1. Background
Established in 1889, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is the global organization of national parliaments and, with its 179 Member Parliaments and 13 Associate Member Parliamentary Assemblies, is a global forum for parliamentary dialogue, cooperation and action.
The IPU advances democracy and assists parliaments and parliamentarians throughout the world to fulfill their mandates.
The current IPU strategy 2017-2021 calls for an IPU contribution to peace building, conflict prevention and strengthening security, including taking action on counter terrorism and disarmament. In this regard, the IPU governing bodies agreed to the creation of a High-Level Advisory Group on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism (HLAG), which serves as the global parliamentary focal point for efforts to counter terrorism and violent extremism and related parliamentary activities. The role of the Group is to guide the Member-driven plan of action for parliaments to address terrorism and prevent violent extremism, as well as to bridge the significant gaps in the implementation of relevant IPU and United Nations resolutions.
2. Overview
Objectives
The Interactive Map will be an internal and restricted database to facilitate the immediate connection between the IPU and national parliaments, specifically, their committees designated to counter-terrorism and prevent violent extremism.
It will be a tool replicating the IPU web database for national parliaments, available at https://www.ipu.org/national-parliaments. Features would include secure login with access to all relevant documentation in the Counter-terrorism Legislation Database hosted at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) SHERLOC Portal.
The Interactive Map would also provide an overview of the counter-terrorism activities and products that the IPU is in the process of implementating or developing, and those already implemented or developed in the field. At the same time, it will be updated with first-hand information, as well as with flash news and information from open sources about events related to counter-terrorism or the prevention of violent extremism.
The IPU expects the selected vendor to:
- Advise IPU proactively on the development of the project.
- Analyze and identify full features and technical requirements.
- Develop access to each country individually and related information by clicking on it.
- Integrate a security system for access to certain documents.
- Develop a functionality allowing to send customized messages to one, several or all members of the platform.
- Integrate the platform as a subdomain of https://www.ipu.org.
- Provide technical support to the main administrator, in case of need, during the transition period.
The IPU expects the platform to:
- Support multi-language – English and French, as a minimum. At a later stage, Spanish and Arabic might be required.
- Import and export the data (Excel and CVS) – to be consumed by other third-party software.
3. Functional requirements
Account creation and authentication
Access is restricted to users through their email addresses. The administrator(s) should have the possibility to “reject” persons not entitled to have access to this website.
Required fields when creating an account
Fields include: name, category, and an IPU email or Point of Contact address.
Additional functions
The Interactive Map should be compatible with projecting specific information on PowerPoint or other presentation tools.
Import/export
The system should allow the administrator(s) to import and export datasets in CSV and Excel formats. There should also be an interface to allow the administrator(s) to export the precise data they require – including to compare datasets and generate reports.
Multilingual content and translation workflow
The Interactive Map should support multilingual content in English and French (as a minimum), as well as special and non-Latin characters. It should be possible to enter free text in either English or French without switching interface languages, or moving to another screen.
Users and permissions
There should be different levels of users: the super-user – IPU staff members, and occassionnally a limited access might be granted to members of the HLAG.
Users should be able to delete their account, manage their password, retrieve it if forgotten/lost, and add a secondary email address. The administrator(s) should be able to create user accounts. The system should provide a trace log to record and store all user operations.
Communications
The Interactive Map should be able to automatically generate and send a multilingual message to its users about important news or future meetings or events.
The Interactive Map’s administrator(s) should be able to send communications to its users.
FAQs
On the Interactive Map landing page, users will be able to access a FAQs page and/or a user guide.e.
4. Non-functional requirements
Usability
Given limited human resources, the solution proposed should be easy to manage, requiring minimal training and staff hours for upkeep.
Compatibility / Responsiveness
The Interactive Map needs to be fully responsive and touch-device friendly (click on countries individually to display detailed information).
The browsers and operating systems to be supported for testing purposes are:
- Google Chrome, Windows and Mac platform
- Apple Safari, Mac and IOS platform
- Firefox, Windows and Mac platform
- Edge, Windows platform
Accessibility
The solution should conform to all applicable W3C standards including Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and any other relevant Technical Specifications for mark-up.
Security and updates
The selected supplier is asked to employ the latest security best practices; ensure the Interactive Map is free of known vulnerabilities; and ensure there is a clear workflow for applying security patches in the future, and for running regular automated backups that would make a (recent) restore possible. The system should be able to download security patches and system updates. The system should alert the administrator(s) when such patches/updates are available. All system logins should be SSL secured. The application should be accessible over https only.
Technical architecture
The system should be secured as it will contain sensitive information, and will be preferably hosted on separate hardware in the IPU.
Future vision for the IPU’s Interactive Map
After the development of the Interactive Map, which could be the first phase, the app should have the possibility to increase its functionality and allow IPU administrators to:
- Make publications
- Have a link with other platforms in the IPU or other websites
- Show statistics and trends.
5. Expected deliverables
For the purposes of this RfP, the overall tangible project deliverables are listed below. A final list of deliverables is to be negotiated with the selected agency.
Project management: Provide a dedicated Project Manager to lead requirements, activities, document key decisions, and track project milestones and deliverables, using project management software.
Project analysis / Discovery: Analyze documents provided by the IPU, consult with IPU staff and/or organize meetings as necessary to detail requirements and propose appropriate solutions. Provide a report of the discovery phase for sign-off by the IPU.
Project plan, roadmap, release plan: Detail a project plan for each of the stated requirements/features identified following the project analysis. Detail a production schedule using an iterative approach with listed milestones.
Visual design: Design in line with the existing brand equity of the IPU web database for national parliaments, available at https://www.ipu.org/national-parliaments.
Please note that all source files and images developed for this build must be delivered to the IPU as layered design files in PSD or EPS format.
Technical architecture: Detail full technical requirements including technology standards and practices to be used, integrations, migration plans, dependencies, digital security and code documentation practices for each of the products. Files: Excel documents.
Front-end and back-end development: Build an intuitive and highly usable platform for website features under version control (Git).
Documentation: User manual and developer documentation outlining modules used, code customizations and any other relevant information must be provided.
Testing and QA: Complete QA, bug, compatibility and usability testing of the platform and website features as per agreed browsers/OS, with warranty. For usability testing, the IPU can provide four testers from among its user community.
Training: Provide on-site end-user contributor training and administrator training to staff for each of the administration interfaces.
Maintenance: Provide recommendations for ongoing maintenance, backups and operation of the Interactive Map.
6. Project timeline
Proposals should be submitted no later than: 18 May 2020.
Proposals will be evaluated immediately thereafter and the supplier chosen by 25 May 2020.
Discovery: start of contract by 30 May 2020.
7. Selection criteria
Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
- Quality of responses to stated requirements
- Past experience on similar projects, specifically:
- Designing and developing login-only systems
- Design of interactive maps
- Ability to adequately resource the project to meet stated deadline
- Quality of design portfolio including other relevant platforms
- Estimates for post-deployment maintenance, support and upgrades including hourly rates for services
- Financial sustainability of both product and company
- Overall cost and cost-effectiveness.
