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.