RESTRICTED  
  
WT/BFA/W/549  
 
11 May 2021 
(21-3684) Page: 1/6 
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration   
 
 
UPDATE ON  THE REPLACEMENT OF  DOCUMENTS ONLINE  (DOL)  
1  BACKGROUND  
1.1.  The background to this project was presented to the CBFA on 9 November 2020, bearing the 
reference WT/BFA/W/536.  
1.2.  This document serves as an update on the process for the selection of the service provider to 
the replacement of Documents Online.  
2  PROCESS FOLLOWED FOR HIRING THE CONSULTANCY  
2.1.  In August 2020, a request for proposals was launched to identify a provider of consultancy 
services with a broad expertise in state -of-the-art document dissemination and publishing platforms, 
ideally tried and tested by other international organizations and/or companies in the business of 
disseminating documents and facilitating their access through an intuitive web interface.   
2.2.  More particu larly, the Consultant was requested to:  
a. advise on the application of best practices in the area s of document dissemination and 
publishing ; 
b. analyse user needs, provide expertise in establishing technical requirements ; and  
c. identify suitable matching technol ogy, assessing risks and effort estimation for the 
implementation of replacement system.  
2.3.  The procurement process led to the selection of a firm of consultants (the "Consultant") in 
September 2020.  
2.4.  Between October and Decembe r 2020, the Consultant collecte d and analysed user needs and 
delivered their report comprising:  
a. Best practices report;  
b. User needs and gap analysis report;  
c. Ontology report;  
d. Requirements Log; and  
e. Final report.  
 
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  2.1  Approach followed by the Consultant  
2.1.1   Identifying user needs  
2.5.  The Consultant used the following methodology to gather requirements:  
 
2.6.  The three key user groups namely Members, Secretariat and the Official Documents and 
Registry of Notifications Section  staff were interviewed  to define requirements.  
2.7.  Members were inter viewed through three separate focus group meetings on 
10 November  2020, 8 December 2020 and 10 December 2020.  
2.8.  Secretariat  staff were interviewed through three separate focus group meetings on 5, 9 and 
11 November 2020. Requirements were collected from WTO Divisions and Committees that included: 
Trade Policy Review, Development, Agriculture, Technical Barriers to Trade, Intellectual Property, 
Rules, Knowledge Management, Market Access, Trade in Services, Trade Facilitation, Training and 
Technical Cooperation  and Economic Research and Statistics.  
2.9.  In addition, 17 individual interviews were conducted during October and November 2020 to 
analyse user needs from the Internet Web Team, Information Technology Services Division (ITSD), 
Language Technology Section,  Official Documents and Registry of Notifications Section Staff and the 
DOL project team.  
2.10.   For the  "general public " users such as corporates or academic researchers , the feedback 
received from the survey conducted by the Internet Web Team was used. Although t hey were not 
directly interviewed, many of the needs identified for information discovery and access are likely to 
apply to all users . Therefore, the new system would deliver benefits to general users as well as the 
key user groups defined.  
2.1.2   Key findings  
User group  User needs  Difficulties  Priority enhancements  
WTO 
members  1. Information synthesis 
across documents  1. Lack of intuitive, efficient 
search engine  1. Accurate, intuitive full -text 
search with semantic features  
2. Document awareness & 
personalization  2. Complex organizational 
structure, lack of semantic 
layer 2. Personalized dashboard or 
features to save preferences  
3. Efficient document 
retrieval  3. Poor usability & 
accessibility, lack of 
personalization  3. Modernize authentication for 
improved usability & identity 
management  
Secretariat 
staff 1. Efficient document 
retrieval (reference & 
analysis)  1. DOL is not intuitive & 
therefore a barrier to access  1. Accurate, intuitive full -text 
search (both quick & faceted)  
2. Centralized document 
storage & archiving  2. Information locked up in 
isolated systems & 
documents  2. Centralized platform & semantic 
indexing  
3. Efficient document 
translation  3. Lack of self -service, poor 
usability  3. Modernize authentication for 
improved usability & identity 
management  
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  User group  User needs  Difficulties  Priority enhancements  
Internal / 
DOL staff  1. Self -serve platform  1. Current platform is high 
touch  1. Centralized platform (taxonomy 
& DTD)  
2. Efficient, intuitive full -
text search  2. Lack of intuitive, efficient 
search engine  2. Improved search accuracy & 
personalization  
3. Multilingual platform  3. Language supports are 
insufficient  3. Support 3+ languages with 
personalization  
 
2.11.   The strongest theme by far in the analysis was the need for a more intuitive search, 
particularly for "non-expert " users of the system in the Member and Secretariat groups. As such, 
the focus of the efforts has been concentrated on design ing a solution that will deliver on this 
requirement, allowing both simple, intuitive free -text search alongside the more detailed and 
sophisticated searching and indexing required by the Official Documents and Registry of Notifications 
Section staff in their work  related to  daily maintenance of DOL . 
2.1.3   Solution approach  
2.12.   One of the major current challenges associated with  DOL is the high -touch maintenance 
requirement; keeping the system running and making quick fixes when problems arise takes up a 
lot of internal time  and invol ves many parties: the Official Documents and Registry of Notifications 
Section, the Information Technology Services Division and the outsourced development company . 
This is a result of both outdated technology and an architecture in which one application i s trying to 
perform a variety of tasks, making the interconnectedness of the system hard to manage. Therefore, 
it was recommend ed to evolve to  a more modular system and embrac e the "separation of concerns " 
concept  where each application module has a specif ic role to play.  
2.13.   The list of components considered for the architecture of the future DOL are tabled below:  
Module  Function  
NoSQL database capable to store data as "triples " 
(Subject -Predicate -Object relationship)  Thesaurus, taxonomy  
and ontology  
Administration interface  System maintenance  
Headless Content Management System  1. Metadata and documents maintenance  
2. XML to facilitate document -structure based searches  
User interface  Responsive interface & intuitive search  
Access management  Management of  data authentication and usability in the 
system  
 
2.14.   This architecture delivers several  benefits:  
a. It eliminates the requirement to design a complex solution to every individual micro -level 
user need; front -end interfaces to meet speci fic needs can be quickly and easily generated 
and Application Programming Interfaces ( APIs) used to deliver the relevant data . 
 
b. It adds flexibility for users to add non -core metadata to documents for their own purposes.  
 
c. It reduces the need to impose ways  of working on the Members and Secretariat . 
 
d. It reduces  the impact of all the different document format types (Word, WordPerfect , Excel 
etc); documents are stored as relational bits of data .  
 
2.1.4   Market research  
2.15.   A tender process would be undertaken to select the next stage vendor/service provider 
(see 3.4). WT/BFA/W/549  
 
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  2.2  Recommendations from the Consultant  
2.16.   The initial assumption upon commencing the project was to source a n off-the-shelf document 
dissemination platform. However, the requirements gathering  stage demonstrated that such a 
platform w ould require considerable adaptations and would not  be sufficiently future  proof to support 
the WTO 's evolving  needs.  
2.17.   The key barriers to implementing such a n off-the-shelf platform are:  
a. Level of sophistication of the taxonomy required . 
b. Document contents and metadata are of equal importance to users in searching . 
c. Volume of documentation and speed of required delivery would not be standard for such 
solutions . 
d. User base is diverse, including sophisticated searchers as well as general users; a more 
customer -facing solution is required . 
e. Level of sophistication of the integration  with the WTO website and internal or external 
system, with which data is exchanged.  
2.18.   With these constraints in mind, a new approach that moves from  just software and platforms 
to a wider overall solution design  is needed , to deliver the following:  
a. Searchi ng and indexing of documents across both content and associated metadata.  
b. Highly sophisticated taxonomy and thesaurus to enable a specialized yet intuitive search . 
c. Content Management System to deliver more advanced version control, differentiating 
between genre, instance, works, etc., in a way that publishing platforms traditionally do not 
handle well.  
d. Increased automation of indexing tasks due to the high volume of documents being 
processed , thus reducing the level of manual work required.  
e. Sophistication of interoperability for data exchange between dependent systems.  
2.19.   In addition, the architecture and technology underpinning the current DOL application  has 
been in place for more than 10 years  and requires high levels of maintenance and manua l support 
to resolve user queries. Newer technologies create an opportunity to develop an architecture which 
is more flexible, more reliable, and easier to maintain.  
With this in mind, the solution design covers three main areas:  
 
• Agile project management.  
• Taxonomy and thesaurus creation . 
• System architecture . 
These three components all need to work together to create the end -state solution that will be 
DOL 2.0.  
 
 
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  3  NEXT STEPS AND TIMELINES  
3.1  Project roadmap  
3.1.  Based on the above, a two -phased approach is envisaged:  
Phase 1 – Development of Taxonomy, Thesaurus and Ontology.  
Phase 2 – DOL 2.0 replacement . 
 
3.2  Phase 1: Development of taxonomy, thesaurus, and ontology  
3.2.1   Current situation  
3.2.  The Consultant suggested to start with the development and improvements of th e existing 
controlled lists that are used to assign metadata to WTO official documents in terms of keywords, 
products, organizations, countries, WTO bodies, articles, document types and document collections.  
3.3.  These controlled lists should progressively be redesigned to be taxonomies to be integrated in 
the thesaurus. Currently, The Official Documents and Registry of Notifications Section is in the 
process of finalizing the first part of the thesaurus with the keywords (subjects) that consists of 
nearly 900 concepts that are described with definitions, broader and narrower, preferred, non -
preferred and related terms.  
3.4.  The next step consists of getting expert help in the area of taxonomy, thesaurus and ontology 
development and maintenance. These components are  crucial to provide the smart Google -like 
search for DOL 2.0.  
3.5.  The development of the thesaurus/ontology is required for the entire organization regardless 
of any future technical solution implemented.  
3.2.2   Procurement process for expert help in ontology develo pment and maintenance  
3.6.  ODRNS drafted the request for proposals to identify a provider of consultancy services with a 
broad expertise in multilingual thesaurus and ontology development . The RFP has been launched on 
22 April 2021.  
3.7.  The Consultant is expected to advise  on the application of best practices and technologies in 
the area of thesaurus and ontology, help developing the organization -wide multilingual thesaurus 
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  and ontology as well as train the project team on thesaurus and ontology development and 
maintenance .  
3.8.  The Consultant will analyse the current controlled lists and the drafted thesaurus, i dentify 
missing concepts or relationships in the thesaurus  and suggest improvements and further 
developments  on the thesaurus  following  best practices and international standards.   
3.3  Phase 2: DOL Replacement  
3.9.  The following approach will be used for Phase 2:  
 
 
3.10.   The technical solution will be further analysed to ensure alignment with WTO IT architecture 
through:  
• Extension of study with Consultant for 10 more days on technical aspects ; 
• Define a clear vision for seamless user experience (UX) between DOL and WTO website ; 
• Planning sourcing strategy for acquiring components and implementation ; and  
• Seek expert advice on Digital Experience Platforms (DXP)  
 
3.11.   Using the requirements prepared by the Consultant and the Official Documents and Registry  
of Notifications Section as a starting point, the project team will launch acquisition process for the 
replacement of DOL based on the sourcing strategy.  
3.12.   DOL 2.0 will be develo ped and implemented in sprints according to the Agile methodology, 
which means that the project team will set up a minimum viable product for each sprint.  
3.13.   The benefits of this approach are tangible : the design of the  full system is not required upfront 
in every last detail; the cycle of sprints means that new functionalit ies are delivered on a regular 
basis keeping users engaged; and a modular approach  can be taken , applying resources where they 
have most benefit.  For example the first go -live sprint could  reflect functionalities of the current 
system and deliver Google -like searches, browse, e -subscriptions and basic functionality of user 
accounts, but then advanced personalization or additional features improving the look and feel of 
the system can be dep loyed in a further sprints.  
4  CONCLUSION  
4.1.  Documents Online  is an essential system  for the consultation of o fficial WTO document ation 
also serving several peripheral systems that have served the WTO Membership well.  
4.2.  However, as the user feedback has shown, t he application no longer responds to expected 
needs that can be delivered through more modern methodology and technology. Furthermore, DOL 
requires frequent patches, running the risk of creating regressions each time.  
4.3.  Replacing any technology can be daunt ing but the work done so far with a clear vision and 
roadmap will ensure that DOL 2.0 will be the authoritative, secure, well -designed and intuitive 
application users expect from a forward -looking organization.  
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