Year 1 – One online Submission Platform

REQUEST FOR QUOTATIONS (RFQ) NON-CONSULTING SERVICES: COMMERCIAL OFF-THE-SHELF (COTS) SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE 1. Background & Objective The Global Development Network (GDN) has received financing from the Policy and Human Resources Development (PHRD) Fund, administered by the World Bank, toward the cost of the Global Development Awards Competition. GDN intends to apply a portion of the proceeds to procure a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) cloud-based Online Submission Platform (Software as a Service) to manage the application intake, double-blind peer review, and evaluation workflows for the 2019 edition of the Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development (ORD). 2. Scope of Services & Technical Requirements GDN solicits commercial quotations from qualified Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application platform providers. The chosen solution must be immediately deployable and satisfy the following minimum technical specifications: Application Intake: Capability to host customized, multi-field application forms supporting global applicant access. Reviewer Routing: Built-in multi-stage evaluation workflows with strict double-blind review routing capabilities to anonymize applicants during grading. Data Compliance: Full adherence to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards and enterprise-grade data encryption. Administrative Access: Secure backend dashboard for GDN Award Administrators and IT staff to export data, monitor scoring matrices, and extract evaluation reports. Licensing Model: Pricing structure structured around either cost-per-application/select module or a fixed annual competitive license. 3. Quotation Submission & Evaluation Basis Because this activity entails standard commercial software readily available on the open market, GDN is conducting a limited market assessment comparing published commercial schedules and direct enterprise quotations from established platform vendors (including, but not limited to, Aventri/e-Touches, WizeHive, Submi