CONSULTANT - SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT SHAREPOINT
Location :
New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Application Deadline :
31-Dec-13
Type of Contract :
Individual Contract
Post Level :
International Consultant
Languages Required :
English
Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)
03-Feb-2014
Background
he Office of Information Systems and Technology (OIST) is UNDP's primary provider of ICT services. Within OIST, the Intranet Project Team is responsible for the overall introduction and roll-out of the UNDP corporate SharePoint platform. The New York based Intranet Project Team provides advisory services on technical and content structure challenges to UNDP Business Units. UNDP is currently on SharePoint 2010, and considering upgrading to 2013. In this context, it is anticipated current custom applications on SharePoint 2010 platform will be re-developed and re-deployed applying a new application model of SharePoint 2013.
The task at hand for OIST is to bring all existing UNDP Country Offices as well as Regional Centres, Policy Centres and other UNDP presence to utilize the corporate SharePoint platform as an effective productivity tool to foster information exchange, collaboration, document and record management and information consolidation. In addition, as a part of the Public Cloud initiative, UNDP is undergoing a procurement process to select a service provider for email messaging, unified communications, knowledge management platform and productivity tools.
The Solutions Architect will work in a team environment on this major enterprise initiative including business process enhancements using the Microsoft SharePoint Intranet platform.
Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision of the Manager, the international consultant will perform the following tasks:
- Deliver architecture analysis, design and direction on the development activities. Provide leadership in gaining insight on functional and non-functional requirements related to technical delivery of the architecture;
- Lead the architectural design and solution management to ensure that these are aligned to UNDP's business objectives and priorities for the assigned key projects;
- Provide documentation on architectural decisions and best practice approaches to implementing the architecture design;
- Deliver working proof of concepts to demonstrate workability of proposed solutions where appropriate
- Lead initiatives and participate in projects to coordinate efforts of Subject Matter Experts, Applications Delivery, Quality Assurance, Usability, Training, and other internal resources for the successful solutions delivery.
Competencies
Corporate Competencies:
- Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standards;
- Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
- Treats all people fairly without favoritism.
Functional Competencies:
- Share knowledge and experience and contributes to relevant discussions;
- Ability to work in a team and respect diversity;
- Excellent organizational skills;
- Pro-active, self-directed, enthusiastic and well organized with an attention to details;
- Ability to set and meet deadlines on multiple projects without frequent supervision and work autonomously;
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
Required Skills:
- Ability to directly manage senior technicians and consultants in a results-oriented method.;
- Ability to mediate multi-party disputes and find appropriate common ground;
- Ability to anticipate issues and resolve them before they occur;
- Ability to assess problems and solve them with a strong sense of urgency;
- Ability to handle aggressive deadlines and juggle multiple responsibilities
- Ability to be an analytical and creative thinker;
- Well versed in SharePoint functions and features as they apply to intranet sites and applications;
- A firm grasp of topics like usability, code best practices;
- Important technical skills include SharePoint Server, ADO.NET, VB, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, XML, SQL Server, Web Services, security, instrumentation, exception handling, SharePoint branding and support of large, complex, or enterprise-wide solutions;
- Proficiency with C#, .NET Framework, and ASP.NET.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- University degree in the area of Computer Science, Information Management, Communications, and/or any other related field is required;
- Graduate-level degree or enrollment in a graduate-level degree program is a plus.
Work Experience:
- Minimum 10 years of experience with web-based development projects;
- Minimum 3 year of MS SharePoint experience including exposure to SharePoint 2010 implementing its product capabilities;
- Experience with html and css files, graphic design, and technical documentation;
- Experience in a Professional Services environment, ability to frame highly complex technology projects in a business-friendly way.
Language Requirements:
- Proficient in written and spoken English;
- Working knowledge of another UN language is an asset.
Application Procedure
Qualified and interested candidates are hereby requested to apply. The application package should contain the following:
Online Application
Brief description of why the candidate considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment
Personal CV
- Past experiences with similar projects;
- At least 3 references, including telephone and email contact details.
Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be asked to submit a Financial Proposal
Daily rate consultancy fee based on a 7.5-hour working day (lunch time is not included). The cost for air travel and living cost should NOT be included in the daily rate. Travel cost will be borne by UNDP if such travel will be required. UNDP normally use economy class.
[The successful Individual Contractor is eligible for reimbursement of cost of living at the rate of $189/day for the first 30 and $96/day for remaining days as per contract terms, provided that: a) the he/she is commuting a minimum of 3 hours to work (one way), and that b) he/she presents all supporting documents in the form of receipts, vouchers, etc. as a proof.]
f the candidate is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the candidate must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the Financial Proposal submitted to UNDP.
The Financial Proposal is to be emailed to cpu.bids@undp.org on or before the application deadline given above with the heading 'Financial Proposal for Solutions Architect SharePoint'
Evaluation
Applicants are shortlisted based on Required Skills and Experience stated in the TOR. UNDP may choose to interview shortlisted candidates. Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
After which the applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative scoring:
When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
- Being responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
- Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation;
- Technical criteria weight/Interview Score (70%);
- Financial criteria weight/Financial Proposal (30%).
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (490 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (700 points) shall be considered for the financial evaluation.
Criteria - Weight Max. Points
Motivation: 10% - Max. points: 100
Technical Knowledge: 20% - M max points 200
Relevant working experience in the required areas: 40% - Max. points: 400
Financial offer: 30% - Max. points 300.
Framework Agreement
UNDP plans to enter into the Long-Term Agreement (LTA) with one or two TOP ranked successful Individual Contractor/s to assure resources availability at the required timefame and/or increased demand for services requested. The service of who will be used on an intermittent and repetitive basis when needed and based on the fixed unit price. Other prospective applicants that are not contracted, at the UNDP discretion, will be placed in the roster of consultants to be used based on call basis for similar services.
Please note that the LTA does not form a financial obligation or commitment from UNDP at the time the LTA contract is signed, and that such an agreement is non-exclusive. When a specific need arises, the successful Individual Contractor/s will be approached and be provided with a specific TOR and deliverables (and time frame) but still within the scope of the responsibilities stated in the LTA. The successful Individual Contractor/s is expected to provide Confirmation of Interest on the specific services required and submit Financial Proposal based on the agreed LTA Daily Rate Consultancy Fee. Financial commitments will only be established each time a Purchase Order for the specific services/TOR for Individual Contractor is committed.
This LTA has a cumulative ceiling amount that may accrue to the individual contractor during the life of the LTA, but said amount shall remain as an upper limit, and must not and cannot be interpreted nor understood as neither a financial commitment nor guarantee of business volume.
The duration of LTA is for 3-year period subject to satisfactory contract performance.
Payment Modalities
- Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on the deliverables and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager;
- The Individual Contractor is eligible for reimbursement of cost of living at the rate of $189/day for the first 30 and $96/day for remaining days as per contract terms, provided that: a) he/she is commuting a minimum of 3 hours to work (one way), and that b) he/she presents all supporting documents in the form of receipts, vouchers, etc. as a proof;
- The work week will be based on 37.5 hours, i.e. on a 7.5-hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily;
- Payments are to be made to the Individual Contractor based on the number of days worked and deliverables accepted.
Any request for clarification must be sent by email to cpu.bids@undp.org .
The UNDP Central Procurement Unit will respond by email and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.
Click here for important information for US Permanent Residents ('Green Card' holders).
UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
