Expression of Interest

Transcription

1 Expression of Interest (EOI) for Core System Integrator (CSI) for IT Modernisation Project DEPARTMENT OF POSTS MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & IT GOVERNMENT OF INDIA 29 th October of 40

2 Disclaimer This Expression of Interest (EOI) is not an offer by the Department of Posts, but an invitation to receive response from eligible interested Bidders for selecting System Integrator for Department of Posts. This EOI includes statements, which reflect various assumptions and assessments arrived at by the DoP in relation to the India Post 2012 Project. Such assumptions, assessments and statements do not purport to contain all the information that each bidder may require. This EOI may not be appropriate for all persons, and it is not possible for the DoP, its employees or advisors to consider the investment objectives, financial situation and particular needs of each party who reads or uses this EOI. The assumptions, assessments, statements and information contained in this EOI may not be complete, accurate, adequate or correct. Each interested bidder should therefore, conduct its own investigations and analysis and should check the accuracy, adequacy, correctness, reliability and completeness of the assumptions, assessments, statements and information contained in this EOI and obtain independent advice from appropriate sources. Information provided in this EOI to the interested bidder(s) is on a wide range of matters, some of which may depend upon interpretation of law. The information given is not intended to be an exhaustive account of statutory requirements and should not be regarded as a complete or authoritative statement of law. The DoP accepts no responsibility for the accuracy or otherwise for any interpretation or opinion on law expressed herein. The DoP, its employees and advisors make no representation or warranty and shall have no liability to any person, including any interested bidder, under any law, statute, rules or regulations or tort, principles of restitution or unjust enrichment or otherwise for any loss, damages, cost or expense which may arise from or be incurred or suffered on account of anything contained in this EOI or otherwise, including the accuracy, adequacy, correctness, completeness or reliability of the EOI and any assessment, assumption, statement or information contained therein or deemed to form part of this EOI or arising in any way with pre-qualification of the bidder for participation in the bidding process. The DoP also accepts no liability of any nature whether resulting from negligence or otherwise howsoever caused arising from reliance of any bidder upon the statements contained in this EOI. The DoP may, in its absolute discretion but without being under any obligation to do so, update, amend or supplement the information, assessment or assumptions contained in this EOI. The issue of this EOI does not imply that DoP is bound to select and short-list pre-qualified bidders for request for proposal stage or to appoint the selected bidder or concessionaire, as the case may be, for the India Post 2012 Project and DoP reserves the right to reject all or any of the bids without assigning any reasons whatsoever. The bidder shall bear all its costs associated with or relating to the preparation and submission of its bid including but not limited to preparation, copying, postage, delivery fees, expenses associated with any demonstrations or presentations which may be required by DoP or any other costs incurred in connection with or relating to its bid. All such costs and expenses will remain with the bidder and DoP shall not be liable in any manner whatsoever for the same or for any other costs or other expenses incurred by a bidder in preparation or submission of the bids, regardless of the conduct or outcome of the bidding process. 2 of 40

3 Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS... 3 TABLE OF FIGURES... 4 TABLE OF TABLES INTRODUCTION ABOUT DEPARTMENT OF POSTS BUSINESS PRIORITIES OF DEPARTMENT OF POSTS INDIA POST 2012 PROJECT INTRODUCTION INDIA POST 2012 VENDOR SELECTION PROCESS SCOPE OF WORK RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CORE SYSTEM INTEGRATOR (CSI) SCOPE OVERVIEW FUNCTIONAL OVERVIEW TECHNICAL OVERVIEW THE EOI PROCESS AND INSTRUCTIONS TO SUBMIT THE RESPONSES THE PROCUREMENT PROCESS THE EOI PROCESS SCHEDULE OF EVENTS FOR EOI REQUEST FOR CLARIFICATIONS VALIDITY OF PROPOSALS RIGHT TO TERMINATE THE PROCESS EARNEST MONEY DEPOSIT (EMD) VENUE AND DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF RESPONSES LATE BIDS EOI RESPONSE SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS PRE-QUALIFICATION CRITERIA EVALUATION OF RESPONSES EVALUATION OF RESPONSES ANNEXURE REQUEST FOR CLARIFICATIONS CHECKLIST FOR COMPLIANCE TO PRE-QUALIFICATION CRITERIA EOI RESPONSE COVER LETTER PRE-QUALIFICATION RESPONSE FORMATS BANK GUARANTEE FORMAT FOR EMD LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS of 40

4 Table of Figures FIGURE 1: ORGANISATION STRUCTURE AT DIRECTORATE... 6 FIGURE 2: OPERATING STRUCTURE AT FIELD LEVEL... 6 FIGURE 3: VISION OF INDIA POST FIGURE 4: INDIA POST 2012 DEFINITION... 9 FIGURE 5: SOLUTION BLUEPRINT FIGURE 6: INTEGRATION OF THE INDIA POST FIGURE 7: OVERVIEW OF SCOPE FOR THIS EOI Table of Tables TABLE 1: PROCUREMENT AREAS TABLE 2: EOI SCHEDULE of 40

5 1 Introduction 1.1 About Department of Posts Overview For more than 150 years, the Department of Posts (DoP) has been the backbone of the country s communication and has played a crucial role in the country s socio-economic development. It touches the lives of Indian citizens in many ways: delivering mails, accepting deposits under Small Savings Schemes, providing life insurance cover under Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) and providing retail services like bill collection, sale of forms, etc. The DoP also acts as an agent for Government of India in discharging other services for citizens such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) wage disbursement and old age pension payments. With 1,55,015 Post Offices, the DoP has the most widely distributed postal network in the world. Trends such as urbanisation, increased demand for financial services, increased funding by the government for the weaker sections and the rural sector, have opened up new opportunities for the DoP which, in turn has necessitated development of new processes and supporting technology. The DoP is also faced with twin challenges of increasing competition and continuing advances in communication technology, especially in mobile telephony and the Internet. In order to provide the best-in-class customer service, deliver new services and improve operational efficiencies, the DoP has undertaken an end to end IT modernisation project to equip itself with requisite modern tools and technologies. The IT modernisation project, India Post 2012, intends to achieve the following: I. Wider reach to the Indian populace through more customer interaction channels II. Better customer service III. Growth through new lines of business IV. IT enablement of business processes and support functions As a part of India Post 2012, the DoP has carried out business process reengineering across various functional areas and has created To-Be processes that will enable it to achieve these objectives. In order to implement these processes in a sustainable manner, they need to be IT enabled in an integrated manner that improves operational efficiencies Organisation Structure The DoP comes under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The Postal Services Board is the apex management body of the Department. The Board is headed by Secretary (Posts) and it comprises of six Members responsible for various operational areas. Members hold portfolios of Operations, Planning, Human Resource Development, Personnel, Technology and Postal Life Insurance. Deputy Directors General, Directors and Assistant Directors General provide the necessary functional support for the Board at the Directorate. The Joint Secretary and Financial Advisor (JS&FA) is a permanent invitee to the Board. The organisation structure at the Directorate is shown below: 5 of 40

6 Figure 1: Organisation Structure at Directorate For providing postal services, the operations of the Department of Posts are divided into 22 Circles. The operating structure at the field level is shown below: Figure 2: Operating Structure at Field level 6 of 40

7 For more information and further details, bidders may visit Business Priorities of Department of Posts I. Mail Operations: Every year the DoP delivers more than 600 crore articles through its elaborate network of Post Offices. On the delivery side, the DoP has a large workforce of over 43,000 urban Postmen and 1.30 Lakh Gramin Dak Sewak (GDS) to facilitate the delivery of mail to the final recipients. Mail Business is optimising its products, services and back end processes to ensure growth in business. Some of the objectives are: a. To increase visibility into mail operations (at the article level, overall volume, and employee productivity) b. To enable operational planning for all the DoP facilities through planning tools c. To improve employee utilisation by having increased visibility into employees performance and managing them as required II. Logistics Post: Logistics Post provides transportation, distribution, warehousing and logistics related value added services to the customers. Logistics Post Air, under which air lift is given to consignments, operates in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and North East. Some of the objectives are: a. To provide end-to-end supply chain services through a technology-driven logistics network that provides transportation, warehousing, distribution and e-logistics b. To create warehousing capacity by utilising the DoP s vacant sites c. To offer e-logistics services to tap into the rapidly growing e-commerce market in India III. e-commerce: The DoP plans to launch its e-commerce website to harness the power and reach of the World Wide Web. Some of the objectives are: a. To share information related to the DoP, its products and services in a consistent manner b. To provide capability to do web based transactions for mails, banking and insurance services c. Online sale of third party products/services d. To provide advertising avenues for advertisers IV. Postal Banking Operations: The DoP is one of the largest providers of financial services in the country with an account base of around 22 crore and a deposit base of over ` 5,53,234 crores. The DoP s vision is to be one of the leaders in providing banking and money remittance services to the citizens of the country with a focus on the rural population. Some of the objectives are: a. To increase the number of customers from existing 20 crore to 35 crore by 2012 b. To provide multiple delivery channels like internet, mobile banking, ATMs, telephone, cards; thereby bringing access to financial services to the doorsteps of the customers c. To enable faster money remittances and funds transfers and increase volumes to capture a substantial part of the market share d. To become the one stop solution for financial inclusion & microfinance initiatives of government, public/private sector banks V. Postal Life Insurance: The DoP provides two types of life insurance: Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI). PLI is offered to employees of all Central and State 7 of 40

8 government departments, Nationalised Banks, Public Sector Undertakings, Financial Institutions, local bodies like Municipalities and Zila Parisads, educational institutions aided by the Government etc. RPLI is the insurance service being offered to the rural populace. Some of the objectives are: a. To become the first choice insurer in the rural India b. To develop a fully integrated life insurance platform to enable efficient and cost effective service to existing and new customers c. To improve the quality of service being offered to the customers d. To achieve financial inclusion of the un-insured rural population, while minimizing the cost of operations VI. Rural Business: One of the key components of the DoP s vision is to be a socially committed organisation connecting individuals and businesses. Of the total 1.55 lakh Post Offices, around 10% are situated in urban areas and 90% are in rural areas. On an average, each Post Office in India serves an area of 21.2 sq. km and a population of 7,174. Some of the objectives are: a. To achieve financial inclusion of un-banked rural population b. To enable Branch Offices to make disbursements for social security schemes such as MGNREGS c. To improve the quality of services being offered to rural customers d. To increase revenues by providing retail post services, third party services etc. VII. Finance & Accounts: The Postal Accounts & Finance (PAF) function forms the backbone of the DoP s products and services. As the DoP plans for the future, it would be important to tread the path of sustained cost management and devising effective tools for intelligent business decisions. Some of the objectives are: a. To move from cash based accounting to accrual based accounting in specific areas of operations within the DoP b. To streamline the processes by eliminating duplication of data entry at different levels c. To bring efficiencies in Inventory management and Procurement with real time validations against approved budgets VIII. Human Resources: Human Resources function comprises of the Personnel (and Establishment) and Human Resource Development (HRD) groups which serve 2.18 Lakh departmental employees and 2.74 lakh GDS employees. In order to support the growth aspirations of the DoP, HR function is looking at redesigning its processes. Some of the objectives are: a. To provide the administrative offices with centralised and accurate employee information b. Employee development through improvement in training administration and management c. To support optimal utilisation of manpower through accurate and timely analysis of workload 8 of 40

9 1.3 India Post 2012 Project Introduction Vision of India Post 2012 India Post 2012 aims at transforming the DoP into a Technology Enabled, Self Reliant Market Leader. This translates into 5 initiatives covering increased market share and revenues, new products and services, improved service delivery, motivated workforce and rural development. Figure 3: Vision of India Post 2012 Increase Market Share and Revenues To Be A Technology Enabled, Self Reliant Market Leader Offer New Products and Services Deliver Improved & Consistent Customer Service Drive high Employee satisfaction Empower rural Post offices through technology Definition of India Post 2012 The primary focus of this program is to improve and automate postal services through re-engineering and creation of efficient operations and systems. Figure 4: India Post 2012 Definition The higher service levels will be achieved through significant improvement in operations and 9 of 40

10 systems. For example, currently 12,604 Head Post Offices (HOs) and Sub Offices (SOs) are computerised. The rest of the SOs and approximately 1,30,000 BOs are not computerized. India Post 2012 plans to computerise and connect all Post Offices and run various applications seamlessly across the network. Currently, majority of the processes are manual. India Post 2012 plans to automate these processes around standard operating procedures and leading industry practices. Currently there are 56 stand-alone applications. India Post 2012 intends to build a core set of integrated applications covering key functions such as Mail Operations, Financial Services, Postal Insurance, Finance and HR. India Post 2012 also intends to transform the front and back end of the DoP operations. This re-engineering and improvement of operations and systems is expected to significantly improve service levels and transparency Proposed Solution Blueprint Proposed Solution Blueprint as described in the following section provides a holistic view of the overall solution and captures the end-state vision. The solution blueprint defines the basic elements of the solution such as different layers and components that will enable the solution areas which will drive the India Post 2012 IT modernisation program. The solution blueprint has been developed on a comprehensive understanding of the functional and other requirements of the DoP, based on which the key capabilities expected by the business have been identified. The blueprint provides an overview of how the business capabilities will be enabled and supported by detailing out the specific set of applications in the various layers of the solution. The blueprint is built on the principles of flexibility, extensibility, scalability, availability, high performance and services oriented architecture. The solution blueprint strives to follow existing industry standards and where standards do not exist, best practices have been used to derive the overall solution blueprint. It provides as much flexibility as possible to seamlessly incorporate future standards and to build and integrate new capabilities. 10 of 40

11 Figure 5: Solution Blueprint 1.4 India Post 2012 Vendor Selection Process As part of the India Post 2012 Project, the DoP intends to procure products and services to develop: I. Comprehensive solutions covering Mail, Retail and e-commerce Operations, Logistics and Warehousing, Postal Banking, Postal Life Insurance, Finance & Accounts, Human Resources Management and Customer Interaction Channels. The Department also envisages ICT solution to computerise its rural Post Offices and provide integrated and affordable electronic services at the Branch Post Office level. 11 of 40

12 II. IT infrastructure including Data Centre (s), secured connectivity across the entire postal network, and computer hardware for Post Offices & Railway Mail Offices. III. Training and change management to ensure readiness of DoP to adopt the solution. The entire scope has been structured into the following eight areas: Table 1: Procurement Areas RFP No. RFP#1 RFP#2 RFP#3 RFP#4 RFP#5 RFP#6 RFP#7 RFP#8 Area Rural ICT System Integrator (RSI) Rural ICT Hardware (RH) Core System Integrator (CSI) Financial Services System Integrator (FSI) Data Centre Facility (DCF) Network Integrator (NI) Mail Operations Hardware (MOH) Change Management (CM) 12 of 40

13 2 Scope of Work 2.1 Responsibility of the Core System Integrator (CSI) The India Post 2012 is a transformational IT modernisation project that aims to establish DoP as a Technology Enabled, Self Reliant Market Leader. It aims to do this by laying down a robust and resilient IT infrastructure, implementing a core set of integrated business applications, IT enabling the services provided to the rural community, managing the change and building capacity throughout the IT supply chain. As detailed in Section 1.4.1, the scope of the India Post 2012 project is being sourced through 8 RFPs thereby leading to a multi-vendor scenario for execution of this project. In this model, it is envisaged that Core SI (CSI) will be responsible for overall integration of the solution (including those owned and delivered by vendors chosen through other RFPs) and thus accountable for successful implementation of India Post 2012 project across channels, across various levels and locations, and for all business operations and supporting functions of the DoP. Figure 6: Integration of the India Post 2012 Change Management Core System Integrator Financial Services System Integrator Data Centre India Post 2012 Rural ICT System Integrator Mail Operations Hardware Network Integrator Rural ICT Hardware 13 of 40

14 In addition to the overall responsibility as mentioned above, Core SI will have direct delivery responsibility for mail and logistics operations, enterprise wide human resources and payroll, finance and accounts, and customer interaction management services. The Core SI shall ensure that the components that are delivered to the end users are seamlessly integrated onto a common front-end and are successfully deployed onto the client hardware. 2.2 Scope Overview The scope of the Core SI covers the following major areas as shown in Figure 7 below: Mail and Logistics Operations Customer Interaction Services, including Point of Sale (POS), Web Portal and Call Centre Finance & Accounts, Inventory and Procurement Management Human Resources Management and Payroll Customer Repository Analytics and Business Intelligence IT Infrastructure - Directory services, solution, Security, Operations and Enterprise Management System (excluding Network Monitoring) Overall Solution Integration through the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and Business Process Management (BPM)/Workflow Figure 7: Overview of Scope for this EOI Indicates all the areas of the solution directly in scope for the Core SI 14 of 40

15 2.3 Functional Overview The solution deployed by the Core SI needs to support the following business functions of the DoP Mail Operations The mail operations include the sale of Retail Post products and processing of accountable and nonaccountable mail articles including international mails. Mailers may make appointments for collection of articles from the mailers or drop off of articles at the DoP s premises. Mail articles are transported from origin to destination, and accountable mail articles are tracked to the point of delivery Logistics Operations The DoP has launched a third party logistics (3PL) business where the DoP manages the customers inventory, including the transportation of goods, material handling, inventorying and storing in the DoP warehouses, packing and delivering the goods to the end customer Philately Operations The philately operations manage the design and acceptance of philatelic products from the suppliers. Philatelic products that are accepted need to be inventoried and stock levels maintained based on the supply of the products to the point of sale Post Offices or direct sales through the ecommerce portal of the DoP and other websites Finance and Accounts Finance and accounts provide a single view of the financial performance of the DoP and plans to maintain the accounting records under both accrual and cash system and information on costs and tariffs. This includes tracking and reporting on budget approvals and fund utilisation as per Government of India guidelines. Finance and accounts also manage the procure-to-pay cycle for goods and services purchased by DoP including inventory management, budgeting and procurement, efficient vendor management for payables and receivables to ensure favourable liquidity position for the department Customer Interaction Services The customer interaction services enable the Point of Sale at DoP Multi Purpose Counters to perform various functions, including retail sales, bill collection on behalf of business partners, and cash management for end-of-day cash balance reconciliation. Additional channels, such as mobile and web portal, to be provided for delivery of products and services Call Centre Set up and operate Call Centre to provide product and services related information and take orders or requests for mail booking, banking, insurance and retail post, resolve customer enquiries such as track and trace of the articles, retail order fulfilment, etc. 15 of 40

16 2.3.7 Human Resources Management and Payroll The human resources management maintains personnel data and service related records for all employees (departmental and GDS) and shall allow employees to perform self-service transactions, including ability to view and edit personal data, leave, travel etc. and their approvals. Human resources also manage recruitment activities and departmental and direct examination, performance management, periodic establishment review and training activities. Payroll shall ensure timely and centralised payroll services, including disbursement of salary and other benefits by leveraging modern payment mechanisms like direct account transfers and ECS credits Customer Information Management The customer information management shall consolidate customer information from across the various business verticals including FSI and RSI, capture customer information, including personal, contact, account and payment information and analyse customer information to determine outstanding payments, cross-selling opportunities, etc MIS and Business Intelligence Services Management information and business intelligence services will maintain data/information across functions to provide cross-vertical reporting with drill down capabilities to transactional level. The reports shall be available through user-friendly MIS dashboards that adhere to regulatory and management reporting requirements, both ad-hoc and periodic. 2.4 Technical Overview Solution Requirements The Core SI shall perform the following activities to implement the solution: Supply of Software 1. Supply of software including operating system, application, database and any other software as required to support the business functions described in Section 2.2, 2.3; 2. All licenses shall be enterprise wide; Source code to be made available; 3. Supply of security software, including security incident, event, identity and access management; 4. Directory and software for the DoP employees Supply of Hardware 1. Sizing of the necessary server hardware based on the proposed software that meets DoP s current and future business needs; 2. Supply of server hardware as per sizing and project timeline ; 3. Client side hardware shall be out of scope of this RFP; however selected bidder shall work with DoP and/or the client side hardware vendor to validate the suitability of the IT infrastructure for the implementation of the proposed solution. 16 of 40

17 2.4.4 Design and Implementation Services 1. Develop an architecture that is highly available, scalable and flexible; 2. Design an integration architecture model and approach using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) approach; 3. Design and build a data model to share data across multiple systems in the organisation ; 4. Design a Business Intelligence platform providing a dashboard for monitoring and measuring business metrics and generate customized MIS reports at various levels; 5. Install and commission the supplied software and hardware; 6. Develop the client application for the supplied solution to be rolled out on the RICT platform; 7. Build a unified customer interaction layer to enable channel access for multiple users, modes and services; 8. Build and maintain complete security architecture based on industry best practices such as ISO27001, DSCI Security framework in compliance with e-governance standards ( and applicable statutory requirements such as IT Act 2000 (amended 2008); 9. Build monitoring infrastructure for ensuring systems are functioning as per SLAs; 10. Implementation of solution in the field over a period of 19 months and post go-live support. The tentative approach is as follows: a. Pilot roll-out in 100 identified offices b. First phase roll-out in all offices in six identified circles c. Final roll-out in all offices in the remaining circles Solution Integration 1. CSI shall be responsible for overall integration of the solution. CSI shall also coordinate with other System Integrators such as FSI and RSI for Banking, PLI solution and Rural ICT to achieve end-to-end integration and other vendors for Data Centre, Network Integrator, etc Data Migration Services 1. Identification of data migration requirements; 2. Set up migration processes and environment; 3. Collection and migration of user data as needed from existing electronic and manual systems; 4. Collection and migration of master data, including assets such as vehicles and buildings, employee records and account records; 5. Closing or migration of operational data, including financial transaction data such as ongoing contracts, employee transaction data such as leave and training applications Training 1. Prepare a detailed training plan and finalise in consultation with the divisions and Change Management vendor/dop change management team; 2. Plan and implement the training in co-ordination with Change Management vendor and the DoP; 17 of 40

18 3. Conduct train-the-trainer training to enable the trainer network across the DoP; 4. Conduct end user training for a specific number of batches across India Operation and Maintenance Services 1. Set up and run centralized 24x7 Helpdesk operations. CSI shall provide Level 1, 2 and 3 support based on the service levels; 2. Run Level 1 Help desk which is common for all applications and services for the overall solution; 3. Co-ordination with other SIs and vendors for L2, L3 level services; 4. Set up and run the Call Centre to provide cross-vertical information and transactions; 5. Supply, installation and commissioning of enterprise management system (EMS) and service desk software and integration of EMS, service desk, IVR and other Call Centre components; 6. Design and implementation of ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) processes such as Incident Management, Change Management, Configuration Management, etc. 3 The EOI Process and Instructions to Submit the Responses 3.1 The Procurement Process The Department of Posts will follow the process defined below to identify the Core SI for the India Post 2012 project Invitation for EOI: An open invitation will be issued to bidders to participate in the public tendering process Receipt of responses: The responses from the interested bidders will be received in sealed envelopes at the designated place, by a designated date and time Evaluation of response to the invitation for EOI: interested bidders will be evaluated and short listed based on their competence and capability to meet the requirements of the DoP for the system integration services against pre-qualification criteria detailed in the EOI Request for Proposal: A detailed Request for Proposal (RFP) with information on the specific requirements of the DoP will be circulated only to the short listed bidders. The short listed bidders will be invited formally by the DoP to respond to the Request for Proposal (RFP) and submit the techno-commercial proposal as per the specifications to be elaborated in the RFP. 3.2 The EOI Process The DoP intends to shortlist bidders to carry out the activities and provide the solutions as detailed out in Section 2 under Scope of Work. Through this Expression of Interest, the DoP seeks responses from bidders who are interested in this work and are qualified to carry out the work as per the qualification criteria detailed below. 18 of 40

19 3.3 Schedule of Events for EOI The DoP intends to comply with the following schedule for the EOI. These dates represent a tentative schedule of events. The DoP reserves the right to modify these dates at any time without assigning any reasons whatsoever. Table 2: EOI Schedule S.No. Event Date & Time 1. Release of Expression of Interest (EOI) 29 October Last date for submission of queries on EOI 8 November 2010, 17:00 hrs 3. Response to the bidder queries 15 November Last date for submission of EOI response 22 November 2010, 15:00 hrs 5. Opening of EOI response 22 November 2010, 15:30 hrs 6. Shortlist bidders By 13 December 2010 The following pages detail the EOI process, the qualification criteria and the response requirements. 3.4 Request for Clarifications Bidders requiring specific points of clarification on the EOI may communicate with the DoP by the scheduled date as listed in Section 3.3 using Annexure 4.1. Any queries may be addressed to: Director (PMU - Operations), Room No 415-B, Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi Telephone: Fax: kushal@indiapost.gov.in 3.5 Validity of Proposals Responses to this EOI submitted by the bidders shall remain valid for a period not less than six months from the last date for submission of EOI response. The DoP reserves the right to reject any proposal which does not meet this requirement. 3.6 Right to terminate the Process The Department of Posts may terminate the EOI process at any time and without assigning any reason. The DoP makes no commitments, explicit or implicit, that this process will result in a business transaction with anyone This EOI shall only be deemed to invitation to offer and does not constitute a commitment to conduct procurement, or an offer of a contract or prospective contract. The DoP shall not be liable for any costs incurred by any potential vendor in the preparation and submission of information in response to this EOI. 19 of 40

20 3.6.3 The bidder s participation in this process may result in the DoP selecting the bidders to engage in further responses, discussions and negotiations towards execution of a final contract. The commencement of any subsequent procurement activity resulting out of this EOI does not signify a commitment by the DoP either to continue the activities or to culminate such activities with a definitive contract. 3.7 Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) The bidder shall submit, along with their bids, EMD of Rupees Two crores (` 2 crores) in the form of a Bank Guarantee issued by a scheduled commercial bank in favour of Department of Posts. The Bank Guarantee should be valid for a period of one year from the last date for submission of EOI response. EMD in any other form will not be entertained and such bids shall be dealt in manner provided in hereof The EMD of all unsuccessful bidders would be returned by the DoP within one month of the bidder being notified by the DoP as being unsuccessful The EMD of the short-listed bidder will be retained by the DoP till response to the RFP is received by the DoP. In case, the bidder short-listed at the EOI stage does not respond to the RFP, the DoP reserves the right to forfeit the EMD The EOI response submitted without the EMD mentioned above shall be deemed to be nonresponsive and will be rejected The DoP reserves the right to seek extension of the period of validity of the EMD. 3.8 Venue and Deadline for Submission of Responses Responses, in its complete form in all respects as specified in the EOI, must be submitted to the DoP at the address specified below only through a representative or by registered/speed post: Shri Atul Kumar Srivastava Assistant Director General (PMU), Room No 422-A, Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi Telephone: Fax: Last date and time of submission: Before 15:00 Hrs on 22 November The DoP may, in exceptional circumstances and at its discretion, extend the deadline for submission of responses by issuing an addendum on its website in which case all rights and obligations of the DoP and the bidders previously subject to the original deadline will thereafter be subject to the deadline as extended. 20 of 40

21 3.9 Late Bids Bids received after the due date and the specified time (including the extended period if any) for any reason whatsoever, shall not be entertained EOI Response Submission Instructions Responses must be direct, concise, and complete. All information not directly relevant to this EOI should be omitted. The DoP will evaluate the bidder s response based on its clarity and the directness of its response to the requirements of the project as outlined in this EOI. To assist in the preparation of response, the DoP would be making available an electronic version of this EOI List of Documents to be submitted as part of the EOI response Cover letter as in Annexure Pre-qualification response in the format as specified in Annexure Earnest Money Deposit as specified in Annexure Certified copies of relevant financial statements and audited accounts of 3 last declared financial years Signature The covering letter must be signed with the bidder s name and by a representative of the bidder, who is authorised to commit the bidder to contractual obligations Mode of Submission of the Responses Respondents must submit 2 (two) bound hard copies, 1 (one) in original and 1 (one) copy and 2 (two) electronic copies on non-rewritable CDs of their response to this EOI to the designated point of contact as specified in the EOI. Each page of the bid shall be signed by the authorized representative of the bidder and in case of any discrepancy the original hard copy shall prevail over the copies It is advised that the respondents keep the response brief, concise and to the point. It is suggested that the response, including annexure, should be less than 50 pages (using font Arial and font size 11).Please ensure all pages, including the title pages, are duly numbered and signed The bidders are required to submit their proposals in the specified format furnishing all the required information and supporting documents The DoP will not accept delivery of response in any manner other than specified. Response delivered in any other manner shall be treated as defective, invalid and rejected Submission of bids shall be done in accordance with the instructions given in the Table below: Envelope 1 : EMD The envelope containing the EMD, as detailed in Section 3.5, shall be sealed and super scribed Confidential EMD on the top right hand corner and addressed to the DoP at the address specified in this document. 21 of 40

22 Envelope 2 : Prequalification Response The Pre-qualification response shall be prepared in accordance with the requirements specified in this document and in the format prescribed in the Annexure. This electronic copy of the response should be submitted on non-rewritable CD format only. The words Pre-qualification Response India Post 2012 shall be written in indelible ink on the CDs. The hard copies of the response along with the CDs shall be put in an envelope which shall be sealed and super scribed Pre-qualification Response India Post 2012 on the top right hand corner and addressed to the DoP at the address specified in this document. Envelope 3 Both the above envelopes along with the response letter should be put in envelope 3 which shall be properly sealed. The outside of the envelope must be clearly marked Confidential Expression of Interest for Core SI India Post 2010 Note: The outer and inner envelopes mentioned above shall indicate the name and address of the bidder. Failure to mention the address on the outside of the envelope could cause a response to be misdirected or to be received at the required destination after the deadline Amendment of EOI At any time prior to the deadline for submission of responses, the DoP for any reason may modify the EOI by amendment by updating the DoP s website ( and such amendment shall be binding on bidders. The DoP, at its discretion, may extend the deadline for the submission of responses Language of Responses The response and all correspondence and documents shall be written in English. All responses and accompanying documentation will become the property of the DoP and will not be returned Non-Conforming Responses A response may be construed as a non-conforming response and ineligible for consideration if: It does not comply with the requirements of this EOI A response appears to be canned presentations of promotional materials that do not follow the format requested in this EOI or do not appear to address the particular requirements of the proposed solution Modification and Withdrawal of Responses No response may be withdrawn in the interval between the deadline for submission of responses and the expiration of the validity period specified by the bidder on the response form. 22 of 40

23 Conflict of Interest Bidder shall furnish an affirmative statement as to the existence of, absence of, or potential for conflict of interest on the part of the bidder due to prior, current, or proposed contracts, engagements, or affiliations with the DoP. Additionally, such disclosure shall address any and all potential elements (time frame for service delivery, resource, financial or other) that would adversely impact the ability of the bidder to complete the requirements as given in the EOI. A bidder shall be deemed to have a conflict of interest if: (i) such bidder has the same legal representative for purposes of this EOI as any other bidder; or (ii) such bidder, or any Associate thereof has a relationship with another bidder, or any Associate thereof, directly or through common third party/ parties, that puts either or both of them in a position to have access to each others information about, or to influence the bidder of either or each other; or (iii) such bidder, or any Associate thereof has participated as a consultant to DOP in the preparation of any documents, design or technical specifications of the India Post 2012 Project; (iv) a bidder shall be liable for disqualification if any legal, financial or technical adviser of DOP in relation to the India Post 2012 Project is engaged by the bidder, in any manner for matters related to or incidental to the India Post 2012 Project. For the avoidance of doubt, this disqualification shall not apply where such adviser was engaged by the bidder in the past but its assignment expired or was terminated 1 (one) year prior to the date of issue of this EOI Acknowledgement of Understanding of Terms By submitting a response, each bidder shall be deemed to acknowledge that it has carefully read all sections of this EOI, including all forms, schedules and annexure hereto, and has fully informed itself as to all existing conditions and limitations Conditions The following terms are applicable to this EOI and the bidder s response: Timing and sequence of events resulting from this EOI shall ultimately be determined by the DoP Responses are subject to rejection if they limit or modify any of the terms and conditions or specifications of this EOI Neither the bidder nor any of bidder s representatives shall have any claims whatsoever against the DoP or any of its respective officials, agents, or employees arising out of or relating to this EOI or these procedures (other than those arising under a definitive service agreement with the bidder in accordance with the terms thereof). 23 of 40

24 Authenticity of the information and right of verification The DoP reserves the right to verify all statements, information and documents submitted by the bidder in response to the EOI. Any such verification or lack of such verification by the DoP shall not relieve the respondent of its obligations or liabilities hereunder nor will it affect any rights of the DoP there under In case it is found during the evaluation of the responses or at any time during the subsequent procurement process or before signing of the contract or after its execution and during the period of project execution resulting out of the contract thereof, that one or more of the pre-qualification conditions have not been met by the respondent, or the respondent has made material misrepresentation or has given any materially incorrect or false information, the respondent shall be disqualified forthwith if not yet awarded the contract either by issue of the letter of intent or entering into a contract Pre-qualification criteria The bidder will be assessed on the following mandatory prequalification criteria: The bidder must be incorporated and registered in India under the Indian Companies Act 1956 and should be in operation in India for minimum of 3 years The bidder must be a single entity. Consortium or any kind of association of firms will not be allowed to participate in the procurement process to identify the Core SI of the India Post 2012 project The bidder should have at least SEI CMMi Level-3 certificate for all its Software Delivery Centres that will be used for this project, and this certificate must be valid on the date of submission of the EOI response The bidder should not be under any legal action for indulging in corrupt practice, fraudulent practice, coercive practice, undesirable practice or restrictive practice with any Indian central government ministry/department. The bidders and their respective officers, employees, agents and advisers shall observe the highest standard of ethics during the bidding process. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, contained herein, DOP may reject a bid without being liable in any manner whatsoever to the bidder if it determines that the bidder has, directly or indirectly or through an agent, engaged in corrupt practice, fraudulent practice, coercive practice, undesirable practice or restrictive practice in the bidding process for the India Post 2012 Project. Without prejudice to the rights of DOP under Clause hereof, if a bidder is found by DOP to have directly or indirectly or through an agent, engaged or indulged in any corrupt practice, fraudulent practice, coercive practice, undesirable practice or restrictive practice during the bidding process for India Post 2012 Project, such bidder shall not be eligible to participate in any tender issued by DOP during a period of 2 (two) years from the date such bidder is found by DOP to have directly or indirectly or through an agent, engaged or indulged in any corrupt practice, fraudulent practice, coercive practice, undesirable practice or restrictive practice, as the case may be. 24 of 40

25 For the purposes of this Clause, the following terms shall have the meaning hereinafter respectively assigned to them: a. corrupt practice means (i) the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting, directly or indirectly, of anything of value to influence the actions of any person connected with the bidding process (for avoidance of doubt, offering of employment to, or employing, or engaging in any manner whatsoever, directly or indirectly, any official of DOP who is or has been associated in any manner, directly or indirectly, with the bidding process or this EOI or has dealt with matters concerning the India Post 2012 Project or arising therefrom, before or after the execution thereof, at any time prior to the expiry of one year from the date such official resigns or retires from or otherwise ceases to be in the service of DOP, shall be deemed to constitute influencing the actions of a person connected with the bidding process); or (ii) engaging in any manner whatsoever, whether during the bidding process or after the issuance of this EOI, any person in respect of any matter relating to the India Post 2012 Project or this EOI, who at any time has been or is a financial or technical adviser of DOP in relation to any matter concerning the India Post 2012 Project; (b) (c) (d) (e) fraudulent practice means a misrepresentation or omission of facts or suppression of facts or disclosure of incomplete facts, in order to influence the bidding process ; coercive practice means impairing or harming or threatening to impair or harm, directly or indirectly, any person or property to influence any person s participation or action in the bidding process; undesirable practice means (i) establishing contact with any person connected with or employed or engaged by DOP with the objective of canvassing, lobbying or in any manner influencing or attempting to influence the bidding process; or (ii) having a conflict of interest; and restrictive practice means forming a cartel or arriving at any understanding or arrangement among bidders with the objective of restricting or manipulating a full and fair competition in the bidding process The bidder should have a minimum annual revenue of ` 700 Crores during the 3 last consecutive declared financial years, as evidenced by relevant financial statements and audited accounts Out of the annual revenue of the bidder, at least ` 300 Crores or above should be from IT services and/or system integration services for the three last declared financial years in India. The scope of these services would include application development & maintenance, turnkey implementation of IT projects, building and maintaining computing systems for clients by combining hardware and software products from multiple vendors The bidder should have prior experience in implementing at least one e-governance project in India. e-governance project is defined as the deployment of ICT for delivery of information & services in Government to Business (G2B), Government to Citizen (G2C) or Government to Government (G2G) domains. The experience should be evidenced by any of the following: Purchase order 25 of 40

26 Completion/Go-Live Certificate Clients Reference detail The bidder should be currently implementing or have completed implementation of at least three (3) ERP software implementation projects, at least one with size ` 50 crore or more. An ERP software implementation project, in this case, is the implementation of standard ERP COTS software package to manage, integrate and coordinate all the resources, information, and functions of a business from shared data stores within an enterprise. Of the three ERP implementations: The bidder should be currently implementing or have completed implementation of at least one ERP system covering more than 1000 licensed users in an Indian organisation The bidder should be currently implementing or have completed implementation of least one ERP system in Government or Public Sector Unit (PSU) in India * Note: Please note that the credentials from Associates shall also be considered provided they agree for joint and several responsibilities including corporate guarantee for successful execution of the contract. For the purposes of this EOI, the term Associate means, in relation to the bidder, a person who controls, is controlled by, or is under the common control with such bidder (the Associate ). As used in this definition, the expression control means, with respect to a person which is a company or corporation, the ownership, directly or indirectly, of more than 50% (fifty per cent) of the voting shares of such person, and with respect to a person which is not a company or corporation, the power to direct the management and policies of such person by operation of law Evaluation of Responses The evaluation of the responses to the EOI will be done by an Evaluation committee of the Department of Posts. The Department may seek help from external advisors for this purpose The responses will be evaluated against the qualification conditions listed under section 3.11 of this EOI and the short listing will be done based only on the information provided by the bidders either as response to the EOI or as clarifications sought by the DoP. No other information will be used for this purpose The compliance to the prequalification criteria will be the basis for short listing the bidders The decision of the evaluation committee will be final. No representation or query will be entertained on this from any of the respondents or their representatives or anybody else All the authorized representatives of the bidders will be communicated on the result of EOI evaluation exercise. 26 of 40