Contracting authority
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB, 556464-6874, hereinafter RISE.
About RISE
Innventia, SP and Swedish ICT have merged to form RISE, in order to become a stronger research and innovation partner. Through international collaboration with academia, industry and the public sector, we contribute to a competitive economy and a sustainable society.
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden is owned by the Swedish State.
www.ri.se.Scope
This tender is for a Patent Management Software (PMS).
The purpose of the PMS is to house vital patent case-related documents and consolidate all patent case-related information in one easily accessible and safe location. Instead of information being scattered across multiple different desks, in-house patent attorneys, other concerned in-house users (such as managers at various levels and inventors), external patent attorneys and patent renewal service firms should, by means of the PMS, have a single electronic repository in which they can gather documents and make notes on the cases and collaborate in different constellations.
By “patent case” as used herein is meant a case comprising at least an invention disclosure, i.e. a confidential document written by (or on behalf of) a RISE employee, or consultant, for use by one or more of RISE Patent Committees to among other things determine whether patent protection should be sought for the described invention and any decision relating to that invention disclosure, and any and all other documents relating to it, such as assignments and other agreements relating to the invention, decisions about remuneration of the inventor(s), decisions about patent strategy and individual patent filing(s), along with patent documents, including (but not restricted to) novelty search reports, application texts, search reports and written opinions, office actions, and letters patents.
By the above it should be clear that a single patent case may comprise multiple individual patents and patent applications, relating to any and all jurisdictions.
Content of the tender
The provider must provide at least one demo webinar in which functions of the PMS are demonstrated. Said at least one demo webinar must be provided at a point in time agreed upon by RISE and the provider, and must be conducted by human instructor, who will also be prepared to answer questions from the RISE employed webinar participants.
The tender must include a copy of the user manual for your PMS in Swedish and/or English (preferably in pdf or MS Word format).
Electronic tendering/Submittal of tender
Tenders must be submitted electronically via the Visma direct procurement system, which means that tenders cannot be submitted in paper format, by fax or by email. Questions relating to the procurement process are only answered by the procurement officer responsible.
Questions during the tender period
Questions during the tender period must have been received by 2019-03-05 at the latest. All questions must be uploaded to the Visma direct procurement system. All parties that have received this enquiry will have access to all questions and answers posted.
MANDATORY DEMANDS ON SUPPLIERS
Environmental requirements
RISE strives to reduce its environmental impact. Suppliers must therefore work continuously with environmental improvement measures and be aware of the environmental impact of their operations. The supplier must pursue active environmental work and, wherever possible, purchase environmentally adapted goods and services.
Requirements of taxes, social insurance contributions and registration
RISE checks, by obtaining data from relevant authorities, that the supplier is complying with statutory requirements in respect of its payment of taxes and social insurance contributions, as well as registration. A foreign supplier must, at RISE’s request, be able to provide evidence in an English version.
Requirements of economic and financial status
The supplier must have the necessary economic stability and financial position for it to be able to perform the assignment without any risk of disruption because of financial problems. RISE will check the supplier’s creditworthiness with the aid of an external credit company. The supplier must be in a risk class/rating of at least “Creditworthy”. In cases where the supplier has a lower risk class/rating, the supplier may still be considered to meet this requirement by reporting its economic position in a different way. RISE reserves the right to assess information submitted.
Mandatory requirements of the product
The PMS must be safeguarded against all forms of data infringement, such as for instance, but not limited to, cyber-attacks.
Information security is one of the most important features on a PMS. The tenderer must clearly show how the product secures RISE’s information and how the tenderer works with security in general. The PMS must have been developed with security in mind “Security-by-design”.
Although the supplier of the PMS may be a provider of patent renewal services, the PMS and the use thereof must not be tied in any way to that patent renewal service. In other words, not only must it be technically possible to use the PMS along with any patent renewal service firm (that provides interaction through PMS of course), but such use should also be substantially equal in terms of user friendliness, independently which patent renewal services that is used.
Technical support must be available by telephone and email, at least between 8-17 o’clock Swedish time every weekday. Technical support shall be available in the Swedish and English languages.
The PMS must also be adapted to EU requirements such as GDPR.
The PMS must have integrations against SSO solutions such as ADFS or Azure AD.
All updates to the PMS during the four-year contract period contract period should be included.
The PMS must give RISE in-house users a single application to keep their to-do lists of tasks and events related to a given case. It must also comprise at least one way, within the system, of communication between RISE in-house users and patent attorneys (in-house as well as external) and patent renewal firms, through which they should be able to receive communications and notifications, and through which the could send their corresponding instructions to patent attorneys and patent renewal firms.
The PMS must be capable of serving at least 300 concurrent users, and it must be prepared for even more users.
The PMS must be web-based and hosted in the cloud, therefore independent of which operating system the user is running and must not require a client installation or other plugins to operate. The PMS must be accessible through browsers, at least Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Safari and Google Chrome, latest and second most recent version.
The PMS should be able to handle direct links to specific documents, meaning a user can send an e-mail to another user with a specific reference which opens a document after a subsequent login.
Entering of data about existing patent cases at the time the PMS is introduced at RISE must also be included; this may comprise migration of up to about 350 patent cases from currently used patent management systems.
Training of up to about 300 users must be included. The overall goal after the education and training is that the staff can independently use the relevant functions in the PMS with a minimal need for user support from the tenderer.
Training of up to about 15 super users must be included. As used herein the term “super user” refers to a user having access to the most privileged user account level in the PMS, or in other words having access to a user account at the highest level accessible to a user in terms of rights of administration, including e.g. a right to start and terminate lower level user accounts. Hence, after completion of the training, the super users should master the PMS completely.
The tender must include references to current customers with non IP professional users, to provide reviews about your PMS user friendliness from the perspective of users with very little or no knowledge or experience about patent matters. The references must comprise contact details such as phone number and email addresses to relevant contact persons at said current customers, along with certification that said contact persons are willing and able to provide RISE with reviews about your PMS user friendliness from said perspective.
The requirements are non-negotiable and must be fulfilled in order for the tender to be assessed.
EVALUATION CRITERIA:
User friendliness from the perspective of users with very little or no knowledge or experience about patent matters is a very important evaluation criterion. Hence, any and all testimonies, references, reviews and about your PMS user friendliness from said perspective will be of greatest interest.
Easy accessible and forthcoming technical support is also a very important evaluation criterion. Hence, any and all testimonies, references, reviews and about your technical support will be of greatest interest.
The PMS should preferably be compatible with other patent management systems frequently used by external patent attorneys so as to allow integration with such systems so that case data entered into the external patent attorney’s system is mirrored into the PMS, in order to avoid separate entering of such data into the PMS. Hence, any such successful integration would be regarded as an advantage, provided that it is specified as to make and model of the integrated patent management system, and that it is sufficiently verified by way of a certificate or similar from users of the PMS or external patent attorneys interacting with the PMS through their own patent management systems.
The training of users and super users should preferably be performed by means of some suitable online service, such as for instance Cisco WebEx or Skype for Business.
The training of users as well as super users should preferably be concluded with an examination (test) which, if passed by the users/super users, would indicate that they are able to handle the PMS´ functionalities in a satisfactory manner.
An advantage for the tender is if they are certified within a security standard such as ISO 27001 or equivalent.
The PMS should preferably provide document automation and creation functionality.
The PMS should preferably offer a user communication feature. Through this communication feature, directly within the application, users should be able to communicate directly with each other and gain quick access to information they may need.
Delivery date/plan
The supplier is requested to please provide a preliminary time schedule over the implementation of the PMS, including at least time of installation, migration of data, and training of super users.
Delivery address
Insofar that any physical item relating to the PMS is to be delivered, it must be sent to
RISE Tech Transfer Office
Isafjordsgatan 22
SE-164 40 Kista
Sweden
Price
Prices are quoted in SEK excluding VAT, unit price.
The pricing information must specify:
- Cost for installation of the PMS
- Cost for entering of data about existing patent cases at the time the PMS is introduced at RISE, including migration of patent cases from currently used patent management systems
- Cost for the training of users
- Cost for the training of super users
- Running costs, specifying time basis, for license(s), if any, needed for use of the PMS
- Running operational costs, specifying time basis; and
- Cost for support, broken down by fixed costs (if any) and running costs, specifying basis
Examination of tenders
Tenders are examined with price as the most important component. All mandatory requirements must be satisfied. Evaluation criteria and other added-value elements may, however, mean that a tender with a higher price may be accepted.