1.2Services That the European Parliament Expects to Receive

Table of contents

1. General

1.1Purpose

1.2Services that the European Parliament expects to receive

1.3Tendering requirements in respect of Internet dissemination

1.4Reference

1.5Abbreviations and acronyms

2. Specifications for the vanguard website

2.1General

2.1.1Website address

2.1.2Structure and features of the site

2.1.2.1Content and structure

2.1.2.2Inter-site links

2.1.2.3Print function

2.1.2.4RSS Functionality

2.1.4Facilities

2.1.5Phasing

2.1.5.1Prior to election night

2.1.5.2Throughout election night

2.1.5.3After election night

2.2Description of the vanguard website pages

2.3Requirements of the vanguard website

2.3.1Overview of the main requirements

2.3.2Performance requirements

2.3.3Graphic requirements

2.3.4Linguistic requirements

2.3.5Accessibility requirements

2.3.6Referencing requirements

2.3.7Audience measurement requirements

3. Technical specifications for infrastructure

3.1General

3.2Description of infrastructure

3.2.1Back-office production infrastructure

3.2.2Web infrastructure for the vanguard website

3.2.3Webcasting infrastructure

3.2.4Infrastructure for additional or interactive services

3.3Infrastructure requirements

3.3.1Overview of the main requirements

3.3.2Permitted technologies and services

3.3.3Availability and access to information

3.3.3.1Performance and availability in relation to web production workflow

3.3.3.2Proposed performance evaluation (benchmarking)

3.3.3.3Monitoring and measurement

3.3.4Reliability requirements

3.3.5Safety requirements

3.3.6User-support requirements

4.Expected response from tenderers

4.1.Proposed technical solution

4.2.Proof of experience

4.3.Proof of competence

4.4.Methodology and QAP

4.5.Deliverables

4.5.1.Organisation and conduct of the project

4.5.2.Design and creation of the vanguard website and website stat

4.5.3.Architecture

4.5.3.1Functional architecture

4.5.3.2Technical architecture

4.5.3.3Security architecture

4.5.4.Systems implementation

4.5.5.Architecture performance measurement

4.5.6.Recovery-on-disaster

4.5.7.General rehearsal

4.6.Implementation

4.7.Resources assigned to the project

4.8.Terms and conditions

4.8.1Agreements with sub-contractors

1. General

The next European elections will be held from 5 to 8June2014[1] throughout the 28Member States of the European Union. For the eighth time, the people of the EU will elect representatives to the European Parliament on the basis of universal suffrage.

On the occasion of the elections, the European Parliament intends to:

-provide an overview of the election results at both national and European levels;

-make reliable information on the participation and future composition of Parliament available to the media, partners and the public as soon as possible after polls close on the night of 8June[2];

-inform political debate and analysis nationally and at European level.

It is strategically important for the European Parliament that dissemination of the election results via the various media, social networks and partner sites should be organised effectively.

1.1 Purpose

This document is the technical annex describing the anticipated services necessary for ensuring “just in time, closest the real time” dissemination via the Internet (including mobile reading devices) of the projected and actual results of the 2014 European Parliament elections in all the official languages of the EU and throughout all the EU Member States.

The aim of these services is:

-to host, set up and operate a website (as well as a simplified version for mobiles), referred to as the “vanguard website[3]” for the 2014 European election night and the following weeks;

-to create an efficient infrastructure (servers and appropriate network of servers) for publication and dissemination of the election results on the Internet. This infrastructure will be capable of withstanding a massive user load on the election night and over the following days.

1.2 Services that the European Parliament expects to receive

On the night of the election on 8June2014, the European Parliament would like to disseminate, and distribute among its partners, a continuous stream of projected and actual results on the Internet, for the EU as a whole and for each MemberState individually. The results will then continue to be updated regularly until the new Parliament holds its constituent meeting in July2014, and they will remain online until the end of September2014.

The information to be disseminated is intended both for the ordinary citizens of the EU and for specialists in European affairs. The proposed content will therefore be suitable for the general public and accessible in all the EU official languages.

For the same reason, simplicity, legibility, speed and impartiality will be the key considerations in generating the information for publication on election night – information which will be collated as the relevant figures come in from the competent bodies in the Member States. Any individual should thus have easy access to these web pages which will be the focus of attention on the night, and also to the “Election 2014”[4] section of the European Parliament’s main “Europarl” site.

The high visibility of the vanguard website is politically and strategically important and it must meet the following criteria in order to be successful:

1. The availability of the web pages (including via mobile reading devices) and data from our partners, regardless of size, is the key factor for the success of the election night from a technical perspective. It is therefore imperative that the web infrastructure deployed and the services utilised should be capable of coping simultaneously with a number of visitors that cannot be predicted in advance but is likely to be in the order of several hundred thousand in a very short space of time[5]

1. The availability of data in real time for the audio-visual service responsible for the support on the election night and for the European parliament’s partner sites.

1. Accessibility of the information for persons with disabilities or impaired eyesight or hearing, and for users and the most popular market mobile devices, combined with optimum information ergonomics and professional response times (on average about 100ms).

1. Reliability and resilience of the installations and services that are put in place, not only in terms of performance, failure-resistance, security and peak-load adaptability but also in relation to the integrity and quality of the information published;

1. Strict observance of deadlines, particularly on the election night.

Specifically, the European Parliament expects to receive the services detailed below.

1. Design, prototyping, final implementation, operation and hosting of the vanguard website, which will contain the following main elements:

-a splash page, and pages related thereto;

-a home page, guiding visitors to the results of their choice;

-consolidated EU-level projections and results pages;

-projections and results pages for each MemberState;

-analysis pages.

These elements will be developed 1. in line with the functional test annexed to these specifications, which constitutes the main editorial content for the vanguard website and 2. - in line with the principles underpinning the main “Europarl” sites (graphic charter, performance, accessibility, referencing, etc.).

However, the European Parliament reserves the right to submit, whenever appropriate, new content for their publication to the contractor, given that it is not possible to provide an accurate description of the exact content to be published well in advance. Such content will be supplied to the contractor in a form similar to the models and/or to the functional test annexed to these specifications

1. Installation of suitable broadband infrastructure (servers and network of servers) that will enable the information to be accessed in the context of exceptionally high consultation rates on election night and the following days.

1.3 Tendering requirements in respect of Internet dissemination

To facilitate preparation of tenders for the Internet dissemination and distribution of the 2014 election results, this technical annex outlines these aspects in the following order:

-vanguard website specifications;

-constraints affecting the vanguard website;

-technical specifications for infrastructure

-infrastructure requirements

-expected response from tenderers

Annex3 contains an indicative diagram of the anticipated overall architecture.

Within their submissions, tenderers are asked to:

-demonstrate a thorough understanding of the issues (including in terms of quality) and sound project management skills for dealing with unexpected events and strictly obeying deadlines;

-demonstrate a thorough understanding of the actual services required, especially, on the one hand, the tools, services, processes and procedures to be implemented in preparing, producing, publishing the data and consolidating the multimedia web pages and, on the other hand, the infrastructure to be deployed for guaranteeing the dissemination thereof and ensuring, without fail, that these pages are continuously available for broad consultation on the election night;

-set out clear and complete point-by-point solutions for each of the required services;

-give detailed reasons for all the options chosen, including, where relevant, the hypotheses that prompted these specific choices;

-define a general roadmap for the implementation of the site and the services relating thereto.

-include any comments or observations.

In respect of any element where the tenderer has not explicitly expressed reservations about the content of these specifications and the requirements they include, the tender will be assumed to meet the criteria. The European Parliament may therefore insist on implementation of the element in question, without any adjustment of the stated cost.

Likewise, any service that the tenderer has indicated in the tender as being available must be deliverable to the European Parliament without any adjustment of the stated cost.

See point4 below for further details on the expected response.

1.4 Reference

1.5 Abbreviations and acronyms

2. Specifications for the vanguard website

2.1 General

The vanguard website consists of a tree of web pages, to be implemented in accordance with the functional analysis annexed to these specifications that will enable the projected results as well as the provisional and actual results of the European elections to be illustrated in tabular and graphic form.

All the pages on the vanguard website must be designed so as to:

-be as lightweight as possible, facilitating simultaneous use by the greatest possible number of visitors (precise figures not predictable);

-be accessible to the greatest possible number of users, and therefore readable by all web browsers and mobile reading devices, and double-A compliant with WAI guidelines;

-reflect the state of the art with regard to referencing;

-make effective use of caching and proxy access mechanisms.

As part of the tender, the tenderer will provide references to prove its ability to build the website.

All projected and actual results must be validated in advance of publication by the responsible entities at the coordination centre.

All the results will be updated on a regular basis until the end of the inaugural session, or even beyond if any results have not been approved by the Interior Ministry of one or more Member States. Major updating is anticipated in the days immediately following the election night. The site will be maintained online until the end of September2014.

The date on which all projections / results were last updated must be clearly stated.

The system must be designed to allow for the publication of partial results (interim results based on incomplete data).

No logo other than that of the European Parliament will be permitted on the pages of the vanguard website. The European Parliament’s graphic charter will be sent to the successful tenderer after submission of the duly completed confidentiality declaration, which is included in annex6 of these specifications[6].

2.1.1 Website address

The vanguard website address and the addresses of all sites related thereto are specified in the functional analysis annexed to these specifications Addresses for Croatia will be communicated at the time of its accession.

As part of this contract, the contractor will be responsible for registering all useful addresses with a registrar of their choice.

2.1.2 Structure and features of the site

2.1.2.1Content and structure

The vanguard website will comprise a tree of web pages enabling the projected and actual election results to be displayed. As such, the aggregated data will begin to change on the election night and, in principal, will continue to do so until the inaugural session.

The tree of web pages will comprise,

-a multilingual splash page, where visitors can select, if necessary, a language in which to view the subsequent pages;

and, in each of the 24requisite languages, the following:

-a home page, guiding visitors to the results of their choice;

-consolidated EU-level ‘projections and results’ pages;

-‘projections and results’ pages for each of the 28Member States;

-analysis pages.

The information on the vanguard site will be organised so that the section for the entire EU and the respective national sections are each independently accessible. Specific (preferred) URLs will thus offer access to the EU28 ‘projections/results’ page or, separately, to the corresponding pages for each of the 28countries.

2.1.2.2Inter-site links

Links to all of Parliament’s Europarl websites and to those of political groups and parties are shown in the header and footer of each of the pages of the website.

Conversely, Europarl websites and information office sites will all offer links to the election results website.

2.1.2.3Print function

The contractor will provide a solution for printing the full contents of a given page under the heading ‘European results’ or ‘results of the country in question’ without the header, the menus and the footer.

2.1.2.4RSS Functionality

The tenderer will implement an RSS function (EUR and per country) as described in the functional analysis annexed to these specifications.

2.1.4 Facilities

The tenderer will also provide the following services:

-a simplified version of the site for mobile reading devices;

-a customisable widget for partners who want the results of the European elections to be automatically embedded in their sites;

-access to an XML ‘results’ file directory and a secure web service publishing the results (and the metadata that qualify them) updated in real time (and, where necessary, other confidential data allowing analyses to be carried out at European or national level on topical issues).

-direct access to the database (or, where necessary, to an intermediary database) allowing the relevant indicators to be retrieved via (SQL) requests or stored procedures. This service is designed to meet the needs of the European Parliament’s audiovisual service responsible for reporting on election night with the television stations. The indicators will be used to feed the Broadcast graphic distribution system set up by the audiovisual service.

-a video player for watching the streamed content of some of the debates before, on and after election night as well as a sidebar containing enrichment content or content from social media.

-a procedure for automatically updating some of Parliament’s social networks

A general description for most of these services can be found in the functional analysis and shall be subject to a more thorough analysis in due course.

The web infrastructure must be sufficiently flexible to facilitate the addition, at minimal cost, of interactive services such as chat rooms or forums should they prove necessary.

2.1.5 Phasing

The vanguard website will evolve in three successive phases:

-prior to election night;

-throughout election night;

-after election night and until the end of the inaugural session, being shut down at the end of September (following the hearings of Commissioners-designate).

2.1.5.1Prior to election night

Once the vanguard website has been validated and approved by the European Parliament, it will be launched on 1April2014 at the latest, i.e. approximately two months before election night.

This means that many users will have heard of the site before election night and that the most well-known search engines will have it properly referenced.

2.1.5.2Throughout election night

On election night, partial results and projections of the breakdown of seats at both national and European levels will be published.

The publication system must be capable of publishing three types of data:

1. ‘Projections / results’ data for the EU28,
2. ‘Projections / results’ data for each of the 28 Member States;
3. Turnouts.
4. Distribution of men and women

In order to assess the volume and type of data, and the form in which results are to be published on the Internet, tenderers are requested to view the results of the 2009 elections that can be accessed via the following web address:

As a guide, at the beginning of election night, the first figures to be published were the turnout rates. These were followed by the ‘projections and results’ for the EU28 and then progressively those corresponding to each individual MemberState.

2.1.5.3After election night

During the post-election period, the results will be consolidated both nationally and at European level. These results will be updated regularly on the basis of the official declarations of results by the Member States, up until the inaugural session.

Once the inaugural session has ended and the results have been finalised, the contractor will supply the European Parliament with a static HTML version of the site, as well as the updated results for the EU as a whole and for each MemberState, in PDF format.

The PDF-file templates will be provided by the European Parliament 15days after it has taken delivery of the vanguard website.

2.2 Description of the vanguard website pages

A detailed description of the website pages and the performance of all its components is provided in the functional analysis annexed to these specifications.

2.3 Requirements of the vanguard website

2.3.1 Overview of the main requirements

The pages developed by the contractor must observe the founding principles of all the European Parliament’s Europarl websites and must reflect the state of the art, particularly with regard to the following:

-Performance: the contractor will be required to optimise navigation and page weight to facilitate dissemination in a context of mass use of the site throughout election night and the following days.

-Graphic charter: The European Parliament’s graphic charter will be sent to the successful tenderer after they have returned the duly completed confidentiality declaration, which is included in annex6 of these specifications.