Website maintenance and hosting services

Questions

Answers

How many hours are envisaged for the performance of Evolution maintenance?

Evolution maintenance services are provided upon request and within the limits of a pre-defined budget agreed upon between the Parties. It requires an amendment to the Agreement after due completion of applicable UPU procedures and approvals and pursuant to applicable UPU rules. 

The duration and costs of an Evolution maintenance are not part of this procurement, but the provider should indicate if they are able to provide such service if requested. 

Which is the weighted score assigned to the following evaluation criteria?

i Quality of the proposal (according to the specifications of this letter);
ii Knowledge and experience of the Bidder and its team and/or consultant(s), as applicable to the subject matter;
iii Price.

As described in the tender document, The criteria for the evaluation of the bids are, in descending order of importance. This means that the quality of the proposal will value more than the experience and references. Price will value less than the experience and reference. 

Is any exclusion criteria defined for the tender?

Incomplete offers will be excluded.  

Need some information on the timelines

When are you expecting this project to be completed and tentative timeline?

 After project completion are you expecting 4 years of maintenance

The contract will be signed in first quarter 2021 and shall be for a total term of four years, beginning at the successful award of the contract.

The procurement in place is for the maintenance and hosting of a website that already exists. The time expected to transfer the website to the new provider is one week. 

Support and Maintenance

Based on existing website how much effort of support are you expecting per day?

Are you expecting onsite presence of a team member for coordination

The Bidder should indicate the service level agreement (SLA) for support. The reaction and resolution time should apply during business hours from Monday to Friday.

 The Vendor will perform a majority of the work at its own premises. The Vendor will be required to meet UPU team once per week to provide a status update. This may be conducted by e-mail, teleconference or at the UPU’s premises, according to the requirements of the project as it develops. Additionally, all project reviews will be held at the UPU and attended by the Bidder. The UPU will provide and arrange meeting rooms within its facility for all required Bidder meetings. Training for UPU staff will be conducted at the UPU’s premises.

The described architecture looks like it a dedicated server plan. Do you have any objection moving ahead with a cloud specific solution?

Due to the data security concerns that the cloud solution may have, The UPU prefers to have its website hosted in a dedicated hosting service. 

You have mentioned the below configuration as your current configuration,

 Two CPU/eight cores – 128 GB RAM – 1000 GB SSD – Apache 2.X is used as webserver – PHP: 7.2.33 – MariaDB: 10.3.24

However, you have mentioned the minimum configuration as

 Four cores – 16 GB RAM – 15 GB SSD

 There is a massive difference between the current configuration and the minimum configuration. To estimate the cost of hosting, we would like to know the configuration you prefer us to provide.  

In this case, you can provide the cost of both options. 

 If it is not possible, the current hosting configuration will be preferred. 

Also, please provide us the page visitors per month and the number of pages served / annually. 

The EMS website has currently an average of 70 webpages.

Should we include a transition to Drupal 9? as Drupal 8 will no longer be maintained on a security side from November 2021?

No. In case there is a mandatory need to migrate to Drupal 9, this will happen during the last year of the contract via an amendment.

It is mentioned "Additionally, all project reviews will be held at the UPU and attended by the Bidder. The UPU will provide and arrange meeting rooms within its facility for all required Bidder meetings.

 Is expected ON SITE presence for the Bidder on this reviews? If so, What´s the frecuency expected and attendees expected? 

RFP, page 13 section 4.7 

Could you please confirm your actual hosting platform?

This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

Could you confirm your current  average monthly hosting cost?

The UPU could not inform the costs of the current contract. 

What hosting cost do you expect bidder will assume?

The Bidder should provide web hosting. This may be offered via a sub-bidder. The proposal should be clear about which services are being subcontracted, and the technical details of the hosting services provided should be elaborated in the supplier’s proposal. 

Regardless of whether the web hosting offered is in-house or outsourced, the relevant profile(s) should be provided (for instance, the system administrator). If outsourced, a detailed description of the company undertaking the web hosting is required. It would be advantageous if the candidate company has, or collaborates with, web usability experts.

It is expected to provide Web Hosting- Do you forsee a hosting migration if necessary? 

The Bidder should cover the expenses related to the handover of the website to its agency and hosting provider.

Afert first year of maintenance, UPU will inform of all specific suport needs, Would these specific support needs be considered as scope increase on support intial activities (hence invoiced separately)?

Yes, but it will be an amendment to this contract.

When listing the "Staff Support"  - "one project manager, one technical expert, and one developer. "  - Are these minimum expected? 

Yes, this is the minimum expected. 

It is mentioned "on-site" trainings - Could you anticipate any average frecuency per year? 

Once a year if needed. 

It is stated "The Bidder should cover the expenses related to the handover of the website to its agency and hosting provider." -  Does it mean transition period expenses (time and effort) from current provider to new provider should be assumed by new provider?  

Yes, it is correct.

As General requirement several documentation is mentioned as "provider shall be able to demonstrate or provide" - Shall they be provided upon request or whithin the proposal?
 Are these related with "Qualifications" on  "Bidder Information" ? 

This information should be within the proposal and it is related to the Bidder information.

Could you anticipate an estimated duration for the Evaluation process?

The evaluation will happen in the first quarter of 2021.

Provided the structre and sequence numbering for the CFT -  Shall the proposal be presentend on a single document?  OR Individual documents based on the sequence numbering?

Either way can be possible as long as the bidder follows the structure described in chapter 3 of the RFP. 

Provided the structre and sequence numbering for the CFT -  Is there any pre-define format for the proposal (.docx, pdf, ppt...)?

There is no template available, but the UPU prefers to receive a file in .pdf format. 

Related to section "8. Reporting" -  Does this section refers to the General Communications and Status between UPU and the provider ? Is it expected to provide any kind of KPIs for performance, periodic formatted reports..etc? in that case, please could you specify. 

This is related to the general communications and is described in the item RFP item 4.7.

It is mentioned " all project reviews will be held at the UPU and attended by the Bidder."  - Could you anticipate a frecuency ? 

Once a year if needed.

Could you clarify if there is any specific weight on the evaluation criteria? 

As described in the tender document, the criteria for the evaluation of the bids are listed in descending order of importance. This means that the quality of the proposal will have a higher value than the experience and references. Price will value less than the experience and reference. 

Bidder is expected to conduct a SEO site audit every six months-  Is it also expected to implement any corrections, actions or recommendations resulting of these audits? If so, would them be considered developments?

No, this is part of the maintenance scope of the RFP.

What are the availability requirements of the website? According to the description in the CFT, it seems that the current architecture uses only one server, which could be a single point of failure.

This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

Are there any requirements regarding recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO)?

Please refer to the reaction and resolution time and support activities to be provided by the Bidder described in the RFP.

Is the usage of Patchman required or can we use comparable tools as well?

You can use other tools than Patchman.

What has prompted the client to roll out this CFT with respect to EMS website? What are the current challenges?

 This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

How does the client need acceptance of UPU General Terms and Conditions for the Provision of Services (Annex 2)? Should it be included as a part of CFT response? Does it need sign/seal from Legal team?

 The bidder should declare in writing that he accepts the UPU General Terms and Conditions.

Regarding CFT section 3.8 (Reporting), what are the expectations of client with respect to Reporting? Is it the Governance structure that they are expecting?

 This is related to the general communications and is described in the item RFP item 4.7.

Regarding CFT section 3.9 (Client reference list), how many references is the client expecting? Please provide the number.

 Three references as a minimum.

As per section 2.3 (Scope), under Preventive maintenance point, CFT mentions - “Preventive maintenance includes security patch installations, along with two Drupal minor version updates and two module updates per year.” – We assume that the two modules mentioned are contributed modules. Is our understanding is correct? Please confirm.

 Yes, your understanding is correct.

As per section 2.3 (Scope), under Preventive maintenance point, CFT mentions - “Preventive maintenance includes security patch installations, along with two Drupal minor version updates and two module updates per year.” – Update in contributed module may lead to major development work with greater efforts. Can this be considered as change request? Please confirm. 

 No, the preventive maintenance is in the scope of the current RFP. 

As per section 2.3 (Scope), under Preventive maintenance point, CFT mentions - “Preventive maintenance includes security patch installations, along with two Drupal minor version updates and two module updates per year.” – Sometimes, updates in minor versions may lead to major development work with greater efforts. Can this be considered as change request? Please confirm. 

 No, the preventive maintenance is in the scope of the current RFP.

As per section 2.3 (Scope), for Evolution maintenance point, Evolution maintenance requests are new small enhancement to existing website and will be having separate budget & efforts. Please confirm if our understanding is correct.

 Yes, your understanding is correct.

Can you please share no of tickets, support requests currently generated for the website?

This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

Can you share how many incidents are currently reported?

This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

Do you want to migrate the historical data of bug reports to new ticketing system?

There is no need for tickets migration.

Do you have your own ticketing system to be used for the project or vendor can propose to use new ticketing system?

The vendor can propose a new ticketing system.

Can you please share current KPI of the application? 

 This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

How much likely are the support requests, incidents expected to grow in near future? Please elaborate.

 This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

Where is the website hosted currently? Please provide more details.

 This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

What is the current hosting platform? Please provide details. Do you want to keep the same hosting platform?

 This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

Do you have any geo location preference for hosting?

 It is preferred that the hosting location is Switzerland.

Can you share the current infrastructure architecture of the current website?

 Please refer to annex 1 of the Functional Scope of the RFP. 

What is the current performance benchmarking that the current website follows?

 This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

Are you expecting a dedicated team for support? If yes how many resources do you need in team?

 This information is available in the Bidder staff providing maintenance support

in the RFP.

Are you specifically looking for any specialized skilled resource? If yes, please mention the expectations. 

 Please refer to the RFP regarding the specifications for this bid. 

As per section 2.3 (Scope), under Continuous learning services point, CFT mentions “The Bidder shall provide UPU staff with on-site and remote training on the use of the website, in order to allow for the management of basic content and non-critical operational aspects, including web management techniques.” – Is the on-site training mandatory or can this be only remote only because of travel restrictions due to pandemic? Please confirm.

 This can also be done remotely, but the bidder has to be available for onsite training if requested. 

As per section 2.3 (Scope), under Continuous learning services point, CFT mentions “The Bidder shall provide UPU staff with on-site and remote training on the use of the website, in order to allow for the management of basic content and non-critical operational aspects, including web management tech-niques.” – How many such onsite trainings are expected yearly? Please provide frequency of travel like once monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, etc.

 Once a year, if needed. 

As per section 2.3 (Scope), under Continuous learning services point, CFT mentions “The Bidder shall provide UPU staff with on-site and remote training on the use of the website, in order to allow for the management of basic content and non-critical operational aspects, including web management tech-niques.” – How many staff members are required to be trained?

 Less than 10 staff members. 

With reference to document provided “RFP-2020-025_DOP_EMS_Annex 1 -EMS website Functional Scope”, there are some requirement s/new features mentioned to be developed, do you expect the cost/pricing of such items to be included in total price or does this have to be mentioned as a separate cost/pricing? Please confirm.  

 The functional scope describes the current website. Any new developments will be considered evolutions. 

With reference to document provided “RFP-2020-025_DOP_EMS_Annex 1 -EMS website Functional Scope” there are some requirement s/new features mentioned to be developed. For such items, will the Pricing model follow T&M (Time & Material) or will it be Fixed Price? Please confirm.  

As per section 2.3 (Scope), under Bidder staff providing maintenance support section, CFT mentions “Three staff members of the Bidder shall perform the services described above; specifically, one project manager, one technical expert, and one developer.” – Do you expect these resources to work full time for the project?

Please refer to the RFP.

As per section 2.3 (Scope), under Bidder staff providing maintenance support section, CFT mentions “Three staff members of the Bidder shall perform the services described above; specifically, one project manager, one technical expert, and one developer.” – Do expect any of these resources to work from onsite dedicatedly or on need basis? If need basis, please confirm the frequency of travel like once monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, etc.

Do you expect financial proposal to follow specific template/format? If yes, please share such template/format.

 The format is described in the RFP.

We are expertise in Drupal cloud hosting by Acquia, Pantheon, Azure and AWS. Do you have any preference over web hosting platform for this website? Please mention.

 Due to the data security concerns that the cloud solution may have, the UPU prefers to have its website hosted in a dedicated hosting service.

Do you have any preference to award contact over local vendors & partners?

The selection criteria is described in the RFP.

While hosting the website to new hosting platform, are there any changes in Third party integration service(s)? If yes, what are those changes? Please explain.

This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

Will you be providing Patchman tool? Do you have any subscription for the same?

No, this tool should be provided by the bidder.

We assume you are looking for only L3 support, and not L1/L2. Please confirm if our understanding is correct.

 Your understanding is correct.

What are the SLAs that you are expecting ? Please provide details, if any.

 This information is described in the RFP.

Can you share data of current issues faced on website & hosting?

 This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

Regarding Continuous Learning Services (CFT section 2.3 on page 6), please elaborate on the expectations on on-site training on the use of the website. Will it be in scope or conducted online? If in scope, what is the frequency & duration of on-site travel? Also, how many resources do you expect to travel onsite? 

 Once a year, if needed. The UPU relies on the expertise of the bidder regarding the duration and personnel required to provide training. 

With respect to Functional scope (Annex 1), are all the features already developed & only support & maintenance is needed OR some/all features are to be developed? Please elaborate.

Please refer to the RFP .

Is the overall CFT Pricing model Fixed priced or on T&M basis?

Fixed price.

If enhancements are to be done, please provide exact functional scope of the same.

This information is described in the RFP                .

Section on providing maintenance support (CFT section 2.3 on Page 6) mentions 3 staff members. Will they be dedicated full-time or only on need basis? What would the distribution of these 3 members i.e., onsite or offshore?

This information is described in the RFP.

Regarding Duration of Services (CFT section 4.7), point mentions “Additionally, all project reviews will be held at the UPU and attended by the Bidder.” Will this be onsite travel or will it be done via online means through Collaboration tools like WebEx, Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business?

 This information is described in the RFP.

We assume https://www.ems.post is the only website for support in scope. Please confirm if our understanding is correct. 

 Your understanding is correct.

As per section 4.4 (Web statistics function), CFT mentions “Bidders should perform regular SEO site audits every six months covering the following areas: SEO, usability, performance and website security.” – Do you have any preferred vendor for SEO, performance & security audit?

 This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

Do you expect SEO ranking to be increased post SEO audit? Should cost involved need to be included? Please confirm.

 This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

With reference to document provided “RFP-2020-025_DOP_EMS_Annex 1 -EMS website Functional Scope” – We assume this documentation is for understanding the website functions and any development of feature is out of scope. Please confirm if our understanding is correct.

 Your understanding is correct .

Where does the hosting of application exist? Is it a cloud hosting or on premise hosting on physicals servers? Please provide details. 

 This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

What are the timelines agreed with current vendor for transition of support?   

 This information is related to current contract arrangements and therefore is confidential.

We assume the domain names subscriptions does not required renewal for the duration of project. In case if renewal required, will UPU take care of it? Please confirm.

 Your understanding is correct.

What is tentative/estimated date of start of the project?

 First quarter of 2021.

Do you have specific budget for the project?

 This information is confidential.

How many total users currently use the system? Please provide current numbers & any additional number planned to be added in near future.

 The information is in the RFP.

What are the total number pages the website currently has?

 The website has an average of 70 webpages.

Can you please provide more information about EMS vision 2024?

This information is not related to the RFP.