Clarifications 2 for Digital Data Gathering Platform DUB-FWA- 6811 DDG FWA.
Question / Answer1 / In 3.2, Overview of Required Supply, it states that GOAL is looking to award a FWA to a supplier or group of suppliers.
How many suppliers does GOAL envisage will be awarded the FWA as a part of this RFP? / The FWA will be for a single platform. This platform could potentially be developed and maintained by a group of suppliers.
2 / In section 5, Submission of Offer,
i) Is the financial offer and technical offer expected in separate emails?
ii) Does the financial offer have to be password protected?
iii) What is the maximum size of file that can be transmitted via email to GOAL’s servers in a single email? / Clarification: (i) Financial and Technical documents can be in separate attachments on the same email.
(ii) No, the financial documents do not need to be password protected
(iii) we would prefer several smaller emails rather than one or two very large mails, no more than 10-12MB per email)
3 / In section 6.3, Award Criteria, it states that
i) Price
ii) Quality of platform specifications
will be considered to determine the most economically advantageous tender.
Is there a percentage weightage to these two factors? / These percentages will be set by the tender committee but quality of the platform specifications will have a larger bearing on the decision.
3 / In section 3 it states:
“...to maintain a smooth functioning of our management information systems the service requirements listed in Appendix 2 are a minimum requirement.”
Are all the features mentioned in Appendix 2 a minimum requirement? The first clarification states that some features are desirable. Can GOAL publish a list of minimum/mandatory service requirements? / Code / Selection Criteria
FD-1 / Drag and drop form builder
DCQ-1 / Offline data collection
DCQ-2 / Wireless upload to server
DCQ-3 / Works on Android operating system
DSS-1 / Administrative access should be compartmentalized by country
DEA-1 / Link data directly with Power BI in (near) real-time
S-5 / Access to free direct support resources
S-6 / E-mail support
CM-1 / Case management with built-in, graphical user interface
4 / In Appendix 2, in the Form design section, requirement FD-12 states the need for calculation. Other than computing age from the DOB, are there any other use cases for calculation that GOAL envisages? Since this feature is planned to be released to users of our application in the coming month, it would be helpful to understand further on the requirements it may/may not be able to fulfill. / There is preferably a flexible syntax for carrying out calculations, these could include:
-Mathematical operations such as sum, divide, square
-Logical operations using if statements
-String operations such as concatenation
Other useful functions such as being able to count the number of options selected in a multiple choice question
5 / In Appendix 2, in the Form design section, requirement FD-16 states the need for the form to be displayed in multiple languages (but not necessarily exported as such). Our platform supports multiple languages that can be exported with the option to view the form in the language it was deployed in as well as a base language that was used as an alias. Can we have more clarity on what GOAL’s intent is with this requirement? / The ability to display in multiple languages without the question or value id’s changing. In other words, if we are working in a region with three different languages, we want the display on the mobile devices to show the relevant language, but there should be no difference in the exported data.
6 / In Appendix 2, in the Data Storage & Security section, DSS-4 mentions the need for AES and DSS-7 mentions the need for being secured with at-rest encryption. Are these requirements mandatory? / No, but preferable
7 / In Appendix 2, in the Data Collection and Quality section, are service requirements DCQ-4 Automated push/SMS reminders, DCQ - 5 Submit forms via SMS mandatory or not? / No
8 / In Appendix 2, in the Data Collection and Quality section, DCQ-6 Random survey audit requires question timer, background GPS capture and audio audit. Are all these mandatory? Currently our platform has a form submission timer and we can add question timer and background GPS capture. It would great if we could get clarity on the same. / No
9 / In Appendix 2, in the Data Storage and Security section, is DSS-9 De-identification of data mandatory or not? / No
10 / In Appendix 2, in the Case Management section, CM-1 Built-in, graphical user interface for case management refers specifically to graphical user interface we mean select fields and/or drag & drop. Could this please be elaborated? Are there any other specific requirements? / Here is an example of how GOAL would like to use case management:
-Create a form that registers an individual
-Create a form that follows-up on the health status of that individual on a three-monthly basis
-Save selected responses from both forms as case properties
-The latest responses from the follow up form should overwrite the most recent data saved in the corresponding case properties.
-When exporting the case and follow-up form they should be linkeable through an automatically generated ID, so that both the latest case data, as well as case data over time can be analyzed.
All of this should be reasonably easy for a GOAL staff member to set up from within the application builder and not necessitate coding.
11 / In Part 1.2 ("Profile"), section 3 of the tender and Part 3 ("Self-declaration of finance and tax") section 1, you ask for the total turnover and turnover of the good offered in the tender for the last three years. These are essentially financially-sensitive revenue figures.
As a private company with investors, we have legal obligations and non-disclosure agreements about what financial details we can and cannot disclose to third-parties (if we were a public company this would not be an issue, but we are not a public company listed on a stock exchange). Therefore, it is not possible for us to legally provide you with exact turnover figures.
I assume the purpose of these questions is to gauge the size and financial health of the vendor. To help with that, what we can do is provide a large range within which our revenue figures fall. That could meet your goal of getting an estimate of financial health (and financial trends in turnover) without us having to violate our financial disclosure agreements.
Would that be acceptable? / Yes this would be acceptable as this is a self-declaration. Please however ensure you state clearly on the self-declaration document that this is a range within which your revenue figures fallrather than an exact figure.
12 / For requirement DEA-1, the ability to link to PowerBI in real time, it has not been specified what PowerBI subscription plan GOAL uses. Note that the full list of data sources that PowerBI can link to is not available to all PowerBI users. Depending on GOAL's plan, GOAL may not have access to certain PowerBI features. Can you clarify, what PowerBI plan goes GOAL have? That will determine what data sources you can link to. / Power BI Pro
13 / i) For requirement DSS-6, the option to have HIPAA compliance, whether that option is included or not can make a huge difference to hosting and subscription costs. Unless HIPAA compliance is standard across countries, it may not make sense to have all country programs using higher-cost servers that have HIPAA-compliant storage simply as it might be needed in the future. To help clarify the difference and let GOAL judge the trade-offs, if the financial breakdown includes the subscription costs for servers without HIPAA compliance and a separate line item with HIPAA compliance costs, how will it be scored? Is it possible to score both financial options separately, so that simply offering an alternative hosting option that is HIPAA compliant does not conceal the fact that a non-HIPAA compliant, lower-cost hosting option is also available? / Yes, please elaborate on these different alternatives in the financial breakdown.
There is a lot of fraud in the HIPAA compliance space to reduce costs (vendors will often claim that HIPAA compliance just requires signing a BAA because existing infrastructure is HIPAA "ready", however, by the very definition of HIPAA's full requirements that is impossible as HIPAA compliance requires specific third-party security audits be conducted for each HIPAA compliant server/user after a BAA is signed but before a server can be declared HIPAA compliant - these audits must be conducted separately on each HIPAA server annually). We have seen a lot of cases where users request HIPAA compliance without truly holding vendors who promise HIPAA compliance to real HIPAA standards, creating a competitive disadvantage to vendors providing an honest, real HIPAA compliant set up. What follow up will GOAL conduct with any vendor who promises HIPAA compliance (beyond just signing a BAA) to ensure that the servers are truly HIPAA compliant beyond simply the BAA requirement? / For the moment we require that hosted data meets the essential security and availability requirements for HIPAA compliance and signing a BAA. We will however be recruiting a data protection officer, who will do follow-ups at a later stage to work out the details of HIPAA compliance.
Clarification box 15
Page / Section / Question / Answer
13 / 3.1 / General Perquisites”What does GOAL mean by Goal Staff is looking for an off the shelf mobile data collection and storage platform that enables the GOAL staff to build custom mobile applications? (Wanting to make sure expectations are that mobile forms applications are the core of "mobile" application request.) / With mobile data collection platforms we have something like Open Data Kit (ODK: in mind. The service must include hosting of data as well.
13 / 3.1 / What is DDG and how long have they been using it? What is the current solution currently being used and why is the project being considered at this point? What limitations in the current system are not present and need to be addressed? / Digital Data Gathering. GOAL currently uses CommCare and is tendering to see if alternative platforms exist with similar or better features at a lower price.
13 / 3.1 / What type of tablets, phablets, or tablet hybrids might be used? Is there an organization device requirement that is currently being deployed. (Device specifications should be disclosed if possible. ) / Various, but all running on Android.
13 / 3.2 / What does the hierarchy look like for those in charge of of form design? Is someone at the head office going to be training new country users on how to use the form builder since there may be a high turn over rate? Is the intention for HQ to be able to onboard and train new employees or is the intention that the vendor is able to support a fully managed service and train remotely. / Training will be done by GOAL, but the availability of online training materials will be taken into consideration.
14 / 3.2 / What are the Languages are supported. Will the reports have to be in the native language or just the forms? Is there a list of current languages supported across all countries? We offer localization support on the mobile device and keyboards need clarification on system requirements and in country capacity. / With multi-language support we expect a form to be translatable in various languages (including non-latin scripts), all feeding in to the same data structure (i.e. question id’s stay the same)
14 / 3.3 / How often will automated reminders have to go out and what will trigger the automated reminders? Are the notifications on a schedule or should they be launched at random? / This varies, the cost per SMS does not have to be included in the financial overview.
14 / 3.3 / SMS Data and sending forms…What percentage of projects/forms/solutions require SMS data capture? / This varies, the cost per SMS does not have to be included in the financial overview.
14 / 3.4 / We need to learn more about what they expect out of device level encryption and why it has to be HIPPA certified? What are the current standards in the EU that need to be met? / Applications on the device should be username and password protected.
14 / 3.4 / What EU data standards and protections laws are they going by and does the data have to be stored in the EU? / General Data ProtectonRegulaton (GDPR), data does not have to be stored in the EU
15 / 3.6 / What type of tiered support will be covered in the chat or on phone calls…Can you define the nature of the support to be provided? What is the expectation of GOAL for end user support verse defined support agents on the account? / Primarily bug related issues. Design issue to be handled by GOAL.
17 / FD-3 / XLS type for builder/editor - What are the form building requirements to be able to create forms? / An example:
18 / FD-17 / How often will non-latin font come up in projects and forms? What languages are currently used in projects? / Frequently: Amharic and Arabic
19 / DCG-6 / Please elaborate more on what you mean by Random Survey Audit means. What are the expectations of a question timer? And, what is expected of an Audio Audit? Please provide a day in the life of example and use case. / An example from Survey CTO:
23 / CM-1 / CASE MANAGEMENT: How are the cases created? Is someone in an office picking a beneficiaries to received food or cash or are front line workers doing a distribution and they distributed it to the beneficiaries as needed? Please elaborate on built-in? Will this mean an interface that makes it easy for application developers to select which questions in a form are used to link cases? Can you provide a detailed description of the "ideal" workflow? / Here is an example of how GOAL would like to use case management:
-Create a form that registers an individual
-Create a form that follows-up on the health status of that individual on a three-monthly basis
-Save selected responses from both forms as case properties
-The latest responses from the follow up form should overwrite the most recent data saved in the corresponding case properties.
-When exporting the case and follow-up form they should be linkeable through an automatically generated ID, so that both the latest case data, as well as case data over time can be analyzed.
All of this should be reasonably easy for a GOAL staff member to set up from within the application builder and not necessitate coding.
Who and how are responsible for "register case properties?" / Frontline workers
Who and how will have responsibility to overwrite case properties? When will this activity actually be performed? Context will be helpful here. / When a follow up form is filled out, questions designated by the application developer as case properties should be overwritten
23 / CM-2 / How do you link a case to a mobile worker? Is it assigned to the users by a person in the field or done automatically? How is this preformed currently in the existing system? / If the mobile worker registers the case then that case is assigned to them. It should be possible however to reassign the case to a different mobile worker if needed (by an admin)
Section 16 Questions
Question / Answer
A / After a case is created, do we need to be able to track the status of the case at all times? For example, if a user gives food to people in village…do we need to track that the food actually made it to those people in real time? What are the criteria for a case to be open, closed, modified? / The criteria are determined by the individual designing the application. The status will change depending on how often monitoring is done and what the results are.
B / Do you need to be able to reassign cases. Example - mobile worker A is sick so then it needs to be assigned to mobile worker B. Is the office responsible for reassignment or does the field worker perform this task? / Yes
C / What is an application developer? Do you have resume or summary of qualifications of an application developer? / An application developer is expected to be able to digitize forms, understand basic logic (display & validation), understand how relational data structures work. The application developer is not expected how to write lines of code.
D / Can you outline the definition of the stakeholders involved in the entire DDG from HQ to Field? / Global MIS Advisor: responsible for overall roll out of information systems
In-country MIS focal point(s): responsible for developing the applications in conjunction with M&E Coordinator and project staff
Mobile workers and supervisors: responsible for collecting data.