Request for Expression of Interest
(Consulting Services – Firm Selection)
Country: Ethiopia
Project: Ethiopia Digital Foundations Project
Project ID: P171034
Credit No. IDA - 68560
Assignment Title: Selection of a Consulting Firm that Develops the Government Office Modernization Roadmap
Reference No.: ET-MINT-320079-CS-QCBS
The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ministry of Finance (MoF), has received financing from the World Bank toward the cost of the Ethiopia Digital Foundation Project (“Digital Foundations”). The Ministry of Innovation and Technology as one of the beneficiaries of the project intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services.
The consulting services (“the Services”) are expected to develop the Government Office Modernization Roadmap.
The Ministry of Innovation and Technology/Ethiopian Digital Foundation Project now invites eligible consulting firms (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants are requested to provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services. The shortlisting criteria are: Core Business and Years in Business, proven direct experience in development of Government Office Modernization Roadmap, having at least five years of experience in developing ICT strategy and roadmap in general and at least two years of ICT modernization roadmap development in specific, and having a good Technical and Managerial Capability.
OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The objective of the assignment is to develop the government office modernization roadmap, in relation to digital transformation, that will be expected to fill this gap in the existing body of knowledge regarding current status, existing challenges, weakness, strengths, opportunities and enabling the conditions of its services in the Ethiopian government offices using SWOT analysis.
SCOPE OF SERVICES INCLUDES:
The scope of this assignment is limited to the development of digital office modernization. It means that the project focus areas are digital integration of government offices for its smartness, workflow and process automation and IT modernizations. In the scope of this assignment, we may use digital office modernization, office modernization or IT modernization interchangeably in which they refer to the same. Furthermore, in this ToR, the term government office refers to all level of Ethiopia’s government offices, including federal and sub-national(regional) offices. However, inventory of Ethiopia’s government offices and sample size determination requires to apply scientific methods in the situational analysis, which will be considered as part of the roadmap development.
The main scope of the assignment includes;
- Infrastructure Modernization: One of the most significant opportunities for government offices is to transform its office environment and its legacy IT either by upgrading or adopting/adapting the infrastructure. It is the backbone of an operating environment (e.g. workspace and IT/OT integration to create smart offices), storing vital data and applications.
- Data centre Migration Modernization: One specific and significant infrastructure modernization motion is data-centre migration. While migration efforts can involve the cloud adoption approaches detailed above, you can also upgrade your traditional, siloed, on-premises storage to more effective, high-performing options that better align to the desired government offices and agencies goals.
- Network Modernization: Legacy enterprise networks often lack the agility that today’s fast-moving, always-evolving business landscape requires. While transitioning to innovative solutions, such as Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN), which can be a complex process, newer connectivity solutions ultimately shall streamline and simplify the network environment.
- Application Modernization: Applications can build connections and improve engagement among government offices’ employees and customer base, but it becomes more challenging to support, scale and maintain apps as they age. These management roadblocks lead to frustrating user experiences that complicate customer interactions and stall internal collaboration - a pain point that can be amplified for younger users, who have grown acclimated to seamless digital engagement.
- Device Modernization: Along with the productive and collaboration applications, devices equip governments’ workforce with substantial impact on the employee experience. If end-user hardware is performing inadequately, reaching end-of-life imminently or failing to support a hybrid approach to work, a device refresh may be in order.
- Life-cycle Modernization: IT modernization isn’t limited to upgrading platforms and hardware. It can also reshape operational processes, including life-cycle management. The IT life-cycle describes the routine practices involved in keeping endpoints functional and equipped to meet business needs. Streamlining these practices is a key site of IT modernization that also simplifies other transformation efforts by optimizing resources and bolstering the organization’s ability to scale and adapt.
- Security Modernization: When IT leaders raise the subject of modernizing manual and legacy systems; they often hear stakeholders voice their fears that introducing new technologies will mean introducing new cyber-security risks. However, innovative technologies are not inherently riskier than their legacy counterparts - in fact, they may be easier to protect than existing systems, which can have security gaps of their own and often require a fragmented approach to threat defense.
KEY DELIVERABLES;
The expected output from the assignment is government office modernization roadmap for government offices to address the identified gaps and enhance existing legacy workflow and process managements, IT systems, infrastructures, platforms, management styles as detailed in the scope and background. The detail and appropriate methodology of the assignment is expected to be submitted as part parcel of the technical document (during the competition). The following are the main components of the deliverables of the assignment.
- Inception Report
- Present Situation (Gap) Analysis
- Government Office Modernization Roadmap
- Detailed and well documented methodology to address the gap analysis and to develop the roadmap
The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to paragraphs 3.14 to 3.17 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers: Procurement in Investment Project Financing, Goods, Works, Non-Consulting and Consulting Services dated July 2016, Revised November 2017 and August 2018 “Procurement Regulations”, setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.
Consultants may associate with other firms in the form of a joint venture or a sub consultancy to enhance their qualifications.
A consultant will be selected in accordance with the Quality and Cost Based Selection method set out in the Consultant Guidelines of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers dated July 2016, Revised November 2017 and August 2018 (“Procurement Regulation”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.
Interested Consulting Firms may obtain further information and the TOR of the consultancy assignment at the address below from 8:30AM-12:30AM and 1:30- 5:00 PM local time from Monday to Friday before the deadline date and time.
Expressions of interest must be delivered in person or through email to the address below on or before August 18, 2023, 2:00 PM.
Address:
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia,
Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MInT)
Attn: Focal Person, Project Implementation Unit (PIU)
Address: Arada Sub-city, off Churchill Road, behind Lycée Guebre-Mariam School,
E-mail: digital.foundation@mint.gov.et, or tessedf@gmail.com or jermiasy@gmail.com
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia