RFP for Development of a free-to-use IATI publishing tool
UNOPS
RFP for Development of a free-to-use IATI publishing tool
Request for proposal
Reference:
RFP/2021/27780
Beneficiary countries:
Multiple destinations (see 'Countries' tab below)
Registration level:
Basic
Published on:
27-Sep-2021
Deadline on:
25-Oct-2021 20:00 0.00
Description
The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) brings together governments, multilateral institutions, private sector and civil society organizations, and others to increase the transparency and openness of resources flowing into developing countries.
In order to successfully publish to IATI, publishers must prepare their data according to the IATI schema and rulesets land convert it to XML (IATI data must be in a machine-readable format). There are several third party tools available to assist publishers in this process; some are free, others are paid for and each has varying levels of built-in guidance and templates. Some of the larger IATI publishers with a significant volume of activity files have developed bespoke in-house publishing tools to suit their needs.
Currently, IATI does not provide its own publishing tool, and publishers must use external tools and systems to publish their data. Relying on external providers for publishing presents risks to IATI. One such risk is that IATI has little control over how these external tools and systems operate and therefore limited ability to influence how and what data is published. In addition, research has shown that the process of publishing to IATI is time-intensive, complex, and confusing.
The new IATI publishing tool should be simple to use, intuitive, and aligned with the IATI schema and rulesets so there is as little confusion as possible for publishers. It should also make use of the IATI Validator and check the data before publication.
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IMPORTANT NOTE: Interested vendors must respond to this tender using the UNOPS eSourcing system, via the UNGM portal. In order to access the full UNOPS tender details, request clarifications on the tender, and submit a vendor response to a tender using the system, vendors need to be registered as a UNOPS vendor at the UNGM portal and be logged into UNGM. For guidance on how to register on UNGM and submit responses to UNOPS tenders in the UNOPS eSourcing system, please refer to the user guide and other resources available at: https://esourcing.unops.org/#/Help/Guides
In order to successfully publish to IATI, publishers must prepare their data according to the IATI schema and rulesets land convert it to XML (IATI data must be in a machine-readable format). There are several third party tools available to assist publishers in this process; some are free, others are paid for and each has varying levels of built-in guidance and templates. Some of the larger IATI publishers with a significant volume of activity files have developed bespoke in-house publishing tools to suit their needs.
Currently, IATI does not provide its own publishing tool, and publishers must use external tools and systems to publish their data. Relying on external providers for publishing presents risks to IATI. One such risk is that IATI has little control over how these external tools and systems operate and therefore limited ability to influence how and what data is published. In addition, research has shown that the process of publishing to IATI is time-intensive, complex, and confusing.
The new IATI publishing tool should be simple to use, intuitive, and aligned with the IATI schema and rulesets so there is as little confusion as possible for publishers. It should also make use of the IATI Validator and check the data before publication.
-----
IMPORTANT NOTE: Interested vendors must respond to this tender using the UNOPS eSourcing system, via the UNGM portal. In order to access the full UNOPS tender details, request clarifications on the tender, and submit a vendor response to a tender using the system, vendors need to be registered as a UNOPS vendor at the UNGM portal and be logged into UNGM. For guidance on how to register on UNGM and submit responses to UNOPS tenders in the UNOPS eSourcing system, please refer to the user guide and other resources available at: https://esourcing.unops.org/#/Help/Guides
This tender has been posted through the UNOPS eSourcing system. / Cet avis a été publié au moyen du système eSourcing de l'UNOPS. / Esta licitación ha sido publicada usando el sistema eSourcing de UNOPS. Vendor Guide / Guide pour Fournisseurs / Guíra para Proveedores: https://esourcing.unops.org/#/Help/Guides
First name:
N/A
Surname:
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This procurement opportunity integrates considerations for at least one sustainability indicator. However, it does not meet the requirements to be considered sustainable.
Gender issues
Social
The tender contains sustainability considerations addressing gender equality and women's empowerment.
Examples:
Gender mainstreaming, targeted employment of women, promotion of women-owned businesses.
Link | Description | |
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https://esourcing.unops.org/#/Help/Guides | UNOPS eSourcing – Vendor guide and other system resources / Guide pour fournisseurs et autres ressources sur le système / Guía para proveedores y otros recursos sobre el sistema |
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Internet or intranet client application development services
New clarification added: Under Vendor Submission section's Document Checklist tab, what documents should we upload under 'Documents listed under the Technical Proposal Evaluation form from the schedule of requirements' ? When we checked for the list of documents in the Schedule of Requirements, we found the list of evaluation criteria, which will be included in technical proposal form, Format for Resume of Proposed Key Personnel and Performance Statement Form.Thank you for your request, please find our answer in italic.Please complete all the sections from the ‘Returnable bidding form’ that also includes Performance Statement Form, CV, etc.Please also include in the Technical Proposal form the required information listed in the Schedule of Requirements. In order not to duplicate submission documents, kindly refer to submitted documents where they/information is included.Hope this clarifies.Best regards
Edited on:
20-Oct-2021 12:42
Edited by:
webservice@unops.org
New clarification added: Please find answers to your questions below in italic:1. Can you explain a bit more on when to integrate with Org-id? Can you provide scenarios? · When users register a new publisher account on the IATI Registry, they are required to provide both a publisher ID and an Organisation ID. Without a valid Org-ID, the account will not be approved so this element is necessary at the very start of the process. The deliverable as detailed in the RFP is for the register codelists to be available within the tool, and to be automatically updated as they are added or amended by Open Data Services. 2. Apart from embedding the zendesk function is there anything else expected? · Please refer to the list of Deliverables within the RFP 3. Are there any requirements on CI/CD pipeline to deploy the code? · The bid is to provide a publishing service - the supplier is wholly responsible for hosting the service from the outset and therefore, deployments.4. Whether the publishing tool will be hosted on a public cloud like AWS, Google, etc, or will be hosted on a Private cloud? · The bid is to provide a publishing service - the supplier is wholly responsible for hosting the service from the outset. 5. What is the testing scope for the project? i.e. Do we need to conduct performance testing, stress testing, security testing, etc?· The supplier should adhere to the IATI non-functional requirements: https://iatistandard.org/en/guidance/developer/non-functional-requirements/ 6. Do all the features are accessible to all the users or does it have any role-based access?· Role-based permissions will be required, what roles and what permissions will need to be agreed with the IATI technical team as part of the design phase. 7. Training can be done online or does it need to be done in person? · Training can be conducted online 8. Does this publishing tool need to work on desktop or does it need to work on tables and/or mobile devices? · The primary device type will be desktop· We do not anticipate the need for responsive design for mobile or tabletsBest regards
Edited on:
15-Oct-2021 16:54
Edited by:
webservice@unops.org
New clarification added: Please find answers to your questions below in italic:Can you provide a sample organization file and activity file to understand its complexity? Activity sample file· https://iatistandard.org/en/iati-standard/203/activity-standard/example-xml/· https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IATI/IATI-Extra-Documentation/version-2.03/en/activity-standard/activity-standard-example-annotated.xml Organization sample file· https://iatistandard.org/en/iati-standard/203/organisation-standard/example-xml/ · https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IATI/IATI-Extra-Documentation/version-2.03/en/organisation-standard/organisation-standard-example-annotated.xml (these contain a value for every element and attribute in the standard) Live example (activity and organisation file within)· https://iatiregistry.org/publisher/oxfamgb 2. Is the publishing tool open to the public or do organizations/users need to register and create their login account?Users will need to create a user account and login prior to use3. It is mentioned that Users should be able to save their settings, so to do that does the user need to login to the publishing tool so that we can save their settings against their login account?Yes4. Do we have any existing excel template? or needs to be discussed and designed from scratch?A template would need to be discussed and designed from scratchSome other tool providers have existing templates which could be provided as examples5. It is mentioned that "Manual upload option for small organizations with fewer files", so will it also have an automatic upload option? If yes then how will it work?a. Manual upload should allow users to enter in data values by typingb. Automatic upload should allow a csv to be uploadedc. Users should also be able to upload a pre-existing IATI xml file6. Which IATI Standard version is to be supported?a. Version 2.01, 2.02, 2.03b. The system needs to be easily extensible, so any future version of the Standard could be easily added 7. To automate integration with a publisher's IATI registry account via API it is necessary to have an IATI Registry API key, so if we don't ask the user to enter the API key then how do we connect to the publisher's IATI registry account? It will be necessary for users to provide their Registry API key or token in the publishing tool in order to link to their Registry account. 8. Do we need to do any integration with d-Portal or Datastore?There is no need to integrate with d-Portal or Datastore since the primary function of the tool is publishing.9. Do we only need to support version 2 of IATI Validator API? Yes10. File Formatting: It is mentioned to automatically parse files for use of the back end. What is the format to support? Also, can you give a sample file for the backend?a. Uploaded csv files need to be transformed to IATI xml filesb. Created IATI xml files need to be transformed back into csv files for users to download.Best regards
Edited on:
15-Oct-2021 16:49
Edited by:
webservice@unops.org
New clarification added: We would like to request to extend deadline for the submission of RFP by atleast a week. We have a festival season here in India and many associates from solution team are on planned leave this week.- Please note that the deadline for submission of the proposals is now extended until 2021-10-25 20:00 UTC and requests for clarification until 2021-10-21 12:00 UTC.Best regards
Edited on:
15-Oct-2021 16:25
Edited by:
webservice@unops.org
New amendment added #2: This is to replace one of incorrectly placed URL links in the document 'Section II Schedule of requirements' under point 4.4 - Uptime expectations will be as defined in the NFR's.The correct link to be used is: https://iatistandard.org/en/guidance/developer/non-functional-requirements/
Edited on:
14-Oct-2021 18:18
Edited by:
webservice@unops.org
New amendment added #1: This is to extend the deadline of the RFP for one week period.
Edited on:
14-Oct-2021 16:39
Edited by:
webservice@unops.org
New clarification added: Hi Zensar,Please find answers to your questions below in italic:1. We dont have COTS/off the shelf product. we are planning to build a custom product for UNOPS from ground zero. Is IATI open to such proposal?Or Does IATI have a preference for COTS product?- Customizing a COTS / off the shelf product or building from scratch will be considered based on their time / cost / ability to meet the features required as outlined in the RfQ. 2. Currently there are various products available for IATI data publishing such as Aidstream, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Nonprofit Accelerator + IATI Add On, CoVE - Convert, Validate, Explore etc. Can we extend one of such solution and build on top of that solution for IATI Data Publishing Tool for UNOPS?- Customizing a COTS / off the shelf product or building from scratch will be considered based on their time / cost / ability to meet the features required as outlined in the RfQ. Providing that licences are adhered to and the final product is open source.Best regards
Edited on:
11-Oct-2021 15:52
Edited by:
webservice@unops.org
New clarification added: Dear Zensar,Thank you for your request for clarification. Please find answers to your questions below in italic:Will IATI require admin functionality to add/ modify schema and rulesset? If Yes, Please provide more details"Ability to publish to registry in formats other than XML " please provide more details on which other formats is required to be considered- There will be no modification to schema or rulesets by the publishing tool. The Validator API should be used. Validator API documentation is available via the IATI Developer Portal at https://developer.iatistandard.org/apis. Unclear on the question of admin functionality2. We did not find any reporting requirement in the RFP, is there any reporting requirement by this tool? if yes, please provide more details.- Data will never be published in a format that is not XML, but conversion into XML from other formats (like xlsx or csv) is required. Supporting research identified a requirement from users to be able prepare their data using an Excel template, which would then be converted to XML prior to publishing and then link to the Registry.3. We did not find any reporting requirement in the RFP, is there any reporting requirement by this tool? if yes, please provide more details.- The IATI publishing tool needs to follow the IATI standard (Schema and Rulesets). No additional reporting requirement. Please ask the supplier to specify what they mean by not finding “reporting requirements”.4. We understand that some mechanism/functionality required to be developed for processing published files to put the data in IATI Registry and other tools like d-Portal and the Datastore? Is this understanding correct and development of Parsing of published files is In Scope ?- We expect the publishing tool to be automated with the Registry. Each Registry user account has an API key (this will be changed to an API token towards the end of the year), which will allow the link and automation with the publishing tool.Link to Registry API: https://iatistandard.org/en/iati-tools-and-resources/iati-registry/iati-registry-api/ There is no requirement for integration with the datastore and d-portal.5. Given the NFR requirement will IATI is fine with any cloud based solution ?- Our development team has no opinion on the technologies used by third party products, as long as they adhere to the NFRs as defined at length here: https://prod-iati-website.azureedge.net/prod-iati-website/documents/Final_Non_Functional_Requirements_September_2021.pdf6. Does IATI has technology preference (like .Net, Angular, Java etc.) to develop this tool ? if yes, please provide more details - Our development team has no opinion on the technologies used by third party products, as long as they adhere to the NFRs as defined at length here: https://prod-iati-website.azureedge.net/prod-iati-website/documents/Final_Non_Functional_Requirements_September_2021.pdf7. Can we assume the support coverage requirement will be EU time zone during weekdays?- YesBest regards
Edited on:
08-Oct-2021 15:34
Edited by:
webservice@unops.org
New clarification added: Dear Zensar,Thank you for your request for clarification. Please find answers to your questions below in italic:1. Will IATI provide prescribed authentication pathways to integrate with its registry ? Please confirm ?- Each Registry user account has an API key (this will be changed to an API token towards the end of the year), which will allow the link and automation with the publishing tool.Link to Registry API: https://iatistandard.org/en/iati-tools-and-resources/iati-registry/iati-registry-api/ 2. Are there any expectations in terms of integration with d-Portal and the datastore? If yes, can IATI provide further information on d-Portal and associated datastore.- The publishing tool only needs to integrate with the registry and the validator. There is no requirement for integration with the datastore and d-portal. 3. In terms of IATI validator will there be prescribed API(s) to faciliate bulk validation that can use as part of the solution ? Please confirm- In answer to all Validator API questions, the Validator API documentation is available via the IATI Developer Portal at https://developer.iatistandard.org/apis4. Whether IATI validators API supports i18n support in error/success messages ?- In answer to all Validator API questions, the Validator API documentation is available via the IATI Developer Portal at https://developer.iatistandard.org/apis5. Can IATI elaborated on file formatting requirements - "Automatically parse files for use on the back end (no need to differentiate between “segmented” vs. “unsegmented”)"- Some previous publishing tools gave users the option to segment their XML files. We would like the publishing tool to create single activity files as long as they are within the 40MB limit.6. In terms of translation capability - do we limit the translation to the label text of the input screens in terms of the languages mentioned. We expect the input language will be in English, please confirm our understanding.- Yes, translation for the label text of the input screens. In the deliverable section we specify English, French and Spanish .7. On Zendesk functions - Will IATI provide requisite APIs for integration and how will the helpdesk contact be enabled either through mail submission or live chat functionality?- Through mail submission. IATI uses Zendesk to deal with help queries. Deliverables table in the TOR mentions embedded Zendesk function with this link: https://www.zendesk.co.uk/embeddables/8. While the proposed web solution will be administered by the supplier , what are IATI expectations around the hosting model and infrastructure - would it be managed and provisioned by IATI ? Please confirm.- It will be managed and provisioned, hosted and maintained by the supplier. The interaction between the supplier’s product and other IATI applications will be exclusively via the IATI Public APIs.9. What will be expected maximum data size ?- Each activity file should be a maximum of 40MB.10. We understand the conversion of 2.01 and 2.02 version to the latest version will be one time activity for all the published files that are in the registry. Please confirm- We are not sure we understand the question. We would like to allow the publisher to be able to convert their 2.01 and 2.02 files in 2.03. That will be a one off conversion. Once it is converted to the latest version (2.03), publishers will just need to update.Thank you and Best regards
Edited on:
08-Oct-2021 15:24
Edited by:
webservice@unops.org
New clarification added: Dear UNOPS Team ,This is in reference to RFP/2021/27780 , please confirm the "Pre-bid meeting" Process ( Virtual or In-person ) and Date &Time of the same ?Thanks Uday MajithiaImpelsys Inc.Dear Uday Majithia,Thank you for your query. Please note that there will not be "Pre-bid meeting" Process.Best regards
Edited on:
08-Oct-2021 09:45
Edited by:
webservice@unops.org