Background

Over the last decade, the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia (MFA) has grown in scope and complexity. This has been caused by several factors including the intensification of activities towards European and Euro-Atlantic integration, political and security challenges in the region, increased coverage of countries by Georgian Embassies, new opportunities from geopolitical and international economic developments and other important factors affecting Georgia’s interests.  The effective functioning of the MFA is important for the achievement of Georgia’s foreign policy goals.
The introduction/development of various procedures has given rise to the necessity of automatization of processes at the Ministry. The effective functioning of the Ministry requires that business processes within its structural entities are studied, hindering factors are identified and relevant automatization software is provided. In order to provide centralized access to information and to make available a flexible mechanism for controlling task performance and result analysis, it is necessary to ensure that the management of processes aimed at the solution of tasks within the business process is flexible and effective to the highest possible extent.
To establish a clear baseline for future IT development, a comprehensive review of current IT infrastructure at the MFA is needed. This should contain a description of the current system, but also an assessment of existing gaps and opportunities. To support MFA in the development of its IT infrastructure, UNDP Georgia is seeking for a Local Expert – IT Consultant.
Objectives and Overall Scope of Work:
The main objective of a given assignment is to review the existing IT infrastructure of the MFA, offer best practice IT solutions regarding a business process analysis, and elaborate a Terms of Reference (ToR) for developing an Integrated Business Solution Framework (IBSF) of MFA. The IT consultant shall draft the relevant functional requirements, describe the baseline, scope of work, and technical documentation in close cooperation with the relevant team and other stakeholders involved in this process.

Duties and Responsibilities

As a result of analysis, IT consultant should recommend the Ministry on further   implementation of automation and integration of the existing processes. S/he will also provide an assistance to the Ministry to make a decision on potential possibilities to integrate existing and new systems or on which level it will be available to use their existing functionalities. To pursue the main objective of this consultancy work under the overall supervision of the UNDP GRF Project Manager and in close coordination with the IT team of the MFA, The Expert will be responsible on consultations, recommendations and assistance in resolving the following tasks:

• Review of all existing business processes, doc flows and existing software;
• Assess and recommend to the Ministry the best Solutions of an Integrated Business Solution (Software Framework);
• Elaborate the Terms of Reference(ToR) for the Request for Proposal (RfP), which should contain:
  • Description of the purpose, tasks and functions of the IBSF:
    • Business Process Management
      • Complete set of tools to effectively manage business processes;
      • Comprehensive graphical workflow designer;
      • Monitor Process execution, identify bottlenecks and improve KPIs;
      • Process standardization;
      • Ability to handle complex processes within MFA;
      • Out-of-the-box process library.
    • Document Management
      • Centralized document database;
      • Metadata based storage;
      • Document sharing and collaboration;
      • Document approval and notification;
      • Pre-set document templates;
      • Easy Google-like search;
      • Document version / change control;
      • Advanced permissions IRM (Information Rights Management).
    • Omni-channel communication platform
      • Integrated communication panel;
      • Customer/Citizen portal;
      • MFA web-site integration;
      • Call Center / Telephony integration;
      • E-mail integration;
      • Enterprise social network;
      • Social network integration (Facebook, Google+, Twitter).
    • Project & Task Management
      • Track projects from start to finish;
      • Easy to adapt and scale across the organization;
      • Consolidated contacts and contact details;
      • Related documents;
      • Provide traceable workflow and fulfillment progress;
      • Manage all tasks in a single place;
      • Flexible and customizable to fit different departments/units.
    • Case & Request Management
      • Ability to accumulate cases from different sources/channels;
      • Case classification into different categories;
      • Assign agents and teams, regulate timelines for case resolution;
      • Traceable action plan;
      • Historical activities;
      • Knowledge base.
  • Terms of Reference should be including Requirements below:
    • Development Platform - all of the systems and components within the framework should be based;
    • Architecture - all of the systems and components within the framework should employ;
    • Integration – event and data exchange between software systems should be based on standardized approach like Enterprise Service Bus or well-document API;
    • Analytics – comprehensive full-fledge analytics for the whole software framework should be provided;
    • Configuration & Support – proposed Software Framework should provide MFA DevOps team ability to configure functionality, troubleshoot and support solution without drastic source-code changes (no-code approach is preferable);
    • Security – Role-based access and comprehensive event logging for the whole software framework should be provided.
       

Competencies

Corporate competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Understanding of the mandate and the role of UNDP would be an asset;
• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Functional competencies:

• Proven ability to deliver quality output working under tight deadlines;
• Proven ability to coordinate with others and to work as part of a team;
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills;
• Ability to work independently and under pressure.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Higher education in Information Technology or other technical sciences (minimum requirement: BA degree: 6 points. Master degree – 10 points). 

Experience:

• At least two years of experience in analysis of information systems and business modeling (minimum requirement: 12 points; more than two years – 15 points);
• At least two years of experience in analysis of complex projects, preferably in government agencies (minimum requirement: 12 points; more than two years – 15 points);
• At least three years of experience (preferably on the same position) in working on functional/technical documentation related to information systems (minimum requirement: 5 points; more than three years – 10 points);
• Good knowledge in generating process documentation;
• Good Knowledge of Planning & Modeling Business Processes;
• Knowledge of Business Process Modeling (BPM) or Business Process  Model and Notation (BPMN)  Tools;Knowledge of UML (Unified Modeling Language).

Language Requirements:

• Fluent knowledge of Georgian language;
• Good knowledge of English language.

Evaluation criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on cumulative analysis method:
Offerors will be evaluated against combination of technical and financial criteria. Maximum obtainable score is 100, out of which the total score for technical criteria equals to 70 (50 points for desk review and 20 points for interview) and for financial criteria – to 30.
More specifically, following criteria will be used for evaluating the offerors:
Offerors that do not meet Minimum Qualification Criteria will be automatically rejected, while the rest will form up the long list. The offerors who obtain minimum 35 points as a result of the desk review will be invited for the interview.
Offerors who pass 70% threshold, i.e. obtain minimum 14 points, as a result of the interview will be requested the financial proposal.
Deliverables

The Consultant is expected to provide:

• Terms of Reference(ToR) for the RfP, which should include: functional and nonfunctional requirement according of the Modules;
• Assess and recommend to the MFA the best Solution (Software Framework) which should include all of :
  • Business Process Management module;
  • Document Management module;
  • Omni-channel Communication Platform module;
  • Project & Task Management module;
  • Case & Request Management module.
• Report on existing business processes, doc flows and general description of functions of the existing software; preparation of recommendations regarding key principles and concept of the system establishment/maintenance with focus on IT aspect;
• Mission report with respective recommendations along with accomplishments/achievements of deliverables.

Financial Proposal:

* Lump sum contract
The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the ToR.  In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount.

Maximum 30 points will be assigned to the lowest price offer. All other price offers will be scored using the formula (inverse proportion):  Financial score X = 30* the lowest price offer/suggested price offer. All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal as well.

Technical criteria and financial proposals are summed up and the candidate obtaining maximum points out of maximum obtainable 100 points is selected for the position.

Management Arrangements:

The consultant’s work will be directly supervised by Head of IT Department of MFA under the overall supervision of the Governance Reform Fund (GRF) Project Manager and UNDP IT consultant. The service provider will be directly responsible to, reporting to, seeking approval from, and obtaining certificate of acceptance of outputs from the above-mentioned persons.

Payment Modality and Deliverables:
The Consultant will be paid a lump sum in two installments upon successful completion of the deliverables according to the following scheme:

60% of total fee paid in September upon completion of the following deliverables:

• Preparation of the Terms of Reference for the RfP, which should include: functional and nonfunctional requirement according of the Modules;
• Assess and recommend to the MFA the best Solution (Software Framework) which should include all of :
  • Business Process Management module;
  • Document Management module;
  • Omni-Channel Communication Platform module;
  • Project & Task Management module;
• Case & Request Management module.

40% of total fee paid in September upon completion of the following deliverables:

• Report on existing business processes, doc flows and general description of functions of the existing software;
• Preparation of recommendations regarding key principles and concept of the system establishment/maintenance with focus on IT aspect.