UNITED NATIONS NATIONS UNIES

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

UNITED NATIONS BUILDING, RAJADAMNERN NOK AVENUE, BANGKOK 10200, THAILAND

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI)

Title of the EOI: Provision of Web Development and Design Services

Date of this EOI: 6 July 2015 Closing Date for Receipt of EOI: 31 July 2015

EOI Number: 16/15 E-mail address: escap-pu@un.org

Address EOI by fax or email to the attention of: Chief, Procurement Unit

Fax Number: (66 2) 288 1061

UNSPSC Code: 81112100, 81112103, 81112104, 81112105, 43232408

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) organized the
Asian and Pacific Energy Forum (APEF), a ministerial-level intergovernmental conference in May 2013.
APEF has mandated the ESCAP secretariat to support the implementation of the Forum’s outcome
documents, and to provide a Review and Assessment Mechanism towards that purpose. Against this
background, ESCAP has provided member states web-based data and policy information access through the
new Asia Pacific Energy Portal in order to fulfil the mandate and raise the profile of APEF among member
states at regional and global levels. The Portal is developed using the most modern data management,
visualization, and digital library platforms. The first phase of the portal development has been completed to
provide data and policy information at national and regional levels, enable data and policy search functions,
comparison across countries and regional groupings, and data visualizations.

The contract will cover the development of the second phase of Portal development, introducing user
workspaces, resource and infrastructure mapping, policy mapping, additional charting functionality and
country pages. All work completed under this contract must integrate and build upon the completed and
existing data visualization development work completed during initial stages.

SCOPE OF WORK

The contracted institution will be responsible for the delivery of software development and design services
to support the development of a highly interactive Portal. The scope of work includes but will not be limited
to:

Work Item Description

User workspace Platform enabling users to create their own workspace where they can
file, return to, and modify data and policy components within “project
collections”
 Resource and Interactive, layered maps of energy resources, flows and infrastructure
infrastructure mapping with vector components.

Statistical data and Create data handling interface to import, create, update, delete, publish
metadata management and and share time-series data, multiple datasets, as well as geo-referenced
exchange vector line and polygon data.
Policy mapping tools and Visual mapping of available documents according to defined criteria
visualizations indicators, including matrix, chart, and map-based visualizations.
Custom Charts Customized charts for ongoing analytical work performed by ESCAP.

Country Pages Member State pages to hold consolidated multi-source data, policy
information, governance structures, case studies and trade flows.

The contracted institution will:

1. Carry out the technical design, development, testing, implementation and maintenance of new and
existing digital platforms and web applications.
2. Meet and work with ESCAP staff on a regular basis to study the requirements and develop design,
functionality, and technical requirements for approval.
3. Provide a flexible and responsive development process that enables and responds to feedback from
ESCAP staff and stakeholders.
4. Deliver intuitive and user-friendly resource and infrastructure mapping platform covering all
regional ESCAP member States that integrates with the data visualization platform completed under
the initial phases of the APEF portal development process.
5. Enable “parallel” data streams, which allow the user to select from a number of data sources within a
flexible visualization platform.
6. Provide new tools for users to : view, compare, chart and export policy results; sore and modify
charts and policy information under private user workspaces.
7. Develop custom interactive charts to support ongoing analytical work.
8. Provide improved framework and content management system for country pages for all member
States that hold data and policy content, as well as document files, RSS feeds, and other media.
9. Provide access permissions that enable users to access, modify and upload content.
10. Provide a fast and responsive platform, which will integrate large amounts of data, layers of mapping
and thousands of policy documents, ensuring a positive user experience.
11. Handle both back and front end issues as requested.
12. Produce a technical user manual, with a copy of the code, and instructions for web updates and
maintenance requirements.
13. Test application software for coding errors and potential vulnerabilities prior to deployment using
automated static code analysis software, as well as manual testing and inspection.
14. Provide functionality that supports public outreach and drives web traffic to the site.
15. Provide system access for monitoring and analysis of site traffic.
16. Provide quality assurance on final draft products.
17. Provide 3 months of technical support to transfer management of the website to ESCAP staff, ensure
it is bug free, and make minor adjustments to improve its function.
Project Delivery

Development and Delivery Schedule: New functionality will be added as identified and delivered
incrementally over the duration of the contract to meet the needs of ESCAP and its stakeholders. The
candidate must demonstrate experience in rapidly developing and deploying similar software solutions.

Additional Requirements: In addition to the above requirements, the delivered application should have the
following characteristics:

a. Design should adhere to current best practices and be based on open-source software and processes
wherever possible.
 b. Design should enable simple maintenance and updates to new data and policy information.
c. Functionality should be scalable.
d. The final product application must be integrated within the existing ESCAP website.
e. The final product will follow UN standards for maps and nomenclatures.
f. At the end of the development process for each functionality, the contracted institution will deliver
and demonstrate functional, tested, and documented software that meets the established
requirements.
g. Technical support should be available for 3 months after the application is deployed.

Candidate Qualifications

1. Technical Qualifications: The online portal must be easily usable by policy makers and analysts
using modern browsers, operative systems, and devices. The candidate must demonstrate experience
developing and deploying the following relevant technologies:
a. Modern web standards that work on all modern browsers and operating system (e.g. SVG,
CSS)
b. Responsive web applications that work seamlessly across desktop and mobile browsers
(e.g., HTML5)
c. Engaging, user-cantered design that supports a wide range of users (e.g., HCI, UX).
d. Open-Source software and processes, for enabling and supporting the developer community
(e.g., GIT).
e. Open-Standards for easily sharing information across independent organizations (e.g.,
Dublin Core)
f. Open-Data platforms for easily sharing data and documents across independent
organizations (e.g., CKAN, SDMX).
g. Interactive data visualization technologies that support exploration and analysis of data
(e.g., D3).
h. Interactive mapping technologies that support plotting of geo-referenced data and
information.
i. Digital Library technologies to support search, browsing and exploration of documents
(e.g., DOLR).
j. Content Management technologies to support presenting, browsing and searching over
community information (e.g., Drupal)
2. Analytical Qualifications: Developing and maintaining the portal will require a team that is
comfortable with analysing data, policy documents, and geo referenced information to ensure
information quality, consistency, and clarity. The candidate must demonstrate experience and
comfort in analysing and presenting data and policy information in international forums:
a. Data analysis skills, for quality control of new data, and development of meaningful
representations and appropriate analytical tools.
b. Geo referencing skills, to enable mapped representation of information within the portal.
c. Policy analysis skills, for deriving accurate metadata from new documents, and correctly
classifying them in the portal.
d. Education skills, for creating explanatory and training material relevant to the portal
audience.
3. Location Qualification: ESCAP requires the candidate to provide frequent face-to-face interaction
with our energy team to conceptualize and develop new functionality. Meetings are expected for
design conceptualization and functionality demonstration. In addition, close interaction is required
with ESCAP’s in-house information technology team. To qualify for this contract, candidates are
required to have a team based in Thailand for the duration of the contract.
 NOTE

Information on tendering for the UN Procurement System is available free of charge at the United Nations
Global Marketplace (UNGM). If not already registered at the UNGM, please use the following URL:
http://www.ungm.org.

Vendor interested in participating in the planned solicitation process should complete the Vendor Response
Form of this EOI and send it via fax or e-mail to UNESCAP Procurement Unit before the EOI closing date.
 VENDOR RESPONSE FORM

To: Chief, Procurement Unit EOI Number: 16/15

Fax: (66 2) 288 1061 Email address: escap-pu@un.org

UNSPSC Code:

From:

Subject: Provision of Web Development and Design Services

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