SUBSCRIPTIONS ACQUISITION

Trade Agreement: Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) 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: BACKGROUND:

Environment Canada has a requirement for the supply of Print and/or Online Subscription to Information Products as detailed in the Statement of Work in Annex A.

Environment Canada (EC) is a federal government department with over six thousand employees located in both the National Capital Region and in regional offices across the country. Environment Canada Library Services (EC Library Services) supports the science and technology (S&T), policy, regulatory and outreach activities of Environment Canada. Within the general framework of the department's mandate, EC Library Services has an essential role to contribute to the creation and diffusion of knowledge by maximizing access to authoritative, trusted and timely information resources and services. EC Library Services purchases approximately 300 print and electronic serials and databases through a subscription agent each year. A description of titles purchased for subscription year 2012 is contained in Appendix 1 of Annex A, for information purposes only. The quantity and titles will fluctuate annually.

REQUIREMENT: Contractor to provide: 1) Subscriptions Acquisition, Subscriptions Management and Delivery; 2) Client Account Management Support; 3) Subscriptions Transition Management; and 4) 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: The publications in Appendix 1, specified within the applicable WAs approved and issued under this Contract; and Reports, as set out in Section 4) under the Tasks paragraph herein.

TASKS: In order to make the management of subscriptions cost effective for the Department, EC Library Services 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 shall cancel subscriptions as and when requested by the Project Authority, in accordance with the applicable WA approved and issued in accordance with the Contract. Within five (5) business days of the Contractor's receipt of the cancellation request, the Contractor shall cancel the subscription and shall confirm, via e-mail, to the Project Authority that the subscription cancellation has been made. iii) The Contractor shall ensure delivery of publications in accordance with the applicable WA 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 WA 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 issues a WA. 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. v) The Contractor must process claims for missing publications as and when requested by the Project Authority, in accordance with the applicable WA 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) Client Account Management Support The Contractor must provide Client Account Management Support to manage the ongoing acquisitions, management and delivery functions to support EC Library Services to the extent necessary to ensure that all requirements as specified in this Contract are satisfied. The Contractor must be responsible for providing efficient organization and effective planning and control systems. i. Account Manager. The Contractor must appoint a person designated herein as an Account Manager to act as the primary point of contact with the Project and Contracting Authorities. The Account Manager must manage the ongoing support functions to EC Library Services and shall be vested with authority within the Contractor's organization to make and communicate to EC Library Services all decisions related to the Work and must provide the planning control for all aspects of the Work. ii. Implementation Manager. The Contractor must appoint a person designated herein as an Implementation Manager who must manage the account set-up with EC Library Services, training to EC Library Services resources, and the required transition activities. iii.Sales Representative. The Contractor must appoint a person designated herein as a Sales Representative to act as the primary point of contact with the Project Authority for new business and overall customer satisfaction. iv.Senior Executive Sponsor. The Contractor must appoint a person designated herein as a Senior Executive Sponsor who shall manage the Contract and who must have authority to resolve residual issues not specifically assigned to the Account Manager or the Sales Representative. v. Other account administration resources. The Contractor must appoint other administration resources, as deemed required by the Contractor, and must identify, to the Project Authority, their role for interaction with EC Library Services. b. The Contractor must deliver, to the Project Authority, the following technical support and problem resolution assistance by telephone or e-mail.

c. Telephone and e-mail technical support and problem resolution shall be: · provided in either one of Canada's official languages, at the choice of the Project Authority; · as a minimum, from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Eastern Time (Standard or Daylight Time); and · from Monday to Friday (exclusive of Canadian Statutory holidays). · 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. d. The Contractor must provide EC Library Services with access to the Contractor's client account management information system. The system must be Internet-based and accessible by EC Library Services' appointed account users. The system must provide information and tracking on the status of current subscriptions, orders history, publisher account numbers, claims for missing publications processed and publication information, including price options. e. The Contractor must offer and make available to EC Library Services at no additional cost any new or emerging practices or technologies that the Contractor may make available to any of its customers, such as but not limited to enhancements to existing technologies that are a part of the Contractor's service offering and reasonably understood to be part of the Work herein.

3) Subscription Transition Management a. The subscription transition management functions include, as a minimum, Contractor's account set-up and EC Library Services' records changeover, as follows: i. SubscriptionTransitions must begin on the date of contract award, and must be completed as of December 31st. ii. Undertake outstanding claims - The Contractor must undertake the resolution of all outstanding claims for missing issues filed by EC Library Services 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 EC Library Services 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 EC Library Services' existing subscriptions from the publishers, incumbent vendors, and/or EC Library Services, 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 a) 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: i. Monthly reports, to be submitted to the Project Authority no later than 10 working days after the 1st of each month: · the status of all outstanding claims for missing publications; · publisher's replies to claims for missing publications received by the Contractor during the previous month; · account summary detailing outstanding invoices and/or credits; · confirmation of cancellations received from EC Library Services by the Contractor during the previous month; · bibliographic changes for the previous month. ii. 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. iii. Ongoing reports, to be submitted to the Project Authority, with publisher-supplied information, once that information becomes available, relating to changes in: · Publishers (for a given publication) · Titles · Prices · Publication format availability · Cessations · Splits · Suspensions · Delayed issues · Mergers · Frequency changes · Absorptions · Other, as the Contractor considers relevant iv. 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.