Institute of International Education (IIE) 1400 K Street, NW, Suite 700 Washington, DC Request for Proposal

Transcription

1 Institute of International Education (IIE) 1400 K Street, NW, Suite 700 Washington, DC Request for Proposal Fulbright Scholar: Marketing/Customer Relationship Management System Issue Date: 11/16/15 Closing Date: 11/23/15

2 1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND A. Background: Institute of International Education The Institute of International Education ( IIE ) is a New York not-for-profit corporation that is among the world s largest and most experienced international education and training organizations. Founded in 1919, IIE promotes educational exchange around the world through a wealth of programs and services including Fellowship and Scholarship Management, Higher Education Institutional Development, Emergency Student and Scholar Assistance, and Leadership Development. For more than 90 years, IIE has promoted educational exchange around the world. The Institute currently implements more than 250 programs benefiting 25,000 men and women from 175 nations. Foremost among these programs is the world-renowned Fulbright Program, which IIE has had the honor to administer on behalf of the U.S. Department of State since the program s inception in In addition to the U.S. Department of State, program sponsors include: the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); major philanthropic foundations; private and public corporations; foreign governments; and individuals. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Program was established in 1946 under legislation introduced by late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas and is sponsored by the United States Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). IIE administers the program on behalf of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State. B. PURPOSE OF REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL The purpose of this Request for Proposal ( RFP ) is to invite qualified companies or organizations to submit a proposal for an marketing or customer relationship management, outlined more fully in Section 6, Scope of Work. Contingent upon successful performance and at IIE s sole discretion, IIE may renew the selection(s) without recompetition for up to five years in total. Offerors are requested to submit proposals for the initial year with the understanding that work will be similar in subsequent years. IIE may ask successful offerors to submit updated proposals annually as part of the renewal process. The remainder of this RFP provides additional information that will allow an offeror to understand the scope of the effort and develop a proposal in the format desired by IIE. The information presented in this RFP is furnished solely for the purpose of assisting the offeror in making its own evaluation of the Scope of Work and does not purport to be all-inclusive or to contain all the information you may require. This RFP is not an offer by IIE to contract, but rather an attempt to establish a common framework for IIE to evaluate potential suppliers. The offeror should make its own investigations, projections and conclusions to verify independently the information contained in this RFP, and to obtain any additional information that it may require, prior to submitting a proposal. 2 Contact Information A. Offeror s Inquiries. Any questions regarding the terms or specifications of this RFP or the conditions or proposed format of responses should be directed to: Peter VanDerwater, Director of Outreach Page 2 of 5

3 Council for International Exchange of Scholars Institute of International Education 1400 K Street, NW Suite 700 Washington, DC pvanderwater@iie.org IIE will endeavor to respond to offeror inquiries or requests for clarification by the date indicated below. No oral answers will be provided. Answers to all questions will be posted publicly on B. Proposal Submission. Proposals, including any attachments (limited to 6MB), should be sent electronically to: pvanderwater@iie.org. Be sure to include in the subject line: Proposal: Marketing/CRM. IIE will not accept proposals received by fax. 3 Schedule and Due Dates Proposals: All proposals are due by 5:00 PM on Monday, November 23 rd, IIE reserves the right to deem any proposal received after this deadline as non-responsive and exclude it from consideration. Proposals must be in either MS Word or PDF formats. Attachments can include MS Excel formats. Once received, you will be notified of receipt. Event Date RFP distribution to offerors 11/16/15 Offerors questions due 11/19/15 Responses to offeror s questions posted 11/20/15 Proposal due date 11/23/15 Anticipated decision and selection of offeror(s) 11/24/15 Anticipated commencement of services 12/1/15 IIE will consider submitted proposals as your best response and valid for 90 days. 4 RFP Conditions Under no circumstances will IIE be responsible for your costs and expenses in connection with this RFP including reviewing this RFP and/or submitting a Proposal. IIE reserves the right to: Reject any or all offers and discontinue this RFP process without obligation or liability to any offeror. Accept other than the lowest price offered. Select an offeror on the basis of initial offers received, without discussions or requests for best and final offers. Select more than one offeror. Nothing in this RFP is, or should be relied on by the offeror as, a promise or representation by IIE. Neither does IIE make any representation or warranty as to the completeness of this RFP nor have any liability for any representations (express or implied) contained in, or omissions from, this RFP. This RFP and any replies to any written notifications are transmitted to the offeror solely for the purposes of the vendor preparing and submitting a Proposal. Page 3 of 5

4 Any information or materials submitted as a response to this RFP and/or as a proposal (whether successful or unsuccessful) shall become the property of IIE and will not be returned. 5 Selection Criteria and Proposal Instructions IIE will select the offeror whose proposal represents the best overall value to IIE in terms of the selection criteria specified below. Offerors who do not follow the instructions in this RFP may be disqualified from consideration. Minimum Eligibility Criteria In order to be selected, an offeror must meet the following minimum eligibility requirements: Past Performance: satisfactory past performance Must not be suspended or debarred by the U.S. government Selection Criteria Proposals must address each selection criteria as outlined below. The selection criteria other than cost / price, when combined, are of approximately equal importance to cost / price. Section I: Technical Proposal A. Criteria 1 Experience and qualifications: The offeror must submit a narrative description of its relevant experience and services offered. This narrative cannot exceed two pages and must address the following: a) The number of years of relevant experience. b) A brief description of services offered d) A description of resources (personnel) currently available in-house to provide the required services B. Criteria 2 Past Performance: a) Submit examples of current clients that use your service/system b) IIE reserves the right to also obtain and consider other past performance information from contacts outside and within IIE. Section II: Cost/Price Proposal A. Criteria 4 Cost-Effectiveness (i) Included detailed breakdown of costs associated with services provided. (ii) Please outline any discounts that you will provide to IIE in consideration of the work and in consideration of IIE s capacity as a non-profit (501(c)(3)) promoting international education worldwide. (iii) IIE is exempt from sales tax in some jurisdictions in which it has offices, including in New York and Washington, D.C. IIE is also exempt from sales and use tax in certain other states within the U.S. 6 Scope of Work The cloud-based marketing or customer relationship management platform will need to include the following features or components: Audience Allow for ability for contacts to register through a customizable portal integrated into our existing Drupal website ( Allow for ability for staff to add contacts manually, through both individual and bulk uploads Page 4 of 5

5 Allow for ability for bulk download of contacts from the system Allow for the ability to create and filter by customized contact fields (e.g. name, program of interest, address, country of interest, discipline of interest, etc.) to allow for targeted messaging. Allow for contacts to easily opt out/unsubscribe to messages or indicate message preferences. Allow for the management of up to 100K contacts Administration Allow for the ability to create a customized templates, using our own graphics and program branding elements Allow for staff to create do not contact lists Provide training to staff on setting up and using the system Provide marketing analytics that include opens, clicks, kickbacks, etc. and other tracking functions Other Desired Features Possibility of future API integration with existing systems, including Drupal website, Embark application, and Oracle CRM. 7 Annual Renewal As noted above, selection(s) may be renewed annually, at IIE s sole discretion, for up to five years before re-competition. The following shall be submitted by selected offerors on an annual basis: (1) Updated description of services (2) Updated costs IIE reserves the right to exercise one of the following options: (1) Accept the updated proposal if changes are reasonable and within the scope of the original selection. (2) Negotiate to arrive at agreement on any updates/changes; or, (3) Decide not to renew the selection, if requested updates/changes are not justified and within the scope of the original selection. Page 5 of 5