Invitation for submission of Technical and financial bids for setting up of APEDA’s proposed Traceability system for Horticultural products exported from India and the maintenance of traceability system.

APEDA is the nodal agency for promotion of agricultural and processed food products exports from India, under the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India. The major product groups under the ambit of APEDA include Floriculture, Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, Processed Fruits and Vegetables, Animal Products, Other Processed Products and Cereals.

APEDA is a pioneer in using information technology for its internal office automation and its interactions with its members and other stakeholders, towards its main objective of promotion of exports. APEDA has embraced Internet as early as 1996 and has a number of e-governance software applications to its credit.

APEDA has developed an Internet based Traceability Software system, for monitoring grapes, pomegranates, groundnuts and organic products exported from India. The developed traceability software system has integrated all stakeholders in the supply chain of export of these products namely. The Farmers, State Government Departments, Central Government Departments, the Pesticide Testing Laboratories, Processors, Exporters, Certification bodies, APEDA and other related public and private organizations. Now, APEDA intends to set up a traceability system for all horticulture products exported from India. The traceability system for grapes, pomegranates, groundnut and organic products would be integrated into the new system which will lead to a full fledged traceability system, which could be named as “TraceNet”.

Towards this objective, APEDA invites experienced software consultancy organizations of repute to submit the technical and financial bids to provide turnkey services for setting up traceability system for the products mentioned above including project formulation, application software development, implementation, support and maintenance through their own manpower.

A total number of 103 products currently come under the category of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables plus forest produce as per APEDA Directory.
(A list of all fresh fruit and vegetable products under APEDA’s purview has been enclosed as Annexure I).

a.

Farmer Registration, Issue of Farm Registration Number/Global Location Number (GLN), Recommendation of Farm for laboratory sampling

b.

Laboratory sampling, Integration with Laboratory test equipments data server to automatically import pesticide residue testing test results / Manual Test results capture, test reports generation, Alerts to designated National Referral Laboratory in case of failure and disqualification of the farm from supplying to the exporters

c.

d.

e.

f

Provision for Integration with canalizing agencies like NAFED wherever and whenever applicable

g

Provision for Integration with Other Quality Regulatory Certification agencies like EIC, MoEF, FSSAI, etc wherever and whenever applicable

h

Registration of nodal agencies and Provision for generation of Single Export Document (SED) through accredited modal agencies for exports with and without residue monitoring and product grading as per the new EXIM policy.

i

Provision for Integration with Customs EDI system to submit shipping bill details automatically from the traceability system for generation of Shipping Bills

j

Integration with a suitable service provider for sending SMS alerts

k

l

m

In addition to these requirements, there are some additional requirements which are product/product group specific and the key ones are as follows:

a.

Irradiation & VHT a must for Japan & USA;

b.

Post-harvest pre-clearance activities defined for USA;

a.

b.

Exporter / Shipper Registration, No objection Certificate & Payment of Service Charges with the canalizing agency a must

c.

Compliance to Minimum Export Price (MEP) finalized by canalizing agencies mandatory on a month-on-month basis;

d.

a.

b.

Facility to link to individual activities like farm registration, pesticide residue analysis, Agmark inspection, Phyto-sanitary inspection, etc., for each product in the supply chain wherever applicable

The requirements listed above are indicative in nature; a detailed field study of the domestic and international requirements is planned for each product under the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables category (Refer to Annexure for the list of products) to understand the complete scope of this project for setting up the traceability system at individual product level.

The TraceNet traceability system set-up shall also integrate with the existing system for fresh grapes and pomegranates, thereby creating a single window software interface called “TraceNet”.

Another major initiative as a part of this project shall be introduction of GLN or Global Location Number (GLN) for Export Oriented Indian Farms growing fresh fruits and vegetables, the concept for creating a India Directory of Export Oriented Farms.

APEDA proposes to introduce, based on detailed interactions with GS1 India, the Global Location Number for each farm, after registration is completed by the State Government agency in case of Grapes and any other agency who may be assigned with the responsibility for registration of other products in future. (Note: GS1 India is the Indian arm of GS1, a leading global organization dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility of supply and demand chains globally and across sectors. GS1 India is also promoted under the aegis of Ministry of Commerce, Government of India.)

In the solution to be provided, each individual user from all the stake holders shall be assigned with a username and password; the software shall internally maintain his personal details, including his role, rights, responsibilities, powers and the activities that he can carry out on the online system.

The proposed solution shall have a secured, web based system using reliable database management system, hosted in a web server, as separate website. It can be accessed through an internet connection by all authorized users. It should have the scalability at all layers (application and database layer) of the system shall be catered for expansion to meet performance requirement with increase in user base. The solution shall be extendable, have open standards and flexible as per industry standards so that the architecture for this solution can be utilized for the new applications at a later date. The system would also provide mechanisms for error handling and robustness to scale up on demand to support future applications without major changes.

User Interface: The system shall provide browser-based interface to the end user. To provide aesthetics to the user interface, the screen and form layouts shall be designed with maximum simplicity. The system shall be designed keeping in view that there is uniformity and consistency across the application’s buttons, icons, screen, form and report layouts.

Reliability: Software Developed and Delivered will be highly reliable as per client’s requirement. The delivered system would be bug free and fully tested; there shall be no functionality failure.

Easy Maintenance: The solution shall have various features that shall enhance its end-user efficiency. Simple screens with pop-up windows and minimum data fields shall further aid the ease of data entry. Minimum number of screens to accomplish a business function shall be the major design parameter. The User Interface shall be designed by incorporating all the suggestions that are given by the end-user. A prototype of the User Interface shall first be designed and presented to the user and the user can suggest the necessary changes to be incorporated to make the User Interface, user-friendlier. The complete design shall help the end user to maintain and use the system smoothly even after the end of warranty period.

Integrity: To make it easier for the user, the system will ask the user only few parameters, the remaining entries that are relevant to he parameters (if already present in the database) shall be automatically populated in the relevant fields. This will help to minimize the entry to be done by the user and also maintain the integrity of the data.

Reduced Data Redundancy: The system shall ensure that there is no duplication of information loaded into the database. This shall be done with the help of inbuilt validation checks. The validation check shall help the user to know whether the data that is been entered by the end user is already available in the system or not. This feature shall help to reduce the data redundancy.

The proposed system in combination of the operating system and application software shall fulfill the stringent security needs for the application software package.

For successful implementation and post implementation support, APEDA also intends to set up training labs and run it for three years. Following requirement would be there for this activity.

a

b

Location: Five regional offices and 13 at important clusters of horticulture in India like Nashik, Chittoor, Hubli, Cochin, Amreli, etc., which shall be chosen based on interactions with state government agencies

c

Office Space and infrastructure (which shall cover training room, interior, furniture, manpower, etc.,): shall be provided by APEDA and state governments

d

Cost of training infrastructure at each training lab (which shall cover one-time procurement of Computers, UPS, Printers, Projection system, networking components, etc)

e

Outsourcing management of each training lab (which shall cover placement of 1 outsourced man-power at each Lab, and broadband internet connectivity,

f

Annual Maintenance of equipment and software

APEDA reserves the right to accept/reject any or all proposals received in response to this advertisement without assigning any reasons, whatsoever, APEDA also reserves the right to fix as well as raise the eligibility criteria for short-listing the vendors.

The proposal shall include the following in separate sealed envelopes and all such envelops be placed in the master envelope.

I

Eligibility Checklist (please super scribe envelope as “Eligibility Checklist”)

1

Name of the organization

2

Office contact details, including Name of the contact person, designation, address, telephone, fax, e-mail & Website in Delhi NCR

3

Whether you provide turnkey software services for the following areas? If yes, list names of customers, services provided for them, year of service, (in brief)

a

b

c

d

4

a

b

c

d

e

f

5

a

Vendor should have been providing services covering all phases of the software development life cycle for at least 5 years in India.

b

a)

b)

c)

d)

e)

f)

g)

URL reference of the customer website where it can be verified online and guest account username and password.

6

Experience in end-to-end Traceability Solutions upto Farm level in the Agriculture and Food Processing Sector in India

a

Vendor should have carried out the entire project on their own in India, including Software Development, Implementation, Support and Maintenance

b

Customer references of at least one major assignment executed for Food Traceability upto farm level, including

i

ii

iii

iv

v

vi

vii

URL reference of the customer website where it can be verified online and guest account username and password.

7

Are you familiar with Internet security requirements including application/database security audit? If yes, provide reference of at least one customer name and contact details for which your applications where security audited and approved by accredited auditors.

8

a

The organization must have been registered in India on or before 31 March 2003. An attested copy of certificate to this effect must be submitted.

b

c

The organization should produce Articles of Association (incase of registered firm), Byelaws and certificate for registration.

d

An undertaking (self certificate) is to be submitted that there has been no litigation with any Government department/organization on account of similar services.

e

An undertaking (self certificate) is to be submitted that the Organization hasn’t been blacklisted by any central/state Government department/organization.

The documents in support of the eligibility shall be submitted as per the “Eligibility Checklist”, in the same sequence. Each page should be numbered and conformance to the eligibility conditions should be indicated using an index page.

II

1

2

Project Plan, including project period, deliverables as milestones and timelines for completion of various milestones.

3

Technology Architecture proposed, including specifications for server hardware, storage, internet connectivity , ready made software packages, to ensure un-interrupted service to the users.

4

5

a

One-time software development for all horticulture products other than grape, pomegranate, groundnut and organic products and the complete integration of traceability system developed by APEDA as mentioned above.

i

ii

iii

iv

Installation & Configuration at APEDA Data Center, including Master Data Preparation for all stakeholders.

b

i

Implementation through demonstration to select representatives of stakeholders & incorporation of feedback/suggestions

ii

iii

c

i

1

2

ii

1

iii

1

One-time Software Development cost including integration of existing traceability system developed by APEDA

2

3

4

Charges toward Implementation, Training and User Support (First-time) for complete implementation of TraceNet.

a

Basic cost towards the man-power proposed to be deployed at APEDA during the first time implementation

b

c

5

a

b

6

The budgetary estimates for setting up of training laboratories and running them for three years would be as follows:

a

Cost of training infrastructure at each training lab (which shall cover one-time procurement of Computers, UPS, Printers, Projection system, networking components, etc.)

b

c

Cost of outsourcing management of each training lab (which shall cover placement of 1 outsourced man-power at each Lab, and broadband internet connectivity, Annual Maintenance of equipment and software, traveling expenses for travel within the cluster, etc.)

7

The budgetary estimates for hosting of developed application on lumpsum basis based on point no. 3 of section II. APEDA shall share the likely no. of concurrent and other wise users of all categories during the pre-bid meeting.

Interested vendors may submit their Eligibility Criteria, Technical and financial bids with supporting documents, along with a non refundable processing fee of Rs 10,000/- in the form of demand draft in favor of APEDA, New Delhi, in a separate sealed envelope to the address given below, within three weeks from the date of release of advertisement.

The main envelope shall also be sealed and superscripted “Bid for Traceability system for food products exported from India” and should contain three separate sealed envelopes superscripting “Eligibility Checklist”, “Technical Bids” and “Financial Bids” separately. The three documents should be separately spiral bounded with no loose sheets. Please note that all the pages of these documents should be ink-signed with date and seal of the organisation should be put near the signature of the authorized signatory on all the pages.

1

No tender will be considered unless all the required documents are furnished and properly attested wherever required.

2

Only those tenders would be opened, which have been received by the due date and time. APEDA shall not be responsible for postal or any other delay.

3

The offer of the applicant should be valid for a period of 180 days from the last date of submission of proposals as mentioned in this tender.

4

Any software developed shall be the property of APEDA. Software, Documents, Information and other elements of the project shall have the copyrights of APEDA unless some copy right material is used with due permission of any third party.

5

The vendor shall ensure due secrecy of information as the data of the system is not intended for public distribution.

6

Arbitration Clause: In the eventuality of any dispute, the matter will be referred by APEDA to a committee for arbitration and the committee’s decision shall be binding on the parties. All disputes will be settled with in the jurisdiction of Delhi.