Tender: Global order
fulfilment for WHO publications
Contracting Authority: WHO –
World Health Organization / Světová zdravotnická organizace, Ženeva – Švýcarsko
Deadline: 28/10
This RFP covers the final
phase of the progressive outsourcing of WHO’s distribution mechanisms. WHO
requires the successful bidder, the Contractor, to provide a system for sales
and global order fulfilment for WHO publications… WHO has a backlist of 25,000
publications and an ongoing publishing volume of 450 monographs and 300 volumes
or issues as series per year.
Place of Performance: It is
expected that most of the work will be done from the Contractor’s location.
Assigned staff must be able to travel to Geneva, Switzerland, and to provide
remote support on a 24/7 basis for priority 1 incidents.
Characteristics of the
Contractor
Status
The Contractor shall be for
profit global institution operating in the field of online order fulfilment,
with proven expertise in customer account management, customer service,
commercial transactions, and automated, usage-based analytics and reporting.
Accreditations: An
accreditation (such as the Book Industry Communication Supply Chain Excellence
Accreditation) or an on-going accreditation process by a certified accreditation
body will be an asset.
Previous experience:
• Experience in the publishing
industry is a requirement.
• Previous work with WHO, other
international organizations and/or major institutions in the field of
scientific, technical and medical publishing is an asset.
• Experience with both public
sector and commercial publishing houses for global fulfilment and distribution
of multi-lingual book and journal titles is desired.
• Proven experience in designing,
implementing, and configuring online commerce solutions is also desired.
Staffing: The selected
contractor is expected to dedicate the following human resources to the
project:
• A project manager of an
adequate level of qualification and experience (please attach resumé to your
proposal) shall be dedicated to the project.
• This designated project manager
should be the same individual throughout implementation.
• Sufficient capacity and
knowledge is required to cover the following areas of expertise:
o Adequate technical knowledge to
ensure seamless interface with existing systems.
o Adequate business analysis,
coordination and project management skills to manage stakeholder expectations,
orchestrate all resources of the team and interact with WHO or third parties
when needed.
WHO pays utmost attention to the
level of qualification and experience of the individuals involved, and to
continuity in the services. The profiles (no individual names required) of the
personnel proposed for these services should be included in the technical
proposal.
• All staff assigned to this
project must be able to speak and write English fluently. French and/or Spanish
would be an asset.
Work to be performed – Global
fulfilment for WHO publications: Publications are presented on the WHO web
site, which is developed on Sitefinity, supplied by a title and asset
management system, (Bibliolive, supplied by Virtusales), and rendered by a
front-end solution (developed by Making Waves) that allows users to select
titles and place orders in an online shopping cart.
This RFP includes development of
a system that receives ordering information from customers through online
accounts, processes payments, ships orders, and provides customer service
management and user support (including technical support for issues users may
face on the provider’s website and Level-3 technical support for internal WHO
Press users). In addition, the Contractor will produce sales/activity reports
and return revenue according to terms agreed with WHO.
As required, the fulfilment will
be via POD or from existing stock from warehouses. A selection of “high-demand”
titles will need to have consistent stock available, and these criteria will be
determined upon specifications provided by WHO. This includes IARC “Blue Books”
(which the Contractor is not responsible for printing). For the other
“high-demand” titles, offset printing will be limited to first-day print runs
(e.g. for new editions) and to replenish stock (based on agreed stock alert
criteria).
After implementation and
deployment of the new system, a transition period will be necessary as print
stocks at WHO are depleted and/or transferred.
Solution Types: Bidders
are encouraged to propose solutions based on an existing product,
software-as-a-service (SAAS) offering, or configuration/development on a Web
CMS platform. Integration with Sitefinity is a key requirement for any proposed
solution. The solution must be able to receive publication metadata, POD and
offset files from WHO’s title management system (BiblioLIVE from Virtusales) as
well as order data from the WHO web site (developed on Sitefinity).
Out-of-Scope Activities: The
management of content creation and production (i.e. writing, peer-review,
design, editing, graphics, translation, layout, proofreading and indexing) as
well as any file conversion services are out of scope.
Anticipated Publishing Volumes
and Distribution : WHO has a backlist of 25,000 publications and an ongoing
publishing volume of 450 monographs and 300 volumes or issues as series per
year. 22460 priced copies were distributed in 2017, of which approximately 3360
were distributed in the Americas; 1260 in Europe, Africa and Middle East
(Eastern Mediterranean); and 6540 in Asia and the Pacific. In 2018, there were
approximately 370 subscriptions of the Bulletin of the World Health
Organization sold.
In 2017, WHO’s online bookshop
received 300,000 page visits per month and 2200 orders were received during the
year.
This RFP is to meet all of WHO’s
global order fulfilment needs, including if WHO’s needs change during the term
of the contract. Therefore, the contract with the selected bidder will
expressly reflect that fact, and not contain a fixed or minimum/maximum
distribution volume.
Overview and current approach:
WHO is an open-access publisher that also maintains sales channels to
maximize distribution of its work. Currently, WHO Press handles the printing of
publications, sales and distribution of products directly to customers and to
sales agents from its warehouses in Geneva, Switzerland. Most orders are
presently being fulfilled via the eCommerce facility on the WHO online bookshop
(http://bookorders.who.int/bookorders/), along with a large percentage of sales
in the North American market currently being fulfilled by a distributor who has
signed an agreement with WHO.
The scope of work described in
this RFP is part of a high-level effort to streamline WHO publication
processes.
WHO’s online publication system
includes the following components:
1. Back-end solution (developed
on BiblioLIVE) for title metadata and digital asset management for publication
content, including print-on-demand (POD) files
2. Front-end solution for
rendering these files and metadata (developed by Making Waves) on the WHO website
(developed on Sitefinity), that transforms XML to HTML and assembles the
related files to create a template-based webpage for each publication. This
webpage displays the publication’s metadata (transmitted by an ONIX feed), the
cover image, and a summary. Users are presented with three options for
accessing publication content:
Download a free PDF for offline
reading
Read online (free HTML
version), or
Purchase one or more print
copies (fulfilment by Contractor).
3. Global order fulfilment for
WHO publications
Objectives of the present
activity
1. Create an efficient end-to-end
system for the global fulfilment process, with a transition from large initial
print runs to short runs and print-on-demand, thereby also reducing
environmental impact.
2. Outsource major components of
the global fulfilment processes (including printing, warehousing, stock management,
order fulfilment, customer service, etc.) to improve efficiencies and reduce
the organizational costs of distribution of WHO publications, while maintaining
the high standards necessitated by WHO.
3. Increase the number of titles
available for which it is possible to purchase a print copy from 50 to 450 yearly
(through use of POD for the majority of publication titles).
