Terms of Reference For Acquisition and Deployment of a Procurement System.

Background and context

As a member of SOS Children’s Villages International, SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia was founded in the wake of the 1973 famine, SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia has provided childcare, protection, family strengthening, health and education services to children who have lost or at risk of losing parental care. It has provided life-saving humanitarian assistance to conflict and drought-affected people, especially women and children. SOS Children’s Villages is operational in seven regional states, including Tigray, Addis Ababa, Amhara, Harari, Oromia, Sidama, South Ethiopia . and Somali.

Since its establishment in 1974, SOS Children's Villages in Ethiopia has been at the forefront of transforming the lives of countless children, families, and communities who have faced adversities. Through its unique family-based care model, the organization has provided a nurturing environment where children can flourish, grow, and realize their full potential. The family and community development program has enabled many families in the communities to become sustainable and provide the necessary care for their children. Its humanitarian action program has supported millions of community members to pull through human-made and natural disasters. Working closely in different communities has also enabled different community systems and structures to be strengthened.

MA Ethiopia has been managing its procurement processes through excel and manual paper-based system. All procurement requests, approvals, vendor evaluations, purchase orders, goods receipt notes, and payment documentation are handled manually.

This manual approach has resulted in:

• Delays in processing procurement requests
• Limited visibility of procurement status
• Increased risk of document loss or errors
• Weak audit trails and compliance tracking
• Limited reporting and analytics capability
• Inefficient vendor performance monitoring

To enhance efficiency, transparency, accountability, and compliance with internal policies and donor requirements, MA Ethiopia intends to acquire and deploy a digital Procurement Management System (PMS).

Objective of the assignment

The overall objective is to:

• Digitalize procurement processes
• Improve transparency and accountability
• Strengthening internal controls and audit trails
• Reduce processing time and paperwork
• Enable real-time tracking and reporting
• Ensure compliance with donor and organizational policies

Scope of the assignment

The assignment encompasses the selection, customization, and deployment of Procurement management system that is capable of meeting the specific organizational and statutory requirements of SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia. 

The supplier  has the following scopes, but is not limited to, the following tasks:

• Conduct requirements gathering to identify further customization needs 
  • Customizing the selected system to reflect SOS Ethiopia’s procurement approach, internal workflows, and reporting formats.
  • Configuring workflows for procurement, approvals, and compliance reporting.
  • Set up user interfaces and self-service portals
  • Ensure data security, encryption, and backup mechanisms are properly configured
  • Coordinate user account setup and role-based access control
  • Conduct procurement data migration activities including guidance for legacy documents migration to procurement digital systems
  • Participate in system testing and technical validation
  • Provide technical support and updates for 12-month warranty and SLA-based support and update thereafter
  • Delivering comprehensive training to system administrators, HR and finance personnel, and end- users.
  • Provide detailed documentation and system manuals.

Procurement System Minimum Requirements

This section describes minimum core business functionalities and technical capacities that procurement management system must deliver to meet the operational, compliance, and user experience needs of the organization

Business requirement

The system shall include:

• Procurement Planning Module
  • Purchase Requisition Management
  • Approval of Workflow Automation
  • Vendor/Supplier Database Management
  • Tender and Bid Management
  • Purchase Order Generation
  • Goods Receipt & Inspection
  • Contract Management
  • Invoice Tracking
  • Reporting and Analytics Dashboard
  • Audit Trail & Compliance Monitoring
  • Support multi-level approval workflows
  • Allow attachment of supporting documents
  • Generate automated notifications and alerts
  • Track procurement status in real time
  • Maintain complete audit logs
  • Generate customizable reports
  • Support multiple projects and budget lines
  • Allow supplier performance evaluation
  • Scalable to support future needs
  • Integration capability with finance systems (if required)

Technical requirements

Web-based application compatible with major browsers including Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome.

• Implement Capabilities in authentication and access control, including capabilities to integrate and use Microsoft Entra SSO authentication, support for secondary verification methods (e.g., multi-factor authentication), secure session management, and implementation of role-based access control to ensure appropriate user privileges
• Apply data protection measures, including  encrypting data at rest, secure and redundant backup & disaster recovery mechanisms with defined Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO), and the use of TLS encryption to safeguard data in transit
• Activity logging capabilities, including detailed records of access attempts, permission changes, and execution of sensitive actions
• Comply with GDPR and Ethiopian data protection regulations
• Comply with secure software development practices and industry security standards
• Integration capability with finance systems (if required)
• Configure and deploy procurement system in SOS owned/subscribed cloud platform
• Application patching service, version updates and application maintenance throughout the life cycle of the product
• The Application support minimum 20 concurrent users with a response time < 3 seconds under load.
• Support data retention and export in standard formats such as MS Excel to ensure organizational data ownership and portability.

Deliverables 

The vendor shall deliver below list of milestones and each deliverable shall be subject to review and approval based on predefined acceptance criteria agreed during inception phase

• Inception Report (implementation plan)
• Customize and configured fully functional Procurement Management System
• Installed and tested system (UAT sign-off)
• Data migration report
• Training materials and user manuals
• System documentation (technical documentation)
• Go-live report
• Post-implementation support and patching plan
• Final project completion report

Implementation Timeline

Reporting and Governance 

The vendor will report to a Project Steering Committee established by SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia. The committee will include representatives from Procurement and logistics, ICT, and Finance departments.

The committee will:

• Provide oversight and strategic direc
• Approve major deliverables.
• Resolve escalated issues.
• Monitor progress against agreed milestones and timelines.

Roles and responsibilities

• SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia:
  • Provide information on Current Procurement workflows.
  • Coordinate internal stakeholders for testing and feedback.
  • Assign steering committee from HR, Finance, and ICT units.
  • Provide timely feedback
  • Assign dedicated project focal persons
  • Ensure infrastructure readiness
• Vendor:
  • Provide the system based on agreed specifications.
  • Validate system
  • Conduct user training and provide documentation.
  • Ensure timely delivery, post-implementation support, and legal compliance.