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COMMONWEALTH SECRETARIATMARLBOROUGH HOUSE, PALL MALL, LONDON SW1Y 5HX

IN STRICT COMMERCIAL CONFIDENCE

Invitation to Tender

For the provision of the Biennial Report Micro-Website for the Commonwealth Secretariat

November 2017

Reference Number: 441-2017

Return Date: 12:00 Noon, Friday 01st December 2017

Contract Award: December 2017

Contact Email: [email protected]

Contents

1. Introduction...............................................................................................32. Purpose.....................................................................................................33. Instructions to Bidders..............................................................................34. Evaluation Weightings...............................................................................45. Tender Timeline........................................................................................56. Information for Bidders.............................................................................57. Specification..............................................................................................7

Part 1 – Bidder Details...................................................................................11Part 2 - Suitability Assessment Questions.....................................................12Part 3 – Technical Questionnaire – 60%........................................................16Part 4 – Commercial......................................................................................18Part 5 - Presentation Brief.............................................................................19

Appendices...................................................................................................20Appendix 1 - Standard Terms and Conditions...............................................20Appendix 2 - Code of Ethics..........................................................................20

ITT 441/2017 – BIENNIAL REPORT MICRO-WEBSITE FOR THE COMMONWEATH SECRETARIAT of 20

1.IntroductionThe Commonwealth Secretariat is an inter-governmental agency of the Commonwealth member countries with its HQ on Pall Mall, London. The Commonwealth Secretariat implements decisions agreed by Heads of Government and Ministers through advocacy, coalition–building, information sharing, analysis, technical assistance, capacity-building, and advice on policy development.

2.PurposeThe purpose of this tender is to find and appoint a suitable supplier for the provision of the Biennial Report Micro-Website solution to the Commonwealth Secretariat. The appointed supplier shall be awarded a contract that will be effective for 3 years, with the option to extend the agreement on an annual basis for up to a further 3 years.

See Specification in Section 7 for details on the services required.

3.Instructions to BiddersThis is a two stage tender process with a written submission to this Invitation to Tender (ITT) followed by bidder presentations. Bidders will be scored following the first stage and the top 3 scoring bidders will be taken through to the presentations.

Bidders must submit all documents as set out in Part1 – Part 4 no later than the return date.

The tender documents are to be returned by post and email to the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Post:

ProcurementTender Response (441-2017)Commonwealth SecretariatMarlborough HousePall MallLondon SW1Y 5HX

Email: [email protected]

All queries must be in writing via the email address above.

Following all stages of the tender process, the bid received that is deemed the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) shall be awarded the contract based on the evaluation weightings below.


mailto:[email protected]

4.Evaluation Weightings Suitability Assessment

You will be excluded from the tender process if there is evidence of convictions relating to specific criminal offences including, but not limited to, bribery, corruption, conspiracy, terrorism, fraud and money laundering, or if you have been the subject of a binding legal decision which found a breach of legal obligations to pay tax or social security obligations.

Technical 65%

Mandatory Minimum Requirements

Within the technical questionnaire, there are mandatory pass/fail questions. Should an applicant fail to meet this minimum standard, the Commonwealth Secretariat is entitled to exclude the bidder from the Procurement exercise but, may decide at it’s discretion, having considered all the relevant circumstances, to allow the bidder to proceed.

Weighted Technical Questions

The following scoring mechansim will be used to score each question in these sections:

Score Description0 Does not meet the specification or has not responded to the

question

1 Low Fit – Meets most of the specification, but is missing in areas

2 Fit – Meets the specification as required

3 Good Fit – Meets all of the specification well and exceeds expectations in some areas

4 Excellent Fit – Exceeds expectations in most or all areas

The following formula will be applied for each question:

o Points Scored ÷ Points Available × % weightingo The scores for each of the questions will be added to give a total

Technical/Quality Score

Unanswered questions or sections that are left blank shall be awarded a 0.

Questions that exceed the word count shall be awarded a 0.

Commercial 35%

Within the Commercial questionnaire, there are mandatory pass/fail aspects. Should an applicant fail to meet this minimum standard, the Commonwealth Secretairat is entitled to exclude the bidder from the Procurement exercise but,


may decide at it’s discretion, having considered all the relevant circumstances, to allow the bidder to proceed.

For the Weighted element of this criteria, the lowest price bid shall be awarded the full points, all other bids shall be awarded a percentage from the benchmark. E.g. (lowest price/other bid)*weighting = Score.

Presentations

Presentations will also be scheduled for the bidders to present their solution, their approach to implementing the solution and post-implementation support. This will be used to clarify their submission and will not carry any weightings in its own right. It will be used however to moderate their technical submission (either positively or negatively).

5.Tender Timeline Please note the following timeline may be subject to change if required.

Activity DateITT published 20th November 2017Deadline for Bidder questions for be asked

24th November 2017

Return ITT to Commonwealth 12:00 Noon 01st

December 2017 3 successful bidders notified 08th December 2017Bidder presentations 11th December 2017 Preferred Bidder Selected 13th December 2017Contract Award 20th December

2017

6.Information for Bidders Unless indicated otherwise, all prices should be quoted in Pounds Sterling.

Prices quoted should exclude VAT but must indicate clearly where VAT is applicable and where items might be zero-rated.

The bidder must ensure that they have all the information required for the preparation of the tender submission and that they are satisfied about the correct interpretation of terminology used in this documentation. The bidder must also ensure that they are fully conversant with the nature and extent of the obligations should the tender be accepted.

Tenders are to be valid for a minimum of 120 days from the closing date for the submission of the tenders.

The Commonwealth Secretariat reserves the right to cancel the tender at any time during the process.

Bidders shall bear all costs in completing a tender submission. Bidders shall not disclose details of the ITT to third parties without prior

agreement from an authorised officer of the Commonwealth Scretariat. Bidders are required to submit transparent pricing with no hidden costs or

charges. The Secretariat will carry out an evaluation of the tender bids using the

weighted criteria method as described. Following both stages the Secretariat will select a preferred bidder which will be taken forward to contract award. The Secretariat reserves the right to appoint a reserve preferred bidder which the


Secretariat would take forward to contract award if any contract negotiations with the preferred bidder are unsuccessful.

By taking part in this tender all bidders commit to the following:

Bidders certify that they have not canvassed or solicited any officer or employee of the Secretariat in connection with this tender submission and that no person employed or acting on behalf of the bidder has done any such act.

Bidders will not canvas or solicit any officer or employee of the Secretariat in connection with this tender submission.

Bidders confirm that they shall automatically be subject to termination on grounds of misrepresentation and failure of duty to disclose.


7.Specification

1. ObjectiveTo communicate comprehensively our organisational purpose with specific focus on the progress made over the last two years and to reach new and wider audiences via an attractive, engaging and accessible digital medium.

2. Scope of servicesThe Commonwealth Secretariat has only ever produced a print version of its Biennial Report. For launch in Spring 2018, we are looking to provide an interactive, digital overview of the Biennial Report. There will also be a limited run print edition of the full Biennial Report with a PDF version of it downloadable from the micro-website.

The print version of the Biennial Report will be approximately 100 A4 pages while we expect the digital version to consist of around 30-40 separate HTML pages. This brief is specific to the digital Biennial Report.

The Commonwealth Secretariat is seeking to contract a suitably qualified supplier for the creation of a micro-website for the online presentation of it Biennial Report. The micro-website will enable the Secretariat to provide a wide range of users with a highly visible record of its work from the start of the budget year in July 2015 looking forward to the end of the budget year in June 2017.

The contracted supplier shall: Select, supply, install and configure an open source, PHP based content

management system. Develop and build the information architecture, navigation, site structure,

content types and interactive transitions for the micro-website. Create a modern, coherent and engaging visual design. Deploy the micro-website to a live production environment in collaboration

with The Secretariat ITS Division. Support and maintain the micro-website.

2.1 Content Management System (CMS)The CMS shall be an industry standard, market-leading platform adhering to core modules wherever possible. Core modules are required to ensure longevity of the solution and to ensure that the Secretariat is not unduly dependent on the supplier for modification or extension of the system.

The CMS must be a PHP based, open source platform (e.g. Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, Magenta, etc.).

Editing in the CMS will be via graphical user interface using a WISIWYG text editor. However, in addition to the default text view the contracted supplier must also provide an HTML view to insert analytics tracking code, embed code, etc. For example:

<p><a class="twitter-timeline" data-widget-id="354191509391826944" href="https://twitter.com/commonwealthsec">Tweets by @commonwealthsec</a></p>

<a href= "http://www.thecommonwealth.org/chogm2018" onClick="ga('send', 'event', { eventCategory: 'TextLink', eventAction: 'Event', eventLabel: 'Register', eventValue: 001});">Register</a>

<p>http://vimeo.com/101395508</p>


The solution must have no single point of failure. The solution must be optimised for low bandwidth in remote areas/remote

access. Any solution design would need to highlight any network latency. Complete disaster recovery of system within 24 hours Warm failover on all services within three hours

5.2 ReliabilityThe system must be stable in functional, operational and database related areas. It must be able to operate without failing on the environment as described below.

5.3 PerformanceThe system must operate on current platforms. Any additional requirements or modifications to the current infrastructure must be clearly specified indicating the likely costs. The system must not suffer from adverse performance speeds or response times from concurrent access.

All pages shall be optimised to ensure that page download speed is minimal. Average page loading time shall not exceed 1 second for 80% of pages, with a maximum page loading time of 3 seconds.

The system must cater to accessing via low bandwidth connections and DSL communications without experiencing performance degradation. Any foreseen issues must be highlighted in the proposed solution.

5.4 MaintainabilityThe system must be able to run on a clustered environment enabling live-servicing and 24/7 access without any performance issues. If applicable, fail over processes in order to carry out essential maintenance must be mentioned.

The system must require minimum maintenance interventions. Any issues with database, operating systems, application module software updates, service packs must be mentioned.

5.5 ScalabilityThe proposed solution must be highly scalable to support possible expansion requirements of the user base and any supplier imposed constraints should be explained. Scalability must be linear up to 1,000.

The proposed solution must provide uniform scalability of performance under increasing workloads.

5.6 Backup and recoveryThe database and the application must be adequately backed-up using industry standard backup technology. The proposal must indicate measures needed to be taken to ensure a safe backup and recovery process.

5.7 Technical ArchitectureThe functionality will be built using (where required):

• PHP based CMS (e.g. Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, Magenta, etc.)• MySQL Server/MariaDB• HTML5• CSS3• JQuery • XML• JSON


• ANGULARJS

5.8 Client technologyThe main devices used will be desktop, laptops, tablets but also smart mobile devices so we require adaptive and responsive design.The solution will need to support the following browsers:IE >= 9Safari >= 8Firefox >= 35Chrome

5.9 Secure architectureAs a leading inter-governmental organisation, the Commonwealth Secretariat has a strong reputation to protect. Security must adhere to Commonwealth Secretariat standards which are in line with ISO 27001: Information security management systems, and ISO 27002: Information security – code of practice for information security practice.

5.10 Maintenance and supportThe Supplier shall provide maintenance and support as well as ongoing development throughout the contract period.

6. CommercialKPIs and any required SLA shall be agreed with the succesful Supplier prior to Contract award.


Tender Submission Documents (441-2017)Note - Bidders must complete and return all tender submission documents below:

Part 1 – Bidder Details Part 2 – Suitability Assessment QuestionsPart 3 – Technical Questionnaire Part 4 – Commercial

Part 1 – Bidder DetailsPlease provide details relating to your registered offices, legal status and date of incorporation.

Company Name

Company Number

Company Address

Date of Incorporation

Post Code

Contact Name

Job Title

Telephone Email

In the event of utilising a third party, on your behalf for any part of the services, please provide the full details of the secondary supplier:

Company Name

Duration of working relationship,

Company Address

Reason for use

Post Code

Please provide audited annual turnover for the past three years:

Previous year Year 2 Year 3Annual Turnover £ £ £

Please provide the contact details of two reference clients. The referees will not be contacted until the final stage of the tender process. Please provide references from similar international organisations or public sector bodies if possible.

Reference 1 Reference 2

Company Name Company Address Post CodeTelephoneEmail


Part 2 - Suitability Assessment QuestionsGrounds for Exclusion

You will be excluded from the tender process if there is evidence of convictions relating to specific criminal offences including, but not limited to, bribery, corruption, conspiracy, terrorism, fraud and money laundering, or if you have been the subject of a binding legal decision which found a breach of legal obligations to pay tax or social security obligations.

1. Within the past five years, has your organisation (or any member of your proposed consortium, if applicable), Directors or Partner or any other person who has powers of representation, decision or control been convicted of any of the following offences?

Please Mark ‘X’ In The Relevant Box Yes No

(a) Conspiracy as defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

(b) Corruption as defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

(c) Bribery as defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

(d) The offence of cheating the Revenue as defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

(e) The offence of conspiracy to defraud as defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

(f) Fraud as defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

(g) Theft as defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

(h) Fraudulent trading as defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

(i) Fraudulent evasion as defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

(j) Destroying, defacing or concealing of documents or procuring the execution of a valuable security as defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

(k) The possession of articles for use in frauds as defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

(l) Any offence considered to be Counter Terrorism as ITT 441/2017 – BIENNIAL REPORT MICRO-WEBSITE FOR THE COMMONWEATH SECRETARIAT

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defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

(m) Money laundering as defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

(n) Any Sexual Offences as defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

(o) Drug trafficking as defined by the legislative or judicial bodies in your jurisdiction.

2. Within the past three years, please indicate if any of the following situations have applied, or currently apply, to your organisation.

Please Mark ‘X’ In The Relevant Box Yes No(a) your organisation is bankrupt or is the subject of

insolvency or winding-up proceedings, where your assets are being administered by a liquidator or by the court, where it is in an arrangement with creditors, where its business activities are suspended or it is in any analogous situation arising from a similar procedure under the laws and regulations of any State;

(b) your organisation is guilty of grave professional misconduct, which renders its integrity questionable;

(c) your organisation has entered into agreements with other economic operators aimed at distorting competition;

(d) the prior involvement of your organisation in the preparation of the procurement procedure has resulted in a distortion of competition;

(e) your organisation has shown significant or persistent deficiencies in the performance of a substantive requirement under a prior contract with a contracting entity, or a prior concession contract, which led to early termination of that prior contract, damages or other comparable sanctions.

3. Employment and Human Rights

For organisations working outside of the UK please refer to equivalent legislation in the country that you are located. Please delete ‘Yes’ / ‘No’ as applicable.

(a)

In the last three years, has any finding of unlawful discrimination been made against your organisation by an Employment Tribunal, an Employment Appeal Tribunal or any other court (or in comparable proceedings in any jurisdiction other than the UK)?

Yes/No


(b)

In the last three years, has your organisation had a complaint upheld following an investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission or its predecessors (or a comparable body in any jurisdiction other than the UK), on grounds or alleged unlawful discrimination?

If you have answered “yes” to one or both of the questions, please provide, as a separate Appendix, a summary of the nature of the investigation and an explanation of the outcome of the investigation to date.

If the investigation upheld the complaint against your organisation, please use the Appendix to explain what action (if any) you have taken to prevent unlawful discrimination from reoccurring. You may be excluded if you are unable to demonstrate to The Commonwealth’s satisfaction that appropriate remedial action has been taken to prevent similar unlawful discrimination reoccurring.

Yes/No

(c)

If you use sub-contractors, do you have processes in place to check whether any of the above circumstances apply to these other organisations?

Yes/No/NA

4. Environmental Legislation


(a)

Has your organisation been convicted of breaching environmental legislation, or had any notice served upon it, in the last three years by any environmental regulator or authority (including local authority)?

If your answer to this question is “Yes”, please provide details in a separate Appendix of the conviction or notice and details of any remedial action or changes you have made as a result of conviction or notices served. The Secretariat will not select bidders that have been prosecuted or served notice under environmental legislation in the last 3 years, unless The Commonwealth is satisfied that appropriate remedial action has been taken to prevent future occurrences/breaches.

Yes/No

(b)

If you use sub-contractors, do you have processes in place to check whether any of these organisations have been convicted or had a notice served upon them for infringement of environmental legislation?

Yes/No/NA

5. Health and Safety legislation


(a)

Please self-certify that your organisation has a Health and Safety Policy that complies with current legislative requirements.

Yes/No


(b)

Has your organisation or any of its Directors or Executive Officers been in receipt of enforcement/remedial orders in relation to the Health and Safety Executive (or equivalent body) in the last 3 years?

If your answer to this question was “Yes”, please provide details in a separate Appendix of any enforcement/remedial orders served and give details of any remedial action or changes to procedures you have made as a result. The Secretariat will exclude bidder(s) that have been in receipt of enforcement/remedial action orders unless the bidder(s) can demonstrate to The Commonwealth’s satisfaction that appropriate remedial action has been taken to prevent future occurrences or breaches.

Yes/No

(c)

If you use sub-contractors, do you have processes in place to check whether any of the above circumstances apply to these other organisations?

Yes/No/NA

6. Terms and Conditions

Please delete ‘Yes’ / ‘No’ as applicable.

(a) Please confirm that your organisation agrees to the Commonwealth Secretariat’s standard terms and conditions (Appendix 1).

If not, please state reasons:

Yes/No

7. Code of Ethics

Please delete ‘Yes’ / ‘No’ as applicable.

(a) Please confirm that your organisation agrees to and has signed, dated and attached the Code of Ethics (Appendix 2)

Yes/No


Part 3 – Technical Questionnaire – 65%2A – EXPERIENCE

Mandatory Minimum Requirements

Pelase delete ‘Yes’ / ‘No’ as applicable.

Please answer all questions in the spaces provided, where applicable, and clearly refer to attached documents or appendices where these are necessary. Question AnswerDoes your organisation have a minimum of five (5) years’ experience working on digital projects?

☐ Yes☐ No

Does your organisation have experience of working with a service delivery (as opposed to product delivery) organisations? Please detail.

☐ Yes☐ NoReference Detailed Response ………………………..

Does your organisation have experience of working with an inter-governmental or similar type of organisation? Please detail.


Does your organisation have experience working with either of the following content management systems – Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, Magenta? Please detail.


Does your organisation have experience working with a third party content copywriter? Please detail.


Does your organisation have a minimum of five (5) years’ experience working on digital projects?

☐ Yes☐ No

Does your organisation have experience of working with a service delivery (as opposed to product delivery) organisations? Please detail.


Does the solution come bundled with a 3-year onsite maintenance support?

☐ Yes☐ No

Please complete the attached “Supplier Response to Requirements Template.”


Based on the Supplier Response to Requirements Template, suppliers meets / can meet within an agreeable deadline all mandatory requirements. Please provide a timeline with your submission.

PASS / FAIL

Based on the Supplier Response to Requirements Template, suppliers can meet desirable requirements. PASS / FAIL

The Mandatory Minimum Requirements questions, are mandatory pass/fail questions. Should an applicant fail to meet this minimum standard, the Commonwealth Secretairat is entitled to exclude the bidder from the Procurement exercise but, may decide at it’s discretion, having considered all the relevant circumstances, to allow the bidder to proceed.

Weighted Technical Questions

The questions below are worth 65% of the total score. The indiviudal question weightings are set out in the weighting column. Please answer all questions in the spaces provided and where applicable, clearly refer to attached documents or appendices where these are necessary to answer the question in full.

Question No.

Question Weighting (%)

1 In no more than 1000 words, please describe the last three (3) online projects that you have completed. Provide start and completion dates and URLs.

10

Reference Detailed Response2 In no more than 1000 words, please describe three

(3) examples of your previous projects undertaken for service delivery organisations. Provide start and completion dates and URLs.

15

Reference Detailed Response3 In no more than 1000 words, please describe the last

three (3) projects where you have used a PHP based CMS. Provide start and completion dates and URLs.

10

Reference Detailed Response4 In no more than 1000 words, please describe your

experience of working with a third party content copywriter(s)? Provide start and completion dates and URLs.

15

Reference Detailed Response5 In no more than 1000 words, please provide three (3)

examples of projects where you have created engaging visually designed website. Provide start and completion dates and URLs.

15

Reference Detailed Response


Part 4 – CommercialFinancial Standing – PASS/FAIL

Bidders must achieve a minimum Equifax Credit Score. Should an applicant fail to meet this minimum standard, the Commonwealth Secretairat is entitled to exclude the bidder from the Procurement exercise but, may decide at it’s discretion, having considered all the relevant circumstances, to allow the bidder to proceed.

Pricing - Weighted

This section is worth 35% of the total score . Transparent pricing must be submitted with no hidden costs. Prices quoted should be in line with the specificied requirements of this tender. Pricing and cost must be broken down to the different elements of the service and must include all associated costs. Prices quoted must be fixed and firm for the proposed term of the agreement. Please provide pricing exactly as set out below:

Activity Cost (excluding VAT)Initial Design / Build / Implementation

£ (fixed cost)

Ongoing / Recurring / Maintenance

£ (fixed costs)

Training £ (fixed costs)


Part 5 - Presentation BriefFollowing the evaluation of the Technical Questionnaire and Commercial, the top 3 scoring bidders will be invited to give a presentation to the evaluation panel. This must be delivered in person.

Presentation Brief

The presentation must include, but does not need to be limited to, the following elements lasting a total of 1½ hours, maximum:

Bidders shall present the services relating to their formal offer, the pricing in Part 4 of their submission as well as any other clarification questions which may have been asked following bid evaluation by the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Bidders will need to describe how they would approach this project, its component phases, project management methodology and communications/reporting strategy.

Bidders shall present a timeline for the project with expected start and finish dates and any risks you anticipate may hinder successful delivery.

Bidders shall provide a description of the project team with their roles and responsibilities defined.

Bidders will describe what they require from the Commonwealth Secretariat in order to ensure the successful delivery of the project.

Question & Answer session

The presentations will be conducted at the Secretariat’s offices at Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5HX.

Please confirm your ability/willingness to give a presentation based on the brief above at your own expense on one of the dates specified in the Tender Timeline (Section 5).

Yes/No


Appendices

Appendix 1 - Standard Terms and Conditions

Appendix 2 - Code of Ethics
