WESTERN BALKANS – The Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO) is inviting tenderers to submit their offers for an online volunteering platform.
RYCO is planning to finalize a contract with a service provider to develop and to update one regional volunteering web platform. The online platform on volunteering will serve as a resource center and a matching – recruiting space, which promotes newly developed ROUTE WB6 regional volunteering program supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and allows the whole process to be transparent and available to the wider public.
Deadline for submitting tenders: 16 October 2020, 05.00 PM
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UPDATE 12/10/2020
A candidate has requested clarification from RYCO. The questions were: Will volunteers be able to apply directly or will there be some sort of registration process? If there will be a registration process, will there be a need for confirmation from the relevant staff or will they be approved automatically? Will the information be stored only for the volunteers and” events” which will be linked with one another or will there be another “entity” in the system? The “match” between events and volunteers will be confirmed by the relevant staff and they will be automatically notified via email, thus completing the cycle or will another workflow be followed? In addition, could you please let us know whether a joint venture between two companies is allowed?
Answers: The exact selection process is part of the regional volunteering program that is still being developed and will be determined after the program’s finalization and consultation with the selected service provider. Some kind of confirmation from the relevant staff will be needed. The current draft of the program envisages that the volunteers will be matched by the respective staff with the candidate’s local volunteering initiatives. Therefore, the data in the profile should be presented to the relevant staff. The workflow is going to be determined after the finalization of the program. It is planned that the matching is part of the selection process of the volunteers led by the relevant staff therefore there will not be the confirmation automatically. The confirmation can be offered for the successful registration of the volunteers. Yes, joint venture/consortium is allowed. As per the instructions provided in the Tender submission form part of the tender dossier details of the leader and members of the consortium must be provided in such case.
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UPDATE 09/10/2020
A candidate has requested clarification from RYCO. The question was:
In the terms of reference, you have said you have prepared a mockup design. I need that design so I can look into it and understand what needs to build. I think this mockup design can help me a lot to understand the system requirements.
Answer: As described in the terms of reference, point 4. Deliverables, the mockup is one of the deliverables the contracted service provider shall develop and provide.
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UPDATE 08/10/2020
A candidate has requested clarification from RYCO. The questions were: Could you please clarify the request “Support of different cache levels;” Could you please clarify the request “Enough space to handle all data of the E-services and user requests”; Could you give us more information regarding the request “User dashboard and creation of profiles” – what kind of functionalities do the users have (Assumptions: the volunteers will be able to apply to a volunteering offer but only after they have registered. Recruiters will have the possibility to add volunteering offers to the platform)? What information will be asked of the users (volunteers and recruiters), which information will be public and which will be private, what kind of interaction will be possible between the users (chat, email, forms?), will there be a verification process of the volunteers and recruiters? Could you please clarify the request “Creation of unlimited web forms” – does this refer to an unlimited number of posted volunteering offers for recruiters or something else? Could you please clarify the request “User management: Different access levels inside the platform;” – how many different access levels do we have and what is the difference between them and what functionalities do they have (what changes can be made to the platform from each access level)?
Answers: This includes developing the support system for the caching strategy in order to ensure the responsiveness of the system as a whole, including the caches found at every level of a content’s journey from the original server to the browser. The service provider should demonstrate how they plan to manage storage space in order to manage data requester, for example, a large number of user requests. All this information should be part of the proposed methodology of the service provider. All this information should be part of the proposed methodology of the service provider. It is required that the service provider demonstrates in the methodology its capability to offer at least two access types/levels within the platform (managing and admin roles).
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UPDATE 05/10/2020
A candidate has requested clarification from RYCO. The questions were: Could you please confirm if the Service Tender Submission Form should be fulfilled by each partner of consortium one Service Tender Submission Form or it should be filled one (1) form of the Service Tender Submission Form from all partners, in case we apply as consortium?
Could you please confirm if the TENDERER’S STATEMENT should be fulfilled by each partner of consortium one TENDERER’S STATEMENT or it should be filled one (1) form of the TENDERER’S STATEMENT from all partners, in case we apply as consortium?
Could you please confirm if the TENDERER DECLARATION ON HONOUR ON EXCLUSION CRITERIA should be fulfilled by each partner of consortium or by the leader of consortium appointed to sign all documents?
Could you please confirm which document should be fulfilled by each partner, in case we apply as a consortium?
There is a discrepancy between information provided in contract notice (especially on the Human Resource Capacities) in comparison to the information provided on the D TERMS OF REFERENCE. Therefore, could you please update/clarify which document is valid in terms of administrative requirements?
There is a discrepancy between information provided in contract notice (especially on the Human Resource Capacities) in comparison to the information provided on the D TERMS OF REFERENCE. Therefore, could you please update/clarify which document is valid in terms of administrative requirements?
Do we also need to offer hosting? If question 6 is yes. If we will use an online default hosting and not a dedicated server, then the firewall comes as a feature itself, we cannot configure it. Can you explain a bit in detail what is meant with anti-hacker tools, spam and antivirus because are more terms related to operating systems and not for the platform itself? GDPR is standard about data privacy and once again security structure and firewalls are more technical aspects of the operating system, could you please explain it in more detail in this request?
Can we use other open source free technologies like .NET Core with 1\/lS SQL Express? Could you please inform us if with the request above you are referring to hosting capabilities?
Do we need to provide an SSL Certificate?
Can we use our company format (as per the format of this request) with logo and our company details to copy/paste the documents/forms part of your request which are needed to be signed as well as other documents that should be submitted with the offer?
Answers: The tender submission form should be completed as per the indications provided in the form part of the tender dossier. If the potential tenderers apply as sole entity the name of the entity, the name of the representative of the entity, signature and stamp must be provided in the document as per the requirements given in the form. If the potential tenderer applies as a consortium in the tender submission form the names of all entities forming the consortium must be provided specifying the leader of the consortium and the member/s. In addition, the names of the representatives of the entities forming the consortium must be included in the sole joint tender submission form as well as the signature and stamp of each entity part of the consortium.
The tenderers statement part of the tender submission form in case of consortium should be fulfilled by the consortium as a whole (only one statement) and should be signed and stamped by each member of the consortium.
The tenderer declaration on honor on exclusion criteria should be fulfilled by each part of the consortium individually.
The financial identification should indicate the data of the bank account in which the partners of the consortium have agreed the payment will be made in case the consortium is awarded the contract, and should be signed and stamped by all members of the consortium. Regarding the supporting documents required in the terms of reference as well as in the instructions to tenderers they must be submitted by the consortium as a whole in order to proof that the potential tenderer in case of a consortium as a whole owns the technical capacities to carry out the contract except the copy of the legal registration, which has to be submitted by each of the members of the entity.
As clearly stated in “Selection and award criteria” section, point 2, “Qualification and professional experience of the tenderer”, the objective of the technical criteria is to examine whether or not the potential tenderer: Has the professional qualification, experience and capacities appropriate to this contract as per TOR qualification requirements Section: 7 “General and specific criteria for the expertize”. The same requirements were meant to be listed as well in the Contract notice document part of the tender dossier but due to a technical default the list of the requirements set in the Terms of Reference was not fully updated Both documents Contract notice and Terms of reference are valid in the type of information they provide but in this section the requirements set in the Terms of Reference prevail as per the explanation given above.
It is expected that in December the platform will be launched as a resource center and in course of 2021 the focus will be on matching recruiting space and the platform will need an update on that, including the regular plugin update.
Yes, the hosting is needed to be included in the offer.
The platform has to have appropriate anti hacker, spam and antivirus protection. You are encouraged to suggest the appropriate mechanisms for this protection, related to the operating system as well.
The platform has to have appropriate anti hacker, spam and antivirus protection. You are encouraged to suggest the appropriate mechanisms for these in your methodology.
You are encouraged to suggest open source technologies, explaining the advantages of their usage.
Yes, it is referred to hosting capabilities.
Yes. An alternative solution may be suggested, with the explanation of the advantages.
You are welcome to use your format as long as it gives us the required information and clarifications as per the Tender Dossier.
UPDATE 05/10/2020
A candidate has requested clarification from RYCO. The question was: So the way we understand it is that you need a “place” on a platform where young people would be able to register, create their profile, and be listed somewhere (some kind of list or grid) where recruiters would be able to see and search prospective candidates. After that, their profile would be marked as “RECRUITED”. Is this even close to your idea?
Answer: The recruitment profile should also provide the possibility of editing and updating their personal and professional data. So an individual has the opportunity to have his/her own area (via login) where he/she creates a Curriculum within the platform and updates it, becoming the subject in the selection process. This will be a process that will be developed also after contracting the successful service provider and in your methodology, you can provide your proposal on how to create this matching recruiting space as user friendly and useful.
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UPDATE 02/10/2020
A candidate has requested clarification from RYCO. The question was: We need to have more information about “matching – recruiting space”. What do you consider by that and what exact functionalities would that include?
Answer: with “matching – recruiting space” we refer to a specific session in the soon to be developed web platform which aims to give the possibility for young people in the Western Balkan 6 to register/apply, a possibility to be recruited as a volunteer with our program or our partner organizations. Our goal is to have the search engine enabled within the portal. As an example you can visit the European Solidarity Corps and the specific session when young people can JOIN THE CORPS.