Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2025-05-27
Buyer: 81316530-Provisioning (SaaS) and further development of the atingi learning management system
Region: DEA22
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated with prior call for competition
CPV classification: 72000000 | 72212190
Submission deadline: 2025-06-12

Technical requirements: According to Article 160, Section 3 of the German Act Against Restraint of Competition (GWB), application for review is not permissible insofar as
1. the applicant has identified the claimed infringement of the procurement rules before submitting the application for review and has not submitted a complaint to the contracting authority within a period of 10 calendar days; the expiry of the period pursuant to Article 134, Section 2 remains unaffected,
2. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that are evident in the tender notice are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for the application or by the deadline for the submission of bids, specified in the tender notice.
3. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that first become evident in the tender documents are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for application or by the deadline for the submission of bids,
4. more than 15 calendar days have expired since receipt of notification from the contracting authority that it is unwilling to redress the complaint.
Sentence 1 does not apply in the case of an application to determine the invalidity of the contract in accordance with Article 135, Section 1 (2). Article 134, Section 1, Sentence 2 remains unaffected.
As a service provider in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education work, GIZ is dedicated to shaping a future worth living around the world. GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment promotion, energy and the environment, and peace and security. The main commissioning party is the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The registered offices of GIZ are in Bonn and Eschborn, Germany. In 2024, GIZ generated a business volume of around EUR 4 billion.  
From 2019 to 2025, GIZ implemented the atingi learning platform on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). atingi provided a free, multilingual, GDPR-compliant digital learning environment supporting scalable, sustainable digital education. It enabled GIZ projects and external organizations to deliver free capacity-building courses targeting learners aged 16+ in Latin America, Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. Projects could create new courses or adapt over 300 existing public courses in areas such as AI, digital skills, health, entrepreneurship, and tourism. By November 2025, the platform aimed for 1.3 million registered users (40% women), completing 2.3 million learning units, and serving 350 German development cooperation projects. Implementation aligned with the "Digital Principles for Development" and supported the BMZ Digital Strategy, promoting digital inclusion, equitable digital transformation, and open-source infrastructures.
From 2026 atingi will have transformed from a BMZ-funded project into a GIZ integrated standard product solution. This means that atingi will continue to be available for all GIZ projects currently using or planning to use the platform for their capacity development activities. atingi will remain free at the point of use to learners, but GIZ projects will pay atingi for standard service packages to host their courses and their learners on atingi subject to German price law. Therefore, while the focus of the first phase of atingi was on learners and overcoming the digital divide as expressed in our previous vision statement - Our vision is a world in which digital learning is inclusive, accessible, relevant, safe and secure for all, the new phase is focus on simplifying the procurement and use of eLearning for GIZ projects according to the new vision statement - Making eLearning easy. This means that ease of use for partners is a high priority in this phase, but also compliance with GIZ regulations on data protection and information security, and an easy procurement of atingi for GIZ projects.
EN-B1: Technical and professional ability (Mit dem Teilnahmeantrag; Mittels Eigenerklärung): 1. The technical assessment is only based on reference projects with a minimum commission value of 200.000,00 EUR.
2. At least 3 reference projects in the technical field Moodle Workplace as SaaS in the last 3 years.
3. The candidate (and in case of a consortium, all members of the consortium) must submit a valid proof of an Information Security Management System according to DIN EN ISO 27001 or an equivalent standard which includes the object or service to be delivered with their request to participate
EN-C1: Economic and financial standing (Mit dem Teilnahmeantrag; Mittels Eigenerklärung): Average annual turnover for the last three years (last-but-four financial year can be included in case of tenders held within 6 months of end of last financial year), at least: 1.000.000,00 EUR.
EN-C2: Economic and financial standing (Mit dem Teilnahmeantrag; Mittels Eigenerklärung): Average number of employees and managers in the last three calendar years, at least 10 persons.

Eligibility requirements: EN-B1: Technical and professional ability (Mit dem Teilnahmeantrag; Mittels Eigenerklärung): 1. The technical assessment is only based on reference projects with a minimum commission value of 200.000,00 EUR.
2. At least 3 reference projects in the technical field Moodle Workplace as SaaS in the last 3 years.
3. The candidate (and in case of a consortium, all members of the consortium) must submit a valid proof of an Information Security Management System according to DIN EN ISO 27001 or an equivalent standard which includes the object or service to be delivered with their request to participate
EN-C1: Economic and financial standing (Mit dem Teilnahmeantrag; Mittels Eigenerklärung): Average annual turnover for the last three years (last-but-four financial year can be included in case of tenders held within 6 months of end of last financial year), at least: 1.000.000,00 EUR.
EN-C2: Economic and financial standing (Mit dem Teilnahmeantrag; Mittels Eigenerklärung): Average number of employees and managers in the last three calendar years, at least 10 persons.
EN-B2: Technical and professional ability (Mit dem Teilnahmeantrag; Mittels Dritterklärung): The candidate (and in case of a consortium, all members of the consortium) must submit a valid proof of an Information Security Management System according to DIN EN ISO 27001 or an equivalent standard which includes the object or service to be delivered with their request to participate
EN-A2 Conditions for the reduction of candidates (Mit dem Teilnahmeantrag; Mittels Eigenerklärung): If we receive more than 5 requests to participate, we will make a selection on the basis of the criteria laid out in the procurement documents and invite tenders only from the 5 candidates with the highest scores. We reserve the right to cancel the procurement procedure if we receive fewer than 3 requests to participate.

More than the required number of references may be provided but the number of 10 references should not be exceeded. If you are participating in the procedure as part of a candidate/bidding consortium, please note that the total number of references for all members of the consortium combined should not exceed 10.
Only references that have the required minimum commission value of EUR 200.000,00 will be assessed.
Only references that have started and/or finished in the last three years will be assessed. If a reference project satisfies both the minimum criteria and the weighted criteria, it will be counted for both assessments.
Only reference projects will be assessed if the reference project description clearly explains why the reference meets the required technical eligibility criterion and makes it possible to clearly assign the reference to a required eligibility criterion.
The maximum number of points that can be achieved per weighted criterion is 10 points.


1. Experience in developing and publishing open-source Moodle plugins and maintain the plugins for at least 3 years, within the last 3 years (1 plugin = 2 points; max. 5 plugins = 10 points)       30 %

2. Number of 3rd party systems integrated with Moodle through APIs or plugins and keeping the integrations stable for at least 3 years, within the last 3 years (1 system = 2 points; max. 5 systems = 10 points)       30%

3. Number of implemented Moodle Workplace instances on the cloud each with more than 10.000 registered users (1 instance = 2 points; max. 5 instances = 10 points)       10%

4. Experience of working on projects in development cooperation context (2 points per project, max 10 points)       10%

5. Implementation of public / open LMS with more than 2 UI languages (0 point = no implementations; one or more implementations = 10 points)       20%
GIZ asks the applicant or bidder to submit, complete or correct documents, within the framework laid down by law.
The execution conditions result from the information given in the contract notice and the tender documents.
According to Article 160, Section 3 of the German Act Against Restraint of Competition (GWB), application for review is not permissible insofar as
1. the applicant has identified the claimed infringement of the procurement rules before submitting the application for review and has not submitted a complaint to the contracting authority within a period of 10 calendar days; the expiry of the period pursuant to Article 134, Section 2 remains unaffected,
2. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that are evident in the tender notice are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for the application or by the deadline for the submission of bids, specified in the tender notice.
3. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that first become evident in the tender documents are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for application or by the deadline for the submission of bids,
4. more than 15 calendar days have expired since receipt of notification from the contracting authority that it is unwilling to redress the complaint.
Sentence 1 does not apply in the case of an application to determine the invalidity of the contract in accordance with Article 135, Section 1 (2). Article 134, Section 1, Sentence 2 remains unaffected.
The subject of this tender is the procurement of a comprehensive Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution covering the entire atingi technology stack, complemented by expert services for ongoing development and associated IT support. The service ensures optimal performance of both hardware infrastructure and software operations. The procurement encompasses the atingi digital learning environment, primarily consisting of a Moodle Workplace-based learning management system (online.atingi.org) and a WordPress-based public website (atingi.org). Detailed specifications and requirements are outlined in the Terms of Reference and its annexes.
GIZ may optionally commission contract amendments and/or increases based on the criteria in the tender documents to the successful bidder of this tender. For details, please see the terms of reference.