As a result of an ongoing increase in the costs to maintain, support and enhance the EIS system due to the evolving needs of the users and the growth of the communities that it serves, DIAND intends to engage a solution based consulting firm with global experience to conduct a thorough and independent assessment. The assessment should be a holistic review of three following aspects:
Functional Completeness, Flexibility to cater to future business needs
Technology Stability, Scalability, Maintainability
System Effectiveness, Ease of use, uptake/ adoption, etc.
Specific questions may be used to guide the analysis but the assessment is not to be limited by such.
Functional:
- Is EIS meeting the business needs of DIAND, First Nations and all other stakeholders today?
- What is the adoption rate and what approaches can be taken to increase the adoption, from technology, system, business requirement/process perspectives?
- What modifications / upgrades are required in order for EIS to meet the current & future business needs, including business process changes.
Technical:
- Is the system scalable/reliable to meet the future business needs?
- How can the architecture be simplified to better serve its users?
- Are there technical barriers that are preventing the users from using the system more extensively and more easily?
Commercial (Options that may be more economically viable):
- Given the government wide back-office consolidation initiative and the future business direction and needs of DIAND – are there other commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions / offerings that may be available in the market etc?
- Considering the sunk cost, should further investments be made in EIS or, would it still be cost-effective to enhance/upgrade EIS and continue maintaining it?
