Scanning and Digitization of Records

Scanning and Digitization of Records Notice Inviting Tender Amendments & Clarifications issued pursuant to Pre-bid Conference held on 13 th November 2009 Ministry of Environment & Forests Government of India Page 1 of 21

Amendments / Clarifications Dated 18-11-2009 Last date/time for submission of bids 15.00 hrs on 26 th November, 2009 Opening of Technical Bids 16.00 hrs on 26 th November, 2009 At Committee Room No. 623 Page 2 of 21

1. Introduction The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is the nodal agency for planning, promotion, coordination and overseeing the implementation of environment and forestry programmes. In the process, a large quantity of records are produced on daily basis due to which the Ministry is facing serious constraints in terms of space and lot of difficulty is being faced for preserving the documents and their retrieval in times of need. At present all the sections of the Ministry are full of records and one wing of Vigyan Sadan, R.K. Puram has also been converted as record room for FC, WL, SU and IA Divisions as well as for record of PAO. Even then, files are piling up steadily in most of the corridors of Paryavaran Bhawan. In this regard, the Ministry had decided for scanning digitization of existing records so that most of the records can be weeded out. The Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) was published in the Newspapers and in the Ministry s website for scanning and digitization of records in the Ministry. The pre bid meeting in this regard was held on 13 th November 2009 in which around 30 representatives attended the Pre Bid Meeting. The meeting was chaired by Shri A.K. Goyal Joint Secretary, MoEF and attended by the members of the evaluation committee. The Pre Bid clarifications document provides the details on the queries raised by the bidders and any other instructions/amendments to the Tender document, which shall be binding on all the participating agencies. The questions / concerns / issues raised by various vendors either during the Pre Bid Meeting or through E Mail are provided in detail in the document. The Pre Bid document shall be read and understood in conjunction with the Tender document and will be considered as part of the Tender document for all matters. Page 3 of 21

Pre Bid Clarifications Seria Tender l No Reference 1 Tender Document 2 Eligibility Criteria Tender Specification Clarification Sought Clarification Provided The bidder must have (i) at least five years experience of Scanning/digitization, indexing, storing and providing retrieval facility of records; and (ii) must have scanned/digitized at least 50 lakhs documents in Central/State Government Offices/ Courts/ PSUs, Are the paper documents in bound book form?, Are they loose leaf files in ring files/folders?, What is the average age of the paper documents? We would like to clarify that we have our international experience qualifying for the same i.e implementations in Middle East with government and courts. We also have our infrastructure based at Delhi and are engaging with government, banks and corporate customers. These are files containing Notesheets (Legal size), correspondences (A4 size), cut sheets (A4 size), bound volumes (A4 size). Some files also contains maps varied in size. Average age is around 10 years. The eligibility criteria would be as prescribed in the Tender document and no scope for any relaxation. Page 4 of 21

out of which at least 2 projects of 5 lakhs documents each should have been scanned using standard scanning technology. Documentary evidence by way of completion certificate should be produced in support of experience and performance clearly mentioning use of Book Scanners. Also we would like to clarify that we have worked with various kinds of scanners but it is not specifically mentioned on the work orders/certificates. We are capable of working with any type of scanner including the book scanner. 3 Section 2 (scope of work), point number (b) The software and the methodology to be adopted should ensure seamless integration with the existing workflow system Which existing workflow system MoE&F is having? Will successful needs to do the integration of its DMS with existing workflow system? The MoEF has already established a small data Centre. The MoEF in coordination with NIC has developed a software for BSI, Kolkata which will be customised by NIC based on the present requirement. Bulk Uploading Programme will be given to the successful bidder by NIC for indexing purposes. Hence, the software customisation is out of scope for the bidder. The bidder s scope is only scanning and indexing. Page 5 of 21

4 Section II (scope of work), point (f), 4, (i) Vendor has to keep backup of data with it and in case of any failure or data loss it ll be responsibility of vendor to provide the data For what time duration data needs to be maintained with the vendor and who will provide hardware for the same? Vendor has to keep backup of data with it for atleast a month after uploading the data storage system. The vendor should have their own hardware for data backup. 5 Section II (scope of work), point (f), 4, (j): Documents available may be in multiple languages. The vendor has to do the indexing accordingly to the system by DBMS Does it also mean that indexing needs to be done in multiple languages? Does MoE&F requires retrieval of documents using DMS with keywords in multiple languages. If this is the case, who will provide necessary hardware to type keywords in multiple languages? The indexing needs to be in English only. Page 6 of 21

6 The bidder after successfully storing the data on its own computer shall transfer the same on the computer to be provided by the MoEF alongwith the documentation, technical and user manual. However, Scanning Digitization of Records of MoEF the Bidder shall be fully responsible for the proper archiving, storing and retrieval of the Scanned/digitised data for a minimum period of one year after completion of his work. Bidder shall suggest the configuration and the number of computers and other hardware and software for Archival and Retrieval of digitized data, including backup. At what point of time bidder needs to transfer the data (scanned images, index fields) from its computer to MoE&F computer (to be procured by Ministry)? This can be discussed with the successful bidder. Page 7 of 21

7 The bidder after successfully storing the data on its own computer shall transfer the same on the computer to be provided by the MoEF alongwith the documentation, technical and user manual. However, Scanning Digitization of Records of MoEF the Bidder shall be fully responsible for the proper archiving, storing and retrieval of the Scanned/digitised data for a minimum period of one year after completion of his work. Bidder shall suggest the configuration and the number of computers and other hardware and software for Archival and Retrieval of digitized data, including backup. Does it mean that bidder needs to deploy adequate human resource for proper archiving, storing and retrieval of the Scanned/digitised data for a period of one year? If this is the case, please let us know the number of terminals required by MoEF for retrieval and storage. This will enable us to calculate the efforts to carry out this job. 8 The Eligibility criteria mentioned Annual Turnover of 1 cr which MoEF have asked for ( Pg. No. 7, Pt. No. 4 & also Annexure F, Pg No. 33 ), is too low and we feel that for the Ministry to receive responsive and quaility bids should be not less than Rs. 25 Crores in the last 3 financial years Kindly amend this. The bidder needs to have the facility including one manpower, one scanner and one computer for trouble shooting, training and retrieval of the Scanned/digitised data for a period of one year. The clause in NIT will remain unchanged. Page 8 of 21

9 Also ISO : 9001 : 2000 Certification for the Bidder also needs to be incorporated since that way some quality check could be taken care of. Please incorporate this in General Terms & Conditions 10 Pg. No. 7, Pt. No. 4 11 Page Nos. 45 46 At least 100 Million pages digitized in the past should be incorporated in the eligibility criterion out which 50 Lakhs in Central / State Govt offices / Courts / PSUs should have been done. Again we feel that this would ensure that the MoEF gets responsive and quality bids and hence needs amendment. Penalties levied up to a max of 20 % is too steep. Request please restrict and amend this up to a max of 10 %. No change in the Tender document in this regard. No change in the Tender document in this regard. No change in the Tender document in this regard. 12 Page No. 7, Pt. 4 13 Page 7, Pt No. 4 What do the MoEF mean by Standard Scanning Technology 50 lakhs worth of contracts to be executed in the past how many years? Pls clarify this Standard scanning technology denotes that the scanning through standard scanners. Five years. Page 9 of 21

14 Page No. 9, Pt. 10 and Page No. 46, Pt. 7e Need clarity on sub contracting Pg No. 9, Pt. 10 and Pg. No. 46, Pt. 7e are conflicting Is forming a consortium allowed for scanning part and or for customization of web based system application Pls clarify this. 15 Pls let us know as to from how many locations the documents need to be collected from? Would the vendor be expected to put up Multiple operation sites or could it be done at a centralized operational site at the Ministry premises. 16 Page 52 Does the MoEF have a standard numbering scheme for pages Pls clarify. 17 Page No. 10, Pt. a 3 What is the breakup ( percentage wise ) of documents based on condition how many good, fair and poor / brittle The consortium partner needs to be declared while submission of bids. For Technical evaluation, prime bidders experience only counted. The vendor may have to set up multiple operation sites at (i) Paryavaran Bhawan, CGO Complex, (ii) Vigyan Sadan, R.K. Puram, and (iii) SCOPE Complex, CGO Complex (iv) Bikaner House after completion in each location. The Notesheets and Correspondence in the files are numbered properly. The conditions of the documents are nearly good, however, the percentage can t be estimated. 18 Section 2c, Pg 11 Section 2c, Pg 11, talks about In case docs are not visible then document scanning. No extra payment shall be made. What does MoEF mean by this this? Pls clarify In the Quality Check if the scanned documents are not visible, the vendor need to do the re scanning in resolution for which no extra payment shall be made. Page 10 of 21

19 2(d) Pg 12 2(d) Pg 12, the vendor shall add / replace poor quality scanning images / docs why should we pay for poor quality docs. This point needs more clarity whether MOEF is talking about the final output quality or the original documents Pls clarify. 20 Will MoEF have a QC team? If yes how and what would be the Quality Control measurement parameters. Pls specify. 21 Page 16 As it is mentioned that the documents size may vary from A4, A3 and above. Could you please provide us an approximate % of the document sizes 22 Page 38 Alternatively MoEF could call for Pricing separately for A4, A3 and other sizes in the Financial Bid because costing for each size would 23 point 11 d, Page 62 vary Please refer point 11 d, Pg 62 under Terms of Reference wherein it is mentioned that documents may be in multiple languages and the indexing has to be done accordingly, could MoEF please provide an approximate number of languages (and the language) that may occur. Pls clarify. MoEF is talking about the final output quality. The QC team will be set up by the Ministry during the implementation. The documents are mostly A4 size about 5 10% would be legal size and 2 5% files will be having the Maps (2 5 Nos. in each file) No change in the Tender document in this regard. Only the communication would be in multiple languages. However, the indexing would be in English. Page 11 of 21

24 Page. 13 The keywords are to be defined for a document. What is the criteria of selection of keywords? 25 Page No. 15, Pt. c. OCR is mentioned. Is the limitation only to English Language or other languages as well? Pls clarify. 26 What should be the estimates on future capacity planning (+10%, + 50% or +200% )? Pls clarify. 27 Page. No. 7, Pt. No. 4 & also Annexure F, Pg No. 33 The Eligibility criteria mentioned Bidder s annual turnover should be not less than 25 crores in the last 3 yrs ( instead of the 1 cr which they have asked for ) 28 Page 7 As per requirement of bid bidder should have completed 2 projects of digitization of 5 lacs pages through book scanner. How it ll be treated if project is continuing but bidder has certificate which states that 5 lacs pages are scanned and RFP / PO of concerned project shows that scanning has to be done through Book Scanner 29 What is the timeframe in which work is required to be finished? The criteria for selection of keyword (approximately 5 10) would be on the subject dealt on a particular file. OCR Not required. MoEF will decide later. No change in the Tender document in this regard. The requirement is accounted for completed scanning digitization. 365 working days. Page 12 of 21

30 Pg 10 (a), 5 th point 31 Pg 11, 2 nd point 32 Pg 11, 4 th point 33 Pg 12, 2 nd point 34 Pg 12, 4 th point Is numbering of documents necessary as it amounts to dedicated staff thereby increasing cost? Will MoEF deploy its own people in executing such job? Can t imprinter option of scanner be used to print automatic incremental number on documents while scanning? Handing over the slotted scanned data on appropriate electronic media: Specifically define the term appropriate electronic media. Define number of training days/duration, number of attendees to the same and designation/level of trainee Exact replica In case of documents where content is near to un readable or document in itself too dark to read; Image enhancement technique would drive the digitize output away from its originality. In such cases, the digitized document output CANNOT be the EXACT REPLICA of its original. Would the entire work be done on one centralized location or separate set ups in different wings needs to be arranged? The Indexing parameters clearly indicate the total number of pages in the file which includes Notesheets and correspondences. External HDD / Palm Disk / Pen Drives etc. which will be returned after uploading. Training on retrieval for two staff from each division and the duration would be based on the requirement. The out put should be EXACT REPLICA of its original or near to that. In Paryavaran Bhawan it will be at one location only. Page 13 of 21

35 Pg 14, 5 th point 36 Pg 15 (d),3 rd point 37 Pg 16 (j), 4 th point 38 Pg 51 (o), 2 nd point 39 Pg 51 (o), 7 th point Is capturing of signature mandatory or optional? For such capturing, form/documents layout/template should be same for all documents going under this process Ability to perform Content search and retrieve documents using OCR technology: OCRing process fails when it comes to Handwritten documents or bad quality typed documents while scanning. Required indexing to be done only in English or in multi lingual? If Multi lingual, specify the languages. Or, we have to convert/re wrote the exact thing in English? Will MoEF provide other facilities like Stationary, Tea, Drinking Water, Sanitary, Fan, AC, Lights, Network points, extension boards, and hygienic working environment? Will the vendor be allowed to un bound/bound the documents for smooth and fast scanning of documents through ADF? 40 General Would the staff executing the project be issued with entry passes? No Digital Signature required. No OCRing required. English Only. MoEF provides Fan, AC, Lights, Network points, hygienic working environment only. The others are vendor s responsibility. The vendor may unbound the documents and to be re bounded into previous position after scanning and digitization. Temporary pass for Paryavaran Bhawan will be issued to the staff executing the project. Page 14 of 21

41 General Will there be any power backup facility for continuous up time of equipments? 42 General Any security guard for the security of the digitization site? 43 General Do we have to do the Duplex scanning? If yes, Does the volume of 1 crore is inclusive of such factor or it would increase the volume? 44 Pg 12 (e) Please let us know the number of characters to be captured for prescribed indexing fields. 45 General Will scanned/digitized data be stored in database? The same Power backup facility what the Ministry is getting will be provided. No security guard. One person from the particular division will be present to facilitate the process of digitization. Yes, 1 crore is inclusive of duplex scanning. The database filed in character space is given Division 25 File number 25 Subject 200 Date of Opening the file 10 Date of Closing the File 10 Total no. of pages of Notesheet 4 Total no. of pages of Correspondence 4 Total No. of Pages 4 Language 10 Condition (3 Radio button) Keywords (5 10 per file) 25 Yes, in the San Storage system (DSPACE). Page 15 of 21

46 General Will the firm be allowed to take back all the equipments after project completion or needs to transfer the entire set up to MoEF? 47 Pg 52 The MoEF will provide the files to the authorized representative of the bidder, supervising the Scanning/digitizing work, on day to day basis: Will the vendor be allowed extra time for any loss of time or delay in handing over the documents 48 Page 7 Point 4 49 Page 31 Annexure D, Note: 2 50 Page 40 Section 2 Scope of Work The NIT states Documentary evidence by way of completion certificate should be produced in support of experience and performance clearly mentioning use of Book Scanners. The Annexure D states Letter from the client on the project executed. The NIT states Documents are kept at various locations of MoEF in New Delhi. from MoEF officials? Can we provide references of Overseas governmental agencies instead of PSU? Does the letter from the client mean contract award letter or letter of recommendation or completion certificate? Please mention the content of the letter Please provide the list of MoEF locations in New Delhi Once the project is completed the firm can take back all the equipments. The vendor should ensure one day earlier to have adequate number of files for scanning to avoid delay. The documentary evidence of only Indian Government would be considered. contract award letter or letter of recommendation or completion certificate from the client. Paryavaran Bhawan, CGO Complex Vigyan Sadan, R.K. Puram Scope Complex, CGO Complex Bikaner House Page 16 of 21

51 NA What is the percentage of double sided documents for scanning (i.e., content present on both sides of a page)? 52 Please specify the number of pages per document? 53 NA Are the source materials a combination of loose documents and bound books? If so what is the volume distribution? 54 NA The fields to be indexed will be in printed or handwritten format. 55 NA If the indexed data is a combination of handwritten and printed format, please provide the percentage for the handwritten content. 56 NA Please confirm whether the position of the index field will be consistent for all the documents. 57 Does the vendor have to provide one copy of scanned data as electronic media? Both Notesheets and correspondences are mostly double sided documents. The exact % can t be calculated. The number of pages per file may vary upto 1000 pages. On an average approximately 200 pages. Yes, the volume of distribution can t be assessed. In both form. However the % can t be counted. Yes, the order of the index will be same for all files. Yes, for uploading purpose. Page 17 of 21

58 Regarding Back up, does vendor has to provide media or MoEF? Also, the Hardware server and database is to be provided by whom? 59 We Request MoEF to provide with ball park estimate on the volume for each size of pages? 60 Page 46 Penalties We request MEOf to have an upper cap of penalty of restricted Maximum 5% of delayed portion/contract. 61 Page 64 Outsourcing of Scanning Digitization of Records of MoEF The selected agency shall not outsource the Scanning Digitization of Records of MoEF assignments to any other agency except their direct franchisees under any circumstances. The agency has to declare their franchisees / consortium partners, if any, along with their registered business names, modules they will undertake and the infrastructure available there. MoEF will not accept such Scanning Digitization of Records other than the authorized franchisees declared at the time of submission of the Tender. The backup and hardware for scanning digitization (scanner, computers, software etc.) is vendor responsibility and the Hardware server and database for storage and retrieval would be Ministry s responsibility. The clause in NIT will remain unchanged. The clause in NIT will remain unchanged. The clause in NIT will remain unchanged. Page 18 of 21

62 Warranty/AMC is required for 1 year or more? Please clarify 63 Page 4 of 7 it is mentioned "vendor must have scanned/digitized at least 50 lakhs documents in Central/State Government Offices/ Courts/ PSUs, out of which at least 2 projects of 5 lakhs documents each should have been scanned using standard scanning technology." In Annexure E under Technical Bid under previous experience use of Book Scanners is mentioned. Kindly clarify the same. 64 Clause 12 Cost of Bid we request the bidder may be allowed to submit EMD in form of Bank Guarantee and the format for the same be provided along with validity period One year. Experience use of Book Scanners dropped. The clause in NIT will remain unchanged. Page 19 of 21

65 Page 7 The company/firm must have annual turnover of not less than one crore rupees in each of the past three financial years (2007 08, 2008 09, 2009 10) from scanning/digitization work only and should produce balance sheets of the relevant periods certified by a Chartered Accountant. If necessary the bidder may produce certificates from a Chartered Accountant clearly mentioning annual turnover from the scanning and digitisation of records alone for each of past 3 financial years. 66 Page 14 Automated mechanism for scanning documents into specific folders. Use of Barcode technology will be preferred. May one can also add digitisation of maps (not text) as past experience? Since the proposed system is looking for bar coding, do one needs to barcode the existing documents also to keep similarity? 67 We presume that transport of files from different floors in Paryavaran Bhavan or any other building in our scope of work? That is, MoEF will not provide the files within easy reach of the space/room provided in Paryavaran Bhavan. The clause in NIT will remain unchanged. Bar code is not required. Retrieval of files will be based on the indexing parameters. Within the premises of the building, the vendor would be responsible for transport of files from different floors / locations to the scanning site. Page 20 of 21

68 Will you be able to give any idea of how big the space MoEF plans to give the successful bidder to work on the premises? You may indicate the size in terms of number of workstations (a PC and a scanner) that we can fit in the room. We need this information to roughly estimate the productivity per day and budget the man power (and thus unit rate) accordingly. 69 Page 66 Payment Terms Payment to be made to Bidder on monthly basis or quarterly basis? The premises for scanning was already shown on the day of pre bid meeting i.e. Room No.608. The payment will be made to the bidder on monthly basis after the receipt of bill pertaining to the actual work done duly certified by Quality Check (QC) Committee. Page 21 of 21