Correction to answer provided under Question 26 - Clarification 9: CLARIFICATION N 11. OC/EFSA/IT-Systems/2014/01. IT Projects & Services

IT-Systems Unit

Parma, 06/06/2014

Correction to answer provided under Question 26 - Clarification 9:

“It's correct to assume that the service within Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery are the logical extension of the infrastructural service of the primary Data Center ? If yes, would be possible to subcontract the Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery service as it's possible to subcontract the infrastructural service?"

Answer:

YesNo. Please refer to tender specifications, page 8 where it is stated that Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (Annex 2A –S 10) cannot be subcontracted as this is regarded as a critical task in line with Article 148(7) of Rules of Application of Financial regulation applicable to the general budget of the Union.

CLARIFICATION N°11

OC/EFSA/IT-Systems/2014/01

“IT Projects & Services”

Question 1:

“With regard to call for tender “IT Projects & Services” (OC/EFSA/IT-Systems/2014/01), Annex 5A, for "KPI-8 1st level resolution": according to services’ perimeter as defined in RFP, if “Help Desk” dispatches a request to another service (i.e.: Infrastructure Management or Application Management and Support) because it is not meant to be fixed by “Help Desk”, does this dispatch will be calculated as a “non resolution at 1st level” thus lowering overall KPI-8 value?

In case of “YES”, we assume that the “100%” of commitment to obtain maximum points (25) is virtually impossible. Is our assumption correct? ”

Answer:

See answer to Question 1 of Clarification n. 10.

Question 2:

“With regard to call for tender “IT Projects & Services” (OC/EFSA/IT-Systems/2014/01), Annex 5A, for "KPI-8 1st level resolution": minimum threshold value (65%) seems particularly higher that percentage of incidents and service requests resolved at first level as we deduce from sheet “Helpdesk services” of

Annex 2F (“STATISTICS”). On named sheet, we obtain about 45% adding rows 7 and 10 compared to total of rows 7, 10, 13, 15, 17, 18.

We kindly ask

1. The value we’ve got (about 45%) is right?

2. The minimum threshold for KPI-8 (65%) is correct?” Answer:

See answer to Question 2 of Clarification n. 10.

Question 3:

“With regard to call for tender “IT Projects & Services” (OC/EFSA/IT-Systems/2014/01), on page 3 of both Annexes 4A and 4C (“QUALITY AWARD CRITERIA AND THE DOCUMENTS REQUESTED” for, respectively, Lot 1 and Lot 2), it is specified in Awarding Criteria n. 2, sub-criterion 2.1 (“Operational Proposal”), third statement: «Provide description of the mechanism to guarantee business and service continuity, the quality required for the service provision and the transfer of knowledge in case of foreseen or unforeseen contractor staff replacements».

We kindly ask to clarify if request has to be read as three separate mechanisms (one for business and service continuity, one for quality and one for transfer of knowledge in case of staff replacements), or as a description of the mechanisms in place in case of staff replacement, and specifically for these three areas?”

Answer:

See answer to Question 3 of Clarification n. 10.

Question 4:

“With regard to call for tender “IT Projects & Services” (OC/EFSA/IT-Systems/2014/01), in ANNEX 4B (FINANCIAL OFFER TEMPLATE LOT1) there is a contradiction.

In sheet “Financial Evaluation”, in row 3, it is stated that «The evaluation of the financial offer is based on a scenario of estimated volumes for 1 year. As referred to under part I.5 of the Tender Specifications, for the purpose of the evaluation only, the maximum ceiling set for the financial offer is 3.500.000» while cell D73 states that maximum amount can be €5.000.000.

Also bearing in mind previous clarification and what is specified in Tender Specifications, we assume that Annex 3B published on May 8th contains a formal error and that right maximum value is €5.000.000. We kindly ask to confirm if our assumption is correct or clarify.”

Answer:

Correct. See Corrigendum n.3 and the corrected financial offer template.

Question 5:

“Annex 2A- Lot 1: Services S3: Application Life-cycle services.

1. Are the services under S3 concerning only applications and application development? 2. Do they concern all services S1-S13?

3. Do they concern the entire management of the contract including also the Account and Service managers?

4. What is the significance of the estimated volume of 2.5 M Euros for this type of services (out of the 5 M Euros per year) as it appears in the Financial proposal? Do you expect that management work will be equal to 50% of the ordered work per year?”

Answer:

1. Enterprise Architecture & Strategy and Program & Project Management are discrete services described in S3: Application Life-cycle services as well as by professional bodies of knowledge codified through international standards. Execution of the services covers the full scope of EFSA IT, not only to application development

2. No. S1 through S13 are discrete services delivered through industry standards and best practice, or through methodologies of the Contractor. However, it cannot be said that Application Lifecycle Services may not impact the specific outputs of other services nor the manner in which they are performed. As only one example, the project management service will influence the method by which S2.3 Construction is performed in the execution of specific contracts

3. No. S3 Application Life-cycle Services is a discrete service provided by the Contractor through its account and service managers

4. No. For purposes of the offer (and based on historical pattern) EFSA estimates 693 days per year in Lot 1 and 837 days of Application Lifecyle services in Lot 2.

Question 6:

“Annex 3B -Lot 1: Requirement reference: 1.4. The reference requests: “Experience by a single entity on Desktop Services, at least for the duration of three years during the past five years (2009-2013), to at least 500 users in a Windows environment with desktop virtualization (thin-client/zero client)”.

1. Does this mean that the reference to produce must state that at least 500 users DO use a desktop virtualization architecture?

2. Or can we provide a reference regarding Windows-environment-based Desktop Services with at least 500 users, of whom (users) only a % part uses a desktop virtualization architecture?”

Answer: 1. Yes. 2. No.

The Contractor or a single entity of a Consortium must have experience deploying at least 500 users with thin or zero client desktop virtualization. The requirement does not specify that a single customer entity must have 500 virtual desktops operationally deployed, only that a single entity has experience, at least for the duration of three years during the past five years (2009-2013), deploying to at least 500 users in a Windows environment with desktop virtualization (thin-client/zero client).

Question 7:

“Annex 5A - Lot 1: SLA - KPI-18:

1. What is the definition of Time update? is it the time to change a proposal sent to you after you provide with additional clarifications? Please clarify.

2. We understand Time prep as the time to prepare our response for an order in terms of preparing and sending a proposal, can you confirm?”

1. As per ANNEX 2A, p.71, Section 5.1, KPI Description, KPI-18 component Time Update is: “In case EFSA requires a change modifications to the answer, an updated answer shall be provided within two (2) working days following the request reception by the contractor. This time is called Time to Update. Timeupdate is the shortest Time to Update the contractor can commit to provide an updated answer.

2. As per ANNEX 2A, p.71, Section 5.1, KPI Description, KPI-18 component Time to prepare is: is the shortest Time to prepare that the Contractor can commit to answer to the service request.

Question 8:

"KPI-8 has the unit measure encompassing both Incidents and Requests, but the minimum requirement is for Request only. Should this read 65% of all Incidents and Requests?”

Answer: Yes.

Question 9:

“With reference to Annex 3 A – Simplified Financial Statement.

Should the starting/ending date for each financial year (2010-2011-2012) be provided inside row 9 of Annex 3 A – Simplified Financial Statement?”

Answer: Yes.

Question 10:

“In riferimento alle referenze richieste per il lotto 1, nel requisito 1.3.2 dell’Annex 3B si richiede: “Experience by a single entity, delivering Application Lifecycle Services, at least for the duration of three years during the past five years (2009-2013), including providing project management office (PMO) services for a market leading software provider of CRM.”. In relazione a questo requisito, si chiede di confermare che la referenza in questione possa riguardare la fornitura di una soluzione basata su Microsoft Dynamics CRM, fermo restando che includa comunque i servizi di project management office (PMO) e rispetti il vincolo di durata richiesta negli anni 2009-2013.

In reference to the references required for lot 1, in Annex 3B - requirement 1.3.2 it is required: "Experience by a single entity, delivering Application Lifecycle Services, at least for the duration of three years During the past five years (2009 - 2013), including providing project management office (PMO) services for a market leading provider of CRM software. ". In relation to this requirement, please confirm that the mentioned reference may include the provision of a solution based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, provided however that includes the services of project management office (PMO), and respects the

constraint of length required for years 2009-2013.”

Answer:

No. Microsoft Dynamics CRM non è incluso nell’Annex 8. No. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is not included in ANNEX 8.

Question 11:

“ANNEX 4B - FINANCIAL OFFER TEMPLATE LOT1

ANNEX 4D - FINANCIAL OFFER TEMPLATE LOT2. Tab "B - Financial Offer_Time&Means" section "S 1. Times and Means orders - Packaged Software".

The total effort given by EFSA for testing profiles in Lot 1 (Tester, Test Manager, Test Designer and Test Environment Specialist) are estimated in 24 days.

The same profiles in Tab "B - Financial Offer_Time&Means" section "S 2. Time and Means orders - Bespoke Development" are estimated in 194 man days.

In LOT2 the efforts given by EFSA for testing profiles in Times&Means are 544 man/days for packages and 633 man/days for Bespoke.

Can you confirm the figures (24 days) for testing in LOT1 packaged software T&M? Can you provide the assumptions for this estimation (testing LOT1 packaged SW T&M) which seems too low?”

Answer:

These assumptions, given for purposes of evaluation of Tenderer offers are correct. Large scale Commercial Off-the-shelf Sofware development projects will generally fall into the scope of Lot 2 Business Transformation Projects. The evaluation of the financial offer is based on a scenario of estimated volumes for 1 year. This yearly scenario is only meant for evaluation purposes and does not constitute a commitment on the part of EFSA to request this volume of service requests to the contractor.

Question 12:

“ANNEX 2A -TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION SERVICES DESCRIPTION_corrected_corrigendum_2, page 15. EFSA indicates that unit test and system tests are in scope for S2 bespoke development.

We can't find who is responsible for integration test and UAT.

Is it correct to assume that integration test and/or UAT will be managed by EFSA staff?” Answer:

User Acceptance Test (UAT) is EFSA’s responsibility.

Integration testing definitions and methodologies vary widely by methodology. They are generally executed early in the testing processes, prior to system testing. For S2 Bespoke Development, responsibility for continuous integration testing is with the Contractor according to methods described in ANNEX 2C – EFSA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGY which refers to “unit, iteration and regression testing.” A quality plan will be part of specific contracts.

Question 13:

“ANNEX 2A -TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION SERVICES DESCRIPTION_corrected_corrigendum_2.

Could you provide per each application the list of underlying technologies? For example: client/server - Number of server, Number of PC, OS server, number and type of Middleware instances (example: Forms

Web, WebLogic Srv, Biztalk, Tibco, Oracle Fusion), number and type of Web hosting (IIS, Apache, Tomcat, Jboss, ColdFusion, Web Logic, WebSphere AS).”

Answer:

Please refer to Clarification n. 9 – question 3. Due to information security policies, we are unable to publish the detailed EFSA Architecture: Application and Software Infrastructure Layers or version numbers for production software.

Question 14:

“ANNEX 5A - SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT LOT1.

ANNEX 5B - SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT LOT2.

Could you confirm that during the Transition phase, even if KPI have to be respected, no penalties are applied?”

Answer:

EFSA assumes that by “Transition phase”, the Tenderer is referring to the Take Over period and service S12 (ANNEX 2A), and not to the Transition phase of EFSA’s project management methodology (ANNEX 2C). Penalties are not applicable during execution of service S12 Take Over. Penalties are applicable during execution of Services S1 through S11, and during execution of S13.

Question 15:

“With reference to excel sheet “B - Financial Offer_Time&Means” in ANNEX 4B - FINANCIAL OFFER TEMPLATE LOT1 , can you clarify if the daily costs is for activities on EFSA premises or on contractor’s premises?”

Answer:

Please refer to Chapter 3 of ANNEX 2A.

Question 16:

“Would you please confirm that KPI - 13 will measure availability over the hours between 7:00 AM and 20:00 PM?”

Answer:

System availability ratios are calculated based on 24 hours per calendar day, 7 days per week.

Question 17:

“In case the subcontractor(s) are not identified before submitting the offer, may you confirm that the awarded tenderer will be allowed to exhibit it/them to EFSA at any time?”

Answer:

In line with article II.11 of the draft contract(s). However, when submitting an offer according to Annex 1 - OFFER COMPLETENESS CHECKLIST of the tender specifications:

- In case of consortium and/or subcontracting: provide a short document indicating the name of each consortium member and/or subcontractor, indicating who is consortium leader, consortium partner and who is subcontractor.

- In case of subcontracting: please indicate here the %………..… proportion of subcontracting

Paul Devalier Head of IT-Systems Unit