RFP Services - Provision of website maintenance, hosting and design services for the purposes of ensuring smooth running of Cities Alliance’s Drupal based website

New clarification added: Question 22: Can you confirm that this tender is solely intended for the provision of Drupal website hosting and support/maintenance? And that no redevelopment of the website in Drupal 9 is included in the scope? Answer 22: The tender is intended for the hosting, support and maintenance of the current Drupal website. Upgrading from the current Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 version would also be needed as mentioned in the clarifications issued on 16th June 2022 and in the Section II - Schedule of requirements. Question 23: What is the average monthly traffic volume? We are interested in both number of page views and number of visitors.Answer 23: The current website has a traffic in the last 90 days: 12-13K visitors / 65K unique page viewsQuestion 24: Have you tried the remote development model in the past?Answer 24: The current website is maintained remotely by the proivder.  Question 25: We want to enquire as to whether a 99.9% uptime guarantee would be acceptable. Going to a 99.95% would significantly increase the cost.Answer 25: Cities Alliance will accept uptime guarantee above 99.5% for the website. Question 26: How many support requests are being raised currently for the existing platform? Answer 26: Currently Cities Allaince raises approximately three to four every month with the provider. Question 27: Are the QA, staging, and production environments expected to be of the exact configuration? Answer 27: it is the responsbility of the provider to ensure that QA is conducted before the staging and production environment. Cities Alliance appointed focal point will be conduct QA before deployment.  Question 28: What is the percentage of pageviews where the page is fully cached?Answer 28: These details can be discussed with the winning contract and the details and scope provided till date is sufficient to submit a detailed proposal.Question 29: Are there any integrations with external systems? Answer 29: No integrations is required with any external systems. Question 30: As per document RFP_Section II, it is mentioned that "Implementing small to medium enhancements up to 20 hours of service per month. Unused hours shall not be billed and rolled-over to the following month." Is this for each resource with monthly 20 hours or All the resources together 20 hours?Answer 30:  If by 'resource' it means a request made by Cities Alliance, this would be all the monthly requests together 20 hours / month unless otherwise agreed.Question 31: Who will be taking care of the QA activities for the implemented enhancements, bugs and upgrades.?Answer 31: The Cities Alliance Focal point appointed for the contract will conduct the QA activitied for the implemented enhacements, bugs and upgardes.  

New clarification added: Question 21: Is weekend support mandatory? Is it enough to provide guaranteed response times within working hours (Mon-Fri) and pre-scheduled work only (e.g. deployments) at weekends?Answer 21: It is not mandatory. It is sufficient to provide guaranteed response timing within working hours and pre-schedule work during weekends. Weekend work might be required, if the website is down and visitors are not being able to acess the website. The contactor should be able to provide support and ensure that the website is up and running at the earliest.  

New amendment added #2: Pre-bid meeting recorindsAmendment 02 - Schedule of requirements. 

New clarification added: Question 20: Would a change of profiles be possible in the hypothetical case that, due to unforeseen circumstances, some of the key experts proposed were no longer available at the start of the contract? Despite having signed in good faith the declaration of availability at the time of the submission of the proposal.Answer 20: Yes, The contractor will be requested to submit any change in personnel document. The contract manager and administrator will review the replacement and confirm that the replacement meets the experience and technical requirements mentioned in the solicitation documents. 

New clarification added: Question 16: Would it be possible to use the same contract reference for several of the mandatory eligibility criteria related to the organization's experience?Answer 16: Yes, the bidders can provide same contract reference for all the appropriate criteria in the Technical proposal Form D and Past Contracts Form.Question 17: It is mentioned in the TOR that the website should support right to left language. But as of now we find only English in the current website.Do you expect the future website to be multilingual?Answer 17: Currently the website is only in English and multilingual requirement is expected in future but the contractor will be appropraitely informed during the contract management stage. Question 18:  Does the supplier need to hire a new functionality other than the existing one? iF yes, please brief us what are they?Answer 18: The contractor is not expected to hire any new functionality other than the existing ones. Question 19: Do we get a brand identity manual for the new look and feel of the website (in case any changes are required?Answer 19: Cities Alliance Brand manual will be shared with the contractor upon signature of the contract.  

New clarification added: Questions raised during Pre-bid meeting on 16th June 2022, 1100 hours CET. The meeting started at 1102 hours and ended at 1137 hours CET. Question 01: Can we submit Key personnel details without the name of the person?Answer: Bidders are requested to submit the details of the Key personnel proposed for the contract using the Form E: Format for Resume of Proposed Key Personnel and the Form F:  Statement of Availability is also mandatory for each and every key personnel proposed in the proposal by the bidder. Question 02: Can the Management personnel sign the Form F:  Statement of Availability on behalf of the proposed key personnel?Answer: No, It is essential that each key personnel sign the Form F indivdually.  Note, UNOPS may at its discretion contact proposed personnel to confirm their availability and qualifications. Please ensure a current telephone number is included on the Resume for this purpose.Question 03:  Form D: Technical Proposal Form. Can we confirm whether we don't have to use this form as long as the section heading and details are provided in the same format?Answer: The Offeror’s proposal must be organised to follow the format of this Technical Proposal Form. Where the offeror is presented with a requirement or asked to use a specific approach, the offeror must not only state its acceptance, but also describe, where appropriate, how it intends to comply. Where a descriptive response is requested, failure to provide the same will be viewed as non-responsive. It is also essential to complete the Form D stating that the document attached and the Form is signed by the appropriate authority. Question 04: Relevant previous projects. Do you want other UN agency contract reference even if they are related to maintenance of a website. Answer: Please provide only contract references only relevant to the Section II - Schedule of requirements related to UN agencies, Government and private organizations. Question 05: Criteria in the Section II - Schedule of requirements as below: At least 20% of the proposed key staff in the company are Drupal experts;At least 50% or above of the staff are femaleHow can mid-size organization with approximately 10,000 personnel meet this requirement?Answer: Bidders are requested to notice the below changes relating to the criteria mentioned in the Section II - Schedule of requirements - Amendment 02 under documents tab of the tender. At least 20% of the proposed key staff for the contract are Drupal experts;At least 50% or above of the key proposed staff are female.Question 06: Criteria - Recent experience of maintenance of at least 10 different websites hosted on Drupal as a service solutions (e.g. Acquia, Pantheon). Are you looking at AWS and other cloud technologies? Can we provide reference related to the Azure and other platform? Answer: The current website uses Drupal and Cities Alliance is expected to continue with the same platform and will not consider any other platforms or technologies. Question 07: Sustainability - What exactly or evidence is required? How do you expect to provide the submission?Do you want a auditor to come and review the details and submit documentation? Answer: Bidders are requested to submit policies related to sustainability or document explaining the measures in place that are being followed. In addition, Bidders are requested to take note the examples provided in the Form D related to sustainability. If the examples are not adequate enough please let us know and will provide more details as needed. Question 08: Criteria - Technical - At least one contribution to Drupal core/contributed modules during the last 2 years. Is this a mandatory requirement? If someone does not fulfill Answer: This is a mandatory requirement for the tender. Question 09: Example related to the Sustainability - Proposed Team: The proposal includes women and/or personnel from different geographical/ethnic/social backgrounds in their proposed team,  especially in managerial positions and/or  in technical positions.Answer: The Bidders are requested to ensure the key personnel are from different geographical/ ethnic/ social backgrounds in their proposed team to ensure diversity and the bidder will be awarded points accordingly as per the scoring chart. Question 10: Support Contract for a Cities Alliance Website. Are the Contractor expected to have a dedicated Drupal Developer or is the contractor expected to have the developer only for certain number of hours for each month? Answer: As mentioned in the Section II - Schedule of Requirements - The 20 hours/month refer to the standard maintenance and updates needed to keep the website running smoothly. This is an estimate based on the last two years of operation of the website. A similar number of hours are needed per month depending on our design needs. Cities Alliance will also have additional tasks for the contractor but the tasks will be provided in advance and the contractor is expected to complete the services within the requested timelines. Question 11: At the start of the contract, will the new contractor be provided a system update or knowledge sharing? Will it considered as chargeable hours under the contract?Answer: All hours including the transition of the contract will be considered as chargeable under the contract. The Cities Alliance will facilitate a smooth transition between the existing contractor and new contractor of this tender. Question 12: The Drupal Developer assigned will be a shared resource. What will be the SLA on timelines on tasks?Answer: The Section II - Schedule of requirements provides the required SLA for the contract. The bidders are requested to provide any different SLAs that can be acceptable by the UNOPS Cities Alliance. End of queries and clarifications raised during pre-bid meeting.  

New clarification added: Question 15: How many CVs of key personnel do we need to send? Answer 15: Bidders are requested to submit the all key personnel that will be providing the serivces under the Section II - Schedule of Requirements.  

New clarification added: Question 13: What is the template to be followed for the presentation of the technical and financial proposals?Answer 13: Bidder are requested to use the template document named Section III - Returnable Bidding forms under the documents tab of this tender for submission of technical and financial proposal.Question 14: Is it necessary to submit CVs with name and surname of the key experts?Answer 14: Bidders are requested to submits CVs using template document named Form E and Form F in the Section III - Returnable Bidding forms under the documents tab. If not submitted the proposal will be considered technically non-compliant with the requirements. 

New clarification added: Question 12: In your response, you reference an updated SOR (Section II) but the version currently in the documents section seems to still be the old one. Can you add the new one please?Answer 12: Please note that the amended document is named as RFP_Section_II_Schedule of Requirements_RFQ_2022_42113_Amendment 01 under the documents tab.  

New amendment added #1: Amendment of Schedule of requirements. 

New clarification added: Question 05: In the SOR section on Objectives and Deliverables, one of the objectives is listed as: "Website Hosting services: The contractor shall provide hosting services for two Drupal websites: Cities Alliance website (https://www.citiesalliance.org/)." Can you confirm that the wording highlighted in bold is an error and that there is only one site (citiesalliance.org) in scope for this RFP?Answer 05: Please refer to previous clarification 01 posted on 13th June 2022. The Section II_Schedule of Requirements has been amended and attached under the documents tab of this tender with highlights (in yellow). Question 06: In the same section, "up to 20hrs of service" per month for enhancements are mentioned. Can you give an example of a previous enhancement and the number of hours taken to deliver it? We find that we usually deliver more quickly than other similar agencies and would like to confirm whether or not you will be comparing our hourly cost on a like-for-like basis, or if we can provide you with a different estimate on the level of delivery you can expect from us for those 20hrs. Answer 06: Please refer to amended Section II_Schedule of requirements under documents tab of this tender  (Technical specifications/ expected outputs).  The 20 hours/month refer to the standard maintenance and updates needed to keep the website running smoothly. This is an estimate based on the last two years of operation of the website. A similar number of hours are needed per month depending on our design needs.Question 07: In the same section, you estimate 60 to 80 hours of service for your Drupal 8-to-9 upgrade. Can you provide a list of contrib modules so that we can check whether 60-80 hours is an accurate estimate of effort involved? Additionally, is there a reason that you want?Answer 07: The uprgade is from the current version to the newer version of Drupal. This can be decided with the winining contractor and confirmed. The 60 to 80 hours reflect the accurate estimate of effort involved. The bidders can provide their estimate for such upgrade and mention the same in the technical proposal for review by the evaluation team and inclusion in the contract. Question 08: In the section on technical specifications and expected outputs, under Design, you mention supporting RTL text. Can you confirm whether this is likely to be for content only, for content and system text (e.g. navigation, search dropdown lists, button labels, etc), or for content, system text and the admin interface?Answer 08: The improvements to be made by the contractor providing design services will include elements to improve UX experience, which includes but not limited to navigation, button labels, change in content, system text and admin interface. Question 09: The same section states "create a new visual design that allows for an improved user experience". Does this mean that you are looking to redesign the whole site now or that when you request design changes, you want the bullet point items that follow to be incorporated? A full UX investigation and redesign for the entire site is a much more significant investment in time and effort in one go than taking design optimisations piece-by-piece but would be less disruptive and costly in the long run.Answer 09: The contractor is expected to provide changes from time to time small UX improvements e.g. create a new section on the page, fix a thumbnail size. The same has been reflected in the amended Section II_Schedule of Requirements has been amended and attached under the documents tab of this tender with highlights (in yellow).Question 10: In the section Objective 02 under 1 (Citiesalliance.org), one of the Databases mentioned is MySQL v5.7 "with WordPress" (rather than Drupal). Is this an error? Answer 10: Yes, this is an error. The amended Section II_Schedule of Requirements has been amended and attached under the documents tab of this tender with highlights (in yellow).Question 11: In the section Objective 02 under 2 (project database), there is a line stating "This scope includes the work hours required to perform the hosting andmaintenance tasks on both Drupal websites." Please confirm whether there are one or two websites in this contract. Answer 11: Please note that the scope is related to only the citiesalliance website and the mention about the second database is not included in the schedule of reqiurements. NOTE: The bidders are expected to provide an hourly rate for the objective 01 with an estimate of monthly maintenance hours, which will be used for calculation of the toal contract amount. The actual invocing will be based on actual number of hours of services provided for each month by the contractor based on the tasks/ requests from the Contract Manager from UNOPS Cities Alliance. 

New clarification added: Question 01: Can you clarify how many websites are in scope?The Schedule of Requirements document refers to Citiesalliance.org, but then says two websites are in scope (page 1) without giving any details on the second website. If there is a 2nd website, can you provide details on the hosting requirements and any other requirements in scope for this website.Answer 01: Please note that the services requested is only for one website and not for two websites. This is a typo error.Question 02:There are also references to other CMS platforms other than Drupal, specifically:Databases: MySQL version 5.7: With WordPress, and one (01) database per website or test environment.One-click CMS installations - WordPress, Drupal, Magento and JoomlaAnswer 02: The reference to other CMS platform is not applicable anymore due to the archiving process and the contractor will not be expected to be any services for the CMS platformQuestion 03: Can you confirm the approximate budget for this contract?Answer 03 : UNOPS will not disclose the budget. The Section II - Schedule of Requirements provides all the details of the services to be provided and the required personnel and the proposers are requested to submit their technical and financial proposal according to the requirements. Question 04: Please confirm the time zone for the pre-bid meeting. Answer 04: The pre-bid meeting has been schedule on 16th June 2022 at 1100 till 1130 hours CET.