Request for Quotes. Civil Society İnnovation Initiative Platform Development

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1 Request for Quotes Civil Society İnnovation Initiative Platform Development

2 Background The Civil Society Innovation Initiative (CSİI) is a strategic initiative co-implemented by Counterpart International and CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation and supported by multiple donors. CSİI s primary objective is to serve as a demand-driven resource lab for six regional Hubs. The establishment of these Hubs is being championed by civil society leaders in each region with support from Counterpart International and CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation. The soft launch of the first CSİI Hub is anticipated for September 2016 with ongoing roll out of additional Hubs throughout 2016 and Currently in the second phase of the CSİI project, Incubate, this phase will establish and operationalize the global infrastructure for the CSİI Hubs network, including its convening, communications, learning, innovation, impact-scaling architecture and resources, in collaboration with and as envisioned by regional CSİI Hubs. Statement of Work Background The CSİI platform will serve as the backbone of the CSİI Global Network. The platform will serve as an archival, networking, and virtual service delivery system. Each co-design workshop identified a collection of services and products that will require an online-presence to connect across borders, and to circumvent closed and closing spaces that do not allow ease of physical access to the hubs. The vision is to use the platform to create a virtual backbone to the CSİI system, but also to build a menu of options for services to which each hub may have access. The CSİI Incubate Team is looking for a platform that will fully reflect the ideals of innovation and collaboration that the project is built upon. It is looking for a developer that will be able to build or customize a platform that can support the numerous security requirements while still including the features of community collaboration and engagement and document management that are crucial to the CSİI community. The platform will make it simple for all users to access the toolkits and resources that it will house. The platform will be able to sustain a large network of civil society organizations and activists from around the world. It will support multiple languages and take into account that a number of CSİI members have limited access to internet and advanced technologies. The platform should have multiple layers of administration in line with the security requirements. Overall, the CSİI platform should have the flexibility to expand and grow with the project. It should also be able to adjust to the changing needs and challenges of the CSİI communities, whether this means the ability to easily add increased functionalities and applications or increased layers of security if needed in a certain region. Counterpart International 2

3 Program Objectives The purpose of this procurement is to secure a vendor that can either create or customize a platform to house the CSİI Global Network. More specifically, the CSİI Incubate team expects a vendor to: Create or customize a platform to meet the CSİI network s needs; Create a platform that is innovative and meets the security requirements outlined or has a plan for how to secure the conversations and members of the CSİI Global Network; Have a willingness for flexibility and collaboration. Technical Requirements High Level Platform Functionality Content Management and Publishing User Accounts User Roles and Content Workflow Group Collaboration Peer-to-Peer Messaging Search External and Network-Only Content Calendar Responsive Design Web Forms Analytics Content The platform will allow users to upload, edit, share and archive documents, as well as enable commenting for collaborative work. Documents should have a workflow reflecting an edited, approved or published states. Administrators should be able to make documents public or private only to members. The system should be able to screen for administrator-entered keywords within the edit and/or approve state. The platform should also house an events calendar for personal, group or general use. With events being public to all users or private to certain groups or individuals. A resources database with links to member organizations, job/volunteer opportunities posted by member organizations and consultants roster that is easily searchable by region or country, thematic area, language, etc. should be present in the members-only side of the platform. The platform should also have a peer-to-peer messaging capability, whether it be a plug-in for Hangouts, Skype, etc., or something similar. Group messaging and individual messaging should be options for members. Counterpart International 3

4 The platform should be accessible from both mobile phones and desktop computers. There should be a possibility to integrate SMS technology into the platform so that those operating in rural regions with no access to internet may still benefit from some of the platform s services. Users The platform should house an account creation form that is then submitted to an administrator for verification. A two-step verification process for users should be present. Different user roles should include administrators, moderators and users. The user should be able to set up a profile with contact information, biography and organizational information. The user dashboard should show relevant updates from system administrators and groups they belong, recent activity from groups and new messages. Search A keyword-based search functionality should be included in the platform that can pull from titles, metadata and tags as well as documents, comments and discussions. Search results should exclude member-only content if in a logged out state. Security, Hosting and Technical Capabilities Security, hosting and technical capabilities for the platform include: SSL Certificate Two-Step Verification Ability for Information and Data Encryption Server Side Performance Improvement Multi-Language Support (Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian in the first iteration with the ability to expand later) Multi-Site Management Options for Later Phases Analytics Platform administrators should be able to review traffic and behavior over time for the platform including: New Users Returning Users Bounce Rates Geography Page Visits Counterpart International 4

5 The platform should also allow users to provide feedback and reviews on available resources. This could also take the form of a rating system for resources to help administrators learn what is most useful to the CSİI community. Deliverables Schedule Due to the compressed time schedule for this platform and the collaborative nature of this initiative, CSİI Incubate requests bi-weekly updates from the vendor regardless of whether it is being created or if it is a vendor that is customizing a pre-existing platform. Updates can take place either as a Skype call or one-page update report submitted via . Evaluation Criteria Vendors will be evaluated on their creativity and innovative ideas, ability to meet the security requirements and community engagement and collaboration features as outlined in the technical requirements. If modifying a pre-existing platform, vendors will need to demonstrate how they will support the CSİI infrastructure on their platform and meet the security requirements. The ceiling amount for platform development is $100,000. Milestones Responses to this request should be received by Thursday, March 31 at 5 p.m. EST and can be submitted to Katie Mattern at rmattern@counterpart.org. Vendors are expected to submit their ideas to the Incubate Team to share with CSİI Regional Incubators for initial feedback at the International Civil Society Week April A beta platform for user testing and roll out should be completed by the end of May Another phase of feedback will be completed at the end of May or first week of June Vendors should be able to complete the platform by the end of September For vendors that are customizing features of pre-existing platforms, these should be completed by the end of April 2016 for feedback by the Regional Incubators at ICSW. Counterpart International 5