Request for Proposals

2012 SURVEY OF PAKISTANI IT AND ITES INDUSTRY

The National ICT R&D Fund invites proposals from reputed Pakistani/International firms for carrying out the 2012 Survey of Pakistani IT and ITES 1 Industry as per the guidelines described in this RFP. Firms interested in designing and carrying out this survey are requested to submit their proposals to the ICT R&D Fund, Islamabad by 1500 hrs on 9th March, 2012 as per the prescribed format.

1 GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
1.1 Proposal Submission
a. All proposals must be accompanied by a bid security (refundable) of PKR 50,000 in the form of a Pay Order/Demand Draft in favor of National ICT R&D Fund (cheques will not be accepted). a. Proposals will be accepted and evaluated using a two stage process. In the first stage, only technical proposals are being solicited to be evaluated against evaluation criteria given below. Kindly note that Financial Proposals are not required at this stage. b. In the second stage financial proposals shall be solicited from firms shortlisted in the first stage. Final assignment award will be on the basis of combined technical and financial score in the following manner: Proposal Weight Technical Financial Total 70% 30% 100%

c. Proposals shall be submitted in English language. d. The proposals shall be clear and elaborate. Different sections of the proposals shall be separated using color separators, flags or tags. The proposals shall be prepared without any interlineations or overwriting. e. Bidders may request in writing, for clarification of any of the provisions of this RFP up till 15 (fifteen) days before the submission date. All queries may be sent to sed@ictrdf.org.pk. Responses to queries will be emailed and also placed on the Funds website. f. The Fund reserves the right to accept or reject all of the proposals submitted at any time without assigning any reason thereof. g. The costs of preparing the proposal and of negotiating any subsequent funding, including visits for discussion with the Fund are not reimbursable.
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h. Bidders must be legally registered entities in Pakistan (i.e. a partnership firm or a company registered with the SECP). Proof of registration, NTN and sales tax registration are to be submitted. International firms must be legally registered/incorporated entities in their respective countries. Details to be provided. i. In case of a joint venture or consortium of two or more firms (local and/or international), one of their members must be clearly identified as the lead partner. All JV/consortium members must provide details of their registration/incorporation, etc. j. Each bidding firm must provide an undertaking that it has not been blacklisted by any other firm/company/organization or Government department/organization in the past. k. Each bidding firm must also provide details of any commercial litigation that it is currently involved in or has been involved in during the last five years.

1.2 Technical Proposals

Technical Proposals shall be in compliance with the requirements laid down in the RFP and ToR. The technical proposals shall include the following: a. A covering letter from the head of the applicant firm or his authorized representative. b. Table of Contents with page numbers c. Profile of the applicant firm including outline of work experience with focus on similar assignments, name of clients, details of assignments with duration and contract value, financial statements, etc. d. Details of Core Assignment Team (including the project lead, domain experts, field supervisor(s), analysts, etc.) for proposed survey clearly identifying the role of each core team member. Resumes of the core assignment team are to be provided. Each resume must not be more that three A4 pages (single spaced, font size 12). The resumes must contain details of educational qualifications, professional experience, nationality, experience of relevant assignments and nature of association of the team member with the applicant firm (full time, part time, etc.), and percentage of time committed to the project. Note: Please do not provide resumes of the firms partners or directors, etc. Only provide resumes of core team associated with the assignment. e. Details of past assignments of exactly the same nature in IT or other industry sectors, locally or internationally. Please provide at least three recent verifiable references. f. Details of identical ongoing assignment with verifiable references, if any. g. Proposed assignment methodology including sampling strategy and sample size. The nationwide sample will cover IT and ITES firms operating formally (i.e. registered with SECP, PASHA or PSEB) as well as informally (e.g. through sites like Elance.com, Odesk.com, etc.) in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad/Rawalpindi and in smaller Tier-II cities (Faisalabad, Peshawar, Multan, etc.). h. International firms must also provide details of their local arrangements/partnerships that will be utilized for completing the assignment especially for data collection. i. Assignment Work Plan. At this stage the Fund perceives that the assignment can be completed within a period of eighteen (18) weeks. j. Contact List
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1.3 Submission
a. Each proposal shall be submitted as two printed copies (one marked as ORIGINAL, the other as COPY) and one soft copy on a CD or DVD (MS Word compatible file format). b. Proposals must be sealed and clearly marked. c. Technical proposals must be delivered at the address given below before 1500 hrs (PST), on 9th March, 2012. Solicitation and Evaluation Department National ICT R&D Fund 6th Floor, HBL Tower, Jinnah Avenue Blue Area, Islamabad, Pakistan Tel: 051-9215360 to 65 Email: sed@ictrdf.org.pk d. Technical Proposals shall be opened at 1530 hrs, on 9th March, 2012 in presence of all applicants who choose to be present. e. The technical proposals will be evaluated on the basis of Evaluation Criteria given below. Bidders shortlisted on the basis of their technical submissions will be asked to submit a Financial Proposal.

1.4 Evaluation Criteria

An evaluation committee appointed by Fund will evaluate the technical proposals on the basis of their compliance with the RFP and ToR and by applying the evaluation criteria and the point system as specified below. A technical proposal shall be rejected at this stage if it fails to achieve the minimum score indicated in table below: No. a. b. Requirements Clarity of proposal, compliance to RFP Core technical team for proposed for the assignment clearly identifying the team lead. Resumes of the core technical team to be provided. Experience in conducting research in the subject area in IT or other industry segments, locally or internationally. Methodology including sampling strategy. Basis for proposed sampling strategy and size to be provided. Proposed assignment duration and work plan Marks 70 210

c. d. e. Total Points

210 140 70 700 455

Minimum qualification score (65%)

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2 TERMS OF REFERENCE
2.1 Background and Introduction
While Pakistans IT & ITES Industry is now quite mature, it lacks authentic and credible data necessary to not only evaluate the performance of the industry itself but also to design policies and initiatives necessary to help the industry move forward. There have only been a few attempts to study the state and evolution of the Industry so far. The P@SHA Annual Review of Pakistans Software/BPO Industry in 2008 identified a number of serious challenges that are hampering the growth of the sector. As highlighted by the study, while IT and BPO companies had experienced considerable growth over the last few years including the average size of the firm growing from 62 employees to over 200 employees industry CEOs continue to identify shortage of human resources (identified by 48% of CEOs) and quality of HR (identified by 32% of CEOs) as major stumbling blocks that have hindered the industrys ability to grow even faster. They also identified infrastructure problems, lack of easy access to capital, market access due especially to the negative perception of Pakistan internationally and legislative lacunas as some of the reasons for their inability to scale their operations further. Presently, a lot of innovation is taking place in the local IT industry but with a large number of companies operating below the radar. Their needs and requirements are not known. Identifying them and bringing them into the fold is extremely important if we are to create clusters and enable further growth. Both PASHA and PSEB have registered companies on their rosters. However, other than the top 100 200 companies, not enough is known about the size, growth, skill set, revenues, market segments that these companies work in and the kind of people they hire and what their needs will be in the coming years. The proposed study would allow the industry to have data available for policy making and analysis and would help in identifying trends and in embarking on strategic initiatives that would help the industry and the country. Through this exercise the Fund intends also to provide an evidence-based, rather than gut-feel based, basis to the policy recommendations derived from the study enabling the sector stakeholders to focus on the areas of strength and growth in the sector.

2.2 Objectives
The key objectives of the proposed Annual State of the IT and ITES Industry report are: a. To assess the current state of IT & ITES industry in Pakistan through systematic data collection and analysis of its performance. Key data to be collected would include revenue (overall, domestic, and export, by sector and destination), size of companies, verticals, employment (number, export-oriented, skill, tools, and platforms), output mix (services, products), growth-rates, cost base etc.

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b. To assess performance of the industry over time in an attempt at stocktaking and in determining the health and future direction of the industry. An Annual Review of the critical data-series needs to be done to carry out such an analysis. Each iteration will benefit from insights and wisdom gleaned from previous ones c. To provide a regular stream of analytical output on the industry that will serve the critical purpose of creating international visibility. It is expected that the Annual Reviews and their derivative products e.g. Issue Papers and Policy Briefs will be widely circulated within a domestic and international audience, including but not limited to, investment banks, analytic firms, IT advisory services, F500 companies, MNCs etc. Gradually, this process of creating and providing credible data to feed the beast will help bring Pakistan to the map of IT and ITES destinations and improve its standing in the international arena. To the extent feasible, the Annual Review will follow and improve upon the data and presentation format used by NASSCOM Strategic Reviews as the Fund will gradually roll-up these Annual Reviews into more comprehensive, data- intensive, and rigorous documents highlighting industrys current state, achievements, and future prospects.

2.3 Proposed Scope of Work

a. Finalization of work plan b. Design of survey instrument and corresponding database application for data entry, storage and analysis. c. Determination of sample size and sampling strategy d. Recruitment and training of enumerators (Paid professionals must be employed for conducting the survey. Use of volunteers or students is not allowed) e. Pilot testing of survey instrument f. Finalization of instrument g. Industry survey and documentation of case studies h. Data cleaning, compilation and analysis i. Preparation of draft report including findings and case studies j. Stakeholder workshops in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad for presenting draft report k. Revision of report in the light of feedback from workshops l. Final Report design and printing m. Support to Fund during report launch

2.4 Desired Outcomes

The desired outcomes would include: a. Estimation of industry size (including companies operating in the informal segment) number of companies, people and contribution to the economy b. Revenue breakdown across markets and products/services
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c. HR characteristics including experience, salaries, expertise and skill sets. Gender balance d. Target market segments and geographic focus (domestic and international). e. Identify companies with a product focus, where they are located, what their hiring needs and skill requirements are. f. Growth in terms of people and revenues g. Future requirements for maintaining and accelerating growth h. Identification of any underlying issues restricting industry growth i. Calculate the sectors direct and indirect contribution to the national GDP. This successful bidder will finalize the desired outcomes (and the survey instrument) in consultation with the PASHA and the Fund. [END OF RFP]

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