Market intelligence consultant

Can I take part in this bidding as a private consultant, as I represent no company?

Yes, he can take part as private consultant as described in the item 4.4 Bidder requirements: bidders may be individuals or market research companies.

Considering that there are areas of scope of services that are not finally defined (e.g., 4.4 Bidder requirements – last paragraph), how does UPU expect to receive a pricing proposal with an exact price per deliverables?
 

The scope of the work is defined in item 4.1 Description of the services and 4.2 Deliverables. The UPU believes in the expertise of the procurement candidates and it is open to evaluate their feasibility analyses. Items that are not listed in the current call for tenders are defined out of the scope and therefore will not be included in the procurement. 

Will you accept the price per man-day, and time for each deliverable will be defined later after detailing the scope?

No, the pricing structure that will be accepted is defined in item 3.6 Pricing structure.  

Will you accept the price per deliverable without not defined parts of the scope, e.g., the recommendation regarding business processes, number of meetings, etc? If not, what should be the time mark-up for these activities?

as described in item 3.6 Pricing structure, the pricing structure must cover all costs, including any hardware or software packages needed to carry out the work.

Regarding the scope point, "Provide advice and recommendations to improve business processes and help the leadership to make better business decisions."
 - do you expect an analysis of internal business processes? How many and which processes do you expect to analyze? What should be the form of recommendations?

the consultation work will be to make recommendations based on the trends identified in the market and the challenges in the International Postal sector. There is no review of internal business processes.

Do you expect any support with the EMS Cooperative member survey or only analysis of received data?

The support requested is on the analysis of the data received. 

What is the expected time interval of historical data analyses and forecasts?

The EMS service is available in the market since 1999. Considering historical data analysis, data will be provided from 2015 and it is expected that forecasts are covered until 2030.  

How many presentations at regional or global meetings should be calculated into the price of services?

It is expected that the slide deck/power point presentation be a summary of the analytics report covering global and regional data. You will be invited to present the content to the IB and to the EMS General Assembly. Please consider that you will might need to orally present each deliverable two times remotely. 

What are the UPU's expectations regarding the markets for which data is unavailable? e.g., some geographic regions

It is expected that the consultant informs the UPU the reason why the data is not available. Geographic coverage is a priority and the UPU tends to prefer working with services that can cover as many regions and countries as possible. 

What is the expected workload in man-days?

This is for the bidder to evaluate. There is no expected figure. 

What is the expected project budget?

This information is confidential.

Do you have any similar report which is publicly available? If yes, could you share it?

This information is confidential.

Does UPU expect the annual report to be updated in the following years?

The UPU will rely on the expertise of the consultant to guide us on how often the information should be updated. 

What kind of IT systems, databases, and statistical software packages should a market intelligence consultant have to provide relevant standards for data exchange and sharing?

The data to be shared will be provided by cloud file storage. 

Is there any source of information other than EMS Cooperative members' data that the EMS Unit will be able to share with a market intelligence consultant during a contract period?

No

After reviewing the detailed requirements, would you possibly consider to include the minimum number of countries that the Bidders are expected to be selected for the Study requirement out of  each of the 7 geographic areas -could either some portions of or the entire publication of your earlier EMS Intelligence Reports be made freely available as part of your backup information for this tender

Geographic coverage is a priority and the UPU tends to prefer working with services that can cover as many regions and countries as possible.

Would you consider it feasible to grant us a further week's extension of the deadline for the submission of queries?

For the moment it is not considered to extend the deadline for submissions of bids