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PUR 1510/01Request for Proposal
------------------------------------------------------Provision of an Enterprise Spreadsheet
Management Software Tool------------------------------------------------------
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1. INTRODUCTION
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the "EBRD") is an international financial institution. The EBRD was established by treaty in 1991 to foster the transition towards open market oriented economies and to promote private and entrepreneurial initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic States and the Commonwealth of Independent States that are committed to and applying the principles of multiparty democracy, pluralism and market economics. The EBRD has 67 shareholders (65 countries plus the European Union and the European Investment Bank). Further information about the EBRD's roles and activities can be found on the EBRD's website: www.ebrd.com.
1.1 Definitions
The terms ‘EBRD’ and ‘The Bank’ shall mean the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The term ‘RFP’ shall mean Request for Proposal. The term ‘Supplier(s)’ shall mean a party that submits a proposal in accordance with this
RFP. The term ‘Proposal’ shall mean a combination of the documents defined in sections 4.4
and 4.5 of this RFP. Specifically the Technical Proposal and the completed Quotation File.
2. PROJECT BACKGROUND
2.1 Objective
The objective is to procure and implement a tool (the “Tool”) that will assist the business to identify critical spreadsheets and periodically evaluate the adequacy of controls over those spreadsheets, in particular concerning the accuracy of the information contained therein. In outline, the selected Supplier will be required to: supply a solution to the Bank optimised to the Bank’s requirements; provide expertise around how that solution may scale in support of future phase
requirements in this area; provide training to Bank staff in the configuration and operation of the solution; provide on-going support for the solution.
The detailed definition of such software, the nature of the strategic architecture and the scope of the training and support requirements are explained in the following sections.
2.2 Background
It is important for the Bank to mitigate operational risk around End User Computing (“EUC”) primarily but not limited to spreadsheets, to be able to demonstrate rigour around critical spreadsheets, financial reporting related spreadsheets (SOX perspective) and to make review of spreadsheets a more efficient task by analysing results rather than spending time manually searching for errors.
The Tool should be able to:
1. identify an inventory of critical spreadsheets (based on defined criteria centrally administered);
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2. help evaluate the use and complexity of the spreadsheets, identifying those requiring additional monitoring;
3. support additional monitoring / ongoing management of those critical spreadsheets (for example change control, version control, input control);
4. allow other spreadsheets (either non critical or one-offs) to be checked for compliance to Bank policies and identify defined errors without necessarily being within the management frame of the tool.
5. provide reporting on changes to the critical spreadsheets and record comments between reviewer and updater.
6. provide organisation-wide reporting.
The initial phase for implementation will be a “pilot” within a banking unit of EBRD which deals with a discrete set of 200 spreadsheets that have been identified as being critical. The Tool will then be rolled out across all departments within The Bank starting with key business areas over a period, expected to be up to one year.
3. EBRD CONTACT DETAILSThe Suppliers’ sole contact for the purposes of the RFP is:
Siobhan HayCorporate Procurement UnitEBRDOne Exchange SquareLondonEC2A 2JNTelephone: 020 7338 7661Email: [email protected]
4. DESCRIPTION OF THIS RFP
4.1 OverviewSuppliers wishing to participate in this process will be required to make the following submissions in accordance with the timetable outlined in section 4.2:
a technical proposal (the ‘Technical Proposal’) consisting of the Minimum Requirements Checklist (the “Checklist”), a technical response (the “Technical Response”) and the additional Information (the “Additional Information”) defined in Annex C – 1.1;
a completed quotation file (the ‘Quotation File’).
4.2 Timetable
10th April 2017 RFP issued to suppliers19th April 2017 by 12:00 Midday Deadline for requests for clarification24th April 2017 EBRD response to requests for clarification5th May 2017 by 12:00 Midday Deadline to submit proposalsw/c 15th May 2017 Invitation for Demonstration/Presentation sent to suppliersw/c 22th May 2017 Demonstration/Presentation of proposal at the Bank16th June 2017 Contract Award
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The EBRD reserves the right to amend or change these dates at any time.
4.3 ClarificationsThe process for receipt and resolution of queries shall be as follows:
suppliers will send queries by e-mail to the following address: [email protected]; there will be one round of queries; the deadline for queries is shown in the timetable set out in section 4.2 of this RFP; the EBRD will circulate the responses to all queries to all participating Suppliers in
accordance with the timetable set out in section 4.2 of this RFP; the clarification document will make no reference to which Supplier made any
particular query.
4.4 Technical Proposal
4.4.1 Minimum Requirements
Suppliers wishing to participate in this Tender are required to complete the Checklist provided as Annex B to this RFP. Only those Suppliers capable of answering “yes” to all of the questions are eligible to participate. Suppliers that answer “no” to any question or that provide an incomplete submission will not be eligible for participation in this Tender.
4.4.2 Technical Response Submission
The Technical Response shall be prepared with reference to Annex C – Scope of Requirements and shall be comprised of a written response to the questions contained in Annex C – Technical Response. Proposal shall not exceed 40 pages excluding the Checklist and CVs.
Responses shall be submitted via e-mail to [email protected] in accordance with the timetable set out in section 4.2 of this RFP. Titled “PUR1510/01 – Provision of an Enterprise Spreadsheet Management Tool – Technical Response”
Please note Suppliers must submit their Technical Response by email and their Quotation File in an envelope as per the instructions in 4.5.
4.5 Quotation File Submission
All Suppliers are required to complete the applicable quotation file (the ‘Quotation file’) attached as Annex D of this RFP. Prices are to be quoted in GBP net of VAT.
The Quotation File must be submitted:
on a CD or a USB drive by courier in a sealed envelope clearly identified as “PUR1510_01 – Provision of an Enterprise Spreadsheet Management Tool – Quotation File”;
in an envelope clearly bearing the Suppliers’ name; and in accordance with the timetable set out in section 4.2 of this RFP.
4.6 Quotation File Validity
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Quotes submitted shall be valid for ninety (90) days following date of receipt.
4.7 Demonstration/Presentation
Following evaluation of the Technical Response by the Bank, Suppliers that pass the minimum requirements checklist will be requested to deliver a demonstration/presentation for the Bank at its London headquarters. The presentation should last no more than 3 hours and will cover the topics identified in Annex E - ‘Presentation Agenda’.The demonstrations / presentations are scheduled for the week commencing 22nd May 2017. Suppliers will be notified by e-mail the date and time they must attend the demonstrations / presentations. Best efforts will be made to give Suppliers a minimum of 48 hours’ notice of their slot. The allocated meeting slot will not be negotiable.
4.8 ReferencesThe Supplier shall provide details of three customers for reference, preferably in the same sector (financial services) and country (UK). References should be for customers with requirements similar to those of EBRD. References should include information about the contract (specific products in use, date of contract execution, "go live" date and any services provided), as well as contact information for the customers’ project manager or other senior staff members familiar with the project.
5 EVALUATION METHODOLOGY
5.1 Technical Evaluation Suppliers’ Technical Proposals along with a Demonstration / Presentation will be evaluated and scored by a nominated Tender Evaluation Panel (TEP) of Bank staff selected from operational departments who are directly involved with the services to be provided.
Element of the EvaluationMaximum
Score available
Implementation 11Ease of Use 17Scan / Discovery Mechanism 17Spreadsheet Analysis 15Spreadsheet Management 15Reporting 12Maintenance & Support 8Technical Questions 5TECHNICAL MAXIMUM SCORE 100
FINANCIAL MAXIMUM SCORE 100
A minimum technical threshold applies to the Technical Proposal. A Supplier will be deemed to have passed the threshold on meeting the following condition:
the combined TEP scores reaches or exceeds the minimum threshold of 75% (weighted score) of the total number of points available for the Technical Response and Demonstration / Presentation.
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5.2 Financial Evaluation Following the review of the Technical Proposals and Demonstration / Presentations, the Quotation Files of those Suppliers who have reached or exceeded the minimum technical threshold detailed in section 5.1 will be opened. The Bank will calculate a Total Bid Price for each Supplier based on the costing provided along with the estimated EBRD costs to implement and support the Tool.
The Supplier proposing the lowest total bid price will be given the maximum financial score available (100). Other Suppliers’ (higher) prices will be divided into the lowest price and the result multiplied by the maximum score given.
FSa = LP/EPa x Maximum Financial Score
FSa = financial score for proposal aLP = the lowest evaluated financial proposalEPa = the financial proposal of a.
5.3 Financial ErrorsMathematical errors detected by the Bank in the submitted Quotation Files will be corrected in the following manner:
if there are errors in the mathematical extension of unit price items, the unit prices prevail and the mathematical extension is adjusted accordingly; and
if there are errors in the additional of lump sum prices or unit price extensions, the bid is not rejected but the total is corrected and the correct amount reflected in the total bid price.
5.4 Preferred SupplierThe Supplier achieving the highest combined score following the technical and financial evaluations shall be nominated as the preferred Supplier (the ‘Preferred Supplier’).
5.5 Checking of ReferencesThe Bank may contact the three references provided by the Preferred Supplier. The Bank reserves the right to speak to any company which has dealt with the Preferred Supplier, whether provided as a reference or not, without prior notification to the Supplier.
In the event that the Preferred Supplier’s references prove unsatisfactory, the Bank will consider the next highest scoring Supplier to be the Preferred Supplier and will repeat the procedure described above.
5.6 NegotiationsUpon satisfactory conclusion of the reference checking, the Bank will move to negotiate a contract with the Preferred Supplier. In the event that a satisfactory conclusion to the contract negotiations cannot be agreed the Bank may consider the next highest scoring Supplier to be the Preferred Supplier and will commence the procedure described above.
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6 CONTRACT
6.1 Status of the EBRDThe EBRD is an international organisation established by international treaty. As such, the EBRD possesses a special status under public international law which has been confirmed under English law through statute (Statutory Instrument 1991, No. 757, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (Immunities and Privileges) Order 1991), available at:http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1991/757/contents/made.
Please also refer to the aforementioned establishment treaty of the Bank ("articles of incorporation") which lays out the immunities as found in Chapter VIII. These can be found at:http://www.ebrd.com/pages/research/publications/institutional/basicdocs.shtml
The special status of the EBRD requires it to seek specific provisions relating to such status in all contracts with external suppliers and service providers. EBRD is unable to agree to terms that expressly contradict its special status and internal policies as an international organisation.
6.2 Contract Term The Contract term will be 5 years for support & maintenance of the Tool.
6.3 Contract NegotiationSubject to the Bank’s status, see section 6.1, the Preferred Supplier’s standard terms for delivery of these services shall form the basis of any contract that may ensue. EBRD reserves the right to subject each proposal to final negotiations.
7 GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS RFP
7.1 AmendmentEBRD reserves the right to negotiate any or all terms and conditions, and to cancel, amend or resubmit this RFP in part or entirely at any time. None of the terms and conditions of this RFP can be revoked or amended in any way by Suppliers without the prior written agreement of EBRD.
7.2 Supplier CostsEBRD is not responsible for any Supplier costs associated with this RFP, Supplier responses or any contract discussions or negotiations. Nor is EBRD responsible for any indirectly related costs. No statement by EBRD should be viewed as a request by EBRD or justification for Suppliers to increase or change inventory, staff, facilities, business relationships with its suppliers, or internal business processes. All actions by Suppliers in response to this RFP or subsequent discussions or negotiations should be taken with the clear understanding that neither this RFP nor subsequent actions or omissions by EBRD obligate or commit EBRD to pay or reimburse Suppliers for any costs or expenses they incur. This RFP is not an offer to enter into a contract.
7.3 Professional CompetenceSuppliers shall absolutely rely on their own professional competence in evaluating and verifying the information contained in this RFP. Suppliers must take every opportunity to inspect and verify the information contained or referred to in this document or subsequent to it, subject to the confidentiality restrictions as detailed in section 7.6 of this RFP.
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7.4 Intellectual Property The information contained in this RFP will remain EBRD’s intellectual property. Suppliers are granted a limited, revocable license to use the same for the purpose of responding to the RFP. By submitting a response to the RFP Suppliers grant EBRD a royalty free, irrevocable license to use the intellectual property in the proposal for its internal business purposes in relation to the procurement of the services required.
7.5 Sole ResponseSubmission of a response as part of this process shall be deemed to be the Suppliers’ only offer(s).
7.6 ConfidentialitySuppliers shall treat the RFP and EBRD's process of evaluating Suppliers as strictly private and confidential. The contents of this RFP, including specification, designs, drawings or other related documents shall be considered confidential and shall not be disclosed by the Supplier, the Supplier’s servants or agents to any persons, firm or corporation without the prior written consent of EBRD. Any such specifications, designs, drawings or other documents shall remain the property of EBRD and shall be returnable to EBRD within five (5) days of the Supplier receiving either, notification that it has been unsuccessful, or on written request from EBRD. EBRD will require Suppliers to sign an NDA or similar agreement related to the examples to be used in the demonstration/presentation.
7.7 EBRD Logo ProtectionPlease be advised that EBRD logo is a registered service mark and as such should not be reproduced without the express written permission of the Bank.
7.8 GeneralIncomplete or inadequate responses, lack of response to an item or items, or misrepresentation in responding to this documentation may result in rejection of a Supplier’s Proposal.
After receipt of the RFP and until the award of any contract, neither information relating to the examination, clarification, evaluation and comparison of the submissions nor recommendations concerning the award of a contract shall be disclosed to the Supplier, or to any other outside parties, until the RFP process has been concluded and a contract awarded.
Any effort by a Supplier to influence EBRD in the process of examination, evaluation and comparison of the RFP, or in decisions regarding the award of a contract, shall result in the rejection of the Supplier’s Proposal.
Ownership of documentation or other information submitted in the RFP will become the property of EBRD unless otherwise requested at the time of submission. Any materials submitted in response to the RFP, which are considered to be confidential, should be clearly marked as such by the Supplier.
The Bank reserves the right to accept or reject any RFP response, or part thereof, and to annul the RFP process and reject all RFP responses at any time prior to award of contract without incurring any liability to the affected parties.
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Annex A Technical Considerations
Applications currently used at EBRD, for information:
Data Source /Application Name and Version
Description
Oracle Database v11+ One of the Bank’s existing strategic relational database management platforms.
Microsoft SQL Server(v2008R2 and 2012)
One of the Bank’s existing strategic relational database management platforms.
MS Office 2010 (32 bit) EBRD’s standard desktop office tools.
MS Outlook 2010 SP2 EBRD’s standard mail system
MS Windows 7 SP1 (64 bit) EBRD’s standard desktop environment
Internet Explorer 11 EBRD’s standard browser
Citrix XenApp 6.5 EBRD’s remote working desktop
Bolden James Classifier EBRD’s data classifier, add-in for MS Office
NOTE: The Bank is currently working towards at a new Target Operating Model which is likely to utilise cloud centric facilities and as such we will be evaluating how the tool can operate in these environments.
The Bank expects the Platform to be used by the following numbers of users:
Number of users*:WorkstationSpreadsheet
Checking
SpreadsheetManagement
SpreadsheetReviewers
Adminis-trators
Estimates of Users**
(who could use the Solution on a daily basis)
3000 400 50 5
* Users are spread over multiple geographic locations (50 offices) with the majority (approx. 2000) being based in our London HQ.** The number of users in each role is not mutually exclusive; we would have administrators that would be using all elements of the tool.
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Annex B Minimum Requirements Checklist
Please note only Suppliers who can answer “yes” to all of the following questions are eligible to participate in this tender,
Requirement DescriptionYes/ No
1. Service requirements
Supplier organisation has a minimum of 3 years’ company trading experience.
Yes/No
2. Service requirements
Supplier organisation possesses its own, proprietary Enterprise Spreadsheet Management Tool that has been on the market for a minimum of 2 years.
Yes/No
3. Service requirements
Supplier organisation has existing clients who are using their Enterprise Spreadsheet Management Tool for at least 2 years.
Yes/No
4. Scan/Discovery Solution has the ability to scan any NTFS file system to discover and catalogue Excel files.
Yes/No
5. Scan/Discovery Solution has the ability for an administrator to configure a complexity/risk calculation based on at least the following factors: formula complexity; spreadsheet size; linkages; number of errors; hidden cells/sheets; VBA code.
Yes/No
6. Scan/Discovery Solution has the ability to rate discovered Excel files according to the complexity/risk calculation defined above.
Yes/No
7. Scan/Discovery Solution has the ability to catalogue the linkages between Excel spreadsheet and other sources of data.
Yes/No
8. Scan/Discovery Solution has the ability to always monitor spreadsheets that pass a complexity/risk threshold.
Yes/No
9. Scan/Discovery Solution provides the catalogue of Excel files in a navigable interface to be able to visualise scanned locations and associated linkages.
Yes/No
10. Scan/Discovery Solution has the ability to enter and maintain in a secure location any spreadsheet passwords and use them to access files being scanned to produce a complexity/risk rating.
Yes/No
11. Scan/Discovery Solution has the ability to schedule scans based on file locations at a recurring frequency; daily, weekly or monthly, which can be set differently depending on the dept. or location [i.e. the drive, directory and subdirectories of files].
Yes/No
12. Scan/Discovery Solution schedule mechanism has the ability to initiate scans at defined times of the day and between defined hours.
Yes/No
13. Scan/Discovery Solution generates documentation on the results of each scan. Yes/No
14. Spreadsheet Analysis
Solution has available an add-in within Excel to be able to perform spreadsheet analysis initiated by the user.
Yes/No
15. Spreadsheet Analysis
Spreadsheet analysis checks the spreadsheet for anomalies and will alert the user to these. At a minimum the following should be checked and reported on; formulas; cell errors; invisible data; links; input errors; range names; add-ins and VBA code.
Yes/No
16. Spreadsheet Analysis
User tool can be used with no/minimal training to use the majority of the features.
Yes/No
17. Spreadsheet Management
Solution has available a workflow system for review and approval that can be assigned to spreadsheet files. The workflow should be configurable so that different reviewers can be assigned based on
Yes/No
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Requirement DescriptionYes/ No
individual files.
18. Spreadsheet Management
Solution has available a version control and compare mechanism where users can specifically add a new version of a spreadsheet and be able to compare between versions.
Yes/No
19. Spreadsheet Management
The solution should be able to track a file through the system when it is saved as a new spreadsheet so that an association is maintained between files being saved as new versions, i.e. a new monthly/quarterly file. The old and new files should then be available to the compare mechanism to see changes from one to the other.
Yes/No
20. Reporting The solution should allow the development of additional reports using either a built in report builder or other reporting tool (please state which one).
Yes/No
21. Reporting The out of the box reports should cover reporting under all the following areas: analytic, comparison, workflow, audit and system management.
Yes/No
22. Maintenance / Support
The solution should be able to be integrated with Active Directory to enable single sign-on and synchronise with users/groups at least on a daily basis.
Yes/No
23. Maintenance / Support
The solution should be able to assign/set roles/access rights against groups/individuals based on the Active Directory users/groups.
Yes/No
24. Maintenance / Support
As a minimum the Supplier should be available to provide support from 9am to 5pm UK time week days.
Yes/No
25. Maintenance / Support
The Supplier should ensure that the solution is enhanced / updated on a regular basis at least within 6 months of a new version of Excel being released.
Yes/No
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Annex CScope of Requirements
1. BACKGROUND
1.1 Implementation
The Bank requires that Suppliers provide professional services to implement the initial “pilot” in conjunction with Bank staff.
The cost of this implementation should be included in the quotation file (Annex D).
The initial pilot will be within a banking unit that has approximately 200 critical spreadsheets where we require the following outcome:
Server-side installation and configuration of the spreadsheet management software (to include both London and a single residence office should local installation be required).
Roll-out of software to the initial pilot unit. Testing and approval of the software for the pilot. Support and training to allow the Bank to further roll-out and maintain the Tool using
internal resources.
1.2 Scan/Discovery Mechanism
A significant requirement is a scan/discovery mechanism that can be used across the Bank’s infrastructure to identify and catalogue all spreadsheets so that spreadsheets can be identified as ‘significant’. It should also be possible to manually indicate a spreadsheet as ‘significant’.
Each spreadsheet should be scanned and given a ‘complexity’ rating and added to a catalogue of spreadsheets. The ‘complexity’ rating is then used to signify that a spreadsheet is ‘significant’.
The ‘complexity’ rating to be based at a minimum on the following:
formula; complexity; spreadsheet size; linkages; number of errors; hidden cells/sheets and VBA code
The complexity rating can be configured by an administrator.
The tool must have the facility for a user or administrator to enter and maintain in a secure location any spreadsheet passwords and use them to access files being scanned to produce a ‘complexity’ rating.
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It would be advantageous to allow different rules to be applied to produce a ‘complexity’ rating based on the department/location being scanned, i.e. the folder/subfolders.
The Tool should automatically include in the spreadsheet management functionality, spreadsheets that are above a threshold ‘complexity’ rating.
It would be advantageous for the Tool to optionally use the Bolden James classification of the spreadsheet when producing a ‘complexity’ rating.
The Tool should allow those spreadsheets, identified through the process above, to be justified and accepted if not then deemed “significant”, with such reasons recorded and then for these reasons to be periodically re-assessed as prompted by the tool.
It would be advantageous for the Tool to have a ‘light’ scanning facility that can be used to update the catalogue using details from the spreadsheet file attributes so that it is possible to gauge volumes and frequency of updates.
The Tool needs to generate reporting based on the scanning that will help the Bank to visualise the volumes, links and complexity of both individual spreadsheets and groups of spreadsheets within department folders along with the details of scans performed.
The scanning Tool should work from a schedule where multiple scheduled scans can be setup based on daily, weekly and monthly cycles and combinations. The schedule should include the file location/locations where the scan is to be performed with the possibility of an exclusion file location list being included.
1.3 Spreadsheet Analysis
The Tool should allow spreadsheets to be checked on a one-off basis and also be checked on an ongoing basis. Each spreadsheet being checked needs to be analysed for integrity, scanned to identify anomalies resulting in alerts on such factors as the following (not an exhaustive list):
Formula analysiso hard coding in a formula – numbers appear in formulas;o reference error – a formula contains one or more incorrect references to
other cells;o logic error – a formula is used incorrectly leading to an incorrect result;o copy/paste error – a formula is wrong due to inaccurate use of copy/paste;o omission error – a formula is wrong because one or more of its input cells
is blank;o hidden rows/columns or sheets;o missing reference (#REF) or incorrect function (#NAME?);o reveal presence of macros;
Data controlso comparison analysis – including identify anomalies/tolerances;o data input error;o data flows, references to external data;o range names; and o sensitivity analysis – impact of each data input; and
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o highlight add-ins.
Mapping precedents and dependentso plug-ins;o macros;o spot references to external data; ando data flows and references to external data.
The Tool should incorporate a custom-made review (Risk Checker) allowing users to create their own checks according to the type of spreadsheet; e.g. check change in sensitivities, change in initial projections of a model or change in final ratios.
Spreadsheet analysis should be performed from each user’s workstation and be available when using Excel. The spreadsheet analysis facility should also be available as part of the scan/discovery mechanism and be an input into the complexity rating.
The spreadsheet analysis Tool should be easy to use by each user with little or no training.
1.4 Spreadsheet Management
Each spreadsheet put into the Tool needs to be tracked so that any changes can be identified and the review process / comments are incorporated in history, with a sign off process. The Tool should be able to perform the following:
version control (scheduled, ad-hoc), to see how many times the spreadsheet was altered and when it was last accessed and modified (date and time);
analysis of spreadsheet changes from one version to another (including the currently open spreadsheet);
analysis of version history and possible rollback, highlighting all the changes between one version and another;
track new names of files, i.e. new file saved each month; optional management of the approval of spreadsheets including
comments/review notes, notification of approval stages and tracking of review comments;
spreadsheet approval workflow initiation to be based on key cell changes, formula changes or significant value changes, i.e. threshold or percentage change;
sending of alerts via email for any approval/rejection action; configuration and assignment of review and approval workflows to
individual spreadsheets or groups of spreadsheets, i.e. by department or file location;
assignment of workflow reviewer to individual files or folders.
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1.5 Reporting
Reporting should be available out of the box and also be customisable and easy to use. The following areas of reporting should be available out of the box (this is not an exhaustive list):
Analytic Complexity categorisation Exception lists VBA analysis Reporting for scan/discovery to include details of linkages either as a diagram/list
or both Reporting of scan/discovery schedule history including timings
Comparison Audit trail Spreadsheet compare
Workflow Reporting from the Tool to include information on spreadsheets (history,
integrity, reviews) Status of all managed spreadsheets, i.e. approved, waiting approval Workflow details and history
System Management System usage (users, roles, volumes) Access rights (users, groups) System health System audit reports
It should be possible to build additional reports easily using either a built-in report builder or other reporting tool (please state which).
It should be possible to control access to run/maintain reports based on the user role assigned. It would be desirable to allow reports to be scheduled and emailed to users/groups.
1.6 Maintenance & Support
The Tool needs to be secure so that access is controlled by user/role/group and assignable to each spreadsheet group/location or individual file. An audit trail should be held of access by users and appropriate reports made available to report on user access. Active Directory should be the source of all users and groups allowing single sign-on. The users and groups need to synchronised with Active Directory either in real-time or on an overnight basis..
The Bank will take responsibility for first line support, but ideally requires second line technical support from the Supplier during UK office hours (08:00 – 18:00 Monday to Friday and 08:00 – 16:00 Saturday and Sunday).
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TECHNICAL RESPONSE
Please provide written responses to all of the following questions in relation to the Scope of Requirements
1. Implementation
The Suppliers’ Response must include the following:
Proposed approach, methodology and project governance. CVs of the Project Team which the Supplier is proposing to deliver the
implementation, identifying their experience of implementation of the tool (e.g. a “lead” consultant), their contract status (permanent or subcontracted staff), and their length of time with the company.
Work Plan and Team Assignment, detailing key milestones. Any training necessary for Bank staff to administer, configure and operate the
software. This may include shadowing the implementation consultants and/or some formal training.
Description of any commitments that would be made to address a situation where a key member of the Implementation team (provided by the Supplier) unexpectedly became unavailable.
Outline of the capacity to draw on resources when necessary from other areas of the Supplier’s organisation.
Any assumptions / requirements made of the Bank. Please detail any expected hardware and software requirements the Bank must
supply for your proposed implementation. Please detail in your proposed Work Plan the staffing resources the Bank will be
required to provide.
2. Ease of Use
Subject to a successful pilot, the Tool will be installed on all Bank workstations to be used by anyone that builds / uses spreadsheets. The users’ skill levels will range from beginners to highly skilled. The Tool should be easy to use by any users of the system, accepting that administrative tasks will require an increased level of skill. Please give details of how the Tool is easy to use:
Effectiveo How does the interface present choices in a way that is clearly understandable
and appropriate to the user?o How informative is the interface, to allow users to be able to work in it with
minimal training.o How does the interface provide completeness and accuracy which allows users
to achieve the task required? Efficient
o How efficiently can users complete the tasks for which they use the product, i.e. the number of clicks or keystrokes required?
o How do navigation design elements, such as keyboard shortcuts, menus, links and other buttons, have clearly expressed actions, enabling less time and effort needed for the user to make navigation and action choices?
Error Tolerant
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o How does the interface reduce the ability to take incorrect actions? Are the buttons distinctive, using clear language, avoiding technical jargon and putting dependent fields or choices together?
o Does the interface limit choices where possible to those which are correct, providing clear areas for data entry and presenting only appropriate navigation options?
o How does the interface provide the ability to backtrack? Does it provide the means to undo or reverse actions without indiscriminately using confirmations?
Easy to Learno How intuitive is the interface in allowing users to build on their knowledge
without deliberate effort?o How helpful is the interface in providing built-in instruction for difficult or
advanced tasks, access to just-in-time training elements, connections to domain knowledge bases?
o How can users build on their prior knowledge of computer systems, and also what they have learned through using the Tool in a predictable way, i.e. consistent terminology, familiar locations of design elements and controls and similar behaviours of similar functionalities?
3. Scan/ Discovery Mechanism Please provide detail on how the proposed tool will meet the requirements in Annex
C – Scope of Requirements - 1.2 Scan / Discovery Mechanism
The Bank intends to use the Tool to scan localised storage locations, i.e. NTFS and NetApp Filers, and also to extend this scanning in the future to scan cloud based filing systems (being explored as part of our new Technical Operating Model) and files stored on the Bank’s OpenText enterprise content management system, along with files stored on local workstations.
Please give details of how your Tool can be used to perform this and any bespoke work necessary.
The Bank currently has Resident Offices based at over 50 locations. Even though all these locations have network connectivity to its London HQ, this connection can be quite slow. The solution should be able to handle scanning files at remote locations with slow network connectivity.
Please provide details of how this can be achieved.
4. Spreadsheet Analysis
Please provide detail on how the proposed Tool would meet the requirements in Annex C – Scope of Requirements - 1.3 Spreadsheet Analysis.
5. Spreadsheet Management
Please detail how the proposed Tool meets all requirements in Annex C – Scope of Requirements - 1.4.Spreadsheet Management.
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6. Reporting
Please detail how the proposed tool would meet all of the requirements in Annex C – Scope of Requirements - 1.5.Reporting
7. Maintenance and Support
Please give details at an overview level the technical skills / training required to maintain and manage the Tool.
Please give details at an overview level the details of your upgrade / patching release policy and approach to upgrades on the Tool. The Bank expects a well-defined and supported upgrade/patching release policy requiring a minimum amount of downtime and so, at a minimum, please provide the following information:
- the date of the most recent major release; - the planned date of the next major release; - the frequency of major releases; - the quality assurance/testing processes to be followed; - how upgrades are supported.
Please give details at an overview level the proposed development roadmap for the products under your control which are used in the Tool?
Please confirm your organisation's commitment to stay in line with future versions of MS Windows and MS Office. Please give details of the versions of Excel, Google sheets and Excel Online that you support.
Please state whether your application includes an "out of the box" function to determine when a capability is down and to notify Support of the same.
Please state whether any support will be provided by a third party and if so how this will be delivered in accordance with the Bank’s requirements.
Please state at an overview level the complete lifecycle of a support call – from the point the Bank’s Helpdesk initiates a call and passes it over to your organisation, specifically indicating:
- the method of call logging; - standard SLAs; - integration of SLAs into the call logging system; - internal escalation procedures; - external escalation procedures; - remote support capability; - capability to provide onsite resources as requested & time to attend site;- remedies for not meeting SLAs.
The Tool needs to be secure so that access is controlled by user/role/group and assignable to each spreadsheet group/location or individual file. An audit trail should be held of access by users and appropriate reports made available to report on user access. Active Directory should be the source of all users and groups allowing single sign-on. The users and groups need to synchronised with Active Directory either in real-time or on an overnight basis.
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Please provide details of how the Tool meets this requirement.
The Bank will take responsibility for first line support, but ideally requires second line technical support from the Supplier during UK office hours (08:00 – 18:00 Monday to Friday and 08:00 – 16:00 Saturday and Sunday).
Please state the details of your support offering which most closely matches this requirement.
8. Technical Questions
8.1 Client Architecture If any application access is provided through a browser, please give details of
which browsers are supported and whether there is any specific browser under which your application performs best.
Can the client run over Citrix? What is the memory footprint required for fat clients if any? Can any application UI be customised to match the EBRD look and feel?
8.2 Infrastructure Please give details of the physical architecture / deployment architecture of the
application. Please give details of which databases and versions you support and under
which your application performs best. Please give details of whether an application server would be required and if
so which one. Please give details of which OS you support and under which your application
performs best. Please give details of any client/server side components you would require
(e.g. ODBC libraries, browser). Please give details of any third party libraries you would require. Please give details of any automatic restart functionality for the Tool
components Please describe how you back up the application and how the data is archived. Please give details of your recommended DR approach. Please state if you support transparent failovers for all / some of the layers. Please state what your supported software platforms are and preferred
versions. If users are spread geographically, please describe the recommended strategy
in terms of deployment for minimising latency. Please give details of any cloud based solution you currently have or have
plans to deliver in the next 3 years.
8.3 Scalability/Performance Please give details any algorithm for determining the maximum number of
concurrent users for a given hardware configuration.
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Please state the maximum number of users (peak usage) the system has been tested with.
Please describe how your platform scales. Please describe how the database scales depending on volumes. Please state if you have pre-defined performance metrics and if so explain how
they can be monitored.
8.4 Integration Architecture Please describe your reporting architecture specifically if you include third
party reporting tool and if so how they can be swapped in or out of the application.
Please describe how to best load data into a separate Data Warehouse. Please state if you have an entity relationship model of your database entities. Please state if you recommend / allow direct database access for support tasks. If you have an API, please state which languages and versions are supported in
your API and if they are documented and how your API can be extended along with how you release API changes.
8.5 Security Please state if you support use of, or integration with, existing customer-based
Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions to your service and if yes, please provide details.
Please state if you provide granular Role Based Access Control (RBAC) within your solution both for user and administrative roles.
Are security event/audit logs generated by your solution?
9. Additional Information
Suppliers shall provide a statement giving a brief history of their company, how it is organised, and how its available products and resources will be used to meet EBRD's requirements. The Supplier shall submit the following information:
The company's official name and address. The Supplier shall also indicate what type of entity it is — for example, a corporation or a partnership.
The name, address and telephone number of the person to receive correspondence, and who is authorized to make decisions or represent the Supplier. Please state his or her capacity within the company.
The total number of years the Supplier has been in business and, if applicable, the number of years under the present business name.
The number of years that the Supplier has been providing products for Enterprise Spreadsheet Management, including the date that the specific products cited in the response to this RFP first became generally available, and the product’s lineage. That is, what prior major versions of the products have been available and what previous product generations or acquisitions contributed to the current flagship product’s capabilities.
How many customers are using the specific products for Enterprise Spreadsheet Management cited in the response in terms of: i) number of licenses sold; and
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ii) number of unique companies using the suite in production. Please confirm whether The Supplier organisation has implemented the
proposed solution to other financial institutions similar to the EBRD (such as IFIs or Banks) and if yes, please list the most relevant name(s) and describe the project(s).
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Annex D Quotation File
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Annex E Presentation Agenda.
An outline of the Demonstration / presentation is as follows, however EBRD will confirm exact timing and subject matter w/c 15th May (and at least 48 hrs prior to meeting)
i) Brief introduction of the Supplier’s organisation focusing on its track record in implementing the Tool in institutions similar to the EBRD (max. 20 minutes)
ii) Introduction to the proposed Tool and demonstration using examples supplied by EBRD, and own examples at Supplier’s discretion. (max. 2 hours)
Introduction of the key features of the Tool Demonstration of how the Tool will meet the requirements described in this document Key benefits of the Tool for EBRD
iii) Overview of the implementation process and product support (max. 20 minutes) Outline and description of the implementation process using case studies of similar
organisations Details of the skills and experience of the consultants to be used for the implementa-
tion Details on how the product is supported during and after implementation
During the presentation, the Supplier shall demonstrate how the Tool can most effectively be deployed to meet the Bank’s requirements. The Suppliers shall include as a minimum:
Step-by-step demonstration of the process If the base-product does not provide the functionality to meet the requirements out-of-the
box, a description of the development effort required, highlighting where customisation of the base-product is needed.
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