Local IT Company for MIS Development

Term of Reference
for
Local IT Company for MIS development

Aus4Equality|GREAT program is looking for a qualified local IT company to provide services for development and operation of an MIS for the program.

With the guidance from the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning  (MERL) Manager, the local IT team (hereafter called as the team) will work closely with the MIS Officer and MERL Specialist and MIS Officer of the GREAT program to deliver contracted deliverables. Advice from either MERL Advisor or Team Leader of the GREAT program will be provided to the team when necessary. The team will also communicate and discuss with the MAMPU’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Information System Officer (MEIO) frequently in the development process to ensure sufficient understanding about technical specifications and the coding system of the MANIS to customize it for GREAT MIS effectively and efficiently.

The team will provide services for development of the GREAT MIS and continue providing supporting services for operation and maintenance of the system throughout the life of the program. The first contract will be between September 2018 and June 2019 with possible extension on an annual basis upon satisfactory performance.

I.    INTRODUCTION

1.    Program Overview

The Aus4Equality|Gender Responsive Equitable Agriculture and Tourism (GREAT) Program is a flagship initiative of the Australian aid program in Vietnam. The Program seeks to promote women’s economic empowerment amongst ethnic minority communities in the ethnically diverse, high-poverty region of north-west Vietnam. The primary beneficiaries are women living in the provinces of Son La and Lao Cai with a particular emphasis on women from ethnic minorities communities.

Three key outcomes are designated to be delivered at the end of the program (EOP):

1. Women living in local communities have increased capacity, better roles in decision making and more choices to beneficially engage with agriculture and tourism businesses;
2. Selected private sector actors within the agriculture and tourism sectors innovate to profitably and sustainably trade with more women entrepreneurs and operate in gender sensitive ways; and
3. Government agencies reinforce policies, and enact plans, regulations and services that enable more inclusive socio-economic development.

Key approaches applied by the program include: Market system development, Partnership, Adaptive management and Innovation.

The GREAT program commenced in November 2017 and will run for five years (2017 to 2022) with an option for an additional five years based on performance, resource availability, and ongoing alignment with Australian Government priorities. The budget for the first phase is approximately $A33.7 million. By 2021, the program is expected to positively impact the lives of ten percent of the adult female population in the two provinces. The program is going to partner with 50-80 partners to deliver results.

A Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) Framework has been developed that includes Theory of Change, Result Chains and key Indicators. A MERL Operational Guide and data collection tools will be developed in August-September 2018.

2.    Management Information System (MIS)

The Program MERL will be supported by an online customisable Management Information System (MIS) that collates data, enables qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and facilitates reporting. The system will be accessible (with varying degrees of access) to all key stakeholders including DFAT, the GREAT team and all Implementing Partners. It will enable Implementing Partners to input their M&E data in real time (including online and using mobile phone technology), or to store the data and input it later. Its dashboard will enable stakeholders to obtain results and performance information, progress monitoring information, and access to program reports and information.

The MIS will integrate financial information with activity progress including commitments, payments disbursed/released to date, acquittals received, tracking at various levels such as activity, sector, location and type of recipient. The system will track progress against activity and program workplans, acting as an early warning for problem areas. Importantly, the system will track some indicators against financial commitments and enable the program to identify the most cost-effective investments. 

The system will also house templates and guidance for implementing partners and have a question and answer function that enables implementing partners to seek advice from the entire network of partners involved with the GREAT program.  

The analytical functions of the MIS will deliver a series of interactive dashboards enabling partners and DFAT to monitor trends and analyse relationships between different sets of information. The system will also support the program’s knowledge management functions, including through the collation of an array of qualitative and quantitative data, including back-to-office reporting from monitoring trips, partner quarterly progress reports, research studies, case studies, evaluations, stories of change, and government policies, regulations, and socio-economic datasets.

The MIS will be bilingual which enable users to switch between English and Vietnamese.

It is expected that a GREAT’s MIS with basic functions will be launched in March 2019. The local IT team will provide continuous support for necessary emerging customizations of the system, in coordination of the program’s MERL team.

3.    Approach

The GREAT MIS will be based upon the MIS developed for the Cowater Sogema-managed MAMPU program (MANIS) in Indonesia. A copy of MANIS will be migrated to a cloud server in Vietnam then customized to establish the GREAT MIS. Two programs share the common characteristics of managing many partners and applying adaptive management.

During the process of copying and customizing MANIS to make the GREAT MIS, the MAMPU’s Monitoring, Evaluation, and Information System (MEIS) Officer will provide technical assistance and IT quality assurance support to the local IT team. He will work closely with the local IT team to migrate the MANIS copy to a cloud server in Vietnam; and guide the local IT team and the GREAT’s MIS Officer to understand the MANIS coding system and functions. He will join the GREAT MIS design team in Hanoi to unpack the coding system of the MANIS and provide inputs to design the GREAT MIS.

4.    Process of GREAT MIS development

This schedule is tentatively proposed. A final timeline will be defined based on technical justifications of the selected local IT company.

II.    Scope of Work for the Local IT Company

1.    Tasks

An IT firm is expected to:

Development phase (October 2018 to June 2019)

• Discuss with GREAT team on specific business requirements of the MERL database.
• Study relevant MERL documents including but not limited to: MERL framework, MANIS’s white paper, extract of the MAMPU’s MEIS Officer Term of Reference.
• Establish platform, IT configurations and a cloud server in Vietnam to duplicate the MANIS
• Develop codes for necessary customizations of the MANIS
• Conduct user test and commissioning the newly customised MIS
• Develop an operational manual of the MIS system
• Provide training for GREAT team, stakeholders and implementing partners on operation of the newly established GREAT’s MIS
• Conduct database maintenance and trouble-shooting support.

Implementation phase (July 2019 to June 2020) with possible extension beyond upon need.

• Continued database maintenance and trouble-shooting support.
• Update/customisations, as necessary

2.    Tentative timeline

5.    Team composition

A company of interest can take liberty to propose a team composition that works for the tasks in an efficient and stable manner (with a vision of providing continuous maintenance services in three years). Each team member should be assigned clearly with a specific role and duty in the team. Stability of the team leader and team members is highly desirable to ensure continuity of the services in a long term, particularly during the development process. In the situation of changing this person, the company needs to ensure the continuity of technical knowledge of the MIS from the previous person to the succeeding one.

During the MIS set up and development process, it is expected that the team has a competent team leader who can lead the team, communicate with the GREAT and MAMPU’s MEIS Officer effectively and hold the principal responsibility to the GREAT for the delivered technical services. After the MIS launch, the team can assign a focal IT engineer to continue working with the GREAT and providing continuous maintenance services.

It is desirable that all team members can communicate well in both English and Vietnamese. At the minimum, the team leader needs to be fluent in English.

Minimum requirement:

For development phase

One team leader who have:

• Relevant university degree of higher level technical diploma, probably computer science or similar engineering or technical subject;
• Professional Certificates on Software Developing
• At least 5 year experiences of quantitative and qualitative data base development techniques;
• Proven experience in leading a team to develop an M&E/MIS system in the development sector;
• Understanding of development context and/or gender equality issues in Vietnam is a plus; 02 programmers:
• Relevant university degree of higher level technical diploma, probably computer science or similar engineering or technical subject;
• Professional Certificates on Software Developing
• At least 05 year experience in software development

For operational phase
At least 1 team leader and 1 programmer of the above mentioned profile required.

III.    APPLICATION PROCESS

1.    Document to be submitted in English

• A commitment letter signed by the authorised representative of the applicant institution, confirming the Applicant’s intention to provide the services in accordance with the provisions of this TOR

• Business registration and profile of the institution (in Vietnamese language is acceptable)

• Proposal of the technical approach including:
  
  • A detailed schedule of activities and team resources considered necessary to deliver the envisaged deliverables and the inputs required in terms of expert time, working tools, etc. to implement the project. The total amount of man-days/man-months proposed for each expert and area of expertise must be clearly stated, as well as statements about the working location of proposed experts and other expertise to complete both the presented component-specific tables.
  • The time table of activities proposed by the tenderer with specific reference to mobilisation of the team, submission of reports, documents and other deliverables, specific meetings, etc.
  • The institutional arrangements to be put in place.

• CVs of the team leader and programmers including statement of availability signed by each expert.

• Cost estimate separately for the development phase and operational phase (in AUD, including taxes) – Aus4Equality|GREAT’s cost norms for professional fees and travel allowances shall be applicable.

GREAT’s Cost norms, GREAT MERL Framework and white paper of the MANIS shall be provided upon request by email to [email protected]

2.    Evaluation

Eligible applicants must

• Be a company/firm in the field IT legally established in Vietnam for at least 3 years.
• Have at least 1 similar contract implemented in the last 5 years as the main contractor.

The proposal will be merit-based and competitive of the technical approach and cost

A maximum of 100 scores will be rated, composed of:

• Technical approach: 40 scores
• Qualifications and experiences of team members: 40 scores
• Timetable of activity and institutional arrangement: 20 scores

The technical acceptability threshold for the proposals is set to minimum 70 out of 100 points. Only Proposals that have reached this technical acceptability threshold will be considered for further consideration.

Aus4equaity|GREAT program may interview the representative of the applicant and key experts proposed in the proposal, after having drafted its provisional conclusions but before concluding the contract offer.

The date and time of any such interview will be notified to the Applicant in advance.

Remark:

• No costs incurred by the Applicant in preparing and submitting the proposal shall be reimbursable. All such costs shall be borne by the Applicant.
• The Aus4Equality|GREAT program retains ownership of all proposals received under this call for proposal procedure. Consequently, Applicants have no right to have their tenders returned to them.

3.    How to apply

Proposals should be sent to: [email protected] before 17:00, 1 October 2018 indicating “Application for Aus4Equality MIS Consultancy Service” in the subject line.

Late applications will be not considered.