Call: EMSA Portal Management Services IT Services

Buyer: European Maritime Safety Agency, Portugal, Lisbon

Estimated value excluding VAT: €500.000 / Duration: 72 Months

Deadline for receipt of tenders: 01/07/2026

Objective: The purpose of this procurement is to establish an acquisition channel for Maritime Applications Portal services.

This will enable EMSA to acquire high quality services to support the ICT Sector of EMSA in:

• Supporting the development, enhancement and operations of EMSA Horizontal Maritime Applications Portal software components and modules in line with EMSA technical architecture that will be integrated and/or work together with existent or new Maritime Applications;

• Maintenance and Operation services related to newly developed and/or enhanced Horizontal Maritime Applications Portal system, related technologies, components, and technical capabilities, using the profiles defined in section 2.4.

• Performing studies, assessments, recommendations and other types of investigations in the different fields and components defined in the EMSA System Landscape and EMSA Cloud Native Landscape present in the General Conditions of the ICT Framework Contract;

The detailed technical needs are presented in the below sections and in the different Appendices to these Tender Specifications.

Scope: For a long time EMSA Maritime Applications Portal is based on Liferay Enterprise Edition. Given EMSA strategic decisions, EMSA is moving towards a more cloud native architecture as described in “Appendix I.56 FWC (IT) General terms and conditions Appendix D” but this move will not happen from one day to the other.

Therefore, this Framework Contract scope is divided of two distinct work packages.

The first work package, WP1, aims on the maintenance and support of the existing maritime application portal based on Liferay Enterprise Edition, ensuring continued operational stability, timely issue resolution, performance optimization in line with the service level agreements, and the upgrade to a newer major version of the current system.

The second work package, WP2, refer to the design, development, and deployment of a new maritime application portal, aimed at replacing the current service platform.

To ensure the continuous of the service provided and due to all maritime applications project’s timelines, both work packages will/can work in parallel even so it’s not certain that they will start at the same date.

Work Package 1 (WP1) – Maintenance and upgrade Services

The portal concept is to present the user with a single web page that brings together or aggregates content from several other systems or servers. For portals that present application functionality to the user, the portal server is the front piece (presentation tier) of a server configuration that includes some connectivity to the application server. The underneath application server is part of the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) tiers which perform the actual functions of the application.

The server hosting the portal may only be a “pass through” for the user. By use of portlets, application functionality can be presented in any number of portal pages. For the most part, this architecture is transparent to the user.

The main features of a common portal are:

• Single Sign-On (SSO): portals can provide single sign-on capabilities between their users and various other systems. This requires a user to authenticate only once.

• Integration: the connection of functions and data from multiple systems into new components/portlets/web parts with an integrated navigation between these components.

• Federation: the integration of content provided by other portals, typically through the use of WSRP (Web Services for Remote Portlets) or similar technologies.

• Customization: the look and feel of the user environment is customizable. Also refers to the ability to prioritize most appropriate content based on attributes of the user and metadata of the available content.

• Personalization: personalization is more about matching content with the user. Based on a user profile, personalization rules are used to match the “services”, or content, to the specific user.

• Access Control: the ability for the portal to limit specific types of content and services just or the users that are supposed to have access to it. For example, it can be used to distinguish between an application user profile from an administrator one. Please note that EMSA Access Control is fully integrated with IdM.

• Enterprise Search: search enterprise content.

Currently, EMSA’s Maritime Applications Portal is using Liferay Portal technology. As such, the future contractor can be invited to provide services in the Liferay Portal technical domain, like (but not limited to) the following ones:

• Default portal configuration for the addition of new organizational entities (e.g. communities, organizations, roles, user groups, permissions and its relationships);

• Configuration of default portlets (e.g. Web Content, Wiki, Announcements, Messages, Content Management) to support new requirements;

• Extension of the default portal implementation or default portlets implementation to answer new business requirements;

• Specific configurations related with EMSA’s technical environments;

• Look and feel improvements and creation of new themes, including graphic design, web design and user experience (UX) of the portal framework;

• Liferay upgrades as well as EMSA specific components upgrades to be fully compliant with the newer versions of Liferay.

The second work package focuses on the design, development, and deployment of a new maritime application portal intended to follow EMSA’s new infrastructure strategy regarding the cloud native applications. This new portal, Portal-V2, will continue to serve as a centralized entry point and interface the user with a single web page that brings together or aggregates content from several other systems or servers. The development will adhere to modern software engineering standards, incorporating responsive design, user-centred interfaces, and robust security protocols to ensure usability, accessibility, and compliance with the current EMSA’s guidelines.

This work package includes the full software development lifecycle—from requirements gathering and analysis to implementation, testing, and deployment. EMSA engagement will be integral throughout the process to ensure the portal meets both functional and non-functional requirements. In addition, emphasis will be placed on integrating the new portal with existing systems and services through secure APIs, ensuring data consistency and a seamless user experience across platforms.

Following the development phase, the portal contract will enter the maintenance stage (operations might also be considered) that will be monitored for performance, usability, and user feedback to inform potential enhancements. Documentation, user training, and technical support structures will be established to ensure smooth adoption by end-users and maintainability by EMSA.