Advisory services for the definition of UN requirements related to the acquisition of Aviation O ...

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to provide the United Nations (UN) with the latest knowledge and information from the market with respect to potential vendors able to provide an expert consultant for the Organization's future intention of acquiring an aviation operations management software solution. The United Nations (UN) is considering, as a first phase, the option to carry out a procurement exercise for the provision of a consultancy, and as a second phase, the future acquisition of software solutions for the overall management of all aviation services that the UN currently runs. This RFI relates ONLY to seeking information from the market for the first phase, the provision of advisory and consultancy services for assisting the UN in the definition and determination of the solution for its air operations management. Background Aviation support plays a critical role in United Nations peacekeeping operations. The UN maintains a fleet of more than 200 aircraft, which are deployed to various peacekeeping and special political missions around the globe. In order to optimize UN field entities’ air operations as well as the contract management and invoicing processes, the UN requires a standard web-based system to support these functional activities and provide real-time monitoring and analytics of the associated data. The solution must be able to integrate with the UN's current ERP solutions - SAP (Umoja). The new software shall streamline the data collection and core business processes of the UN Aviation at the HQ and field level, from a request for aircraft from the mission and associated scheduling of air assets to budget creation and associated contract management and invoicing workflows. In addition, basic crew management functionalities as well as the distribution of insurance costs are also needed. One of the primary purposes of the new software solution is to have a single database for contract costing information, from which the operational data in terms of aircraft utilization, can accurately determine the precise invoice cost for an invoice period. Current Business Process Currently, there is a global information management solution in place with limited capacity. Contracts, Operations, and Invoicing are partially supported. A more efficient and effective management tool is being sought. The new system shall be the source of record for Contracts, Operations and Invoicing Tracking thus supporting the business process end to end. Requirements include a standardized way to plan, schedule, and report for UN Aviation activities, integrity of data across the range of processes, from planning to execution and reporting, Business Intelligence / Air-fleet performance, Service validation / Umoja feeds for rapid, transparent, and accurate payments. The new software solution being sought shall unify and standardize the management of the United Nation's air fleet and support individual, regional and global aviation reporting. It shall satisfy the requirement for a solution that would streamline the data collection and core business processes of the UNHQ and UN field operations. The consultancy for the acquisition of a new software shall include remote and face-to-face interviews with different UN stakeholders, where not all of them will be at the UNHQ in New York City, USA. It is possible that travel to Africa and/or Italy, where the UN air operations are managed, would be involved NOTE: This Request for Information is for advisory/consultancy expertise to support the UN in the definition and determination of the requirements for the procurement of air operations management solutions described above. The Request for Information is intended to identify potential vendors with verified experience to supply the requested services. Interested vendors are requested to provide the following information: 1. The type of consultancy expertise for advising on the UN requirement for global aviation management that your company can provide. 2. Description of the approximate costs for the consultancy with a range of daily rates for different levels of expertise/qualification 3. A high-level approach of your company/organization to the consultancy. 4. Please include the level of experience/number of projects where your organization has provided Aviation management IT/software type of consultancy. If any of these involved an international or government organization please specify. 5. Your deployment approach. 6. Any assumptions. 7. To determine the experience level of the provider, please provide reference of at least three successful similar projects with clients of a similar size or larger. The responses are requested to be sent to Mr. Yacine Gherbi (gherbi@un.org). Submission 1. Fill out the electronic link described in Vendor Response Section below. 2. Respond to the questionnaire and email the questionnaire and any supporting documents to Mr. Yacine Gherbi at gherbi@un.org.