IEFTA Opens Bidding Process for ‘Telling the Real Story’ Website Redesign

IEFTA is currently working on a project – “Telling the Real Story” (TRS) – in partnership with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The project aims at providing information to refugees and people on the move about the dangers of undertaking irregular journeys to Europe, enabling them to make informed decisions about their future based on facts rather than on smugglers’ and traffickers’ narrative and misinformation from the diaspora.

IEFTA plans to contract a web-design company, or freelancer, to undertake the development and re-design of the ‘Telling the Real Story‘ website: www.tellingtherealstory.org.

NB: the budget that has been allocated for this website re-design does not exceed Euros 18,000.

Tender Criteria 

The supplier will be responsible for carrying out a redesign of www.tellingtherealstory.org based on the goals identified for the site as well as the findings of user research carried out by the project team.

The following are the expected impact of the redesign:

• To communicate the objectives of the project better
• Improve the website usability for our audience
• Improve SEO and site performance
• Improve the information architecture to facilitate seamless access to stories and videos
• Facilitate seamless sharing of content

Deliverables will include:

• Drafting and getting sign-off on functional specifications for site
• Design mock-ups
• Amends and final designs
• Development, including content placement
• Testing and amends
• Delivery of final product
• Procurement and installation of security certificate
• Management of hosting agreement
• Full handover to UNHCR team

Additional services to be considered:

• Support agreement/retainer – as a separate cost proposal

Competencies:

• Ability to work as part of a creative team to create wireframes, storyboards, and prototypes and propose design options, including for mobile and social media platforms, including experience developing community sites with heavy social media integration.
• Experience and ability to display and integrate graphics, videos, audio, animation, and other multimedia elements.
• Ensure proposed UI is fully compatible across the latest versions of mainstream browsers (e.g., Google Chrome, Apple Safari, IE Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera) and mobile and tablet UIs, and adheres to international web content accessibility standards.
• Strong knowledge of how design impacts on usability and accessibility across channels and devices.
• Direct experience applying UX, design and testing methodologies to web projects.
• Clear understanding of data architecture, modelling techniques and system development methodologies.
• Able to express oral and written ideas clearly and concisely and be able to work independently within structured goals and guidelines.
• Fluency in English

Experience required:

• Proficiency in Adobe Photoshop and Creative Suite, experience with web design software, extensive knowledge of interface design and interactive internet technologies: HTML, XML, PHP, Javascript, AJAX. Familiarity with W3C standards.
• Strong portfolio across a variety of digital projects and devices.
• Experience developing websites on open-source CMS such as WordPress or Drupal.
• Minimum of 8 years of previous job experience in web design

Submission Process

A) CONTENT OF THE TECHNICAL OFFER

1. Content of the technical offer:

Your technical offer should be concisely presented and structure in the following order to include, but not necessarily limited to, the following information :

2. Description of the company and company’s qualifications

This should include evidence of your company’s capacity to perform the services required, including:

• Company profile and official registration references (or certificate)
• Indication of similar projects undertaken
• 3 references from your client list, preferably for similar types of services

3. Understanding of the requirements for services, proposed approach, solutions, methodology and outputs 

The response should demonstrate your response to the Terms of Reference by identifying the specific components proposed and how the requirements will be addressed, as specified, point by point, providing a detailed description of the essential performance characteristics proposed and demonstrating how the proposition meets or exceeds the specifications.   

Bidders are expected to provide as much details as possible, including a proposed timeline and delivery schedule. This schedule should reflect a minimum of two opportunities for the client to feedback on the progress of the website and one final round of feedback from user-testing.

If some of the elements of the proposal imply recurrent maintenance costs,  please flag this in the technical proposal but do not indicate amounts (this should be addressed in the cost proposal). 

4. Signed statement acknowledging IEFTA’s Code of Conduct and the UN Supplier Code of Conduct. 

Click here to download IEFTA’s Code of Conduct. 

Click here to download the UNHCR Supplier Code of Conduct.

B) Content of the financial offer

Your financial offer should be produced in a totally separate file in both Excel and PDF formats;  and contain an overall offer in Euros.   It must cover all the services to be provided as stated in the terms of reference (price all inclusive) and your technical offer. 

You are requested to hold your offer valid for 60  days from the deadline for submission.  IEFTA will make its best efforts to select a company or companies within this period.  

BID’s EVALUATION

For any questions, please contact Lacey Tu at lacey@iefta.org

SUBMISSION OF BIDS

The offers must bear your official letter head, clearly identifying your company and the offer reference number.

In order to ensure the safe submission of the full and final offer, it is recommended to send your proposals well before the tender deadline:

Deadline:  30 May 23:59 CEST

IEFTA reserves the right to accept the whole or part of the bid or to allow split or partial awards.

IEFTA may, at its discretion, extend the deadline for the submission of bids, by notifying all prospective suppliers in writing.

IEFTA is not bound to select any of the firms submitting bids and does not find itself in any way to select the firm offering the lowest price.  Furthermore, the contract will be awarded to the bid considered most responsive to the needs.