Summary

Terms of Reference

I. General Terms of Reference for the Firm of Consultants

a. General Conduct

The here tendered service package falls under the outcome 2 "In-country capacities are strengthened, in order to adapt, utilize and maintain the open-source software to country-specific needs". The following outputs were defined for this outcome 2:

1. On-the-job training for health insurance managers, experts and other people who will use the new software has been produced.

2. Local capacities in customizing and managing openIMIS are strengthened.

The work of the Firm of Consultants will contribute to the achievement of outcome 2.

The staff members seconded by the Firm of Consultants must cooperate closely with the GIZ project officer who is responsible to the BMZ for the German and Swiss contributions to the openIMIS Initiative and the programme officer appointed for this contract. All activities of the Firm of Consultants have to be done in line with and on the basis of ongoing activities of the openIMIS Initiative to achieve all programme outputs (see chapter 1.I.).

Ongoing activities that have to be taken into account and built upon during this assignment are:

1. A commission on the overall software maintenance and user support.

2. A commission on transitioning the openIMIS architecture into a modular design in an open source development framework.

3. A co-funded pilot project on the modular transformation of openIMIS co-ordinated by the Digital Square partnership.

4. Two finance agreements on the creation of regional hubs in South-East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

5. Commissions on communication and web-design as well as front-end improvements.

Developments that may lead to difficulties in a later project phase should be identified as quickly as possible. Furthermore, in view of the focus on results described above, results monitoring is crucially important. An efficient monitoring and evaluation system must therefore be proposed and set up that allows all entities of the openIMIS governance structure, the Firm of Consultants and the GIZ Sector Programme Social Protection to monitor project progress. Progress reports are submitted quarterly based on a format which will be agreed upon during the inception. Regular feedback sessions may be convened by the Programme depending on the progress of the assigned tasks. The Firm of Consultants is expected to respond to changes flexibly, especially if the project is in danger of straying from the above mentioned outputs.

b. Integration into the Existing openIMIS Structures

The openIMIS Initiative builds upon an existing software for health insurance management that is being used by insurance organisations in three countries already. Continuous support for smooth operations as well as feedback on ongoing activities of those legacy implementations is key to this commission.

The existing communication channels and community platforms that were established by the openIMIS Initiative shall be used. Specifically these are

• openIMIS code repositories (https://github.com/openimis)

• openIMIS issue tracker (https://openimis.atlassian.net)

• openIMIS documentation server (https://openimis.readthedocs.io)

• openIMIS wiki (https://openimis.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/OP)

Within the openIMIS governance structure, regular exchange meetings are foreseen for different stakeholders, some of which are also relevant for the Firm of Consultants. In the context of this commission, the Firm of Consultants is expected to take part in weekly calls of the IT & Product Group, but might be invited for additional events.

c. Co-operation with Partners of the openIMIS Initiative

In order to achieve its aim, the openIMIS Initiative is co-operating with various international partners and sub-contracting other consultants. The Firm of Consultants is expected to work together with these partners in a co-operative and friendly way, respecting and supporting the work of others and disclosing relevant information where necessary. Apart from the consultants who work on the ongoing activities mentioned in chapter 2.I.a and those who work on short term consultancies, the openIMIS Initiative currently co-operates closely with other players such as the Open Health Information Exchange (openHIE) community or other open source software projects in the health sector. Finally, it can be expected that free implementers and developers who are interested in the project, want to associate and contribute to the project. The openIMIS Initiative has a special interest to nourish this kind of relations.

d. Open Source Policy

Being an open source project itself, the openIMIS Initiative strongly supports the use of Open Source Software in the given context. The Firm of Consultants must be willing to use Open Source Software where possible and at the same time accept that the openIMIS Initiative might release any code that is being produced in the project under an Open Source Software license. For non-software items, such as documentation or training materials, a Creative Commons license will be applied.

e. Previous Results in the Maintenance and Support of openIMIS

The openIMIS Initiative together with other development partners has previously supported the maintenance and support of the openIMIS product. The results include among others:

• A harmonised master version was created from the country specific adaptations of the openIMIS software package and made available in a public code repository. It is updated regularly with recent code contributions. (https://github.com/openimis)

• A technical roadmap was developed as a living and constantly updated technical document based on a series of workshops with different stakeholders, code reviews of the master version and ongoing technical strategy discussions. (https://openimis.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/OP/pages/40763442/Product+roadmap)

• Community platforms were set up as resource repositories and communication channels for the openIMIS community (compare 2.I.b).

f. Data Protection

In the course of the commission, the Firm of Consultants might be exposed to data on health issues and financial transactions of individuals. The Firm of Consultants is expected to treat any personal information of individuals according to the highest applicable data confidentiality standards. At the same time, the Firm of Consultants is expected to contribute to the security of individual data by applying adequate quality standards.

II. Detailed Specifications

a. Aim and Objectives of the Project

The specific aim of the tendered services is to position openIMIS in the international eHealth landscape as the standard tool for managing beneficiary, payer and provider interaction.

In order to achieve the aim of the project, the following objectives shall be pursued:

1. The number of openIMIS implementations has increased and the user, implementer and developer communities have grown.

2. A reliable support infrastructure (1st and 2nd level) is established globally and regionally.

3. The relevance, usefulness and usability of openIMIS for payers of health services is augmented.

b. Specific Tasks of the Project

The three objectives above translate directly into the following work packages that the Firm of Consultants will be expected to complete. Note that the work packages are strongly interrelated and require an integrated approach.

Work Package 1: openIMIS Promotion

1. In close co-operation with the software maintenance team, administer the demo data of openIMIS to allow the demonstration of meaningful use cases for all relevant multiple user roles and all the major business processes.

2. Support implementation partners and GIZ for specific customer and presentation requests such as participating in webinars, calls or on-site demos.

3. Support feasibility studies for implementation projects through the development of a rapid assessment and piloting guide and practical guidance as requested by the openIMIS Initiative.

4. Identify and connect with funders that may be willing to support an implementation project.

5. Open and feed social media channels on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter.

Work Package 2: Support Infrastructure

1. Co-ordinate the work of the regional hubs that are being set up for South-East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (compare chapter 2.I.a General Conduct).

2. Maintain a register of openIMIS trainers, implementers and reference implementations with updated contact information.

3. Manage and harmonise training material for different target groups (trainers, implementers, users, developers) and maintain a syllabus of the available course material.

4. Maintain and update the implementation starter-kit, including templates for implementation roadmaps, budget calculations, resource needs or job description.

5. Create multi-media support material such as screen-casts from guided tours through specific use-case scenarios on the demo version.

6. Support information exchange visits of new users with organisations who are already using openIMIS.

Work Package 3: Usability and Requirements Management

1. Proactively observe and discuss usability issues and feature gaps with users arising from any encounter and document and communicate the findings.

2. Participate in the regular meetings of the IT & Product Committee of the openIMIS Initiative.

3. Identify translators for potential target languages and harmonize localisation projects for textual elements of the software and documentation material.

4. Co-ordinate usability improvement projects and requirements engineering projects as needed.

c. Expected Deliverables

The following deliverables are expected from the Firm of Consultants:

1. Inception report to be submitted 4 weeks after commencement of services specifying a conceptual design work plan for the planned activities for each work package.

2. Updated and verified demo data available on the demo server within one week after every release.

3. A rapid assessment and piloting guide with needed templates.

4. An archive of training material and course syllabus on a suitable platform.

5. A register with up-to-date contacts of openIMIS trainers, implementers and reference implementations.

6. A regularly updated implementation starter kit containing all the needed templates.

7. Quarterly usability reports with a list of resulting change or feature requests in the openIMIS issue tracker.

8. A library of multi-media material is available on suitable platforms.

9. Quarterly reports and updated work plans to be submitted by the 5^th day of every third month after the acceptance of the inception report.

10. Final report based on a GIZ reporting format to be submitted on 15.06.2020.