Acquisition of Information Products

Trade Agreement: NONE Tendering Procedures: All interested suppliers may submit a bid Attachment: None Competitive Procurement Strategy: Lowest/Lower Bid Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No Nature of Requirements: REQUIREMENT: Contractor to provide: 1) Subscriptions Acquisition, Subscriptions Management and Delivery; 2) Access to the Contractor's client account management information system; 3) Client Account Management Support; 4) Subscriptions Transition Management; and 5) Reporting to the Project Authority.

DELIVERABLES: Without restricting the terms and conditions of this SOW, following is a summary of the deliverables required to be delivered under this Contract: a) The publications in Appendix 1, specified within the applicable electronic correspondence(s), approved and issued under this Contract; and b) Reports, as set out in Section 4) under the Tasks paragraph herein.

TASKS: In order to make the management of subscriptions cost effective, the Client requires the following subscription management agent functions:

1) Subscription Acquisition, Management and Delivery a) The Contractor must provide Subscriptions Acquisition, Subscriptions Management and Delivery of Subscriptions functions to the extent necessary to ensure that all requirements as specified in this Contract are satisfied. i) The Contractor must place orders for subscriptions, as and when requested, in accordance with the Contract. There are no automatic renewals. ii) The Contractor must cancel subscriptions, as and when requested, by the Project Authority, in accordance with the applicable electronic correspondence, approved and issued in accordance with the Contract. Within five (5) business days of the Contractor's receipt of the cancellation request, the Contractor must cancel the subscription and must confirm, via e-mail, to the Project Authority that the subscription cancellation has been made. iii) The Contractor must ensure delivery of publications in accordance with the applicable electronic correspondence, approved and issued in accordance with the Contract. Delivery of publications must be provided from the Publishers directly to locations as identified in Appendix 2 and as specified in the applicable electronic correspondence, approved and issued in accordance with the Contract. iv) Cancellation of a Subscription Order: Should the Contractor, for any reason, become aware of a reason to cancel any subscription order, the Contractor must immediately, but no later than within five (5) business days of the Contractor's knowledge of such reason, advise the Project Authority of such reason to cancel. The Contractor must not cancel a subscription order unless the Project Authority advises to do so by electronic correspondence. Upon cancellation of a subscription order, the Contractor must update the List of Journal Subscriptions by removal of each cancelled title from that List. Cancellations must be effective at the expiry date applicable for the specific subscription cancelled, and where applicable, immediately with the current volume and/or edition applicable for the specific subscription cancelled. Upon cancellation of a subscription order, the Contractor must update the List of Journal Subscriptions by removal of each cancelled title from that List. Cancellations must be effective at the expiry date applicable for the specific subscription cancelled, and where applicable, immediately with the current volume and/or edition applicable for the specific subscription cancelled. The Contractor must provide a pro-rata refund to any Cancelled (by Publisher or Client) Print Subscription, where applicable. v) The Contractor must process claims for missing publications as and when requested by the Project Authority, in accordance with the applicable electronic correspondence, approved and issued in accordance with the Contract. Within ten (10) business days of the Contractor's receipt of the claim(s) for missing publication(s), the Contractor must process the claim(s) for missing publication(s) and must advise the Project Authority, via e-mail, of the publisher's response with respect to the claim(s).

2) Technical Support and Problem Resolution a) The Contractor must deliver, to the Project Authority, the following technical support and problem resolution assistance by telephone or e-mail and use best efforts to provide support and resolution to issues expeditiously, including maintaining continual communication with the Project Authority to keep them up to date on the status of the issue. b) Problem resolution must include, but is not limited to, any problems that arise with particular missing titles, claims for payment and claims involving the publishers. c) Telephone and e-mail technical support and problem resolution must be: i) in either one of Canada's official languages, at the choice of the Project Authority; ii) as a minimum, from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Eastern Time (Standard or Daylight Time); and iii) from Monday to Friday (exclusive of Canadian Statutory holidays). iv) For enquiries placed, and designated by, the Project Authority as "urgent enquiries", via telephone or e-mail, the Contractor must respond to the first enquiry, per Issue (problem raised), within three (3) business hours.

3) Subscription Transition Management a) The subscription transition management functions include, as a minimum, Contractor's account set-up and the Client's records changeover, as follows: i) Subscription Transitions must begin on the date of contract award, and must be completed within 30 days. ii) Undertake outstanding claims - The Contractor must undertake the resolution of all outstanding claims for missing issues filed by the Client with incumbent vendors as of the date of contract award. iii) Provide training - within three months of the contract award date, the Contractor must provide training materials to the Client staff to enable effective and independent interaction with account administration functions, such as online claiming modules. iv) Migrate existing subscriptions - The contractor must acquire information related to the Client's existing subscriptions from the publishers, incumbent vendors, and/or the Client, and input that information into the Contractor's Electronic Account Administration Interface, within four weeks from date of award of Contract.

4) Reports for the Project Authority The Contractor must provide, as a minimum, the following reports at the times and to the recipient(s) listed below in one (1) copy via e-mail in a Microsoft Excel format, except when otherwise specified: a) Monthly reports, to be submitted to the Project Authority no later than 10 working days after the 1st of each month: i) the status of all outstanding claims for missing publications; ii) publisher's replies to claims for missing publications received by the Contractor during the previous month; iii) account summary detailing outstanding invoices and/or credits; iv) confirmation of cancellations received from the Project Authority by the Contractor during the previous month; v) bibliographic changes for the previous month. b) Annual reports, as may be requested by the Project Authority, to be submitted to the Project Authority, as applicable, on delivery dates to be determined mutually between the recipient(s) and the Contractor. c) Ongoing reports, to be submitted to the Project Authority, with publisher-supplied information, once that information becomes available, relating to changes in: i) Publishers (for a given publication) ii) Titles iii) Prices iv) Publication format availability v) Cessations vi) Splits vii) Suspensions viii) Delayed issues ix) Mergers x) Frequency changes xi) Absorptions xii) Other, as the Contractor considers relevant d) Ad hoc reports, as may be requested by the Project Authority, to be submitted to the Project Authority, as applicable, on delivery dates to be determined mutually between the recipient(s) and the Contractor. Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

The Crown retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any procurement.

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.