Websites Hosting and Maintenance for the UNHCR in Italy

Call for: Websites Hosting and Maintenance services and related Digital Developments (Framework agreement)

Contracting Authority: UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) Italy

Deadline 23/10

The proposal for maintenance and development of current websites and maintenance of web services and other system integrations is required by UNHCR Italy for a 2 years period with possibility of an additional year extension (2+1 years), starting indicatively as 1st January 2020.

The current websites are mostly developed in WordPress with custom plugins and themes.  Fundraising websites are integrated with: – Banca Sella e-commerce (GestPay) for online donations (one-off and regular gifts with credit cards) – Email marketing platform – CRM

 Websites are currently hosted on a shared web server (cPanel) with these technical specifications:  Disk: 100 GB  Physical Memory: 16 GB   400 NPROC  200 EP  MySQL Disk: 40 GB (with no limitations on the number of databases)  Bandwidth: ∞  Add-on domains, subdomains, aliases: ∞  Email accounts, mailing lists, autoresponders, forwarders: ∞  Ftp accounts: ∞  SSL certificate

Technical Requirements:

1) Hosting and Maintenance features UNHCR Italy needs the following hosting and maintenance features:  A web server in line with the above specifications or higher.  Capacity and scalability: The webserver shall have the capacity of handling up to 20,000 sessions per day. In case of emergency or during campaign’s peaks, the webserver must be able to handle a larger number of sessions and to be expanded on the basis of the possible functional needs identifiable in the future.  Admin panel, FTP and database access: The supplier shall grant to UNHCRItaly administrators full privileges to access the hosting panel, the databases (through an online MySql database management) and all the folders/files on the webserver (FTP/SFTP read/edit access);  Security: The webserver should have an appropriate firewall protection and IP filtering policy to avoid attacks and data breach; all online transactions and user’s data shall be protected by HTTPS;  Monitoring and Backup: The Agency shall daily backup all data, including a DB dump, and shall retain all backup copies for a minimum of 2 weeks. Access to all backup data will be granted to UNHCR Italy administrators.    Disaster recovery: The Agency will implement and agree with UNHCR Italy the disaster recovery plan. Extraordinary maintenance and interruptions of the system must be notified by the supplier at least 48 hours before.

 2) Technical developments: UNHCR Italy needs the following technical development:  Keeping the websites up-to-date according to new browser versions. This implies tests and updates on a regular basis (e.g. once every 6 months if necessary);  Keeping the websites up-to-date with new social media features/possible technical changes in the already implemented features or in case of new ones;  Editing websites whenever UNHCR Italy staff is unable to manage the changes autonomously with the CMS;  Development/updates/setup of WordPress plugins;  Update of current theme and development of new ones;  Improving the marketing conversion funnel through the optimization of the user experience (pages usability, donation form, abandoned checkouts, retargeting, customer satisfaction services…). 

3) Development and maintenance of web services and other system integrations  The main integrations to be developed and managed by the digital services supplier are mainly through API and web services and consist of the following:

Integrations with the CRM Online donations collected by dona.unhcr.it are automatically imported in PSP Italy donors database through APIs calls (save new donor, save donation, save activity, save regular donation, …).  The API documentation will be available and provided in due time.

The web services will need constant maintenance, check and updates. This implies a strong collaborative work between UNHCR Italy, the digital services supplier and the database supplier in the spirit of always achieving better results. 

 For the other websites, semiautomatic data export/import procedures are still in use. In this case, the website should allow exporting a csv/xls file with pre-defined and ordered fields.

 E- commerce integration with credit card service provider (Banca Sella GestPay or similar) The management of credit card payments must be allowed both for single and recurring payments, through a web service real time integration with the credit cards service provider (such as Banca Sella Gestpay or similar) gathering safe and secure solutions such as Iframe and tokenization.

Email marketing platform integration Automated email and communication cycle are triggered or scheduled whenever a new donation is made online or a new contact is acquired. Integrations between websites and the e-mail marketing platform should be maintained or further developed.

Other software and/or fundraising channels integration  With the aim at integrating more and more all UNHCR Italy channels with the digital one, UNHCR Italy may require some software/digital platforms integrations to better achieve this goal (eg. integrations between digital platforms and call centres, SMS, DRTV, etc…).