Expression of Interest (EOI)

CONSULTANCY SERVICES FOR BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYSIS AND ToR DEVELOPMENT FOR THE LAB INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR NIRDA

1. Introduction 

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The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federally owned international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. GIZ has worked in Rwanda for over 30 years. The primary objectives between the Government of Rwanda and the Federal Republic of Germany are poverty reduction and promotion of sustainable development. To achieve these objectives, GIZ Rwanda is active in the sectors of Decentralization and Good Governance, Economic Development and Employment Promotion, Energy, and ICT (Information and Communications Technology). The GIZ project "Digital Solutions for Sustainable Development" (DSSD) has a mandate to advise Rwandan institutions on the implementation of the Smart Rwanda Master Plan (2016-2020) and its priority projects. The project also aims to promote the development of digital solutions in collaboration with sector ministries, local and international private companies, research institutions and civil society.  

The Digital Solutions for Sustainable Development project entered a new phase in 2021. In addition to digital solutions that are being developed together with the Rwandan partner authorities, more vulnerable groups such as the rural population, women and people with disabilities are to be involved in the digital transformation in line with the approach Leave no one behind.  One of the project objectives is designed to develop initiatives to promote digital participation in collaboration between public and private stakeholders. The assumption here is that digital skills, combined with target-group-specific digital services, will enable a large proportion of the population to be part of the digital transformation and use these services. To reach the target groups effectively, use leveraging effects and develop user-centric services, stronger cooperation between public and private actors is being promoted. This will contribute to develop and offer services in a systematic and coordinated manner.

One of the key beneficiaries of the digitization efforts from the Digital Solutions for Sustainable Development project (DSSD) is The National Industrial Research and Development Agency (NIRDA). NIRDA is now in the close working relationship with DSSD on several digitization efforts and one of them is in this regard. 

2. Context

The National Industrial Research and Development Agency (NIRDA) is a government institution that has been mandated with a mission to enable a generation of industrial innovators to become competitive through technology monitoring, acquisition, development, and transfer as well as applied research.

To achieve its mandate, NIRDA has two laboratories, a Life Science and STEM for Industry Laboratory that focus on industrial applied research activities. The research activities conducted by the laboratory generate diverse types of data which must be well kept, easily tracked and shared.

Currently all laboratory functionality is paper based, time consuming and requires several staff to accomplish simple tasks. This has caused three major challenges: 

• lack of efficient management of resources and processes, 
• Inadequate communication with the clients and stakeholders, 
• Inefficient control of laboratory documentation.

Lack of efficient management of resources and processes

NIRDA is in possession of two laboratories; one is NIRDA STEM for Industry (S4i) laboratory situated in Kigali (camp Kigali) and NIRDA life science laboratory (NIRDA-LSL) located in Huye District and managing these two laboratory resources and processes is quite challenging. 

Controlling inventories, equipment and facilities is difficult because of the paperwork involved. This causes delays in procurement of reagents and consumables, maintenance, and calibration of equipment in both laboratories. 

Additionally, sampling and sample handling (testing services) in the NIRDA life science laboratory is chaotic due to the amount of paperwork and individual signatures needed to process a test, and this is excluding the tests from the STEM lab which is not operational. 

Finally, monitoring of activities that take a long period of time like prototyping (product development) and incubation which often need real time reporting to be able to track the non-conforming works and/or improve the processes is often affected because of the paper-based reporting that makes process control a nightmare for the lab technicians/specialists. 

Inadequate communication system with the clients and stakeholders

Clients often need updates on the services offered by the laboratories, the procedures required to get these services, how to apply for these services plus follow-up on different requests made. However, because of the inefficiencies in the current system being used this has proved difficult and slow. 

Inefficient control of laboratory documentation                          

Running laboratories requires making updated documents (forms, methods, instructions, SOP, etc) accessible to users (depending on accessibility rights) plus real time data and information sharing, however due to the current paper-based system it is limited

3. Rationale/Objective

The National Industrial Research and Development Agency (NIRDA) needs to have in place a system that will improve laboratory research productivity, and efficiency, by organizing, keeping track of data associated with samples, experiments, Laboratory workflows, and communication between NIRDA and its clients. These clients include start-ups, innovators, industries, individuals, and public institutions partnering with NIRDA. 

A digitized Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) would be a more efficient and effective remedy to the inefficiencies in service delivery being faced by the laboratories as mentioned above. 

The services we envision to improve include but are not limited to the following:

• Sample management
• management of product development process
• Monitoring of incubation services
• Management of equipment (registering, maintenance and calibration plans and machine interfacing where possible)
• Inventory management (reagents and consumables registering, storage and use control and purchase plans),
• Data and document management, record keeping and audit trails
• Reports & dashboard generation. 

The system will also ease the communication with the clients by easing accessibility to information.

The proposed system should also interface with other systems already in use by NIRDA and be an open-source customizable platform secured allowing integration and interoperability and android compatible. Have interlinked modules that work together to make the entire system more manageable and easier to understand and operate.

The system should enable automated data recording, reporting, and computing with extensive data extraction, collection, and processing functions.

The System should be layered but not limited to the following proposed components/processes:

1. Users Management (user account expiration, disable Inactive users)
2. Supplier & Contract Management
3. Commodity Receipt Management
4. Laboratory stock management 
5. Monitoring sample management 
6. Managing dispatches/logistics
7. Reports management with Analytics, charts, graphs, maps, and mobile-friendly dashboards
8. Physical inventory review.
9. Integration of other existing and future systems at NIRDA 

4. Tasks to be performed by the contractor

The bidder is required to plan, organize, and facilitate the initial phase that will guide the development and deployment of the Laboratory Information Management System. 

The initial phase will include the design of the system architecture, a high-level & low-level requirements document, as well as business process mapping to further guide the development of the system.

Work package 1: Business process mapping  

• The contractor will ensure to work with NIRDA and its partners’ users and management, to analyse the current business processes and desired improvements which should be complete and fully documented as the foundation of the system design and present the “system design document” to NIRDA management and its key stakeholders.
• The Contractor should develop a high standard documentation of all business processes defined by NIRDA designed in BPMN with actors, systems, and activities.
• The design document should clearly address how the system will help to achieve the primary objectives set out in Chapter.2 & 3.
• The contractor should propose a minimum of 3 recommendations ranging from reporting advice to add on product suggestions, by leveraging their expertise to improve system efficiency. These 3 recommended options will then be compared in a structured pro/con process 
• In a systematic and holistic way, the consultant should determine functional and non-functional requirements and features of the system to be built.  And should match to the process documents.

Work package 2: Integration Architecture

• The contractor should develop a detailed integration architecture that will enable loose coupling with other government mainstream systems I.e., the NIRDA MIS & other GoR relevant systems.
• The contractor should develop a comprehensive knowledge transfer plan to ensure the efficient handover of the integrated architecture document and process mapping tools to NIRDA and its key stakeholders.

Work package 3: Prepare TOR for the tender of development and Implementation   

• The contractor should prepare quality assured ToR documents for the development and implementation tender based on the GoR standard format.
• The consultant should define the scope of the iterations based on prioritization and dependencies.

Work package 4: Reporting

• The following reports will be submitted by the contractor: 
  1. Inception report: This report shall be given two (2) weeks after the commencement of the assignment detailing but not limited to the approach and methodology, proposed work plan for undertaking the assignment, and implementation timeline scheduling of the assignment.
  2. Weekly progress reports: This report shall constitute a summary of the accomplished work and shall reveal in detail achieved milestones and the work plan for the coming week. The report shall also identify the problems encountered during the implementation of previous week’s activities and the suggested measures and needed help from NIRDA team to facilitate the next week’s work. This report should be submitted on a weekly basis.
  3. Draft and final Reports: This report will elaborate all activities undertaken during assignment execution including all project documentation. This will include all the integration architecture and business process mapping documentation and manuals, with the latter including feedback from all NIRDA stakeholders. As well as the final ToRs for the development and implementation of the system.

5. Expected Deliverables

The following deliverables shall be delivered to the Client:

• Deliverable 1: Inception report detailing that the Consultant understanding of the assignment and the methodology to be employed to complete the assignment; roadmap with specific, clear, and detailed milestones with their respective implementation, deployment timelines to ensure timely system delivery.
• Deliverable 2: Produce the detailed Integration Architecture, module and system integration architecture, system hierarchy/level diagram, system & user manual, and system entity relationship diagram and/or any other system related documentation.
• Deliverable 3: Produce a business processes document that highlights processes and desired improvements which should be complete and fully documented as the foundation of the system design.
• Deliverable 4: Develop a High-level requirements document which will include functional and non-function requirements that match the process documents.
• Deliverable 5: Based but not limited to the High-level requirement document, develop a low-level requirements document which include details of functions, features, and non-functional requirement. This document will provide a detailed description of how the system will look like and work to guide implementation.
• Deliverable 6: Develop Terms of Reference that will guide the development and implementation phase of the system.
• Deliverable 7: Ensure that required reports are timely submitted and adjusted accordingly as per respective feedback received from all different stakeholders involved.
• Deliverable 8: Produce a final detailed report at the completion of the assignment that includes all achieved milestones, challenges faced, and mitigation strategies used and recommendations that can guide future similar assignments.

Certain milestones, as laid out in the table below, are to be achieved by certain dates during the contract term: 

The selected Consulting Firm must carry out the project within two (2) months from the project start date.

Period of assignment: From 15.05.2022 until 15.07.2022.

6. Concept 

For the bid, the bidder is required to show how the objectives defined in Chapter 2 & 3 are to be achieved, if applicable under consideration of further specific method-related requirements (technical-methodological concept). In addition, the bidder must describe the management system for service provision. This should also include a contingency concept if the timeline of the development of the system changes due to the Coronavirus Pandemic or any other impediments 

7. Technical-methodological concept 

The bidder is required to consider the tasks to be performed with reference to the objectives of the services put out to tender (see Chapter 3). Following this, the bidder presents and justifies the strategy with which it intends to provide the services for which it is responsible (see Chapter 4).

The bidder is required to present the actors relevant for the services for which it is responsible and describe the cooperation with them. Experts in the field of business systems development.

The bidder is required to present and explain its approach to steering the measures with the project partners. 

The bidder is required to describe the key processes for the services for which it is responsible and create a schedule (project plan) that describes how the services according to Chapter 3&4 are to be provided. In particular, the bidder is required to describe the necessary work steps and, if applicable, take account of the milestones and contributions of other actors in accordance with Chapter 2 & 3.

8. Personnel concept

The bidder is required to provide personnel who are suited to filling the positions described, based on their CVs (see Chapter 7), the range of tasks involved and the required qualifications.

The below specified qualifications represent the requirements to reach the maximum number of points.

Team Leader/Project manager

Experience & Technical expertise

• Proven experience in architecting and/or developing high quality, robust Enterprise Applications involving complete SDLC.
• Proven Experience in Business Process Model and Notation
• Proven experience in assessing Non-functional requirements and functional requirements
• Should have implemented country level government projects
• Should have hands on experience in implementing IT projects, managing teams, and delivering IT projects on schedule. Personnel management, identifying the need for short-term assignments within the available budget, as well as planning and steering assignments and supporting local and international short-term experts
• Experience with regular reporting in accordance with deadlines.
• Proven experience in business process modelling & in development of use case scenarios.

Qualifications of the Consultant(s) 

• Master’s or Post Graduate degree in computer science /information technology or any other related field with at least 6 years of experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in software engineering/computer science / information technology with over 10 years of experience 

Technical Architect

Experience & Technical expertise

• Proven Experience in conceptualization and solution for implementing command center solutions.
• Proven experience in business process modelling & in development of use case 
• Proficient in state-of-the-art application/database layer instruction /prevention technology 

Qualifications of the Consultant(s) 

• Master’s Degree university degree in IT, Computer Science/Information Technology, or related field
• Excellent business language skills in English and Kinyarwanda
• 5 years’ Proven experience in system architecture and/or developing high quality, robust Enterprise Applications involving complete SDLC.

Systems Analyst 

Experience & Technical expertise

• Proven experience in business process modelling & conceptual models that define the structure, behaviour, and more views of a system.

Qualifications of the Consultant(s) 

• Master’s Degree university degree in IT, Computer Science/Information Technology, or related field
• Excellent business language skills in English and Kinyarwanda
• 5 years’ Proven experience in system architecture and/or developing high quality, robust Enterprise Applications involving complete SDLC

9. Requirements on the format of the bid

The structure of the bid must correspond to the structure of the ToR. In particular, the detailed structure of the concept (Chapter 4 work). The bid should be drawn up in English (language).

The CVs of the personnel proposed in accordance with Chapter 4 & 6 of the ToR must clearly show the position and job the proposed person held in the reference project and for how long. The CVs should also be submitted in English (language).

10. Evaluation and Submission of EOI

The Expression of Interest will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Individual profile,
• Relevant experience,
• Your strategies to assure agility, flexibility, and responsiveness,
• Personnel offer
• Financial offer.

The EoI should contain the following:

• For Technical Proposal: 
• • A Cover letter expressing interest in this assignment
  • Technical Proposal with a brief description of why you would be considered as the most suitable for the assignment, relevant expertise, and a detailed clear methodology, on how will be your approach and complete the assignment. It should be formatted, font type ARIAL, fond size 11, and should be clearly formulated. The offer should be drawn up in English language. 
  • The CVs shall not exceed 4 pages.
  • Business /company registration certificate 
  • Tax clearance certificate
  • References and recommendations of similar works executed in Rwanda for the
• Financial Proposal:

The Financial Proposal indicates the all-inclusive total contract price, supported by a breakdown of all costs. The cost must be in Rwf and VAT excluded. 

Please submit electronically your EoI (technical & Financial offer) in 2 separated emails and should be in PDF files to this email: RW_Quotation@giz.de  until latest 5th  May 2022  

Please you must write on each email subject this sentence: 

EOI number 83407483 submission of technical/financial offer, 

without this sentence, your offer may not be considered

Hard copies are not allowed this time

GIZ reserves all rights 

List of abbreviations

BMZ German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

DSSD Digital Solutions for Sustainable Development 

NIRDA National Industrial Research and Development Agency

GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit 

SDG Sustainable Development Goals.

ToR Terms of Reference

EoI Expression of Interest

SDLC Systems development life cycle

MIS Management Information System

BPMN Business Process Model and Notation.