Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2020-09-04
Buyer: Kansaneläkelaitos
Country: FI
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 72000000 | 79530000

Technical requirements: Υπηρεσίες τεχνολογίας των πληροφοριών: παροχή συμβουλών, ανάπτυξη λογισμικού, Διαδίκτυο και υποστήριξη
The subject of a potential procurement is primarily a neural machine translation engine to be used in the processing of international benefit matters at Kela and secondarily for use in Kela’s translation services. The subject of the procurement will include e.g. the following products and services:
— machine translation engine for the following language pairs: Spanish‒Finnish, Polish‒Finnish, French‒Finnish, German‒Finnish and Estonian‒Finnish; Finnish‒Swedish, Finnish‒English, Arabic‒Finnish and Russian‒Finnish; Italian‒Finnish, Portuguese‒Finnish and Dutch‒Finnish;
— training the machine translation engine on the above-mentioned language pairs primarily on the data supplied by the contractor as well as fine-tuning the translation engine for Kela’s needs using data supplied by Kela;
— delivery of the machine translation engine as a SaaS solution including the services needed for the instalment of the machine translation engine;
This notification is not an invitation to tender or a contract notice. The purpose of the publication of this document is not to start a tendering process. It is only an invitation to a preliminary market consultation in order to survey the market. The document does not require the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (hereinafter Kela) to start a tendering process.
Replying to this call for information is not a precondition for participation in a potential future tendering process and participation in the market consultation will not in any way affect the bidder’s position in a potential future tendering process.
The subject of a potential procurement is primarily a neural machine translation engine to be used in the processing of international benefit matters at Kela and secondarily for use in Kela’s translation services. The subject of the procurement will include e.g. the following products and services:
— machine translation engine for the following language pairs: Spanish‒Finnish, Polish‒Finnish, French‒Finnish, German‒Finnish and Estonian‒Finnish; Finnish‒Swedish, Finnish‒English, Arabic‒Finnish and Russian‒Finnish; Italian‒Finnish, Portuguese‒Finnish and Dutch‒Finnish;
— training the machine translation engine on the above-mentioned language pairs primarily on the data supplied by the contractor as well as fine-tuning the translation engine for Kela’s needs using data supplied by Kela;
— delivery of the machine translation engine as a SaaS solution including the services needed for the instalment of the machine translation engine;
Parties interested in taking part in the market consultation, are kindly asked to express their interest by 9 September 2020, at the latest by emailing details about the company, the contact person and contact information to it-hankinnat@kela.fi using the heading: ‘Machine translation engine.’ The market consultation will be conducted in writing and, if needed, as separate online meetings on Skype.
Please note that this is a prior information notice only. It is not an invitation to tender. Participation in the market consultation is not binding on any parties. The call for information does not constitute the start of a procurement process and it does not oblige the procurement unit to start a procurement process. Nor is participation in the market consultation a precondition for taking part in a potential future tendering process. Participating does in no way affect a prospective bidder’s position in the event of a potential future tendering process. No compensation will be paid to those taking part in the market consultation.
The answers and any other information provided in reply to this call for information and any information provided in the course of the resulting market consultation may be used when investigating whether a machine translation engine that Kela may procure would be suitable for Kela’s operating environment and if it would meet Kela’s requirements.