REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST for THE PROVISION OF AN INTEGRATED BUSINESS SYSTEM AT ECMWF, SHINFIELD PARK, READING, UK REF:
CONTENTS CLAUSE BACKGROUND... 1 1.1 Introduction... 1 1.2 Introduction to ECMWF... 1 1.3 Background and s... 1 1.4 Submission of expressions of interests and enquiries and contact procedure... 3 1.5 Anticipated Timetable for Tenders... 3 REQUIRED INFORMATION... 4 2.1 Company details... 4 2.2 Contact details... 4 2.3 Experience... 4 2.4 Approach to Delivery... 4 2.5 s... 4 2.6 Terms and Conditions (For information purposes only)... 5 2.7 Additional matters... 5 APPENDIX 1 - REQUIRED INFORMATION... 6 APPENDIX 2 - ADDITIONAL INFORMATION... 15
BACKGROUND 1.1 Introduction This Expression of Interest (EOI) has been prepared by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, (governed by its Convention and associated Protocol on Privileges and Immunities which came into force on 1 November 1975, and was amended on 6 June 2010) ("ECMWF") for the purposes of seeking interest and outline proposals from potential suppliers for provision of an Integrated Business System ( IBS ) at ECMWF s premises in Reading, UK. ECMWF are not looking for detailed proposals at this stage, and there will be no commitment on the part of respondents. Responses will however assist ECMWF in understanding the market interest and available options, and hence in influencing their approach at tender stage, and determining who is invited to tender. You must therefore complete an Expression of Interest if you wish to be invited to participate in the full bidding process that will take place later this year. 1.2 Introduction to ECMWF ECMWF is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 34 States. Information on ECMWF s activities can be found at http://www.ecmwf.int/en/about ECMWF has two sites in Reading, UK. 1.3 Background and s ECMWF s governing bodies are the Council, the Director-General, and the Council's advisory committees, whose functions are defined in the Convention. In addition ECMWF has a set of Financial Regulations which govern all financial transactions of ECMWF. The Centre produces Financial Statements using International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). The annual budget is prepared on a cash basis. ECMWF s main volume of transactions is purchase ledger-related with typically 1,700 commitments raised annually and in excess of 4,000 purchase ledger invoices and credit notes. In addition it raises approximately 1,000 sales ledger transactions and a large number of both recurring and ad-hoc journals. All of these transaction volumes are expected to increase significantly during 2016 and future years as a consequence of the European Commission appointing the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (www.ecmwf.int) to implement the Copernicus Climate Change and Atmosphere Monitoring Services. This will have a significant impact on the financial activities of ECMWF and will require: Page 1 of 15
Changes to the accounting treatment of some financial transactions Introduction of cost centre accounting Improved reporting capability, including reporting by activity ECMWF requires an integrated business system to replace their existing legacy system which is heavily customised and no longer fit for purpose. Increased growth through the requirement to provide additional services has put further pressure on the system. An integrated system is required to provide the following key functionality: Functional Areas (Mandatory) Core Financials Travel & Expenses Core Human Resources Management System Payroll and is expected to meet the following key criteria which form part of the requirements for the mandatory functional areas: Multi-dimensional chart of accounts, minimum 4 (fund, account, organisation, project) Separate ledgers (e.g for actuals, budgets, forecasts and committed expenditure) Dual base currency reporting in GBP and Euros Parallel reporting based on a modified cash basis as well as IPSAS Intra-company / inter-fund balancing functionality Accounts Payable payments in multiple currencies VAT accounting based on cash basis accounting with non-standard claims formats Projects based accounting across multiple cost centres, funds and financial years Calculation of work in progress and revenue recognition against projects Ability to process non-standard payroll calculations, taxes, allowances and deductions Automated workflow and document management Reporting suite capabilities - standard and bespoke It is intended that there will be a phased implementation of functionality, with financials being the first system to be rolled out. In addition, ECMWF will be looking to add the following functionality, albeit this is expected to form a separate procurement procedure to be issued at a later date (ie following implementation of the mandatory requirements): Functional Areas (Non mandatory) Recruitment and On Boarding Learning & Development Employee Performance Management Procurement Page 2 of 15
Suppliers of integrated business solutions are invited to submit expressions of interest in supplying the mandatory functional areas as shown above, and where applicable, the non-mandatory also. ECMWF s preference is for one fully integrated system; however, the quality of functionality is of utmost importance so consideration will also be given to suppliers of best of breed systems who can provide a complete and coherent, integrator led, solution. In such cases, where there is a group of suppliers, these organisations must be led by one contractor (the integrator) with whom ECMWF will contract and who will be responsible for putting in place legal arrangements to ensure that it can guarantee that all other organisations in the group will also meet the contract obligations. Please note that only those suppliers who can deliver at least a minimum of the mandatory functional areas sought will be considered for invitation to tender, however, ECMWF reserves the right to limit the number of invitees based on their agreed tender approach following consideration of the EOI responses. 1.4 Submission of expressions of interest and enquiries and contact procedure Expressions of interest must be received before 18:00 local on 20 June 2016 by e-mail as follows: E-mail: procurementevaluations@lists.ecmwf.int Emails should be headed EOI Integrated Business System Response. Any enquiries or requests for clarification of any matters arising from this EOI should be sought from the Procurement Section at ECMWF and must be made in writing to the same e-mail address as above, headed EOI Integrated Business System Clarification. 1.5 Anticipated Timetable for Tenders Whilst this is currently only a call for expressions of interest, ECMWF envisages the following timetable for any subsequent tender: Tender published: Early July 2016 Presentations by short listed tenderers: Mid to late August 2016 Negotiations with preferred tenderer(s) in September 2016 Award of contract by end September 2016 New service fully operational by mid 2017 Potential bidders will be invited to an information meeting at ECMWF s premises during the week following publication of the tender. Page 3 of 15
REQUIRED INFORMATION Interested parties to this EOI are requested to respond to the following. Responses should not be overly detailed, as full proposals will be sought at the tender stage, but should be sufficient to enable ECMWF to understand the options available. 2.1 Company details Please give details of your company, stating its full registered address, company registration number and Dun & Bradstreet number if available. 2.2 Contact details Please supply details of the person at your organisation who can be the contact point in relation to your response. Please give their name, title, address and location, telephone number and e-mail address. 2.3 Experience Please demonstrate in brief terms your company s track record with regards to the provision of integrated business solutions, including a list of three customers to whom similar services to those requested in this EOI are provided giving details of the types of services being provided / systems that have been installed etc. These should include a minimum of one customer where you have been providing services for at least three years. 2.4 Approach to Delivery Please describe in brief terms the type of package you could offer including cloud or locally based solutions, and the implementation and ongoing system management (to include training, support, maintenance etc) of such. Please include supplier / ECMWF responsibilities and probable timescales. The description should also clearly explain the extent to which the proposed solution is made up of a single system, or package of discrete interfaced products and how they would work together. This should include an indication of budget for set up (including capital costs), implementation and ongoing costs. 2.5 s The expression of interest should take the form of a brief, but sufficiently detailed, response to each of the supplier requirements set out in Annex 1 to enable ECMWF to fully understand what requirements can be delivered and how. Suppliers should also indicate which of the non-mandatory functional areas, which will make up the fully integrated system, could also be provided by the proposed solution. Page 4 of 15
Annex 2 includes additional information in terms of anticipated volumes / users. 2.6 Terms and Conditions (For information purposes only) Please be aware that, as a result of ECMWF s immunity from jurisdiction, any contract resulting from any subsequent ITT issued by ECMWF relating to this EOI will need to contain the following arbitration clause, or a variation thereof, which is offered by ECMWF to all contracting parties: This Agreement [OR Contract OR Licence] is governed by and shall be construed in accordance with the law of England. The parties shall attempt to settle any dispute between them in an amicable manner. If the dispute cannot be so settled, it shall be finally settled under the Rules of Conciliation and Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce by three arbitrators appointed in accordance with the said rules; sitting in London, England. The proceedings shall be in the English language and for the avoidance of doubt this arbitration agreement shall also be governed by the law of England. In accordance with Sections 45 and 69 of the Arbitration Act 1996, the right of appeal by either party to the English courts on a question of law arising in the course of any arbitral proceedings or out of an award made in any arbitral proceedings is hereby agreed to be excluded. Further information may be found at http://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/suppliers in document ECMWF s status: Arbitration and VAT. 2.7 Additional matters Please set out any additional information or other relevant matters which you think have not been adequately addressed in the EOI and/or merit further consideration in your response. Page 5 of 15
APPENDIX 1 - REQUIRED INFORMATION Non Functional s (required for all lots) Ref Non Functional s 1. Access Single sign on preferred Access from multiple desktop operating systems Access from mobile devices Ability to interface data to / from existing and new business systems 2. Location Cloud hosting or onpremises or managed services options will be considered. Hosting within Europe preferred 3. User Experience Self-service features Automated approvals workflow Intuitive interface Integrated help features 4. Data Recovery Capabilities Supplier to indicate datacentre security and back up standards that will apply Supplier to set out their standard Data Recovery (RPO, RTO) targets Supplier to set out their standard system availability targets. 5. Reporting Intuitive, flexible reporting Self-service reporting Built in, customisable, dashboards Page 6 of 15
Ref Non Functional s 6. Performance Near real-time performance On screen reports delivered < 30 seconds 7. Licensing flexibility Flexibility to grow as well as to reduce size of the solution and the number of licences 8. Licensing model Various licencing models will be considered, including perpetual licenses and fixed term. Suppliers should indicate which licence types are available for the proposed solution, together with the licence term options where appropriate. 9. Implementation approach Supplier to indicate what implementation services may be available to ECMWF and whether these will be provided by the supplier or a third party, from both a cloud and installation perspective. Page 7 of 15
Mandatory Functional Areas Core Financials Ref Core Financials 10. General ledger 11. Purchasing and Accounts Payable 12. Accounts Receivable Multi reporting currency (Euro and GBP, with daily upload of rates) Multi-dimensional Chart of Accounts, minimum 4 (fund, account, organisation, project) Journal upload from Excel with full data validation Overhead reallocation methods Separate reporting of cash spent, accrued and committed expenditure Self-service purchasing with authorisation workflows Goods receipting Automated 3-way matching Manual and electronic receiving and management of invoices (including scanning and tagging of both new and archived invoices etc - ECMWF currently use Kwiktag) Multi-currency and international payments Sales orders creation Generation of sales invoices created from interfaced data Electronic and manual distribution of sales invoices Debtor / receivables management Page 8 of 15
Ref Core Financials 13. Fixed Assets Componentised records Additions, disposals, enhancements, transfers Facility to hold additional information against assets Recording of assets to meet both IPSAS, cash reporting and Insurance requirements 14. Project Accounting Ability to track full life-cycle project costs and revenues across multiple financial years 15. Cash and Bank Revenue recognition Automated billing of project costs based on billing rules Electronic interface to bank(s) Automated bank statement reconciliation Cash flow forecasting 16. Taxation Capture and report VAT paid (multiple jurisdictions / tax authorities) Capture and report other levies paid Customisable / nonstandard VAT returns 17. Inventory Stock control for computer equipment and media Movements in and out of stock Occasional external 18. Budgeting and Forecasting sales of stock Budget setting and forecasting with authorisation workflow Variance analysis 19. Reporting Production of Monthly/Quarterly management accounts Page 9 of 15
Ref Core Financials Adhoc reporting of business activities Production of Annual Statutory accounts Excel based / style / compatible reporting Travel and Expenses Ref Travel and Expenses 20. Self Service User interface to capture individuals intended travel requirements 21. Authorisation Work-flow to appropriate approver for authorisation prior to travel 22. Interface Posting of actual travel costs to GL Interface to AP Core Human Resources Management System Ref Core HR Management System 23. Establishment Management Diagrammatic representation of the organisation hierarchy and establishment Maintain one to many relationship between post and position Maintain many to one relationship between position and person Ability to extract information for HR planning activities Page 10 of 15
Ref Core HR Management System Link establishment data to planning and forecasting function 24. Employee Information 25. Leavers, Redeployment and Retirement 26. Absence management Self-service portal allowing users to amend their personal details Grievance and case management Automated processes for employee exit, redeployment and retirement Ability to manage all types of absence including, for example: Sickness Maternity / paternity Annual leave Accrual for leave carried forward Payroll Ref Payroll 27. Service provision 28. Payroll Calculation Consideration will be given to in-house payroll systems as well as vendors offering a managed payroll service. Suppliers to indicate the nature of the proposed solution Ability to maintain nonstandard tax rates structures and rules Ability to hold multiple and complex allowances, where Page 11 of 15
Ref Payroll 29. Pension Calculation 30. Interface and reports allowances are driven by eligibility and events, for example: length of service; grade of post; status of partners and dependents; and receipt of external benefits Staff loan management Pension deductions Calculation of pensioners payroll Adjustments to pensioners pay based on externally held tax rates (ISRP tables) Interface from / to GL Interface from /to HR system Reports to the International Service for Remuneration and Pensions (ISRP) On-line / electronic payslips End of year statements Reporting for actuarial purposes Page 12 of 15
Future functionality (non-mandatory Functional Areas) Procurement Ref Procurement 31. Supplier Management Interface to external procurement system (Due North) Maintain data primacy for supplier records Provide a contract repository Contract management system including task prompts and workflows Recruitment and On-boarding Ref Recruitment and Onboarding 32. Recruitment Standardised job descriptions Candidate access through intuitive recruitment portal CV upload facility for candidates Manage / automate communications with applicants Allow applicants to create a profile for reuse Manage Internal and external applications 33. On-boarding Pre-employment checks Automated workflow for on boarding staff Interface to core HRMS Page 13 of 15
Learning and Development Ref Learning and Development 34. Learning and Development Manage L&D, including registration and attendance records Self-service with work-flow to appropriate approver for authorisation Interface to performance management system Employee Performance Management Ref Employee Performance Management 35. Employee Performance Management Employee appraisals with automated workflow Interface to L&D records Page 14 of 15
APPENDIX 2 - ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Additional Information for Suppliers. The following information is provided to indicate the expected number of users of the integrated solution. Suppliers are not required to respond to this information other than to request any additional metrics that may be required to enable detailed costings to be provided during the planned ITT phase. ECMWF Annual Budget: 90 million User numbers Core users Read only users Maximum concurrent users Self-service users Core financials 20 20 15 60 Travel and expenses 20 N/a 20 350 Core Human Resources Management System 10 5 10 350 Payroll 5 350 (access to payslips) 3 N/a Procurement 5 N/a 5 25 Recruitment and On-boarding 10 30 30 350 Learning and Development 10 N/a 10 350 Performance Management 10 N/a 10 350 Further information Approximate number of expense claims per annum 1,000 ECMWF headcount 350 Approximate number of job vacancies posted per annum 30 Number of trainees per annum 350 Number of hosted environments required 2 (cloud solutions) 3 (hosted solutions) Number of staff appraisals per annum 350 Page 15 of 15