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Request for Quotations for Software Development

The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), invites your firm to participate in this competitive solicitation for pricing, delivery, and terms of potential sale of the following services for the IFES office in Tripoli, Libya. IFES reserves the right to reject any and all offers, to add, delete, or modify any element of the solicitation at any time without prior notification and without any liability or obligation of any kind. This RFQ does not obligate IFES to enter into a contract nor does it obligate IFES to pay any costs incurred in the preparation of submission of any Response.

BACKGROUND

IFES is an independent, non-governmental organization (NGO) with headquarters registered in the United States of America. IFES supports citizens’ rights to participate in free and fair elections. Our independent expertise strengthens electoral systems and builds local capacity to deliver sustainable solutions. As the global leader in democracy promotion, we advance good governance and democratic rights by:

• Providing technical assistance to election officials
• Empowering the underrepresented to participate in the political process
• Applying field-based research to improve the electoral cycle

Since 1987, IFES has worked in over 145 countries – from developing democracies, to mature democracies.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES

Since 2011, IFES has worked with a variety of stakeholders and civil society in support of Libya’s democratic transition. The success of Libya’s democratic transition will depend on the emergence of effective national and local governments guided and held accountable by informed and engaged citizens. IFES’ Citizenship Matters project is intended to increase public awareness of, and confidence in, Libya’s constitutional, political, and electoral reform process. The project will harness the energy of Libya’s civil society to engage in the exchange of information and ideas and constructively take part in political and electoral processes. Through the use of new and tradition media, IFES will expand overall civic participation and understanding of Libya’s transition at a national level through the provision of timely, accurate, and reliable information related to civic and electoral processes. IFES will develop a mobile app, Citizenship Matters, and an online platform, Citizenship Express, which will enable civic discourse, discussion, and exchange of information and ideas.

Software Development:

The software development company (also referred to as “the Vendor”) will be responsible for developing two major components:

• (A) Citizenship Matters Mobile App: The Citizenship Matters smartphone app will target Libyans of all ages who are interested in becoming more civically engaged, but who need help breaking that goal down into smaller steps. Citizenship Matters will enable users to set their own civic engagement goals, track their progress, and share their results on social media. The app will focus on: (1) electoral knowledge to raise awareness and inform decision-making, and (2) experiential learning to foster attitudinal change and drive behavioral change. The app’s electoral capacity building training courses (also referred to as “workouts”) will be designed collaboratively with Libyan CSO partners and local / regional developers during consultative workshops and focus groups. These local actors will help IFES identify a mix of context-appropriate civic initiatives (including activities described below) for which users can earn points toward in-app badges and/or challenge their friends. The app will have points system through which each user will earn points based on the activities and actions they do through the app (as will be detailed through the technical description.
• (B) Citizenship Express Web Platform: An online platform enabling citizens, community activists, candidates, and election officials to post questions and answers online, discuss civic issues within their communities, and upload video and audio content. To extend the dialogue to all eligible voters, Citizenship Express will engage out-of-country voters in online discussions. The web platform will use an open source, customizable online technologies, e.g. DemTools Issues, in developing the online forum; this will allow for time and cost-savings as well as sustainability of the online tool by linking it to a community of developers who regularly update the platform’s underlying source code. Local partners will be trained to assume responsibility for managing the platform.

Link between Citizenship Matters and Citizenship Express:

• The two platforms will use the same database of users. Any user can log into both citizenship matters and citizenship express with the same login credentials.
• Both citizenship matters and citizenship express will support signing up with social media accounts (Facebook, google, etc.), in addition to the possibility of creating new usernames and passwords.
• Citizenship Matters will have a section that enables users to interact with citizenship express through their mobile phones. All the features of citizenship express will fully functional and accessible through the Citizenship Matters mobile app.
  Technical Specifications and Features:

(A) Citizenship Express:

• Open-Source Technology: the Vendor will customize such an open-source platform as DemTools Issues.
• The Citizenship Express website will enable interaction between citizens and candidates, as well as among concerned citizens.
• The Citizenship Express will have polls so that users can respond to administrator-published polls and questionnaires.
• Scoring Matrix System: Similarly, users who conduct actions such as asking questions to candidates, posting news/updates, etc., will earn scoring points. The Citizenship Express web platform will have access to the same database of users and their scores.

(B) Citizenship Matters:

• Democracy Workouts: mobile-based capacity building courses that should be administrator-configurable through the back-end (Content Management System). After logging in, users will have access to several mobile-based capacity building courses that will be developed by IFES and its CSO partners. The courses will be based on mooc structure (mooc: Massive open online course). i.e., users will be able to access online course on demand at any time. Upon completion of each chapter within each course, user will (a) earn scoring points, and (b) be able to share their progress through social media. Courses will be manageable and administrable through an admin control panel that will be managed by IFES and its CSO partners. Through the courses control panel, administrator will be able to add and remove new courses. The Vendor will work closely with IFES on installing the primitive courses (democracy workouts).
• Scoring Matrix System: In direct coordination between the Vendor and IFES, a matrix of scoring will be developed where each action any user takes (example: commenting, like, inviting a friend to the app, course achievement/progress) will add score points to that user. Scoring points will be redeemable, where users can get award prizes, and the prizes will be determined by IFES. Upon reaching each scoring milestone, the user will receive a push notification, informing them of their new score, with the option of redeeming their award prize. Additionally, an email will be sent to the user, and to the system administrator.
• Users Profiles: Each user will be able to access their profiles on the app, and will be able to change their picture, usernames, privacy settings, and points scores.
• Signing up: Upon signing up, the user will be asked if (s)he was referred by another user. If they choose “Yes”, they will be asked to pick the username of the user who has invited them (from a drop-down list, user ID, or any other technique that is feasible and that guarantees identifying the referring using). In that case, the referring user will receive additional scoring points. User access credentials will give users access to both Citizenship Matters app and Citizenship Express web platform.
• Citizenship Express Section: this will be a section that gives users access to the services and pages of the Citizenship Express web platform.
• Platforms: The Citizenship Matters app will be developed for iOS and Android platforms.

Training:

• The Vendor will conduct training to IFES staff and other CSO partners on the use and administration of both Citizenship Matters web app and Citizenship Express web platform.
• The Vendor will issue user manual (PDF documents) in both English and Arabic. Additionally, the Vendor will work closely on producing promotional short videos that promote both products (the app and the web platform) that will be promoted through social media.

Warranty and Maintenance:

The Vendor will ensure technical support for a period of 12 months after the delivery and final acceptance of the app and web platform. Support must cover in full, at the Vendor’s cost, the app and web platform, and should include but not limited to software patches, operational guidance, installation, commissioning, and corrections needed on the system to ensure its full functionality and compliance with the requirements. Services must be provided in the two required languages.

Technical Support is required to be provided expeditiously: Contact and availability of technical support will be guaranteed throughout working hours daily. Technical support should ensure response and logging of the issue within 12 hours (Unless during an election period where the response time should be immediate). The Support Center must have sufficient capacity, personnel and equipment, to diagnose and rapidly repair/replace any faulty item within a period of 24 hours (Unless during an election period where the response time should be immediate). It is the responsibility of the Vendor to ensure at all times enough resources are available to provide effectively such service.

Licenses, Source Codes and Intellectual Property:

The Vendor shall assign property of all Source Code, and licenses (free, perpetual and unrestricted licenses) and all intellectual rights to IFES. There shall be no time or usage limitation on third party products or libraries the Vendor chooses to employ, IFES should not be subject to any license costs. Provision of licenses and sources codes must guarantee that the IFES is able to ensure independent maintenance and updating/modification of the app and web platform in the future. This includes the right of IFES to have a third party modify the software free from license or usage constraints from the Vendor or any product or library the Vendor has chosen to employ. IFES shall not be subject to any future additional costs related to the use, maintenance or extension of the app and web platform.

Estimated Timeline:

Other Requirements:

The proposal must provide following additional capabilities:

• The software should have the capacity for both right-to-left (Arabic), and left-to-right (English), with the ability to switch between which language is displayed;
• The software should be able to compile data entered to the system in both languages at once.
• More specifically, standardized data entry (drop lists) need to be interchangeable in both languages using a coding system that enables linking the data entered in Arabic and English to be displayed when doing a specific enquiry;
• Security framework allowing system administrator to control the level of access that various users have on the data;
• All data needs to be editable by system administrators.

Software Administration:

The vendor is encouraged to provide options where the software will enable the administrator account to manage and include changes on key aspects of the software. This may include:

• User administrations by creating/deleting users.
• Permits the administrators to configure levels of user access; that is, to grant system operations and data access privileges;
• Allow system administrators to manage and configure content, functionalities, appearance and security without any coding effort.

System Functionality:

• Performance: The software response time should not exceed 5 seconds;
• Supportability: The proposal should be developed based on IT best practices, tested, and free of bugs. Any bugs detected after system delivery should be fixed at the vendor cost;
• The proposal should meet the highest standards of security best practices. Any vulnerability identified after proposal delivery will be fixed at the vendor cost.
  Further, the system should host the following capabilities (per the specifications above):
• Offline back-office system;
• User-friendly Content Management System (CMS) / data entry administrative interface;
• Data viewing, reporting and analysis tools;
• Search functionality;
• Full user and deployment documentation

Obtain License, Clearance and Approvals:

In the presence of any local legal requirement to produce or deliver the products and/or services described in the Scope of work, the Service provider will include the time needed to obtain possible, licenses, clearances and/or approvals in the timeline. No components used in the development of the app or web platform should result in infringement of copyrights.

Deliverables:

The Vendor is expected to deliver the following products/services:

• Citizenship Matters Mobile app
• Citizenship Express Web Platform
• System documentation
• Trainings for local partners and IFES staff
• User manual
• Product warranty for 12 months following final system acceptance by IFES
• Source code for the system

EVALUATION

IFES will evaluate bids based on the following criteria:

1. Quality of technical proposal: 35 points

The offer must meet the minimum technical specifications as described above. The offer should outline a comprehensive, technical overview, including the extent to which it provides effective solutions for the services required: developing a Citizenship Matters Mobile App and Citizenship Express Web Platform

2. Training plan: 20 points

The offer should outline a comprehensive training plan, including the extent to which it provides effective training for the web platform and mobile app and will teach trainees how to configure and update the systems.

3. Experience/Past Performance: 20 points

The bidders must present evidence that they have successfully built, customized and delivered similar projects such as web platforms and mobile apps.

4. Timeline: 10 points

Vendor’s capacity to implement the project in accordance with IFES’ estimated timeline and deliver all services and final products no later than October 21, 2017.

5. Price: 15 points

The total cost must be reasonable and show efficient use of resources, and additional costs, if any, must be clearly identified. Offers will be compared amongst bidders whom meet the technical requirements.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

• Release of RFQ May 18, 2017
• Questions Due May 29, 2017, 5 PM Tripoli time
• Answers from IFES June 1, 2017
• RFQ Closes – Responses Due June 12, 2017, 5 PM Tripoli time
• The schedule noted above may be changed at any time in the sole discretion of IFES.

GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. IFES will only consider responsive Responses from responsible contractors for award.
2. Collusion is strictly prohibited. Collusion is defined as an agreement or compact, written or oral, between two or more parties with the goal of limiting fair and open competition by deceiving, misleading, or defrauding a third party.
3. Prices quoted must be valid for entire length of contract (up to 7 months).
4. Unit prices are required and in the case of discrepancies between unit price and total price, the unit price will be taken as reference basis in the evaluation.
5. All procurement will be subject to IFES contractual terms and conditions, and contingent on the availability of donor funding.
6. IFES reserves the right to accept or reject any quotation or stop the procurement process at any time, without assigning any reason or liability.
7. IFES reserves the right to accept all or part of the quotation when awarding the contract.
8. All information provided by IFES in this RFQ is subject to change at any time. IFES makes no certification as to the accuracy of any item and is not responsible or liable for any reliance on or use of the information or for any claims asserted therefrom.
9. IFES reserves the right to require any prospective contractor to enter into a non-disclosure agreement.
10. The RFQ does not obligate IFES to pay for any costs, of any kind whatsoever, which may be incurred by the prospective contractor or any third parties, in connection with the Response. All Responses and supporting documentation shall become the property of IFES.