Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2020-07-07
Buyer: European X-Ray Free-ElectronLaser Facility GmbH
Country: DE
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Competitive procedure with negotiation
CPV classification: 72200000 | 72210000: Software programming services | 72212000: Platform-specific software programming services
Submission deadline: 2020-08-03
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: The European XFEL is a research facility of superlatives: it generates ultrashort X-ray flashes-27 000 times per second and with a brilliance that is a billion times higher than that of the best conventional X-ray radiation sources. To construct and operate the European XFEL, international partners agreed on the foundation of an independent research organization — the European XFEL GmbH (‘XFEL’), a non-profit limited liability Company under German law.
XFEL is striving to improve the quality and availability of safety trainings with the help of e-learning techniques and by utilizing media such as pictures, photos, audio, video, digital animations, and virtual reality.
The aim of the present call for tenders is to identify a provider of e-learning solutions who can offer the entire range of services presented, using e-learning technical and courseware design standards.
The services to be contracted include the planning, development, implementation, operation and continuing support of the online safety training and learning platform specifically tailored to the requirements of XFEL. In addition it includes the production, editing, and technical implementation of e-learning material required for the safety training courses.
Based on the task description below, a duration of the planning, development and implementation phase is projected to take approximately 12 months. The total duration of the contract will be 60 months (see point II.2.7).
Initially it is envisaged to produce around 10 different safety training courses on subjects such as biological safety, chemical safety, laser safety, etc. All work is carried out in close consultation or according to specifications by the responsible persons of the Safety and Radiation Protection group of XFEL.
Based on a project sketch provided by European XFEL, a technical concept for the online safety training and e-learning platform needs to be developed and implemented by the contractor in cooperation with the client. The online safety training and e-learning platform needs to be hosted within the DMZ of the client to allow interaction with the access control system. More specifically, this involves:
• template programming according to specifications and in cooperation with a graphic design agency commissioned by the client;
• user management including a login and registration system, rights and role management, linking to existing accounts via an LDAP or Active Directory interface, self-registration for external companies, and link management with the existing access control management system all system communications should be secure with SSL/TLS;
• preference is given to the usage of open source protocols (e.g. RESTful, LDAP, etc.), development frameworks (e.g. Laravel, Ruby on Rails, Node, React, etc.) and open stack systems (e.g. Linux, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.);
• the content of the courses remains archived within the system for documentation purposes beyond the life cycle of the course. Each version of a training course can be downloaded as a static documentation record;
2) Export interface The system must be designed in such a way that generated content (courses) can be extracted in a way that is compatible with industry standard formats to allow reuse of the content in another learning management system.
4) Production of safety training courses the client develops and provides story boards for the training courses. Based on the story boards and in very close collaboration with the client, the provider takes over the production of the safety training material.
Based on the conceptual design of online supported e-learning formats, the media production is carried out by the provider. Media production includes on site production of photo, video, audio, as well as integration of existing media provided by the client. The learning content is to be implemented in various multimedia. The provider may advise the client with regard to new e-learning instruments, new methods, techniques and standards.
The e-learning portal design should be responsive and optimized for a wide range of devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones When producing the learning media, the provider must take into account that they should be available on various devices (desktop PC, tablet, smartphone). This requires a responsive web design. This includes a readable and accurate display of the content on each device and an automated correct presentation on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones (e.g. by providing the media in different resolutions).

Eligibility requirements: Documents submitted must still be valid; where up-to-date requirements are made, the date refers to the date of publication of this notice (see point VI.5). Applicants must submit the following documents or documents with their application: PL1. Self-declaration regarding exclusion criteria (Sec. 123, 124 GWB). The form in the application documents shall be used. PL2. A short description of the company. The form in the application documents shall be used. In the case of candidate consortia, the requirements set out here apply accordingly to each individual member of the candidate consortia. XFEL reserves the right to request further self-declarations and certificates for bidders selected at the end of the competition and any subcontractors with the submission of the tender separate request.