responses to queries raised by bidders on the project “selection of system ... · ·...

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Responses to queries raised by bidders on the Project “Selection of System Integrator for Brand India portal, Mobile Solution, and content management

services“ for IBEF

1. IBEF published a Request for Proposal (RFP) on 6th January 2016

2. A pre bid meeting was held on Tuesday the 19th January 2016

3. Bidders had submitted their queries and the responses to the queries are furnished below

4. The Bidders are requested to note that IBEF has tried its best to answer the queries including the ones that were received late after the due date of

submission of queries. However, IBEF has the right to not to respond to the questions it perceives as non-relevant which were raised by a Bidder or

not to provide clarifications if IBEF in its sole discretion considered that no reply is necessary.

S. No.

RFP Document Reference(s) (Section &

Page Number(s))

Content of RFP requiring Clarification(s)

Points of clarification IBEF Response

1 Section 2.8, Page no 24 Website design and development Are there any backend applications to be integrated with website/mobile app in scope?

There is no existing application.

2 Section 2.8, Page no 34 Native mobile application shall be developed for the following platforms: Apple App Store and Android Market, Windows Mobile.

What all functionality will be available via mobile apps?

Mobile application will need to be developed corresponding to the regular portal. All the major functionalities related to product catalogue, feedback systems, content display etc. should be present on the application across all the mentioned platforms.

3 Section 2.8, Page no 35 Social Media Integration On ongoing basis, IBEF admin/team will check the user comments/blogs posted by buyers/sellers on the website.

The understanding is correct

4 Section 2.12, Page 41 Operation and Maintenance post Implementation Services

Does IBEF has any specific requirement in terms of resource deployment during Application maintenance phase? Can resources work from IBEF premises?

The Implementation Agency is expected to allocate resources as per requirement. Modalities of premises from where the resources should work, will be based on the manner in which project proceeds

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5 Section 2.12, Page 41 Operation and Maintenance post Implementation Services

Will helpdesk only cater to IBEF users? Who will respond to buyers and sellers queries via live chat or email?

All the stakeholders will avail the help desk services. A web based help desk and related support services are envisaged for this.

6 Section 2.13.1, Page 47 Content upload IBEF will provide all translated/verified content for upload to portal at time of implementation and during ongoing support. SI will not be responsible for content writing, proof reading or translating any content. Please confirm this assumption.

Please refer page 32 of RFP under "Content Management System" .

7 1. Website design and development (for Desktop and Mobile platform), Page 25

User registration System -> Provide a registration system that enables different access levels for different users

1. Which is the system of information for Customers; Is there already a CRM system which needs to be integrated with this new IBEF digital platform for data exchange. Are you looking forward for IBM to suggest this to you? 2. Total number of sellers, buyers and IBEF users expected.

1. There is no existing application. 2. Please refer page no. 29 of RFP under "Performance".


User registration System -> Account registration will be required for access to community features such as blogs, discussion, chat etc.

Which platform will hold these community features such as blogs, discussion, chat etc. Will these features be part of the new IBEF digital platform.

There is no existing application. The scope is as defined in the RFP.


User registration System -> Login should also be supported via different social media platform IDs such as Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo etc.

We assume social login is only required for Buyers. While sellers and IBEF users(admins) will have platform based logins.

The understanding is correct

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Product Information Management -> The following minimum functionalities should be supported in terms of product information catalogue

1. Which type of users (sellers or IBEF users) can manage catalogue in the new IBEF digital platform. 2. Is there any integration required with individual seller platform to get their catalogue information 3. Expected total catalogue size (number of products) from all the sellers.

1. IBEF shall be the sole owner of the CONTENT & CATALOGUE. 2. The Implementation Agency should offer their designs to this project 3. No such details are available at present


Product Information Management ->Personalized products

Is there a provision that needs to be given to a buyer to personalize products or are these personalized products pre-built by the seller and available as part of their catalog

These will be available as part of the catalogue.


Product Information Management -> Product Taxes

New Platform is required to be designed for shipping within India as well as outside India. For tax calculation, would you like to integrate with a global tax calculation application or would you like the tax details to be maintained within the new IBEF digital platform. Are you looking forward for IBM to suggest this to you?

Implementation Agency is free to offer their solution.


Product Information Management -> Currencies -> Custom Exchange Calculations

1. What are the supported currencies 2. Is there any integration required for currency conversion within this custom exchange calculations to handle currency volatility?

1. Currency exchange calculations should be available for all the major currencies with the provision to add currencies in future if required. 2. Implementation Agency is free to offer their solution to handle currency volatility.

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Product Information Management -> Inventory management

What is the level of inventory visibility the new IBEF digital platform will offer to its end customers? Will this be real time inventory information including in-transit inventory details. Are you looking forward for IBM to suggest this to you?

1. In phase 1, the portal shall display product catalogue, as approved by IBEF. 2. After implementation of Payment Gateway, the services related to tracking of inventory will be required


User Management ->Personalization -> User should be able to personalize the landing page based on the products/services of their interest

Which type of user(IBEF users or buyers) is able to personalize the pages. Is the end customer(buyer) is able to view personalize pages based their interest as per the rules set by IBEF users OR are the end customers(buyers) themselves able to personalize the pages?

Personalization of the pages should be available for buyers, sellers and IBEF users.


Analytics & Reporting -> The reporting should be comprehensive enough to analyze any trend or analysis based on various parameters available.

1. Who is the consumer of these reports? 2. Are you looking for offline reports to be delivered or online solution to manage and view the reports? Are you looking forward for IBM to suggest this to you?

1. IBEF users will be the primary audience for these reports. 2.Reports should be downloadable from the online system for offline usage.


User Feedback & Review mechanism

1. How are complaints/grievance handled in the current system? 2. Is there any integration required with an external complaint management system or would you like new IBEF digital platform to manage these complaints. Are you looking forward for IBM to suggest this to you?

There is no existing system.

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General 1. Could you please provide details on Order fulfillment and the order flow between buyer, new IBEF platform and the seller. Are you looking for IBM to suggest this to you? 2. How is order status information captured for various sellers, is there any individual seller integration required? 3. Which is the system of information for invoices? Are invoices available on new IBEF digital platform for buyers? If yes, any integration expected?

1. There is no existing system. 2. Implementation agency is required to provide the optimal solution as per the scope defined in the RFP.

19 3. Mobile Application Development, Page 34

Native mobile application shall be developed for the following platforms: Apple App Store and Android Market, Windows Mobile.

As part for the "Multi-platform support" mentioned at page 25, the website should be developed as Responsive website supported on across major hardware platforms such as PC, Mobile, PDAs etc. Are you looking for both, a native App as well as the responsive websites? If yes, will there be any functional or customer experience difference between App and responsive websites.

The website should be responsive website.Mobile application will need to be developed corresponding to the regular portal.All the major functionalities related to product catalogue, feedback systems, content display etc. should be present on the application across all the mentioned platforms.

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20 Section 2.8.1 Page 30 Technical Requirements Would it be acceptable to use an open source software as one of the solution components?

The Portal solution must be COTS. (Please refer Page 31 of RFP under "Technology"). Implementation Agency is free to offer that solution component, (referred as "one of the solution components" in this query), provided the solution meets all the security & functional requirements.

21 Section 2.1, Page 7 Support of these languages English, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, French, Japanese and any other language as decided by IBEF. Provision for adding other languages in future.

Following text provides bidder's interpretation. IBEF is requested to confirm the same . Implementation scope is assumed for (a) Effort estimates will be estimated for 7 languages : English, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, French, Japanese (b) Provision shall be made for additional 2 languages in the effort estimates . (c) All Test Cases will be in English . The testing based on foreign languages will be done for 10% of the Test Cases . (Or otherwise it becomes 7times the testing effort)

a. The understanding is correctb. Any language addition can be implemented via Change control procedure.C. Implementation agency is free to choose the number of test cases to ensure the support and comprehensive testing of all the mentioned languages.

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22 Section 2.8, Page 34 ACCESS CONTROL There are internal stakeholders such as Govt departments . There will be a need to onboard employees , managers ie the complete hierarchy. Is there any requirement for use of LDAP as a part of the solution? Any requirement for LDAP data loads - one time or ongoing ?


23 Section 2.8, Page 34 Contents under "Mobile Application Development"

How will the functional scope differ from Web Portal to Mobile Portal to Mobile App. Example(a) product catalog upload is normally not done from mobile device . This functionality is only required on the Web Portal. Example(b) Buyer , seller or both requiring Mobile App ? or only Buyer needs to have one ? Is Mobile App required for Govt Department ?

Mobile application is targetted primarily for buyers. All the back end functionalities such as content upload and catalogue management etc. will be done through web platform.

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24 Section 2.8 , Page 34 Inside : Seciton 2.8 , page 34 bottom, Item 4 with Infrastructure Services. It states the following : The hosting would be done on the cloud environment servers in India only and IBEF - RFP for selection System Integrator to develop, maintain portal and mobile solutions bidder would be responsible for arranging all the necessary software, hardware, licenses etc. for hosting the portal, mobile website and mobile App.

Is there any specific requirement for the Cloud to be hosted within Customer's own premise or can it be in CSP's premise in India ?

The service provider has freedom to host on any cloud environment within India.

25 Section 2.8 , Page 34 Inside : Seciton 2.8 , page 34 bottom, Item 4 with Infrastructure Services. It states the following : The hosting would be done on the cloud environment servers in India only and IBEF - RFP for selection System Integrator to develop, maintain portal and mobile solutions bidder would be responsible for arranging all the necessary software, hardware, licenses etc. for hosting the portal, mobile website and mobile App.

IBM has a DC in Chennai. Can DR site be outside India ?


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26 Section 2.8, Page 24 Table on Page 24,25,26,27 describing "Website design and development"

Need to know the details on Seller onboarding (workflow and screens ). Will the products & product-commercials, margins etc be uploaded via CSV file ? How much of functionality will there be for bulk upload vs manual screens ? What else is involved in seller onboarding ? Eg KYC Check and related integration

These details needs to be finalized after requirement gathering phase.


Is the order fullfillment being done by Govt departments or is it limited to MSME, Manufacturere & Exporters ?

Not relevant


Is there any functional requirement for following modules ? Order mgmt & order fullfillment, shipping, Order tracking .

Will be required after implementation of Payment Gateway.


Ability to add products to the marketplace , is it limited to following stakeholders ? a) Indian Manufacturers/Exporters ,b) MSMEs(medium and Small Medium), c) Enterprises Importers from foreign countries, d) Various departments of the Government of India

Not relevant


What is the integration requirement with Finance , SAP & other departments/systems etc?

No inputs available about other departments

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Is there a need for B2B API ? Are there any software integrations expected with bigger exporters ? Will there be product updates related API provided to suppliers for ongoing updates ? Will there be updates coming from suppliers for payment discounts, credits, rebates etc ? Is there any integration with logistic providers ?

1. No B2B API expected 2. as on date, No inputs available on integrations with bigger exporters 3. No. Product updates related API will not be required 4. Updates expected from suppliers 5. Yes. After implementation of Payment Gateway, integration would be required with Logistic

32 Section 2.8, Page 29 Performance section in the table listed on page 29

Need volumetric for Catalog size . No inputs available right now. Will be provided at requirement analysis phase.

33 Section 2.8, Page 31 Payment Gateway section in the table listed on page 31

What are the various payment methods (wallet, cr card , fund transfer etc ) ?

These requirement will come once the Payment Gateway integration is done.

34 Section 2.8, Page 31 Payment Gateway section in the table listed on page 31

How many payment gateway integrations are being planned ( Aggregators, Bill desk , HDFC , ICICI etc ) ?

These requirement will come once the Payment Gateway integration is done.

35 2.6.3 Commercial bid evaluation

Only fixed price financial bids indicating total price for all the deliverables and services specified in this bid document will be considered.

With Cloud Infra their will be components like hourly machines , bandwidth etc that will be billed on usage - Can we can provide commercials for additional usage ?

Commercials for additional usage can be provided but this information will not be considered for bid evaluation. Only fixed price financial bids will be considered as mentioned in the RFP.

36 Technical Requirements Security and Compliance

Portal system should be secured by using Intrusion detection system (IDS) and Intrusion prevention system (IPS) at network level.

Can we instead propose Host based Intrusion Prevention System?

Implementation Agency is free to offer their optimal solution.

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37 2.11 Provisioning of client infrastructure and cloud services

The SP shall be completely responsible for the sourcing, installation, commissioning, testing and certification of the necessary software licenses and infrastructure required to deploy the Solution on the Cloud offering at the Primary Data Centre and the Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC).

Can we provision the DRC outside India?

No

38 In case any hard disk drive of any client machine is replaced during warranty / AMC the unserviceable HDD will be property of IBEF and will not be returned to SP. Warranty/AMC should not become void, if IBEF buys, any other supplemental hardware from a third party and installs it within these machines under intimation to the SP. However, the warranty will not apply to such supplemental hardware items installed.

1.Hardware will continue to be property of the Cloud provider - We can commit to wipe the Disk using industry leading solutions. Will this approach be fine ? 2.As this is managed hardware , we do not allow addition of components to same. If this is an important reqt , Please provide the use case or examples to respond properly.

1. After handing over the content from the Disk, the same can be wiped/erased using industry leading solutions. 2. Understanding is correct.

39 IA shall provide necessary support to the Third Party Audit Agency or any other agency/ group appointed by IBEF for acceptance testing and certification of IA’s deliverables. This includes providing access to the necessary systems, documentation etc. to the audit agency. The IA needs to address

1.Will these audits also require visit to the cloud provider Data Centers or can we provide the required audit reports.

Audit reports from competent authority can be provided for Cloud services.If required, IBEF may nominate a person or agency to access the Cloud System, either physically or by remote access.

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the gaps identified in Audit & Certification process

40 Section3, Page no 34 Form Factors supported Should the app be supported on both mobile and tablet form factors for all OS platforms (Android, iOS Windows).

Yes

41 Section3, Page no 34 Native, Hybrid Preference Since client requires application to be supported on Android, Iphone and Windows Mobile, can we consider Hybrid approach instead of native approach?


42 Section 3: Mobile Application Development

Mobile app features Are there a set of specific features that are expected in the mobile app? Or do we go with restricted feature functionality of Portal to be made available on web.

Already answered

43 Section3, Page no 34 Version of OS The target version of OS for the various mobile platforms does it be the latest OR it has to be backward compatible upto 1 previous version.

It should be latest.

44 Section3, Page no 34 Buyers features Does the buyers part of the features is what is expected on the mobile app?

Please elaborate.

45 Section3, Page no 34 Social Media Integration Is the social media integration expected on the mobile app?

Yes

46 Section3, Page no 34 Offline mode Does the mobile app needs to work on an offline mode as well?


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47 2.7.1 Award criteria We recommend that for this Tender where cutting-edge, latest technological solutions are needed, a more balanced view is taken by the nodal agencies by providing equal weightage to quality and cost effectiveness of the solution. This would also ensure that the Government procures solutions which are technically more suitable and are backed by more reliable technologies and organizations that are needed for making Programs this successful in the long run. We accordingly recommend 80% Technical , 20% commercial criteria. We recommend that for this Tender where cutting-edge, latest technological solutions are needed, a more balanced view is taken by the nodal agencies by providing equal weightage to quality and cost effectiveness of the solution. This would also ensure that the Government procures solutions which are technically more suitable and are backed by more reliable technologies and organizations that are needed for making Programs this successful in the long run. We accordingly recommend 80% Technical , 20% commercial criteria.

The clause in RFP remains unchanged.

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48 2.6.2 Technical Scoring Model

Criteria is heavily biased towards experience. Suggest distributions as - 30% reference, 50% - Methodology & presentation and 20% - CVs. This is first of kind project for govt entity in India and vendor's approach, methodology needs to be given maximum weight for selection of right vendor.Criteria is heavily biased towards experience. Suggest distributions as - 30% reference, 50% - Methodology & presentation and 20% - CVs. This is first of kind project for govt entity in India and vendor's approach, methodology needs to be given maximum weight for selection of right vendor.


49 2.9 Key Personnel The number of profiles asked are 7, request same to be restricted to maximum 3-4 key roles with the provision for providing equal or better qualified resources at the time of deployment. Also provision of replacement under unavoidable circumstances such as health ground, leaving organization or change in role etc.

The number of profile asked are 5. Please refer the clause.

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50 Section 2.4.1 Contract Period Any contract that may result from this Government procurement will be issued for Three years (“the Term”) extendable by another Two years .Section 2.4.1 Contract Period Any contract that may result from this Government procurement will be issued for Three years (“the Term”) extendable by another Two years .

We request you to clarify that any such extention would be on a mutually agreed terms and conditons including price.

Please refer to the corrigendum

51 Section 2.7.5 - Validity of Performance Bank Guarantee for 60 days after completion of Contract Period . PBG value shall be 15% of the total order value.

We request that the value of PBG should be limited to 5% of TCV with reducing balance (applicable on running unbilled amount). Validity of the PBG should be limited to term of the contract.

PBG value is 10% of total order value.

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52 2.13.1 SLA Monitoring System -

IBEF shall issue a quarterly SLA Satisfaction Certificate on adherence/non-adherence to SLA parameters and penalty deductions if any. The application of these penalties shall begin after 3 months of go-live of the website. The overall penalty of all SLAs shall be levied up to a maximum of 20% of monthly bill amount. However, if the maximum penalty limit is reached continuously for Four (4) billing cycles then the cap may be removed by the IBEF and actual penalty may be charged2.13.1 SLA Monitoring System - IBEF shall issue a quarterly SLA Satisfaction Certificate on adherence/non-adherence to SLA parameters and penalty deductions if any. The application of these penalties shall begin after 3 months of go-live of the website. The overall penalty of all SLAs shall be levied up to a maximum of 20% of monthly bill amount. However, if the maximum penalty limit is reached continuously for Four (4) billing cycles then the cap may be removed by the IBEF and actual penalty may be charged

This is open ended and leading to unlimited liability for penalty as upper cap is removed. Suggest removal of this clause. We request penalty to be capped to 5% of the monthly billing amount and the over-all cap for all LD/ penalties to a maximum of 10% of total contract value. The SLA / Penalties shall be levied only in the event the default / delay / failure is solely and directly attributable to the supplier

Please refer to corrigendum.

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53 Appendix II: Financial Proposal Template

Form 1: Financial Proposal2. UNIT RATES - We have indicated in the relevant forms enclosed, the unit rates for the purpose of on account of payment as well as for price adjustment in case of any increase to / decrease from the scope of work under the contract. - Appendix II: Financial Proposal TemplateForm 1: Financial Proposal2. UNIT RATES - We have indicated in the relevant forms enclosed, the unit rates for the purpose of on account of payment as well as for price adjustment in case of any increase to / decrease from the scope of work under the contract. -

We request clarification that unit rates provided would not be the basis of subsiquent increase or decrease as the soultion if offered as a whole by the bidder. Seek deleiton of the clause accordingly.

Please refer to corrigendum.

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54 2.5.4.2. Sub-Contracting The selected Vendor will undertake to implement the mega brand India portal and its related components as mentioned in this RFP for IBEF and will not outsource or subcontract any or all of the services being offered to IBEF to any company or to a company fully / partly owned by the Vendor, without the written consent of the IBEF.Only Infrastructure hosting services can be sub-contracted, if required.2.5.4.2. Sub-ContractingThe selected Vendor will undertake to implement the mega brand India portal and its related components as mentioned in this RFP for IBEF and will not outsource or subcontract any or all of the services being offered to IBEF to any company or to a company fully / partly owned by the Vendor, without the written consent of the IBEF.Only Infrastructure hosting services can be sub-contracted, if required.

The RFP should include provision to allow bidder to engage subcontractor resources with intimation to IBEF. However, the Consultant shall not subcontract the whole of the Contracting Services.


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55 Form 5: Letter of Proposal , 2.5.2, 2.5.4.5, 2.5.6 . 2.7.7

These clauses imply nil deviation bid. We request that bidders should be allowed to provide their deviations to Tender conditions which should be discussed and agreed upon before the commercial bids are opened and bidder is shortlisted. A clear process for such discussion should be provided in the tender to avoid any preferred treatment to a bidder. If parties are unable to converge on the deviations, the bidder should be declared as unsuccessful bidder without any implications- commercial or otherwise. Request clauses to be accordingly revised. These clauses imply nil deviation bid. We request that bidders should be allowed to provide their deviations to Tender conditions which should be discussed and agreed upon before the commercial bids are opened and bidder is shortlisted. A clear process for such discussion should be provided in the tender to avoid any preferred treatment to a bidder. If parties are unable to converge on the deviations, the bidder should be declared as unsuccessful bidder without any implications- commercial or otherwise. Request clauses to be accordingly revised.


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56 2.7.7Failure to Agree with the Terms and Conditions of the RFP

Failure of the successful bidder to agree with the Draft Legal Agreement and Terms & Conditions of the RFP shall constitute sufficient grounds for the annulment of the award, in which event IBEF may award the contract to the next best value bidder or call for new proposals from the interested bidders.In such a case, the IBEF shall invoke the PBG of the most responsive bidder.2.7.7Failure to Agree with the Terms and Conditions of the RFPFailure of the successful bidder to agree with the Draft Legal Agreement and Terms & Conditions of the RFP shall constitute sufficient grounds for the annulment of the award, in which event IBEF may award the contract to the next best value bidder or call for new proposals from the interested bidders.In such a case, the IBEF shall invoke the PBG of the most responsive bidder.

Request allow for deviations to be proposed, followed by discussions on the the same. A clear process for such discussion should be provided in the tender to avoid any preferred treatment to a bidder. If parties are unable to converge on the deviations, the bidder should be declared as unsuccessful bidder without any implications- commercial or otherwise. Request clauses to be accordingly revised. Request allow for deviations to be proposed, followed by discussions on the the same. A clear process for such discussion should be provided in the tender to avoid any preferred treatment to a bidder. If parties are unable to converge on the deviations, the bidder should be declared as unsuccessful bidder without any implications- commercial or otherwise. Request clauses to be accordingly revised.


57 2.18 Fraud and Corrupt Practices

We recommend that a calrifications is provided that before the client takes any such action, its assessment is ratified by a court of competent jurisdiction.


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58 2.19 Conflict of interest As Conflict of interest is a subjective assessment and is solely at the discretion of the client. Hence, while the bid may be rejected for any conflict of interest situation, we reques that the EMD should not be forfeited.


59 2.12 Operation and Maintenance post Implementation Services

IA shall be fully responsible for operations and maintenance of the Brand India portal system, hosting center and disaster recovery center, and any other component or facility being established by IA as part of this project for a period of 3 years from the go-live date.2.12 Operation and Maintenance post Implementation ServicesIA shall be fully responsible for operations and maintenance of the Brand India portal system, hosting center and disaster recovery center, and any other component or facility being established by IA as part of this project for a period of 3 years from the go-live date.

We request that this statement is linked to the Scope of work agreed between the parties, otherwise this communicates a very wide scope which may not be the intent of the parties.


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60 Additional Clause 1. Limitation of Liability: Regardless of the nature of claims, bidder’s aggregate liability for direct damages under the Agreement shall not exceed the charges paid by Customer to Bidder for the product or service (12 months charges, in the event of recurring payments) that is the subject of claim. The above limit on liability shall not apply to damages for bodily injury (including death) and damage to real property and tangible personal property for which Bidder is legally liable. Under no circumstances shall bidder be liable for indirect, consequential, incidental or special damages, loss of/damage to, data, loss of profits, savings and business and any third party claim, even if Bidder has been advised of possibility of such damages. For the purpose of clarity the amount stated herein above is inclusive of the payment made by Bidder in respect of liquidated damages/penalties, if any. 1. Limitation of Liability: Regardless of the nature of claims, bidder’s aggregate liability for direct damages under the Agreement shall not exceed the charges paid by Customer to Bidder for the product or service (12 months charges, in the event of recurring payments) that is the subject of claim.

Please refer to draft contract agreement(to be uploaded later)

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The above limit on liability shall not apply to damages for bodily injury (including death) and damage to real property and tangible personal property for which Bidder is legally liable. Under no circumstances shall bidder be liable for indirect, consequential, incidental or special damages, loss of/damage to, data, loss of profits, savings and business and any third party claim, even if Bidder has been advised of possibility of such damages. For the purpose of clarity the amount stated herein above is inclusive of the payment made by Bidder in respect of liquidated damages/penalties, if any.

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61 Additional Clause 2. Mutual right of termination for material breach:This Agreement may be terminated by either party on written notice with immediate effect if the other party commits a material breach of this Agreement which is not remedied within thirty (30) days of a written request to remedy the same (or if it is not practical to remedy the breach within such period, if reasonable steps have not been taken within the 30 days towards remedying the breach). Customer shall pay to Bidder for all hardware, software and services delivered & supplied till the effective date of termination.


62 Additional Clause 3. Force Majeure: A party will be excused from all of its obligations (except for payment obligations) under this Contract to the extent such delay or failure is caused by the occurrence of any contingency beyond the reasonable control, and without any fault, of such party.


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63 Additional Clause Mutual right of termination for material breach:This Agreement may be terminated by either party on written notice with immediate effect if the other party commits a material breach of this Agreement which is not remedied within thirty (30) days of a written request to remedy the same (or if it is not practical to remedy the breach within such period, if reasonable steps have not been taken within the 30 days towards remedying the breach). Customer shall pay to Bidder for all hardware, software and services delivered & supplied till the effective date of termination.


64 7/ Proposals must remain valid for 180 days after the last date of Proposal Submission as mentioned in section 1.

Suggest bid validity to be 90 days. Further, extension by 90 days max on top of bid validity of 90 days.


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65 Technical Service Level Requirements c. Portal Response Time in providing informational services

Conditions mentioned in RFP are very stiff for adherence. Suggest modification as below. 1. Response time will be 1-10 seconds depending on Nature of Screen, Content, Size and Complexity. 2. For Batch processing response time is not applicable. 3. Penalty associated with this clause should be applicable for response time beyond 10 sec.


66 2.5.7.2 Tender Validity The offer submitted by the Bidders should be valid for minimum period of for the period mentioned in the Fact sheet.IBEF - RFP for selection System Integrator to develop, maintain portal and mobile solutionsIBEF may at its discretion extend the bid’s validity period. Extension of validity period by the Bidder should be unconditional and irrevocable. The EMD provided shall also be suitably extended by the bidder. A bidder acceding to the request will neither be required nor be permitted to modify its Bid. A bidder may refuse the request (to extend the validity period) without forfeiting its EMD. In any case, the EMD of the bidders shall be returned after completion of the process.

Suggest bid validity to be 90 days. Further, extension by 90 days max on top of bid validity of 90 days.

replied earlier

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67 page 24-Multi lingual support

The portal (desktop and mobile version) should support at-least these languages with provision to add more languages in future whenever required English, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, French, Japanese.

Suggest mofifications in this clause to state that support for additional language in future will be managed through change control procedure.

replied earlier

68 page 46-Calculation of availability Service Level

Sl. No System availability value for month Penalty 1. >= 99.5% Nil 2. >= 98% but < 99.5% 10% of monthly billed amount 3. >= 97% but < 98% 20% of monthly bill amount

99.5% availability ask is unqualified in the RFP. Suggest adding following qualifiers in the RFP - Barring schedule maintenance. Uptime to exclude items which are out of scope/control of supplier.

Please refer to the clause again as scheduled maintenance is already part of the calculations.

69 / 38Each occurrence where the peak CPU IO/Memory utilization of any server crosses 70% and stays above 70% for time more than 30 minutes will be treated as one (1) instance

This condition is dependent on a number of parameters such as sizing, system load etc. which may not be in IBM control. This condition is very stiff and will be unmanageable to operationalize. Suggest removal of this clauses.


70 2.6.3 Commercial Bid Evaluation

d. The bid price will exclude all taxes and levies and shall be in Indian Rupees and mentioned separately. Service Tax though needs to be mentioned separately. Service Tax shall be paid extra based on the prevailing rates and submission of proof of payment.

Regulatory Tax and Levies changes over time and hence it may not be possible for bidder to submit tax inclusive quote. Recommend that tax inclusiveness clause should be removed from RFP. Bidder should able to submit invoices with applicable taxes as when invoicing. Else, bidder be permitted to state taxes separately in the price format.


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Any changes (increase/decrease) in tax rates would be compensated by buyer

71 Page 7; Clause 2.1 Fact Sheet - Bid Validity Period

Proposals must remain valid for 180 days after the last date of Proposal Submission

Request Change: Proposals must remain valid for 180 90 days after the last date of Proposal Submission

The caluse in RFP remains unchanged.

72 Page 7; Clause 2.1 Fact Sheet

Support of these languages English, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, French, Japanese and any other language as decided by IBEF. Provision for adding other languages in future.

Request Change: Support of these languages English, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, French, Japanese and any other language as decided by IBEF. Provision for adding other languages in the form of change order in future.

Support for "English, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, French,

Japanese , _____"will be mandatory.

Support for additional languages shall be through CCN.

73 Page 8; Clause 2.2 Request for Proposal

Sealed tenders are invited from eligible, reputed, qualified System Integrators with sound technical and financial capabilities for providing but not limited to portal development and maintenance, mobile solutions, content management services as detailed out in the Scope of Work under Section 2.8 of this RFP Document.

Request Change: Sealed tenders are invited from eligible, reputed, qualified System Integrators with sound technical and financial capabilities for providing but not limited to portal development and maintenance, mobile solutions, content management services as detailed out in the Scope of Work under Section 2.8 of this RFP Document.

Please refer to corrigendum of RFP.

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74 Page 12; Clause 2.5.4.2 Sub-Contracting

The selected Vendor will undertake to implement the mega brand India portal and its related components as mentioned in this RFP for IBEF and will not outsource or subcontract any or all of the services being offered to IBEF to any company or to a company fully / partly owned by the Vendor, without the written consent of the IBEF. Only Infrastructure hosting services can be sub-contracted, if required.

Does this mean that apart from Infrastructure Hosting services, not other scope can be sub-contracted? Or, does this mean that Infrastructure Hosting services may be subcontracted without IBEF's written consent, while to subcontract any other services part of the scope, IBEF's written consent would be rrequired?

Only infrastructure hosting services can be subcontracted with

IBEF's consent. Other services cannot be

outsourced or sub-contracted.

75 Page 13; Clause 2.5.4.5 Earnest Money Deposit (EMD)

f. The EMD may be forfeited: - If a bidder withdraws its bid during the period of bid validity. - In case of a successful bidder, if the bidder fails to sign the contract in accordance with this RFP and within specified time.

Request Change:f. The EMD may be forfeited: - If a bidder withdraws its bid during the period of bid validity. - In case of a successful bidder, if the bidder fails to sign the contract in accordance with this RFP the Proposal submitted and within specified time.

The clause in RFP remains unchanged

76 Page 15; 2.5.6 Deviations

The bidder may not provide any deviation / non-compliance to the contents of the RFP document. Any deviation /non-compliance may lead to rejection.

Request Change:The bidder may not provide any deviation / non-compliance to the contents of the RFP document. Any deviation /non-compliance may lead to rejection.

The clause in RFP remains unchanged(same clause used in

other projects such as DGCA)

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77 Page 21; 2.6.3 Commercial Bid Evaluation

d. The bid price will exclude all taxes and levies and shall be in Indian Rupees and mentioned separately. Service Tax though needs to be mentioned separately. Service Tax shall be paid extra based on the prevailing rates and submission of proof of payment.e. The evaluation of bids shall be done after excluding the Service Tax.

Request Change: d. The bid price will exclude all taxes and levies and shall be in Indian Rupees and mentioned separately. VAT/CST and Service Tax though needs to be mentioned separately. VAT/CST and Service Tax shall be paid extra based on the prevailing rates and submission of proof of payment.e. The evaluation of bids shall be done after excluding the Service Taxes.


78 Page 23; 2.7.4 Contract Finalization and Award

After the successful bidding and verification IBEF shall draft the contract agreement to be signed and awarded to the selected bidder.

Request Change: After the successful bidding and verification IBEF and the selected bidder together shall draft the contract agreement to be signed and awarded to the selected bidder.


79 Page 23; 2.7.7 Failure to Agree with the Terms and Conditions of the RFP

Failure of the successful bidder to agree with the Draft Legal Agreement and Terms & Conditions of the RFP shall constitute sufficient grounds for the annulment of the award, in which event IBEF may award the contract to the next best value bidder or call for new proposals from the interested bidders. In such a case, the IBEF shall invoke the PBG of the most responsive bidder.

Contradicts Clause 2.7.4 which states that after award, IBEF will draft the Contract agreement. 2.7.6 states that the Contract will incorporate proposal, pre-bid clarifications, etc. Successful bidder cannot be penalized for failing to agree with the Draft Legal Agreement of the RFP, since the pre-bid clarifications, proposal of the selected bidder will all be subsequent to the RFP and 2.7.4 states that the final agreement will be drafted post award by IBEF. Request to please delete the provision for forfeiture of PBG.


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80 Page 38; 2.11 Cloud Services

As per draft Request to add the following provision for Cloud Services: "IBEF shall be responsible for entering into the necessary agreements and/or licenses governing usage as deemed necessary by the cloud service provider."


81 Page 42; 2.12.2 ATS for Licensed Software

vi. Updates/Upgrades/New releases/New versions. The SP shall provide from time to time the Updates/Upgrades/New releases/New versions of the software and operating systems as required. The SP should provide free upgrades, updates & patches of the software and tools as and when released by OEM at no extra cost to IBEF. The SP will implement from time to time the Updates/Upgrades/New releases/New versions of the software and operating systems as required after necessary approvals from IBEF about the samexii. The ATS Services will cover, all product upgrades, modifications, and enhancements

Request Change: vi. Updates/Upgrades/New releases/New versions. The SP shall provide from time to time the Updates/Upgrades/New releases/New versions of the software and operating systems as required. The SP should provide free upgrades, updates & patches of the software and tools as and when released by OEM at no extra cost to IBEF. The SP will implement from time to time the Updates/Upgrades/New releases/New versions of the software and operating systems as required after necessary approvals from IBEF about the samexii. The ATS Services will cover, all product upgrades, modifications, and enhancements


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82 Page 44; 2.12.4 Continuous Improvement / Enhancement

The system needs to be continually upgraded to meet the industry standards in respect of websites/portals, content management systems, search engine capabilities, information management, analytics, networks and security. IA shall be also responsible for improvements/modifications to be able to take advantage of improvements expected in the future in the online transaction/retail system.

This will not be possible to factor. We will provide updated and patches, but at no point of time can a commitment be made that the solution will take care of all improvements in technology in the future. Request to please delete this clause on Continuous Improvement.

The clause in RFP remains unchanged. Any major enhancements/ upgrades/modifications shall go through CCN process.

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83 Page 45; 2.12.6 Support to Testing & Certification by a Third Party or any other Agency appointed by IBEF

IA shall provide necessary support to the Third Party Audit Agency or any other agency/ group appointed by IBEF for acceptance testing and certification of IA’s deliverables. This includes providing access to the necessary systems, documentation etc. to the audit agency.The IA needs to address the gaps identified in Audit & Certification process.

Request Change: IA shall provide necessary support to the Third Party Audit Agency or any other agency/ group appointed by IBEF with IA's prior written approval for acceptance testing and certification of IA’s deliverables. This includes providing access to the necessary systems, documentation etc. to the audit agency to the limited extent necessary for acceptance testing of IA's deliverables. IA shall further not be responsible for any delays attributable to either IBEF or the Third Party Audit Agency in providing timely acceptance or certification. To the extent the delays are not solely attributable to IA, IBEF expressly agrees to not charge any liquidated damages or penalties on these grounds.The IA needs to address the gaps identified in Audit & Certification process.

IA shall provide necessary support to the Third Party Audit Agency or any other agency/ group appointed by IBEF for acceptance testing and certification of IA’s deliverables. This includes providing access to the necessary systems, documentation etc. to the audit agency to the extent necessary for acceptance testing. To the extent the delays are not solely attributable to IA, IBEF shall not invoke liquidated damages clause or penalties.The IA needs to address the gaps identified in Audit & Certification process.

84 Page 46; 2.13.1 SLA Monitoring System

The overall penalty of all SLAs shall be levied up to a maximum of 20% of monthly bill amount. However, if the maximum penalty limit is reached continuously for Four (4) billing cycles then the cap may be removed by the IBEF and actual penalty may be charged.

Please cap the penalties to a maximum of 5% of respective monthly payments and modify the individual SLA penalties accordingly


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85 Page 52; 2.15 Payment Terms & Schedule

As per draft - Products Cost (including License/Software) : 100% on Delivery - Implementation/Development Costs : 60% advance and balance 40% upon completion of the activity - O&M Cost : Equal Quarterly payments

Please refer to corrigendum

86 Page 53; 2.16 GO-LIVE and Acceptance Criterion

All the milestones have been achieved as specified in the Milestones section and timelines and deliverables have been delivered as mentioned in this RFP.

Request Change: All the milestones have been achieved as specified in the Milestones section and timelines and deliverables have been delivered as mentioned in this RFP mutually agreed.


87 Page 53; 2.17 Exit Management and Transition

iii. During the exit/transition management process, it is the responsibility of the SP to address and rectify the problems identified with the IBEF portal system and related IT infrastructure including replacements of defunct hardware, cabling/re-cabling, installation/reinstallation of the system software etc. The SP shall ensure that the infrastructure (both software and hardware) are handed over to IBEF in a complete operational condition to the satisfaction of IBEF. In case SP is unable to address such issues, IBEF may levy penalty or invoke the Performance Bank Guarantee.

Request Change: iii. During the exit/transition management process which shall not under any circumstances exceed beyond one moneht of the expiry or termiantion of the Agreement, it is the responsibility of the SP replacement agency to address and rectify the problems identified with the IBEF portal system and related IT infrastructure including replacements of defunct hardware, cabling/re-cabling, installation/reinstallation of the system software etc. The SP shall ensure that the infrastructure (both software and hardware) are handed over to IBEF in a complete operational condition to the satisfaction of IBEF. In case SP is unable to address such issues, IBEF may levy penalty or invoke the Performance Bank Guarantee.


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88 Page 54; 2.18 Fraud and Corrupt Practices

b. Without prejudice to the rights of the IBEF under Clause above and the rights and remedies which the IBEF may have under the LOI or the Agreement, if an Bidder or Service Provider, as the case may be, is found by the IBEF 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 Selection Process, or after the issue of the LOI or the execution of the Agreement, such Bidder or Service Provider shall not be eligible to participate in any tender or RFP issued by the IBEF during a period of 2 (two) years from the date such Bidder or Service Provider, as the case may be, is found by the IBEF to have directly 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....iv. “undesirable practice” means (i) establishing contact with any person connected with or employed or engaged by IBEF with the objective of canvassing, lobbying or in any

Request Change: b. Without prejudice to the rights of the IBEF under Clause above and the rights and remedies which the IBEF may have under the LOI or the Agreement, if an Bidder or Service Provider, as the case may be, is found by the IBEF a competent judicial authority 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 Selection Process, or after the issue of the LOI or the execution of the Agreement, such Bidder or Service Provider shall not be eligible to participate in any tender or RFP issued by the IBEF during a period of 2 (two) years from the date such Bidder or Service Provider, as the case may be, is found by the IBEF the competent judicial authority to have directly 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....iv. “undesirable practice” means (i) establishing contact with any person connected with or employed or engaged by IBEF with the objective of canvassing, lobbying or in any manner influencing or attempting to influence


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manner influencing or attempting to influence the Selection Process; or (ii) having a Conflict of Interest; and

the Selection Process; or (ii) having a Conflict of Interest; andSince IBEF is not an adjudicatory authority, it cannot under principles of administrative and constitutional law, pass a determination of whether an entity hass indulged in corrupt or fraudulent practices.Request to please provide an exhaustive list of scenarios which will amount to a conflict of interest. Unless such an exhaustive list is provided, we cannot say for sure what situations amount to a conflict and consequently an "undesirable practice".

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89 Page 55; 2.19 Conflict of Interest

A bidder shall not have a conflict of interest that may affect the Selection Process or the Solution delivery (the “Conflict of Interest”). Any Bidder found to have a Conflict of Interest shall be disqualified. In the event of disqualification, the IBEF shall forfeit and appropriate the EMD, if available, as mutually agreed genuine pre-estimated compensation and damages payable to the IBEF for, inter alia, the time, cost and effort of the IBEF including consideration of such Bidder’s Proposal, without prejudice to any other right or remedy that may be available to the IBEF hereunder or otherwise....Without limiting the generality of the above, an Bidder shall be deemed to have a Conflict of Interest affecting the Selection Process, if:

Request Change: A bidder shall not have a conflict of interest that may affect the Selection Process or the Solution delivery (the “Conflict of Interest”). Any Bidder found to have a Conflict of Interest shall be disqualified. In the event of disqualification, the IBEF shall forfeit and appropriate the EMD, if available, as mutually agreed genuine pre-estimated compensation and damages payable to the IBEF for, inter alia, the time, cost and effort of the IBEF including consideration of such Bidder’s Proposal, without prejudice to any other right or remedy that may be available to the IBEF hereunder or otherwise....Without limiting the generality of the above, an Bidder shall be deemed to have a Conflict of Interest affecting the Selection Process, only if:


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90 Page 55; 2.19 Conflict of Interest

d. An Bidder eventually appointed to implement portal and application services for this Project shall be disqualified from subsequently providing goods or works or services related to the construction and operation of the same Project and any breach of this obligation shall be construed as Conflict of Interest; provided that the restriction herein shall not apply after a period of 12 months from the completion of this assignment; provided further that this restriction shall not apply to software solutions delivered to the IBEF in continuation of this systems implementation or to any subsequent systems implementation executed for the IBEF in accordance with the rules of the IBEF.

Request Change: Please clarify exactly what is meant by "related to the construction and operation of the same Project"? This terminology is very vauge and unless IBEF can identify the specific assignments that we are prevented from taking on, we will not be able to agree to such restrictions on our business.

The clause refers to the list of deliverables specified in the SCOPE of WORK in the RFP.

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91 Page 62; Technical Proposal Form 1: Letter of Proposal

We hereby declare that all the information and statements made in this Technical bid are true and accept that any misinterpretation contained in it may lead to our disqualification. ... We agree to abide by all the terms and conditions of the RFP document. We would hold the terms of our bid valid for < > days as stipulated in the RFP document.

Request Change: We hereby declare that all the information and statements made in this Technical bid are true to the best of our knowledge and accept that any misinterpretation misrepresentation contained in it may lead to our disqualification. ... We agree to abide by all the terms and conditions of the RFP document subject to deviations proposed. We would hold the terms of our bid valid for < > days as stipulated in the RFP document.


92 Page 69; Appendix II: Forms for the Financial Proposal

This amount is inclusive of all taxes & levies except service tax.…………………* Excluding service tax. Service tax shall be paid (extra) as per applicable rates at the time of Invoice generation.

Request Change: This amount is inclusive of all taxes & levies except VAT/CST and service tax.…………………* Excluding VAT/CST and service tax. VAT/CST and Service tax shall be paid (extra) as per applicable rates at the time of Invoice generation.


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93 Limitation of Liability Request New Clause to be added Notwithstanding anything contained herein, neither Party shall be liable for any indirect, punitive, consequential or incidental loss, damage, claims, liabilities, charges, costs, expense or injury (including, without limitation, loss of use, data, revenue, profits, business and for any claims of any third party claiming through Service Provider) that may arise out of or result from this Agreement. The aggregate liability of Service Provider under this Contract, shall not exceed the payments received by the Service Provider from the Customer under this contract.

Please refer to the draft contract agreement(to be uploaded later)

94 Deemed Acceptance Request New Clause to be added Any product supplied or services provided by Service Provider shall be deemed to have been accepted by Customer if Customer puts such equipment, services to use in its business or does not communicate its disapproval of the same together with reasons for such disapproval within 10 days from the date of receipt of such equipment or delivery of the services.


95 Title and Risk Transfer Request New Clause to be added The Risk, Title and Ownership of all the products designated to be purchased for the customer will be transferred to the customer on delivery of the same to the customer.


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96 Savings Clause Request New Clause to be added Service Provider’s failure to perform its contractual responsibilities, to perform the services, or to meet agreed service levels shall be excused if and to the extent Service Provider’s non-performance is caused by Customer’s omission to act, delay, wrongful action, failure to provide Inputs, or failure to perform its obligations under this Agreement


97 Page 16 : 2.6.1 Pre-Qualification Criteria

The Bidder shall have proven experience of developing, operating and maintaining at least Five (5) portal/Web solutions in last 3 years based on COTS (Commercially off the shelf) solution pertaining to aggregation services as a “System Integrator” with value of each project at least 50 Lacs and at least one project with value 1 Crore. The bidder should have successfully done these executions for Business to Business (B2B), Government to Business (G2B), Government to Citizen (G2C) or Business to Consumer (B2C). The portal/Web should have been developed for client/partner only.

We request you to add here 'Where there is Non Disclosure Agreement signed with the client, Certificate from Company Secretary/Authorized Signatory confirming the project scope, project value and project status can be submitted".

Please refer to corrigendum

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98 Page 31 , Technical Requirements

Website Hosting Website should be hosted in a Hosting Center in India. Further, at any given point of time, all data generated through the Portal should reside in India.

Any Preference in the location of the DC in India ? Will the marks for the DC be dependent upon the same ?

No location preference. No marks for the location. It should be hosted within India only.

99 Page 38 . Cloud Services i. The SP shall be responsible for provisioning of the necessary underlying software, infrastructure, and data center services for deployment of the IBEF portal solution. The infrastructure required for hosting the IBEF solution shall be provisioned as IaaS from a cloud service provider. Where applicable & available with the cloud service provider, the SP may also leverage the required system software (along with the necessary ATS as per the requirements of the RFP) as a service.

Will the setup be on the Public or private Cloud . Clarification required


100 Page 38 . Cloud Services iii. The SP shall be completely responsible for the sourcing, installation, commissioning, testing and certification of the necessary software licenses and infrastructure required to deploy the Solution on the Cloud offering at the Primary Data Centre and the Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC). SP shall ensure that support and maintenance, performance and up-

Any Preference in the location of the DRC in India ? Will the marks for the DC be dependent upon the same ?

No location preference. No marks for the location. It should be hosted in India only.

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time levels are compliant with SLAs.

101 Page 38 . Cloud Services vi. In addition to the production environment in the Primary DC, the Service Provider should setup the development, test (30% of the production environment) and training (10% of the production environment) environments on the cloud at the Primary Data Center Facility. The environments should be a miniature of the production environment. The environments should be a secluded environment in a different VLAN than the production environment and setup such that users of the environments are in separate networks.

Will the setup be on the Public or private Cloud . Clarification required


102 Page 21 : 2.6.3 Commercial Bid Evaluation

a. Only fixed price financial bids indicating total price for all the deliverables and services specified in this bid document will be considered.

If the SP is supposed to scale up / dow the IT infra , how will the commercials be fixed . Request clarification .


103 Page 17: Section 2.6.1, point no. 6, 7, 8

Certificate from the statutory auditor

We request you to allow certificate from chartered accountant and audited financial statements

Certificate from the statutory auditor OR Certificate from chartered accountant OR Audited financial statements

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104 Pg 58, Form 1: Compliance Sheet for Pre-qualification Proposal, point 7

Nature of Work Turnover Please clarify the point and suggest what information is required

Pg 58, Form 1: Compliance Sheet for Pre-qualification Proposal, point 7 stands removed.

105 Pg 58, Form 1: Compliance Sheet for Pre-qualification Proposal, point 9

Completion Certificates from the client; OR Purchase / Work Order + Self Certificate of Completion (Certified by the Statutory Auditor); OR Purchase / Work Order + Phase Completion Certificate from the client



106 Pg 64, 65:Technical Proposal Form 2, Form 3

Letter from the client to indicate the successful completion of the projects, Scanned/Photo copies of Purchase Orders & Completion Certificates. Email references will not be accepted


Letter from the client to indicate the successful completion of the projects, Scanned/Photo copies of Purchase Orders & Completion Certificates. Email references will not be accepted OR Original Certificate from Company Secretary/Authorized Signatory confirming the project scope, project value and project status

107 Analytics & Reporting -Page 27

Analytics & Reporting Please provide the source systems for Analytics & Reporting



Analytics & Reporting Please provide no of users accessing the reports?

Please refer Page 29 of RFP for details on performance


Analytics & Reporting Please share the daily incremental data size in source system and growth envisaged over the years.


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Analytics & Reporting Does the customer need real time reporting?

YES


Analytics & Reporting How many years of Data to be considered for Analytical Reporting?

This is a fresh system. No details of Existing system available


Analytics & Reporting Does the source have data in un-structured format



Analytics & Reporting How many years data does the historical data hold?



Analytics & Reporting Please share the growth envisaged in users over next 2-3 years



Analytics & Reporting How many levels of drill down does the customer expect to have in reports?

Reports shall be accessed by IBEF, stakeholders of IBEF, Ministry of Commerce and related Government Agency. SP needs to design accordingly


Analytics & Reporting How many KPIs does the customer want per dashboard?

System shall be accessed by IBEF, stakeholders of IBEF, Ministry of Commerce and related Government Agency. SP needs to design accordingly.


Analytics & Reporting Is there a requirement for building statistical analytics model

System shall be accessed by IBEF, stakeholders of IBEF, Ministry of Commerce and related Government Agency. SP needs to design accordingly


Analytics & Reporting Is 100 Reports/Dashboards a fair assumption for estimation purpose?

System shall be accessed by IBEF, stakeholders of IBEF, Ministry of Commerce and related Government Agency. SP needs to design accordingly

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119 Portal/Web development experience - Page 17 Section 2

Pre-Qualification Criteria- “System Integrator” role shall necessarily include at least 3 of the following in one assignment (one mandatory of Portal Development & Maintenance and two others optional of (b), (c), (d) below) a. Portal/Website Development & Maintenance b. Content Management Services c. IT Infrastructure hosting services d. Mobile solution development

Please clarify that the expectation towards Content Management Services.

Please refer to "Content management system" under scope of work in RFP.

120 Content Management System

IBEF will be responsible for creating content in terms of product list, product description, product videos etc. The bidder is expected to deploy easy to use content creation and management tool. Vendor will need to update, upload and publish content given/approved by IBEF. IBEF will need to have access to CMS in order to update, upload and publish content if required.'

Please help us to understand the Content Management Services scope of work.

Please refer to "Content management system" under scope of work in RFP.

121 2.6.3 (d) , Page 21 The bid price will exclude all taxes and levies and shall be in Indian Rupees and mentioned separately.

Please clarify if taxes are to be excluded or only service taxes.

Only service tax needs to be excluded. Please refer to the corrigendum of the RFP.

122 2.8 (1), Page 24 MULTI LINGUAL SUPPORT, The portal (desktop and mobile version) should support at-least these languages with provision to

Please clarify which 3 language and scope of support

Please refer RFP.

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add more languages in future whenever required

123 2.11, Page 37 Provisioning of client infrastructure and cloud services

Please clarify whether IBEF is looking at a Public or Private cloud services. The requirementa and compliances required are mixed up and not clear on how services are to be delivered.


124 2.12, Page 41 The service provider will get a 3 month SLA holiday, i.e., there will not be any SLA related penalties for the 1st quarter payment.

100 SLA compliance is given for Go-Live and at the same time SLA holiday is given. Both are contradictory

Please point out the specific clause.

125 2.12, (1) (n) Page 42 Changes in application or development of application modules for strategic control & monitoring of system for ministry or appointed body like PMU (Program Monitoring/ Management Unit)

Request that any new application modules and changes should be adredded through "Change Request procedure". We suggest the addition of a change request clause in the RFP to address such requirements in future.


126 2.12, (5) Page 44 Warranty Support Services For all services provided as cloud services specially if this is a public cloud the clause of warranty is not applicable

These services are applicable to all IT and non-IT related infrastructure delivered to IBEF as part of this project.

127 2.14.2, Page 52 Helpdesk Please define the scope of helpdesk requirement.

Web based help desk and related support services are envisaged for this project.

128 2.15 , Page 52 Payment Terms & Schedule Reqest for revision of the payment terms. While there are many milestones in the project no payments are being made gainst the same. The capital cost incurred in the project by

Please refer to the corrigendum of the RFP.

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the implementation partner should be paid in each milestones

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129 Section 2.6.1 & Page no. 17

Portal/Web development experienceThe Bidder shall have proven experience of developing, operating and maintaining at least Five (5) portal/Web solutions in last 3 years based on COTS (Commercially off the shelf) solution pertaining to aggregation services as a “System Integrator” with value of each project at least 50 Lacs and at least one project with value 1 Crore.The bidder should have successfully done these executions for Business to Business (B2B), Government to Business (G2B), Government to Citizen (G2C) or Business to Consumer (B2C). The portal/Web should have been developed for client/partner only.“System Integrator” role shall necessarilyinclude at least 3 of the following in one assignment (one mandatory of Portal Development & Maintenance and two others optional of (b), (c), (d) below)a. Portal/Website Development & Maintenanceb. Content Management Servicesc. IT Infrastructure hosting servicesd. Mobile solution developmentCompletion Certificates from the

Request to kindly modify the clause as follows:Portal/Web development experienceThe Bidder shall have proven experience of developing, operating and maintaining at least Five (5) portal/Web solutions in last 5 years based on COTS (Commercially off the shelf)/Application Development solution pertaining to aggregation services as a “System Integrator” with value of each project at least 5 Crore and at least one project with value 9 Crore.The bidder should have successfully done or Implementing these executions for Business to Business (B2B) or Government to Business (G2B) or Government to Citizen (G2C) or Business to Consumer (B2C) or Government Office Automation. The portal/Web should have been developed for client/partner only.“System Integrator” role shall necessarily include at least 3 of the following in one assignment (one mandatory of Portal Development & Maintenance and two others optional of (b), (c), (d) below)a. Portal/Website Development & Maintenanceb. Content Management Services/Workflow Managementc. IT Infrastructure hosting services / Data Centre servicesd. Mobile solution developmentCompletion Certificates


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client;ORPurchase / Work Order + Phase Completion Certificate from the clientORCitations that include letter from the client or contract agreements

from the client;ORPurchase / Work Order + Phase Completion Certificate from the clientORCitations that include letter from the client or contract agreements

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Previous project experience in Implementation of portal on a COTS based solution architecture for providing e-commerce or aggregator website services to citizens/ businesses – features comprising of product catalogue services, comprehensive search mechanism, multi lingual support, rich media content support, workflow engine, online payment facilities, DMS, user registration system, user feedback and review system.1. Product catalogue services (1)2. Search mechanism (1)3. Multi lingual support (1)(5) Projects with (3) marks each

Request to kindly modify the clause as follows:Previous project experience in Implementation of portal on a COTS based /Application Development solution architecture for providing e-commerce or aggregator website services to citizens/ businesses – features comprising of product catalogue services / comprehensive search mechanism / multi lingual support / rich media content support / workflow engine / online payment facilities / DMS / user registration system / user feedback or review system.(5) Projects with (3) marks each


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The project should have been used to deliver average 50,000 financial or non-financial transactions monthly and also capable of handling at least 1000 concurrent users. Transactions: 5 Marks Concurrent Users: 5 marks Transactions >=2 Lac : 5 Marks >= 1 Lac: 3 Marks >=50K : 1 Marks Users >=3000 : 5 Marks >=2000: 3 Marks >= 1000 : 1 Mark <1000 : 0 Mark

Request to kindly modify the clause as follows: The project should have been used to deliver transactions and also capable of handling concurrent users.

The clause in the RFP remains unchanged.

132 Section: 3. Infrastructure Management ServicesPage 43 of 73

Data storage management activities including regular backup, restore and archival activities.

Kindly provide below details for backup solution• Is it Online/offline backup?• Is backup need to be taken for OS, DB and Application?• Is tape drive, tape library will be provide by Dept?• Backup system to be enable for DC/DR

Bidder may decide. Bidder to decide. However, the Copy of DB, APPLICATION shall be present with the DepartmentNo. Department will not provide Tape or any media Yes

133 Section: Cloud Services Page 40 of 73

Internal and external users of IBEF should be routed seamlessly from DC site to DR site.

Kindly provide total no. of users Please refer Page 29 of RFP for details on performance


Internal and external users of IBEF should be routed seamlessly from DC site to DR site.

Kindly provide the details about internal and external users


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135 Section: 1. Website design and development (for Desktop and Mobile platform) Page 25 of 73

Website should support rich media content such as videos, high resolution pictures, animations etc. for product information, product manuals, product promotions, product brochures etc.

Is video streaming functionality in scope for viewing uploaded videos? Kindly elaborate more on this

It should support video upload/download and viewing functionality.


Product Information Management Kindly provide detail functional requirements for product information management

More details needs to be collected at the time of requirement analysis phase.


Inventory management Kindly provide detail functional requirements for inventory management



Promotions and Merchandising Kindly provide detail functional requirements for Promotion management



Merchandising Kindly provide detail functional requirements for Merchandising


140 Section: 1. Website design and development (for Desktop and Mobile platform)Page 27 of 73

Members Area * Manage my account * Order History * View Wishlist * Subscription Management * Share Wishlist on Social Media * Reset Password

Kindly provide detail functionality and features of view wishlist functionality


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Kindly provide detail functionality and features of subscription management functionality




Kindly provide detail functionality of share whishlist on social media



Analytics & Reporting Kindly provide detail reporting requirement



The number of concurrent users can be anywhere between 2-3K

Kindly provide precise no. of concurrent users

Exact numbers can't be provided.

145 Section: 1. Website design and development (for Desktop and Mobile platform)Page 31 of 73

Payment Gateway Our understanding is, payment gateway will be provided by dept.Is our understanding correct?

Payment gateway will be needed in phase -2 but system should be modular enough to smoothly integrate the payment gateway.Department may ask implementation agency to provide the payment gateway.

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146 Section: 2.12 Operation and Maintenance post Implementation Services Page 42 of 73

announcing and providing networking services for users and providing administrative support for directory and e-mail servers

Kindly provide detail functionality for providing network services and administrative support for directory and e-mail server


147 Section: 2.11 Provisioning of client infrastructure and cloud services Page 37 of 73

training activities within IBEF premises (for 5 users at least);

Our understanding is, batch of 5 users will be taken training on cloud based environment set up at DC for training purpose If yes, kindly provide detail training topics, total no. of users, batches to cover training

IBEF users needs to be provided training on the Deployed Application and related modules. More details needs to be collected at the time of requirement analysis phase.

148 Section: 2 Request for Proposal – Selection of System Integrator Page 10 of 73

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) Is SI open to provide third party IaaS solution If yes, in this case, which hardware would be resides at DC & DR


149 Section: 2.8 Scope of Work Page 24 of 73

The portal (desktop and mobile version) should support at-least these languages with provision to add more languages in future whenever required English, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, French, Japanese.

Our understanding is, Application & database should support English, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, French, Japanese language for futurist requirements Is our understanding correct?

Languages mentioned under scope of work should be supported when the project goes live.

150 Section: 2. Content management system Page 33 of 73

Automated Cross-sell/Upsell based on purchase behavior Automated Cross-sell/Upsell based on views

Kindly elaborate more on this functionality


151 Section: 3. Mobile Application DevelopmentPage 34 of 73

b) The Mobile App shall be delivered in English Language to begin with. It shall be expanded to cover other languages (for which web portal is available)

Our understanding is, Portal & mobile application is to be deliver in english langauge only, and should provide support German, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, French, Japanese language for

Language support for portal and mobile application are explained in RFP.

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futurist requirementsIs our understanding correct?

152 Section: 2.8 Scope of Work Page 29 of 73

Portal must be secure from virus attacks, malware and hackers etc.

Is Anti-Virus software is in scope? If yes, kindly provide detail requirements for example. DC/DR environment, no. of desktop machines etc.

Implementation agency is free to provide its solution to meet the requirement.

153 Section: Technical Proposal Form 5: Network Connectivity Detail Page 66 of 73

Technical Proposal Form 5: Network Connectivity Detail

Kindly provide detail requirements for network connectivity

No more information present at this point of time.

154 Section: 3. Mobile Application Development Page 34 of 73

3. Mobile Application Development Is SI open to provide responsive website for mobile to cut down mobile application development cost to provide cost effective solution

It should be a responsive website as already mentioned in RFP.

155 General General Our understanding is, SMS gateway is not in scope for integration with proposed solution Is our understanding correct?

Implementation agency needs to implement the solution as per the scope of work provided in the RFP.

156 Section: 2.12 Operation and Maintenance post Implementation Services Page 42 of 73

announcing and providing networking services for users and providing administrative support for directory and e-mail servers

Our understanding is, e-Mail server will be provided by dept. Is our understanding correct?



The number of concurrent users can be anywhere between 2-3K

No. of concurrent user to be supported by proposed solution is 1000 (given at page no. 19 of 73) This is contractory with clause/statement metioned at page no. 29 of 73 Kindly provide clarity on this


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158 Section: 3. Mobile Application DevelopmentPage 34 of 73

b) The Mobile App shall be delivered in English Language to begin with. It shall be expanded to cover other languages (for which web portal is available)c) Analytics shall also be provided for both Mobile Apps and Mobile websites

Kindly provide detail requirement for analytics require for mobile apps and mobile website



ix. In the event of a site failover or switchover, DR site will take over the active role, and all requests will be routed through that site.

Is Disaster recovery software in scope? Implementation agency is free to provide its solution to meet the requirement.

160 Section: Enterprise Monitoring System Page 40 of 73

Enterprise Monitoring System Kindly provide detailed Technical Specifications, as EMS is a broad. It should cover all of the following work areas. 1 Network Management System, 2 Server Performance Management System, 3 Application performance Management.



Enterprise Monitoring System Do you want IA to implemet EMS in High Availability mode



Enterprise Monitoring System Kindly specify all the devices & application which are to be monitored by the proposed EMS



Enterprise Monitoring System Kindly specify which environments are to be considered for monitoring by EMS , DC/DR



The SP shall be completely responsible for the sourcing, installation, commissioning, testing and certification of the necessary software licenses and

Do you want Help desk solution in High Availability and Disaster Recovery.

A web based help desk and related support services are envisaged for this.

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infrastructure required to deploy the Solution on the Cloud offering at the Primary Data Centre and the Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC).

165 Section: Cloud ServicesPage 40 of 73

The Primary DC and the DRC should be in different seismic zones. The disaster recovery site shall have the similar environment (physical & IT), processes, and controls (security,..) as that of the primary data centre. During normal operations, the Primary Data Center will serve the requests.

Do you need Helpdesk solution to be implemented in DC, DR and HA.


166 Section: 2.14.2 Project Deliverables Page 52 of 73

Report on establishment of Helpdesk infrastructure outlining details of Help desk infrastructure deployed, Helpdesk staff / contact details, Helpdesk service delivery processes etc.

Do you have any existing Call Center or Help desk solution in place at present, If yes then pls provide details, If No then do you need Helpdesk solution for ticket management.

There is no existing system. A web based help desk and related support services are envisaged for this.

167 Section: 2.16 GO-LIVE and Acceptance Criterion Page 53 of 73

All the services are enabled (as agreed upon with IBEF during the implementation phase) and users including the external and internal IBEF users are able to successfully carry out the business transactions on the brand India portal system.

Please provide approx number of Internal users or Employee count who will use Help desk.




Please provide approx number of Citizen users count who will use Help desk.


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Please provide approx number of con-current users count for Help desk solution access.

Information not present at this point of time.

170 General General Please provide number of third party application to be integrated with help desk solution.


171 General General Do you want help desk solution to integrate it with IVR system.


172 General General Do you have escalation process in place. Please provide details


173 Scope of Work,General,Pg29

SI will be responsible for purchasing the Domain name in consultation with IBEF

Will SI be responsible for maintenance charges and yearly fees of Domain name

yes

174 General General Will there be any users who will be connecting the websites through VPN connectivity on cloud

Provision should be made.

175 Minimum Desktop configuration,Pg 38

Minimum desktop configuration Do we need to provide the desktop and UPS of any particular brands

Please refer to the RFP.

176 General Should SI provision Email services for the users using desktops

No.

177 Page 7 Section 2 - 7.5 Performance Bank Guarantee

PBG should be 10% of the Contract Value

Would Tax amount also be included for calculation of PBG amount. We will request you not to include the Tax amount for calculating the PBG amount

PBG is only on the base price excluding service tax.

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178 Page 15 2.5.6 Deviations

The bidder may not provide any deviation / non-compliance to the contents of the RFP document. Any deviation /non-compliance may lead to rejection.

We feel that the bidders should be allowed to put in their deviations. Bidder’s view point should be heard with the decision to accept/reject being with IBEF. It should not lead to rejection of the bid as pointed out in the RFP document


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179 Page 172.6.1 Pre Qualification Criteria Point 9

The Bidder shall have proven experience of developing, operating and maintaining at least Five (5) portal/Web solutions in last 3 years based on COTS (Commercially off the shelf) solution pertaining to aggregation services as a “System Integrator” with value of each project at least 50 Lacs and at least one project with value 1 Crore. The bidder should have successfully done these executions for Business to Business (B2B), Government to Business (G2B), Government to Citizen (G2C) or Business to Consumer (B2C). The portal/Web should have been developed for client/partner only. “System Integrator” role shall necessarily include at least 3 of the following in one assignment (one mandatory of Portal Development & Maintenance and two others optional of (b), (c), (d) below) a. Portal/Website Development & Maintenance b. Content Management Services c. IT Infrastructure hosting services d. Mobile solution development

Instead of 3 years we suggest it should be 5 years.Request you to also allow developments done without use of a COTS as well. Some clients don’t want COTS and prefer a development from Scratch.Infrastructure is anyway being outsourced to a Third Party. So “Infrastructure” should not be a part of the last line in the paragraph where you are asking for 3 out of the 4 services being provided. There may be many projects where all these may not be together. Especially Mobile Apps are not that common even now. Bidders should be allowed relaxation on this clause of having 3 out of 4 services.


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180 Page 24 Detailed Scope of Work. Multi Lingual Requirement

Will IBEF provide the translated Text? Please refer to the "Content Management Services"

181 Page 31 Technical Requirements.. Website Hosting

Website should be hosted in a Hosting Center in India. Further, at any given point of time, all data generated through the Portal should reside in India.

Most Cloud providers who will have a hosting center in India will have their DR sites in other countries such as Singapore. Will this be permitted?

It should be in India only.

182 Page 352.9 Testing and UAT

The IA shall be responsible for making all necessary arrangements for testing (unit, functional, integration, and user acceptance) including the preparation of test data, scripts where necessary and deployment of the same. The test data shall be comprehensive and address all scenarios identified in the test cases. The IA shall create test reports from testing activities and submit to IBEF on request.

Normally it’s the Clients who provide the Test Data/Scripts.

the clause in RFP remains unchanged

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183 Page 52 2.15. Payment Terms and Schedule

We feel that after having delivered the portal, IBEF should release 50% of the total amount instead of 20%. The payment terms are very unfavourable for the vendor. Secondly there should be some advance and some milestone based payments. It is difficult to sustain the projects of this size on the payment terms suggested in the RFP. The vendor is also providing a PBG of 10% of the Project Value to IBEF.


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