EPUB3/Accessible e-book services.

MTM aim to procure production services for accessible e-books in the EPUB3 format. Partner agencies cooperating in this procurement are Celia (Finland), the Norwegian Library of Talking Books and Braille (NLB), Nota (Denmark), The National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools (SPSM) (Sweden) and the Swiss Library for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Print Disabled (SBS). The EPUB3 format is a central part of the production flow for the procuring agencies. The agencies' commission is to provide adapted materials for persons with print disabilities. The adapted materials provided include: Braille volumes, Digital talking books with human narration containing text and image content, Digital talking books with synthetic speech narration containing text and image content and E-text. The agencies adapt a range of materials for users; materials include University Texts, Novels for Adults, Fact Books for Adults, Novels for Children, Fact Books for Children, School texts and Magazines.

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Services

Each of the procuring agencies seek to offer up to a total of four (4) contracts: three (3) contracts for content conversion to EPUB3 and one (1) contract for R&D services related to agencies' needs concerning EPUB3. The number of actual contracts made available by each agency is determined by the agency's volume which will be clarified later in the ITT.

The content to be converted in the three contracts for EPUB3 content conversion will be divided into two categories: Standard and Advanced. The categories are distributed across the contracts as follows:

Contract 1: Standard,

Contract 2: Standard and Advanced,

Contract 3: Advanced.

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The Standard category covers a broad spectrum of books presenting varying degrees of structural complexity, from books containing no more than basic heading and paragraph structures such as novels, to university text books containing many headings, tables, lists, sidebars and images. Standard content is expected to make up 93 % of the total volume.

EPUB3/Accessible e-book services.

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The Advanced Content category requires interpreting content at a deeper level than is necessary in the Standard Content category. This category is strictly defined as content requiring further adaptation or additional specialized mark-up such as text extraction from images, inline language identification or MathML. Advanced content is expected to make up 7 % of the total volume.

Volume for the fourth contract concerning R&D services is estimated to be 1 000 hours per year.

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Note that some agencies may require an additional delivery of an intermediary open PDF. Details concerning this additional service will be included in the ITT.

Important note regarding contract start

The procuring agencies aim to have signed contracts no later than 1.7.2018. However, agencies may choose not to place orders in the new contracts until 1.1.2019. This is for 2 reasons: 1) existing EPUB3 contracts are still in effect until 31.12.2018, 2) agencies need to preserve workflow and quality continuity by relying on the existing contracts while establishing the desired standards with suppliers in the new contracts. The later entails an extensive ramp-up where agencies may test limited volumes in varying amounts.

Expected volumes for each agency during this period will be clarified in the ITT.

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Compliance with Supplier Code of Conduct

Compliance with Supplier Code of Conduct is a part of the qualification criteria

MTM and the co-operating agencies are members of Sedex and require compliance with our Supplier Code of Conduct covering health and safety, labour standards, environment and business ethics.

EPUB3/Accessible e-book services.

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Bidders will be evaluated according to a set of criteria indicating management practices to ensure compliance with the Code and given points from 0 to 100.

MTM and the co-operating agencies will be assisted in evaluation of bidders' participation in ethical supply chain management by DNV GL.

Recent social audit report required (Commission social audit)

Bidders must provide documentary evidence of their active management to ensure compliance with the principles set forth in our Supplier Code of Conduct. This means that all bidders are required to submit a social audit report.

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The social audit shall

a) Be conducted by an independent third party, by any of the international recognized audit companies (SA8000 Accredited Certification Bodies) listed here: http://www.saasaccreditation.org/?q=node/65

b) Be conducted according to international recognized standards such as Sedex, BSCI, WRAP, SA8000 or the equivalent.

c) Be no older than 15 months from the final date for submission of tender.

d) Cover ALL production units that are intended to deliver on the contract.

Bidders who have not yet been subject to an audit as described above, can commission a new audit. In that case the bidders shall

a) request a ‘SMETA audit’ (2 or 4 pillar),

b) Use our Supplier Code of Conduct as the requirement to be audited against. For more information about the SMETA audit framework, see https://www.sedexglobal.com/products-services/smeta-audit/).

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Establish corrective actions plans and close finding

— In cases where there are findings of non-conformities from the audit, the vendor shall establish a corrective action plan.

— MTM and the co-operating agencies will be providing a bid window of ninety (90) days in an effort to allow interested bidders to close any open issues they may have.

EPUB3/Accessible e-book services.

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— The vendor shall request the social auditor to verify that the improvement actions have led to the closure of the findings.

— The social audit report, with the updated corrective action plan (showing status of any open findings).

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Assessment of the audit results

MTM and the co-operating agencies are aware that full compliance with our Supplier Code of Conduct model may not have been achieved fully by bidders, and see developing compliance together with bidders as part-and-parcel of the buyer-vendor relationship. However, certain non-negotiable requirements will be placed on bids.

We require bidders to have zero (0) open.

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issues with regard to the following three areas in order to be eligible to receive one hundred (100) points:

— Child labour — Fire safety — Minimum wage and payment of wages

Bidders with open issues at the time of bidding will be excluded from evaluation.

Bidders unwilling or unable to contractually accept our Supplier Code of Conduct should deliberate before bidding.

Visma notice: https://opic.com/id/afubjnjnjz