TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR) FOR THE SELECTION OF A VENDOR FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT AND DIGITAL ARCHIVING PLATFORM ON BEHALF OF THE CONSULTATIVE INTERNATIONAL CASHEW COUNCIL

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE

The Consultative International Cashew Council (CICC) is an intergouvernemental organization promoting cashew value chains through policy coordination and cooperation among member states.

The Organization currently has twelve (12) Member States, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.

As part of the implementation of the RSA-CICC project N° 5200000411 “Supporting and strengthening the activities of the International Cashew Advisory Council”, funded by GIZ, the CICC wishes to strengthen the management, conservation and security of its documentary heritage.

The CICC wishes to set up an Electronic Document Management (EDM) and digital archiving platform in order to strengthen the conservation, security, access and enhancement of its documentary heritage. Before the start of the work, the volume of documents to be processed must be specified (number of files, pages, linear metres, formats and media concerned) in order to allow a better technical and financial evaluation of the tenders.

The mission will therefore require the intervention of a specialized service provider capable of supporting the CICC from the analysis and inventory of the existing to digitization, indexing, integration into the EDM platform, user training and the implementation of the maintenance and support system.

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE MISSION

2.1 General Objective

Implement a reliable, secure and scalable DMS solution integrating scanning, indexing, OCR, full-text search, document lifecycle management, backup mechanisms, disaster recovery and user training.

2.2 Specific objectives

The mission aims in particular to:

• Carry out a documentary audit.
• Inventory the archives.
• Define a classification plan and a conservation schedule.
• Scan, index and integrate documents.
• Deploy the EDM platform.
• Implement OCR and full-text search.
  • Ensure data security and traceability.
• Train users and administrators.

STANDARDS AND STANDARDS

The solution will have to be inspired by the ISO 15489, ISO 30301, ISO 27001 best practices and the OAIS principles applicable to digital archiving.

3. SCOPE AND DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPECTED SERVICES

Under the supervision of the CICC, the selected service provider will have to provide the following services:

3.1 Document audit and inventory

The service provider must:

• Analyze the current organization of the CICC’s documents and archives;
• Identify the different categories of documents;
• Carry out an inventory of existing archives;
• Assess their condition, volume and level of classification;
• Identify the documents to be scanned and their level of priority;
• Propose a documentary organization adapted to the needs of the CICC.

3.2 Preparation and Scanning

The service provider must:

• Prepare documents before scanning;
• Ensure their prior classification;
• Digitize with a quality suitable for digital archiving;
• Produce files in appropriate formats;
• Ensure quality control of digitized documents;
• Maintain the integrity and order of documents throughout the operation.

3.3 Indexing and Ranking

The service provider will have to propose and implement an indexing system that allows, in particular:

• Identification of documents;
• Their classification according to a validated classification plan;
• Search by criteria or keywords;
• Associating relevant metadata with documents;
• Quick consultation of scanned documents.

The classification plan and the main indexing criteria will have to be validated by the CICC before their final deployment.

3.4 Implementation of the EDM platform

The service provider must:

• Provide and/or implement the proposed EDM solution;
• Install and configure it;
• Configure user profiles and access rights;
• Integrate digitized documents;
• Implement search and consultation functionalities;
• Enable the management of the life cycle of documents according to the needs validated by the CICC.

3.5 Training and Skills Transfer

• The service provider will have to train the users designated by the CICC on:
• Routine use of the platform;
• Research and consultation of documents;
• Classification and indexing;
• User and rights administration, for administrators;
• Good document management and security practices.

3.6 Maintenance and Support

The service provider will have to offer a support system allowing the CICC to benefit from technical assistance after the platform has been put into production.

The offer must specify the terms of support, the deadlines for handling incidents as well as the conditions of maintenance and assistance.

4. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

The solution will have to be accessible via web browser, allow OCR, full-text search, version management, data export, dashboards, timestamping, automatic notifications, rights management and validation workflows. The bidder will specify the proposed architecture, storage capacity, hosting and expected performance.

5. SECURITY REQUIREMENTS

Encryption of data in transit and at rest, multi-factor authentication, access logging, automatic backups, BCP/DRP, definition of RTO and RPO, restoration mechanisms and auditing of actions performed on documents.

6. DOCUMENT LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT

The service provider will draw up a retention schedule, the rules for depositing, intermediate archiving, disposal and permanent storage of digital documents

7. EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

At the end of the mission, the service provider must provide:

Deliverable 1: Documentary audit report

• Analysis report of the existing situation;
• Inventory of the archives;
• Identification of needs and constraints;
• Recommendations for document management.

Deliverable 2: Filing plan and indexing system

• Classification plan validated;
• Structure of documentary categories;
• Indexing criteria and metadata;
• Rules for classification and search.

Deliverable 3: Scanned documents

• Documents scanned in accordance with agreed quality requirements;
• Files classified and indexed;
• Quality control of scanned documents.

Deliverable 4: Operational EDM platform

• Platform installed and configured;
• Accounts and user profiles configured;
• Embedded digitized documents;
• Operational search, consultation and document management functionalities.

Deliverable 5: Training and documentation

• User training sessions;
• Training materials;
• User and/or administration guide;
• Transfer of skills to designated users.

Deliverable 6: Final Report

• Implementation report;
• Status of digitized and integrated documents;
• Documentary policy;
• Retention schedule;
• Difficulties encountered and solutions provided;
• Recommendations for the maintenance and sustainability of the solution.

NB: Each deliverable will include acceptance criteria and performance indicators.

8. PROFILE AND QUALIFICATIONS OF THE PROVIDER

The service provider must meet at least the following conditions:

• Be a company specializing in electronic document management, digitization and/or digital archiving;
• Have at least five (5) years of experience in the field of EDM and digitalization;
• Have a multidisciplinary team including, depending on the needs of the mission:

• • A Developer/System Administrator;
  • An archivist/documentalist;
• Have sufficient capacity to support and maintain the solution.

References must, as far as possible, be accompanied by certificates of good performance or contact details allowing them to be verified.

9. TECHNICAL AND SECURITY REQUIREMENTS

The proposed solution should:

• Be accessible via a web browser;
• Be compatible with major operating systems;
• Be scalable and adaptable to the future needs of the CICC;
• Have APIs to consider future integrations;
• Enable the import and export of data;
• Enable the management of major document formats, including PDF/A, Word, Excel, images, videos, and emails;
• To enable the rapid search and consultation of documents;
• Enable the management of users and access rights;
• Ensure the traceability of the operations carried out on the documents.

The service provider must also guarantee:

• Data confidentiality;
• Document integrity;
• System availability;
• The implementation of automatic backup mechanisms;
• The possibility of restoring data;
• A disaster recovery system;
• Securing access to the platform.

The tenderer will have to describe in its tender the proposed technical measures to meet these requirements.

10. SUBMISSION RECORD

The offer must include:

10.1 Administrative Offer

The administrative offer must include:

• The Company’s RCCM
• The Tax Declaration of Existence
• The certificate of fiscal regularity
• The RIB

10.2 Technical offer

The technical offer must include:

• A letter of expression of interest addressed to the Executive Secretariat of the CICC;
• A general presentation of the company and its experience;
• An understanding of the challenges and objectives of the mission;
• A description of the proposed EDM solution;
• A detailed methodology for the execution of the mission;
• A provisional execution schedule;
• References for similar services;
• The CVs of the main experts involved;
• Warranty and support conditions;

Similar references must be accompanied, where available, by certificates of good performance. Otherwise, the tenderer must provide for each reference the name of the client, the nature of the service, the period of performance and a contact allowing its verification.

10.3 Financial offer

The financial offer must present a clear and detailed breakdown of the costs presented as follows:

NB: The above budgetary framework is mandatory. Any service provider who makes a proposal outside this framework will simply see his offer rejected

11. METHODOLOGY FOR EVALUATING TENDERS

The evaluation of the proposals will be carried out on the basis of the technical and financial quality of the tenders.

The main evaluation criteria will include:

The overall evaluation of proposals may be carried out according to the following weighting:

• Score technique : 70 %
• Financial score: 30%

A minimum threshold of 60/100 in the technical evaluation is required before the opening of financial offers.

The tenderer with the highest combined score may be recommended for the award of the contract, subject to compliance with the administrative requirements referred to in section 7.1 of this ToR.

12. DATA OWNERSHIP AND REVERSIBILITY

All data, digitized documents and metadata remain the exclusive property of the CICC. The service provider will have to guarantee the full reversibility of the solution and the restitution of the data in open formats.

13. DURATION OF THE AGREEMENT 

The duration of the contract is valid from the date of its signing until November 30, 2026 and will be used only for the activities of Grant N. 5200000411 PN 21.2199.4-506.00.

14. PLACE AND DURATION OF EXECUTION 

The services will mainly be provided at the CICC headquarters:

Plateau, Avenue Franchet d’Esperey, Immeuble Ollo, 1st floor, Pavilion B, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The indicative duration of the mission is ten (10) weeks.

The service provider must specify in its offer its detailed intervention schedule.

15. SUBMISSION OF TENDERS

Complete offers (Administrative, Technical and Financial) grouped together in a single PDF must be sent no later than September 07, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. by electronic transmission to the following address: procurement@ciccashew.org with the subject line: “Response to the call for applications as part of the recruitment of a service provider for the implementation of an electronic document management and digital archiving platform for the RSA-CICC N. 5200000411 PN project 21.2199.4-506.00 ».