Inventory
Management
Plan
Resource
Mgt
Resource Management
Administer
Record
Resource
Resource
Mgt
Mgt
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In anticipating a continuing role for the legacy Pulse application, NHSBT must act to assure the sustainability
of this service (for more information see Appendix 1; elements of Pulse’s application code create a tie to the
OpenVMS Operating System and Itanium hardware, technologies unsupported after 2019). Consequently,
this Discovery phase must identify what interventions are required to assure the sustainability of this
application.
Implicit within many of the User Stories presented below, is the use of information for decision making both in
a transactional and management context. NHSBT requires, as part of this Transformation Discovery Project to
determine how these needs should be fulfilled and how the information management capabilities of individual
components of the future superset should co-exist within a broader Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics
scheme. For example: customer account performance (revenue, contribution, feedback satisfaction, NHSBT
opportunity win rate) etc. can be assembled within the Management Information (MI) capabilities of most
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, transport efficiency and effectiveness within the MI
capabilities of Transport Management System (TMS), Collection Productivity within MI capabilities of future
session/donor applications and donor platform.
NHSBT needs to determine as part of this Transformation Discovery Project, on the strength of user needs,
how the balance of enterprise BI/Analytics functions and distributed in-application MI should be set.
USER STORIES
The following user stories have been assembled anecdotally and have underpinned the above hypothetical
future state application process overlay. These are to be refined and completed during NHSBT’s Value
Stream Analysis activity to be completed prior to the start of this Discovery phase.
User
User Story
“Book and Rebook”: I want to be able to find, book and amend my sessions in any
location so that I can donate in a way that fits with my life.
“Submit my Screening”: I want to be able to submit pre-donation information and
check-in to session online so I can be in and out quickly.
Donors
“Assist my Screening”: I want to be able to access assistance when I need help
answering health check questions so I provide accurate information, provide a safe
donation and am kept safe.
“Shared Experience”: I want to be able to share experiences of my donation with my
friends so I can recruit more donors.
“Virtual Donor Conversation”: I want to be reminded when I can donate and offered
sessions that are near me so that I can donate in a way that suits my commitments
Tissues Customers
and Blood
Customers
Tissue Donation
Partners
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“Integrated Delivery”: I want to be able to integrate my delivery of healthcare with
sourcing the blood and tissue products and information I need so that I have what I
need when I need it without complicated ordering procedures.
“Assisted Ordering”: I want assistance for complex product choices and clear
accurate information about availability and fulfilment times so I can get the right
products and information to serve my patients excellently and efficiently.
“Fit with my world”: I want to understand NHSBT’s demand for tissues and for it to
be quick, simple and paperless for me to send them tissues so that it doesn’t interfere
with my preparation for and conducting of surgery and so I can supply NHSBT with
the best tissues.
Request for Proposal
RFP
“Clinical Expert Services”: I want to be able to support clinical staff in our customer
organisations with timely, high quality advice to make good decisions so that good
patient care is achieved and NHSBT is seen as the supplier of choice.
Clinical
“Donor Care”: I want to be made aware immediately and fully of any donor health
concerns so that I can provide excellent care to those donors and secure the safety of
the blood supply.
“Sharing for Donor Care”: I want to be able to see and share all donor and patient
information with the right people so we can collaborate to make excellent decisions
whilst retaining correct confidentiality.
“Physical Donor Conversation”: I want to be able to recognise and welcome new
and returning donors so that they want to come back
“Session Flow”: I want to be able to track donors progress through my sessions so I
can be sure everyone is getting an excellent service.
Blood Collection
“Responsive collection capacity”: I want to know in real time what my collection
targets are and what resources are required to deliver that so I can be productive,
safe and offer donors proper attention.
“Devices fit for work”: I want hardware that’s appropriate for my environment so that
the machine doesn’t get in the way of dedicating my time to deepening my relationship
with donors. (Also Tissues Referral/Collectoin)
“Connected referral and collection”. I want to be able to record information once, at
the point it becomes known – whenever and wherever – so that I can pass it along my
organisation and efficiently conduct collection operations.
Tissue Collection
and Referral
“Donor Family Care”. I want simple complete access to all the information we have
relevant to a donor so that I can concentrate on our relationship with the donor family
and I request only that information from them that we absolutely need.
“Patterns and Performance”. I want to understand how my collection supply chain
via Hospital Donation Committees is performing so I can collaborate with them to
source the best possible Tissues.
“Virtual Donor Conversation”: I want to be able to interact with customers using the
messages and communications media that they respond best to so that donors enjoy
hearing from me and attend loyally.
Marketing
“Precision donor response”: I want to understand exactly how much marketing
activity is necessary to achieve the precise donor turn-out my targets demand so that I
use my resources and the resources of my colleagues efficiently.
Manufacturing and
Testing
“Responsive manufacturing capacity”: I want to know exactly how much work I’m
expected to do, of what type, where and have exactly that amount of work to actually
do so that I can use my resources efficiently and always ensure customers have the
products they need.
“Adaptable manufacturing capacity”: I want to be able to react quickly and
confidently to changes in regulations and technology development so I am always
able to produce safe products.
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“Silent fulfilment”: I want to know how to fulfil customers’ product requests without
them having to ask so they always have exactly what they need, where they need it,
when they need it.
Product issuing
“Information for assistance”: I want the information about our production
performance and products to help customers make good choices so they can serve
their patients excellently.
Customer Services
(Account
Management, Sales
and Support)
“Information for relationship”: I want to know everything we’re doing for a customer
and everything the customer has expected us to do so I can have objective
conversations about our performance on behalf of the customer and establish a
relationship based on NHSBT creating value for our customers.
“Configured Service”: I want to be able to tailor our delivery – products, services,
features, and commercial terms – so I can design exactly the service my customer
wants to receive and I can maximise their value in consuming our services.
“Enabling efficient customers”: I want to be able to present invoicing information to
customers in they way they want it so that they can run their own businesses
efficiently and want to do business with us.
Finance Operations
“Delighting customers”: I want to be able to concentrate on customer service rather
managing information flows so that our customers trust us and want to do business
with us.
“Being easy to do business with”: I want to be able to support a range of
commercial terms so that we can serve customers in the manner that creates most
value for them whilst managing our own business risks effectively.
Supply Chain
Planning/Master
Scheduler
“Smooth balance”: I want to know accurately what demand is going to be and what
work is in-progress in order to plan supply so that I can exactly fulfill customer
demand, on-time-in-full, with no stock expiries and smooth work profiles in every
function.
Transport
“Efficient moving”: I want to be able to see everything that needs to be moved from
one place to another and when so I can get customers exactly what they need and I
can operate my fleet efficiently.
Specialist Services
(for matched
products)
“Integrated Transfusion”: I want to be able to locate the information I need quickly
and simply so that I make the right decisions for patients on product issuing quickly
and so that patient outcomes and the customer value we create is maximised.
“Safe and repeatable”: I want to know that critical processes are always followed
exactly so our products and advice are always safe.
Quality
Patients and
citizens
“Safe and responsive”: I want to make sure we can change quickly where business
reasons compel it and safely where safety reasons compel it so we are productive and
safe.
“The Knowledge”: I want to know about NHSBT’s performance so I can be confident
I’m going to get good care and that our money is being spent wisely
NHSBT is also undertaking user research across non-Blood and non-Tissues lines of business to understand
their needs of corporate platforms in managing customer and order information. This will be available at the
outset of the engagement.
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KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPI’S)
The KPIs which are held to be important (subject to refinement during NHSBT’s pre-Discovery Value Stream
Analysis), in addition to cost per transaction, user satisfaction, completion rate and digital take-up are:
• OTIF (On Time In Full)
• Production Output Variance from Plan
• Activity Input Variance from Plan
• Stock Variance from Plan (i.e. Planning Accuracy) and sufficiency of supply
CURRENT ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITES OF THE CUSTOMER
Delivery Team roles from the NHSBT organisation already in place are set-out in the following document:
(Also attached to the RFP as Appendix 2)
CSTD Leadership
Team ToR _V0.5.doc
CURRENT TECHNOLOGIES AND LANGUAGES
The following technologies and languages are currently in use in NHSBT across the in-scope business
functions.
The Pulse System, from which the vast majority of Blood Supply and Tissues functionality is currently fulfilled,
is a client server architecture using COM+ objects for integration, web services, programming languages of
Delphi predominantly for online processing with Java for additional batch processing and MimerPG as a
legacy of the original development language used with the database. Pulse runs a Mimer database. The
database uses OpenVMS operating system and runs on Itanium processors, a restriction of the MimerPG
programming language. The remaining applications run on Windows 2003 servers. See Appendix 1 for
additional details on current Pulse system.
NHS Hospital customers currently order blood (only) via OBOS (Online Blood Ordering System), a web
application developed in Microsoft .NET, using framework version 3.5. It is written in C#. ASP.Net framework
(2.0 and 3.0) is used for web pages in the presentation layer and .NET framework 3.5 is used to build objects
and assemblies. The Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Framework is used to develop and expose
the web service used in integration with Pulse. Hospital customers use the N3 network to connect to the
internet to access OBOS. OBOS is hosted on Windows Azure as is authentication which is achieved by
ASP.Net form based authentication, validating user credentials using membership provider. Hospitals use
specific IP addresses/ranges to access OBOS.
Donors search for sessions and book donation appointments via the Donor Portal, a web application
developed in .NET framework version 4 written in C#. The application uses bespoke integration services with
Pulse, PingFederate for identity management, SendGrid Cloud email, and includes social media integration
and a click to chat and feedback features hosted by Teleperformance. The application is hosted on Windows
Azure. The Donor Portal continues to be refined to optimise user experience and NHSBT operational benefits
following agile approach via a separate engagement on DSF.
The Tissues Services sales team and customer services team use a publicly hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM
instance for sales management and order processing.
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NHSBT is currently migrating its websites and their management to Umbraco (7.x) CMS in order to enable
digital business.
As part of this Discovery project NHSBT wants to select the technologies to adopt for new and renewed digital
and mission IT services. NHSBT is agnostic over what technologies to adopt. NHSBT anticipates retaining
legacy application capability for Pulse and must decide what interventions to make in modernising this
application to ensure it is sustainable (e.g. database/hardware/OS/development languages)
REQUIRED OUTCOMES
This Discovery Phase is required to create an Information Systems Vision for the business functions currently
underpinned by the Pulse System. This Information Systems Vision will fulfill the requirements stated below
and will build on research conducted by NHSBT prior to this Discovery Phase start, namely NHSBT’s Value
Stream Analysis (Process Flows, Information Flows, User Stories, key Customer, Donor and External Actor
personas). The Supplier must augment NHSBT’s team and its responsibilities identified in Roles and
Responsibilities section above to:
1. Assemble overall Information Architecture (a Business Information Model) and information processing
sequence for Blood Supply and Tissues Value Chains
2. Establish a “platform” view of information management and information technology that cuts across
historic process and line of business silos, achieving an overlay of components which establishes a
common, shared, distributed and consistent Business Information Model for the enterprise.
Techniques which bring this to life and assist with validating completeness such as wire-frames and
paper-prototypes are of interest.
3. Identify the most appropriate manner of delivery for information processing needs, principally
identification of platforms for:
3.1. Commodities to be outsourced (e.g. data centres, computing)
3.2. Common business capabilities to be fulfilled by packaged products
3.3. Distinct business capabilities to be fulfilled by bespoke products (and delivered, where
appropriate in an agile way)
3.4. Business capabilities to be fulfilled by existing software (particularly Pulse)
3.5. An Overall information management scheme aligned to user needs, marrying internal MI
capabilities of components with overall BI/Analytics
4. Select components of the overall technology suite to be adopted:
4.1. Packaged product types*
4.2. Development languages and integration methods†
4.3. Database products†
4.4. Infrastructure/hosting and operating systems†
For requirements 3 and 4 NHSBT anticipates a method whereby the supplier and NHSBT team set
and agree selection criteria (including non-functional and operational requirements) with the Product
Owner, identify candidate technologies/product types and select specific technologies.
5. Select technologies with which to modernise retained existing software to assure its sustainability,
including development languages, database, operating systems, infrastructure/hosting
6. Identify potential alphas and complete prioritisation
7. Determine appropriate implementation sequencing
8. Estimate cost per component and produce investment case
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9. Identify key delivery risks and their mitigation for effective management through post-discovery
phases
10. Assure breadth of requirement is addressed. NHSBT recognises the importance in this Discovery
Phase of achieving complete coverage of in-scope business functions and user needs rather than just
focusing on the apparently highest priority user needs at the outset (as we would do in an Alpha
phase for example). Omission of any user need from Discovery Phase activity creates a substantial
risk of an entirely missing, incongruous or inextensible component. Accordingly NHSBT wishes a
means of establishing velocity during Transformation Discovery that can be used to adjust emphasis
of the activity in order to achieve such complete coverage within the available time, even if this be at
risk of lower resolution than possible in some areas.
11. Produce interim findings. This report to present the expected conclusion of what “platforms” (see point
2) NHSBT will operate, how these will support the overall Business Information Model and information
flows and each significant interim state between current and future. This is required for 16th January
to meet a committed checkpoint with Cabinet Office.
Roles are planned to be staffed by both NHSBT and the Potential Providers people. NHSBT requires the
Potential Provider to effect a transfer of skills/methods to the NHSBT team in order that they can conduct an
equivalent Discovery exercise in other NHSBT directorates.
* Note, this is not the selection of specific vendors’/open source products, it is the identification of product
types upon which separate, later competitive procurements will be run to select specific vendors’/open source
products for implementation. Potential Providers for this Transformation Discovery Project must understand or
be able to locate the features available amongst such packaged products to be able to assess general
product types’ fit with NHSBT’s future operations and information management.
† NHSBT requires to identify which development languages, database products, infrastructure and operating
systems are the preferred choice for individual bespoke software components, including retained, renewed
legacy software (Pulse), to be implemented in phases post Discovery. NHSBT does not wish to identify a
specific hosting partner but establish the basic characteristics of a hosted offering that are appropriate to
business/user and operational needs.
Out of Scope
NHSBT does not anticipate prototyping software or user interfaces but acknowledges that a degree of handson investigation of certain products/technologies as part of validating their fit with selection criteria set may be
proposed.
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CAPABILITIES AND ROLES
NHSBT is structuring this procurement as three lots. Lot 1 is to provide services to deliver the overarching technology vision and integrate the delivery of
services through Lots 2 and 3.
Lot 1
CAPABILITY
CUSTOMER’S REQUIRED OUTCOME
Agile Delivery
Management
Mapping to required outcomes (see above). Oversee and integrate delivery of:
• Overall information architecture and information processing flow
• Establish a “platform” view of information management
• Identification of nodes of information processing which are best filled by commodity offerings, those which are best filled by
common/packaged components and those which are best filled by bespoke functionality.
• Selection of technologies to be adopted for packaged product types, development languages, integration methods, database
products, infrastructure/hosting and operating
• Selection of technologies to be adopted for assuring the sustainability of retained legacy functionality
• Identification and prioritisation of alphas
• Determination of appropriate implementation sequencing
• Development of overall investment case
• Identify and consolidate key delivery risks
• Assure breadth of requirements is covered by establishing velocity and acting to direct efforts accordingly
• Produce interim findings report
• Effect a skills transfer to NHSBT Delivery Manager, Product Manager and Business Analyst people
Product
Development and
Service Design
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Mapping to required outcomes (see above):
• Develop overall information architecture and information processing flow
• Establish a “platform” view of information management
• Identify nodes of information processing which are best filled by commodity offerings, those which are best filled by
common/packaged components and those which are best filled by bespoke functionality.
• Select technologies (not specific products) to be adopted for common/packaged components
• Identify and prioritise alphas
• Identify appropriate implementation sequencing
• Consolidate estimates of costs and benefits per component and produce overall investment case
• Identify and consolidate key delivery risks
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• Assure breadth of requirements is covered by establishing velocity and acting to direct efforts accordingly
• Produce interim findings report
• Effect a skills transfer to NHSBT Product Manager, Service Manager and Business Analyst people
Software
Engineering and
Ongoing Support
Mapping to required outcomes (see above):
• Develop overall information architecture and information processing flow
• Establish a “platform” view of information management
• Identify nodes of information processing which are best filled by common/packaged components and those which are best filled
by bespoke functionality
• Select technologies to be adopted for bespoke functionality, including retained legacy functionality to assure its sustainability:
development languages, integration methods, database, infrastructure/hosting and operating systems.
• Determine appropriate implementation sequencing
• Estimate cost per component and produce investment case
• Identify delivery risks
• Effect a skills transfer to NHSBT Software Engineer and Technical Architect people
Lot 2: Front-end Design and Interaction Design Lot
CAPABILITY
CUSTOMER’S REQUIRED OUTCOME
Front-end Design
and Interaction
Design
Mapping to required outcomes (see above):
• Contribute to development of overall information architecture and information processing flow
• Contribute to establishment of a “platform” view of information management
• Identify nodes of information processing which are best filled by bespoke functionality.
• Select technologies to be adopted for development languages and integration methods, including retained legacy functionality to
assure its sustainability
• Contribute to identification and prioritisation of alphas
• Contribute to determining appropriate implementation sequencing
• Estimate cost per component and contribute to production of investment case
• Identify delivery risks
• Effect a skills transfer to NHSBT Designer and Software Engineer People
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Lot 3: System Administration and Web Operations Lot
CAPABILITY
System
Administration
and Web
Operations
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CUSTOMER’S REQUIRED OUTCOME
Mapping to required outcomes (see above):
• Contribute to development of overall information architecture and information processing flow
• Contribute to establishment of a “platform” view of information management
• Contribute to identification of nodes of information processing which are best filled by commodity capabilities
• Select technologies to be adopted for database products, infrastructure/hosting and operating systems, including retained legacy
functionality to assure its sustainability
• Determine appropriate implementation sequencing
• Estimate cost per component and produce investment case
• Identify delivery risks
• Effect a skills transfer to NHSBT Database Specialist and Technical Architect People
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PRICING MODEL
Customer’s preferred pricing model or models, for SOWs that may be awarded as a consequence of this
Further Competition, are shown in the following table:
PRICING MODEL
PROJECT PHASES
Time and materials
Expected for Lots 2 and 3 for this Discovery Phase
Fixed price
Preferred for this Discovery Phase for Lot 1 and for
Lot 1 bidders also bidding for Lots 2 or 3.
CUSTOMER LOCATIONS
NHSBT primary work locations will be Birmingham.
UK REGION
CUSTOMER LOCATIONS: CITIES OR TOWNS
The Midlands
65 New Street, Birmingham B2 4DU
TEST & DEVELOPMENT REQUIREMENTS
Not required for this Discovery Phase
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
Pulse Architecture
Summary.zip
Pulse Knowledge
Base Concepts Manual and System Manager's Guide.doc
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