Authentic Maldives Website Development (Local Team) – Request for Quotation

02 November 2020

A. Overview
Business Center Corporation (BCC) is issuing this Request for Quotation (FRQ) in order to select and
contract with a party to develop a new website that is a modern, highly attractive and built with a
responsive web design.

B. About Authentic Maldives

The Government of Maldives aims to create an enabling environment for Maldivian craft workers and
home-based workers to promote local productivity by establishing retail outlets across the Maldives,
which will be managed by the Business Center Corporation (BCC). Authentic Maldives is the brand
name under which the outlets will be operated.
BCC is a State-Owned Enterprise incorporated in 2017 to coordinate and oversee the management of
regional business development service centers (BCs) established, by the Ministry of Economic
Development, under the SME Act (6/2013).
The purpose of the Business Centers (BCs) is to contribute to the establishment of an enabling business
environment to support inclusive economic growth by providing and building capacity for sustainable,
demand-driven business development services and to facilitate market access which will serve the
growth needs of the micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) sector in the Maldives.

C. PROJECT BACKGROUND
The Sustainable Economic Empowerment and Development for SMEs (SEEDS) project, with financial
support of the Government of Japan, aims to provide economic rehabilitation in order to mitigate the
negative impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in the Maldives. The project has the objective of increasing
agriculture production and promoting food security through an approach of building entrepreneurship
amongst farmers and creating a new generation of agri-businesses that are innovative, productive and
practices environment-friendly agriculture. The project will also provide technical support and capacity
to the Government of Maldives to conduct support services for MSMEs to adapt to the “new normal”.
The project will be implemented through partnership with the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) in Maldives, the Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Fisheries, Marine
Resources and Agriculture (MoFMRA), Agro National Corporation (AgroNat), Maldives Fund
Management Corporation (MFMC), the Business Center Corporation (BCC) and Housing Development
Corporation (HDC).

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D. SCOPE OF WORK
BCC is currently working on expanding the brand ‘Authentic Maldives’ to different corners of the
country in order to help and facilitate market access for MSMEs who are engaged in the production of
authentic local products. There is no platform or mechanism to sell their products over the internet at
present. This corporation intends to develop an online marketplace in the form of a website targeting
such businesses and individuals. The website will be multi-purpose in the sense it would also showcase
their products and bring their stories to a larger audience. This corporation expects this platform to
add more value to their brands, raise product awareness and help them achieve greater recognition
both locally and internationally.

The objectives of this project are two-fold:

a) Improve market access for MSMEs by removing the geographical barrier

b) Greater brand recognition for Authentic Maldives and the brands that sell their products
through this platform.

This corporation seeks a qualified party (a minimum of two members) to develop an e-commerce
platform for the corporation.

E. DEVELOPMENT REQUIREMENTS

1. Development of a dynamic website with the following features/pages

 Home
 Business Partners > Navigate to supplier directory
 Join Authentic Maldives
 Online Store
 Gallery
 Our locations
 About Authentic Maldives

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Business Partners

 This page should consist of an interactive directory of all the Suppliers/Business Partners
- A separate profile for each Supplier/Business Partner
- The profile will have a story, photo and video of the Supplier/Business Partner & his/her
products

ONLINE STORE

 This is an E-Commerce platform built for multiple vendors - integrated with e-banking (Multi seller e-
commerce platform) with the following feature. BCC will manage the whole e-shop from backend.

 Product Catalog
- Products shall be linked to the vendor/supplier profiles in the main website
- Categories
- Search, Filter and Sort based on given parameters (Eg. Price, Category, Size)
- Show remaining stock on website. (Eg. 3 Remaining)
 Cart management
- Include customer details, items in cart, additional request field, delivery/store pickup method.
- Ability to clear cart
- Ability to place order with/without registration on the platform (Guest checkout)
- Add “Automatic Shipping Calculator” to any address in the world based on pre-fed rates
- Currency conversion feature
- Discount management
(a) Apply vouchers, coupons, and gift cards that BCC accepts
(b) Offer Special prices based on quantity purchased and for repeat customers
(c) Seasonal promotions (Discounts) with special labels

 Sale management & After Sales

- Customer management
- Inventory Management
- Order Tracking
- Bidding/Auction Option – Products selected by BCC
- ‘Transaction Completed’ confirmation via email/text

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  Marketing
- 1. Generate reports for marketing purpose (e.g. website traffic, and locations etc.); and link
with a service such as Google Analytics
- 2. Customer rating and review function (comments published after moderation)
- 3. Sending newsletters (or promotional offers) for a selected group of products via
email/texts)
- 4. SMS Gateway integration

Website Footer

 Logo
 Address
 Main Menu
 Legal pages
 Copyright
 Social Media Icons
 Career page
 Contact us
 Visit BCC

Other Requirements

 Live Chat on website

 Social Media sharing features
 Link the site to other microsites and pages

2. Support Services
 Maintenance for 6 months
 Support and training for 6 months

F. QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE

 Team members must have minimum 3 years of experience in the sphere of design and website
development and in implementing similar projects.
 Familiarity and relevant experience in using different Content Management Systems (CMS).

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  Have a broad knowledge of current web development technologies and design tools in the field,
and new software and other web programming languages and programs including use of HTML,
XHTML, CSS, XML, XSLT, Macromedia Flash, Java.
 Have excellent knowledge of recent trends in graphic design, web sites, including online video
publishing, and social media networking.

G. DELIVERABLES
 Work plan and timeline before the start of the project.
 Website structure and design
 Handover of the source code – The full source code of the website shall be handed over to BCC
 Knowledge transfer – Creating the user manual and technical documentation for support staff and
administrators for website operation, system maintenance and to upload content. This also
includes conducting support sessions for the relevant staff to manage the website during the full
handover.
 Submitting the website to search engines for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
 Advise on various other online tools / web-based tools we may wish to develop in the future.

H. CONTRACT DURATION:
 45 calendar days – full development
 Maintenance and support services for six months (This shall be a part of the contract).

I. DOCUMENTS REQUIRED:
 Quotation/Proposal with item level breakdown (prices must be inclusive of GST and quoted in
MVR)
 Proposed timeline for the website development
 Work portfolio / evidence of previous work
 Reference letter – Optional
 Curriculum Vitae of the project team member(s)
J. SELECTION CRITERIA:
Qualification of key personnel * 15%
Portfolio / work experience * 35%
Proposed Price 50%
* Applicant has successfully demonstrated completion of similar projects and has necessary
qualifications to undertake the consultancy

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K. APPLICATION DEADLINE – 05 November 2020, 1400hrs.
All quotations and queries shall be submitted via email to [email protected]

L. PAYMENT
The total fee inclusive of all related costs and subject to any deductions will be paid upon the
completion of the project.

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