Request for Information
Printing Services Management System
1.
Introduction
1.1
A ERP package designed for the printing industry will be required to
replace the existing Printing Production Information System (PPIS) for the
Government Logistics Department (GLD) of the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region Government.
1.2
The Printing Division (PD) of GLD has 300 staff with a printing workshop
to carry out the in-house production and also to outsource the printing
works for 90 government bureaux and departments (B/Ds).
1.3
The system should be able to support 60 users in GLD’s offices and
workshops plus 40 sets of data capturing devices in the shop floor.
1.4
There are 4,000 enquiries on estimated costs and technical advices of
printing jobs and 18,000 printing jobs received each year, of which 5,000
are reprographic services, 2,500 are outsourced or partial outwork. The
system must be able to support a production schedule to plan 2,000 jobs in
real time for the 300 workers operating three shifts and the 50 pieces of
equipment.
2.
The Organization of GLD and Outline Description of the System
The functionalities of the proposed system for the respective sections of
GLD are as follows –
(a)
Business Section:
 Processing Periodic Printing Forecast (Section 3.1)
 Job Estimating (Section 3.2)
 Quotation and Provisional Planning (Section 3.3)
 Order Processing and Issuing Work Tickets (Job Specifications)
(Section 3.4)
(b)
Scheduling Section:
 Maintenance of Production Schedule (Section 3.5)
(c)
Works Section:
 Production Management (Section 3.6)
 Packing and Delivery (Section 3.7)
 Collection of Shop Floor Data (Section 3.8)
 Staff Records for Works Units (Section 3.9)
(d)
Support Section:
 Purchase and Contract Management (Section 3.10)
(e)
Printing Supplies Unit:
 Inventory Control and Stores Management (Section 3.11)
1
(f)
Accounts Section:
 Invoicing (Section 3.12)
(g)
All Sections:
 Costing and Performance Analysis (Section 3.13)
 Customisation of Screen and Report Generator (Section 3.14)
 Front-end Web-based System and Development of New
Application (Section 3.15)
3
Detailed Requirements of the Functions
3.1
Periodical Printing Jobs Forecast (Business Section)
(a) Design a web-based questionnaire for B/Ds to fill in their forecast
printing requirements in the next six months or any given period. The
requirements will cover both recurrent items as well as ad hoc items.
(b) The questionnaire shall include a list of the jobs with sufficient
information on their estimated costs, material requirements and the
work should be produced in-house production or outsourcing using the
Estimating Function.
(c) The system should be able to consolidate the data captured from the
questionnaires to provide a projection of the volume of work to order
the paper, board and other materials to meet the future production
requirements.
(d) The information shall be used to reserve the capacity in the production
schedule to meet both the recurrent and ad hoc incoming jobs for
forward planning.
(e) The data collected should be used to review the requirements of term
contracts for outsourcing the work that cannot be handled in-house for
technical reasons or over capacity of the workshop.
3.2
Job Estimating (Business Section)
(a) This module shall be able to produce a complete job estimate of any
kind from pre-press through printing, finishing to delivery based on the
input by Customer Service Officer (CSO) for telephone enquiry with
instant response to display the production time, usage of material,
outwork and their costs.
(b) Pre-defined product types shall be used to guide the CSO step by step
in preparing the job estimate. All the necessary calculation shall be
carried out automatically with fool proof functions to avoid
specification errors.
(c) Various job plans shall be created to assist CSO to visualize the
production process of a job and allow him to select the best option by
2
using the appropriate machines and papers with reference to the current
workload, cost rates, price lists and availability of materials.
(d) The function shall be able to assist in the determination of the working
method and planning the number of sections and number of pages to
view on the printed sheets according to the finishing operations and to
calculate the wastage allowances for each operation.
(e) The work specification for all job estimates shall be created with
intelligence to handle the common technical constraints such as grain
direction to align with the height or width of the printed matter and any
difficult run conditions caused by light/heavy weight of the stock.
(f) The data of job estimates shall be automatically converted to a work
ticket (job specification) with layout plans for imposition and folding
scheme attached. The same data can also be converted into a
specification for calling quotations if the job will be outsourced. The
work specification with partial outwork can also be created for fitting
into the production schedule.
3.3
Quotation and Provisional Planning (Business Section)
(a) Customers from B/Ds shall be able to obtain quotations of the standard
items such as pamphlets, posters, formwork, bookwork, etc by
answering questionnaires on the Intranet Central Cyber Government
Office (CCGO)1 or Internet. This function would be implemented
when GLD has revamped the job estimating function with accurate
data available for the production parameter.
(b) A job enquiry with multiple estimates based on different criteria should
be available for viewing on the screen for comparison to assist the
client or CSO to make a selection.
(c) The job enquiry with a quotation shall be tested on the production
schedule to see if the target delivery date can be met; and to reserve the
production capacity for a given period of time while waiting for the
confirmation of the order.
(d) The production operations of all the jobs on the schedule shall be readjusted automatically to accommodate any incoming job to fill up the
production capacity. The production schedule shall be updated in real
time to provide CSO with the latest information for planning.
(e) Production capacity shall be reserved for recurrent jobs such as the
weekly Government Gazette, monthly Trade Statistics and other
periodicals as well as jobs provided by the Printing Forecast.
1
Central Cyber Government Office (CCGO) is a one-stop service hub providing information and
electronic services needed by Government users to support their daily work. It also serves as an
intra-governmental information sharing centre, a web-casting station and an intra-governmental
business centre.
3
(f) Written quotations in Microsoft Word format shall be created
automatically from the job estimate for e-mail/fax to customer for
reference with all the details including GLD's reference and contact
person.
3.4
Processing Printing Order and Issuing of Work ticket (Job
Specification Sheet) (Business Section)
(a) Printing orders shall be received on-line through the web-based frontend system or on a pre-printed paper form to create a work ticket in the
system by CSO.
(b) Job quotation (with provisional estimated costs and tentative delivery
date) from enquiry shall be converted into a work ticket after
confirmation of the printing order and subject to delivery date can be
fitted into the production schedule with the availability of materials for
the production and the outwork.
(c) At the request of customer, the CSO shall be able to modify the work
ticket to change the quantity, materials or working method (job
specification) and to update the delivery schedule before actual
production.
(d) Work ticket shall be identified by a prefix built into its job number and
also the colour on the screen or printout to show this is either a General,
Confidential, Security, Gazette or reprographic job; and classified into
Category A, B or C to define the quality level.
(e) Jobs with special attention to meet their security or quality
requirements as well as speedier delivery shall be charged at higher
rates to recover the additional costs.
(f) Templates shall be designed for issuing the work ticket for the
reprographic jobs to simplify the task of writing up the specification,
issuing of materials and charging customers on standard costing.
(g) Mini work tickets shall be prepared in advance for specific operations
such as cutting “white” paper or finishing work. These mini work
tickets shall be printed by the System to replace the handwritten work
instructions in Chinese which are also served as pallet labels for the
work-in-progress.
(h) After the requirements of paper and materials have been calculated for
the job, the system shall check the stock to make the reservation for the
materials. If necessary, the system shall initiate a purchase to replenish
the stock or create an ad hoc order to “buy for job” for the Support
Section/Printing Supplies Unit.
4
(i) The system shall provide a record of standing materials (e.g. cutting
dies, films and electronic files) held in the store or database (off-line
back up of previous jobs on CD-ROM) which will be retrieved and
updated for the production of recurrent jobs.
(j) Purchase orders shall be created by the system for the Printing
Supplies Unit to outsource the whole job or those operations based on
term (standing) contract to meet the delivery schedule.
(k) Items supplied by customer (electronic files as attachment to e-Order,
CD-ROM, MO Disk, transparency, etc) shall be logged and
documented for their return/disposal.
(l) The work ticket shall useful information for the works staff and it can
be printed out or viewed on a workstation allowing users in different
units to check and monitor the progress of the job.
(m) Work ticket for a single item shall be created for a large number of
customers each with multiple quantities for different delivery locations.
(n) The job specification shall be created for bookwork (or other products)
with more than one binding styles (finishing operation) each with a
different quantity (or printed matters with common production
processes or materials suitable for combining into a single job) to save
materials and machine time.
(o) Multiple work tickets shall be issued from a standing order for
reprographic services or breaking the bulk quantity into a number of
smaller jobs for production and delivery by installment.
(p) Temporary work ticket shall be created for pre-press work or
incomplete specification to start the production with a tentative
delivery date. The work ticket shall be identified by a special colour
and reminders are issued to prompt the CSO for follow-up action.
(q) All the printing orders and job specifications shall be automatically
filed for long term archive to meet auditing requirements as well as for
creating repeat or similar jobs.
3.5
Maintenance of Production Schedule (Scheduling Section)
(a) When the jobs are loaded onto the production schedule after
confirmation of the order, the system shall compute the duration of
every operation from pre-press to finishing and delivery as well as the
time needed for the purchases of outwork and goods if necessary. All
the operations shall then be cued into a timetable according to the
agreed delivery dates planned by the CSO. The information shall be
displayed on the production schedule and monitored by the Scheduling
Section.
5
(b) The progress of outwork, partial outwork and proof reading shall be
also monitored by the production schedule with milestones to check
their progress. Warnings shall be displayed with notices, in the form of
exception report or alert message, issued by the system to the
section/unit with the responsibility for immediate actions to avoid any
delay.
(c) All the printing and finishing operations loaded on the production
schedule shall be confirmed with availability of materials for the
production. All the outwork must have the prior approval for the
purchase of the services. And the system shall be able to prompt the
Support Section the outwork or ad hoc purchase is required due to
technical constraint (no equipment for such operation) or there is not
enough capacity to meet the delivery date. The approval for the latter is
subject to all the means to solve the problem by re-scheduling, use of
temporary staff or working overtime have been exhausted.
(d) The system shall provide a “working plan” for every purchase
according to the production schedule which can be displayed on the
screen or printed out and placed in a tender/quotation (T/Q) file with
all the activities and their milestones for monitoring the progress.
(e) The activities for the purchases of services (outwork) or goods shall
include:

To seek the approval from the relevant authority based on its value.

Prepare the specification by extracting relevant information form the
work ticket

Issue T/Q by e-mail or e-fax

Closed the T/Q and to prepare a price summary by the system

Issue the purchase order electronically and to update the planned
cost or actual cost

Supply the materials to the contractor including the dummy for
reference, film or electronic file for the production

Milestones to monitor the progress such as when to check the
production sample, delivery of the product, etc.
(f) The system shall be designed to update the production schedule
continuously in real time when jobs are added or removed. The user
shall be able to identify and to eliminate the bottleneck. Warnings shall
be displayed if the updating has caused other jobs not being able to fit
into the timetable and warrant the working of overtime, creating more
capacity by hiring temporary staff or postponing the delivery of other
jobs.
(g) The viewing of a job or the workload of any piece of equipment shall
be made by zooming in and out to see an overall picture or a specific
period of time (daily, weekly or monthly).
6
(h) The information shall be displayed graphically with charts, diagrams,
tables or in matrix forms and printed out to make it easier for
monitoring, analysis, and planning.
(i) The modification of the production schedule shall be performed by
using a drag-and-drop feature with instant feed back for a preview of
the changes before confirmation.
(j) The system shall enable CSO to call up the status and history of any
job to answer telephone enquiry and able to make an instant reply on
any request for change of quantity or specification.
(k) Tracking function (major milestones of work in progress) shall be
created at the web based front-end for customers to check the status of
their job status on-line.
3.6
Production Management (Works Section)
(a) The system shall provide a list of operations to be carried out by each
work centre (a group or a single piece of equipment) on a daily basis
(with two or three shifts) for the supervisors or machine operators in
works unit. The job order on the list can be fine-tuned to eliminate any
gaps or reduce make-ready times to achieve even better efficiency.
(b) In addition to the feedback from the shop floor data, an authorized
person in the Pre-press, Printing, Finishing and Security Units of the
Works Section shall be able to update the timetable of those operations
under his control caused by unforeseen events such as break-down of
equipment, absence of staff, non-available of materials, etc.
(c) The planning of the workflow shall be started from pre-press, through
printing to finishing and delivery. Mini work ticket in Chinese, which
are also used as pallet labels, will be printed in the Works Section for
issuing to the workers if necessary.
(d) Delivery of goods shall be planned ahead by the production schedule
with packing labels, picking lists and delivery notes ready to tie in with
the finishing operations to reduce the work-in-progress waiting for
delivery.
3.7
Packing and Delivery (Works Section)
(a) Packing labels and picking lists shall be created according to the data
on the printing orders and job specifications (with the delivery
locations) for planning the trips to save transport costs and manpower.
(b) The printed matters can either be collected by the customer or
delivered by GLD’s transport service and by contractors.
7
(c) Delivery notes shall be created for the delivery of the whole job or part
supply (with running balances shown against the ordering quantity) to
multiple locations with addresses and instructions in Chinese for
transport staff or contractors.
(d) The delivery note should be designed for filling in up to five items to a
single location so that various printing jobs finished at the same time
may be delivered in one lot.
(e) The information on the delivery notes shall include, among other
things, the weight and measurements, range of serial numbers for audit
control forms and the list of materials to be returned to the customer.
(f) Delivery notes shall be printed with barcodes or OCR numbers for
tracking the operation is completed by scanning the image for filing
the receipts electronically.
3.8
Shop Floor Data Collection (Works Section)
(a) Workstations and/or other devices (keyboard, barcode readers,
pressure pads and/or touch screens) shall be provided and installed in
the workshop to capture the production data of the early, normal, late,
and overnight shifts including the machine operator, job number,
operation carried out and the quantity produced in real time for
tracking of the production processes.
(b) The system shall be able to register the duration of the operation,
quantity produced and the consumption of consumables, if necessary,
which are charged directly to the job such as the colour proofs, printing
plates for every job to get a comprehensive view of the production
activities as well as to update the production schedule and the work-inprogress costs in real time.
(c) The workstations and the data capturing devices shall be configured
either specific to a large printing press or a bookbinding line, a group
of small machines in the same area or covering the whole unit for
access by every worker. These workstations shall be integrated with
the Production Management module to display the current status of the
jobs and the default workers with the work instruction to simplify the
task of updating the information by saving the keystrokes to perform
the input.
(d) By setting the upper and lower control limits for each process,
exception reports shall be generated for the supervisor and/or worker to
provide an explanation for any irregularity affecting the
costs/production times. This feature is needed to provide the feedback
to improve the accuracy of the job estimate as well as to monitor the
performance of the staff.
8
3.9
Staff Records for Works Units (Works Section)
(a) This system shall maintain a complete set of records of the personnel
information of the staff in the works units including their ranks, skill
levels, experience, training received (to meet the requirements of ISO
9000 and ISO14001) home address, phone number and next of kin for
contact.
(b) Based on information collected from the shop floor, the system should
be able to generate reports to match the attendance of the staff with the
number of overtime hours, time loss due to sick leave, medical
appointment, typhoon, etc. Summary reports can be created for
claiming overtime, subsistence and late shift allowances to reduce the
clerical work as well as to support the time-off-in-lieu for overtime
worked.
(c) These records should also be used to measure the performance of the
staff through the information collected on their time spent on various
activities and output.
(d) The system should be able to record and display the history of the
attendance and number of hours worked by the temporary staff and the
number of occasions that they have accepted or declined of the offer to
work for the purpose of monitoring the employment agreement.
(e) The attendance reports should be created for preparing the claim form
to pay the wages of the temporary staff by cheque, submission of tax
returns to IRD and the contribution of MPF can also be made via the
system with the data collected.
3.10
Purchase and Contract Management
(Support Section and Printing Supplies Unit)
(a) The information on the work ticket shall be automatically converted
into a specification for outwork or partial outwork for those operations
that cannot be handled in-house due to lack of capacity or technical
reason.
(b) The suppliers are selected according to the prescribed rules which may
be by rotation or based on their merits and then generate the e-mail or
e-fax to invite the quotation.
(c) Based on the returned quotations a price summary shall be created by
the system for the selection of a supplier and to generate the purchase
order automatically.
9
(d) The ad hoc purchase or the replenishment of the stock of paper, board
and printing materials are initiated by the Support Section which shall
be responsible for providing the tender specification and the quantity.
(e) The Support Section and Printing Supplies Unit shall be responsible to
keep track on the progress of the purchases of both goods and services
(outwork) to meet the production schedule. The system shall be
designed to display major milestones of the contract to ensure that the
delivery can be made on time.
(f) The goods and services required by a job can also be obtained by term
contracts for which the suppliers are bound to provide at an agreed
price within the contract period. The system shall be designed for the
job to draw the materials or services by creating the purchase order
from the data of the work ticket with the milestones displayed to
monitor the delivery.
(g) The system shall be able to select the relevant term contract and to
display on the screen all the necessary information including the
description, unit price, contract, period , orders record, approved
contract value, unspent amount, contact person and address. After the
issuing of the purchase order, the balance contract value shall be
updated for viewing if necessary and to prompt the Support Section to
renew the contract in time.
(h) The purchase order shall be created from the database consisting of the
date, description, job number, quantity, unit price, amount, discount,
supplier’s name, telephone, fax and address, as well as whether the
purchase is service or goods and using P-Card or with exemption and
with other information for maintaining the purchasing history.
(i) This module shall be integrated with other functions for commitment
of funds, to check the goods received against the invoice, record the
changes and variation of the original order and releasing the contract
deposit in addition to alert the delivery.
3.11
Inventory Control and Stores Management (Printing Supplies Unit)
(a) The system shall provide a comprehensive ledger and reporting system
on the receipt and issue of goods, movement of goods within or
between locations, removal or other disposition of goods, and the
precise valuation and status of goods remaining in the inventory at any
point in time for the paper store and sundries store.
(b) The system shall also integrate the function for reservation of paper
and other materials for the requirements of printing jobs to prevent the
risk of non-availability of materials to meet the production schedule.
10
(c) The integration shall reduce the need to re-enter the data again for the
requisition and issuing of materials by the workshop and stores staff
during production (including outwork where paper and materials are
supplied to contractor by PD). Inputting the job number can be made
with barcode or drag and drop feature to simplify the task and avoid
human errors.
(d) The system shall be able to check the materials which have been
reserved or on order with their physical stock and free stock levels
instantly to facilitate production planning.
(e) Based on the consolidated requirements of bills of materials the system
shall generate a specification for inviting for quotation or tender and
then create the purchase order for paper or other consumables for the
printing jobs in hand to meet the delivery schedule as well as to
replenish the stock to meet the forecast demand.
(f) The system shall keep track of the progress of all outwork and
purchases of goods (by paper, printing plates, photographic films, inks
and other consumables). Each category will be displayed on a single
screen and via different screens to monitor their progress until the
delivery and invoicing.
(g) The unit rate calculated from weighted average shall be used for
charging the paper, board and the printing materials directly to
customers.
(h) The system shall automatically maintain the purchasing history and
keep any useful information for comparing the price variations,
changes in pattern as well as to record the supplier’s performance for
reference via the completion of an evaluation form consisting of the
rating on delivery, compliance with the tender specification, after sales
supporting service, and any comments from the end-user.
(i) Reports on locations, batch transactions, quarantines, materials
returned from workshop, dormant and slow moving stock, customers
own stock, etc. plus the stock taking and stock adjustments reports
with the descriptions, quantities and monetary values shall be made
available for inventory control and stores management.
(j) Statistical reports to provide data for maintaining adequate stocks shall
be produced to meet the production requirements.
3.12
Invoicing (Accounts Section)
(a) Data batch files should be able to interface with the Treasury’s
accounting systems to avoid duplication of the same function in the
proposed system. (Optional)
11
(b) The Invoicing function shall be used to issue invoices (demand notes)
to the customers by capturing the data on the printing order (including
e-Order) and job specification as well as the delivery notes.
(c) The system shall be able to identify any additional costs and charge the
customer on the job if the work is not included in the original job
estimate such as author’s correction or extra working time on checking
the press proof of customer. The data are input by the responsible
officer in the course of production.
(d) Multiple jobs on one invoice to B/D shall be issued weekly, monthly or
on ad hoc basis.
(e) The same job can be invoiced to a large number of customers and the
amount shall be calculated based on their quantities and delivery
locations.
(f) Invoice shall cater for part delivery, i.e. allowing multiple invoices to a
job such as standing order for reprographic services.
(g) The amount to be invoiced can be adjusted for over or short supply of
the goods.
(h) Adjustments to the invoiced amount shall be made subject to proper
authorization.
3.13
Costing and Performance Analysis (All Sections)
(a) The system should be designed to capture the production costs of the
jobs in real time with enough details for performance analysis.
(b) Budgets shall be set to calculate the recovery hourly rates for each cost
centre and to show the total possible recovered or under recovered
hours for investment appraisal by comparing the actual and budgeted
hours.
(c) Reporting shall be sub-divided into occupation, capital, operating and
other direct and indirect overheads for details analysis to improve the
cost recovery via pricing or productivity.
(d) The system shall be designed with procedures for recording capital
values, and estimated useful life of assets, valuing stock and work-inprogress, handling multi-shift working and part delivery.
(e) The down time hours that cannot be charged to jobs shall recorded
separately for detail analysis to improve productivity.
(f) Standard reports shall be available from the system without having to
use the report generator and can replace those currently used in the
PPIS for management information on work-in-progress, sales analysis,
12
cost analysis and measurements of performance such as machine
utilization, wastage analysis, etc.
3.14
Customisation of Screen and Report Generator
(a) All the screens and reports shall be modifiable to suit GLD’s
requirements and particular needs.
(b) In addition to the reports from the existing PPIS which will be required
in the proposed system after customisation, users shall be able to
modify all the available reports in the proposed system.
(c) New reports shall be generated by accessing the files in the database
which that meets Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) standard.
(d) The reporting facilities shall support graphic presentation in a variety
of formats, including tabular, bar chart, pie chart, line and curve graphs.
(e) Reports for external users, such as tender specifications for suppliers
and mini work tickets for viewing by workshop staff shall be available
in Chinese.
(f) The Contractor shall provide necessary training for the GLD’s users to
create their own reports from the databases.
3.15
Front-end Web-based System and Development of New Applications
(a) The Contractor shall re-design the existing e-Ordering System using
new equipment for B/Ds to submit their printing orders through
CCGO or Internet with attachments for pictures and text files, and
proof reading the job on-line using PDF files. The Contractor shall
improve existing functions to provide better the customer services via
CCGO and Internet and to interface with backend for capturing the
data on-line.
(b) The system shall be able to provide quotations on standard items of
printed matters to the customers automatically.
(c) Customers shall be able to check the status (major milestones) of their
printing orders via the system.
(d) The System should replace the existing e-Ordering System which B/Ds
and NGOs can submit their requisitions for general forms and other
common items such as desk diaries. Their requirements are
consolidated for production and distribution to over 2,000 different
locations.
13
4.
Software Requirements
4.1.
General Software Requirements
4.1.1
The proposed software shall support the concurrent operations with
appropriately designed security and access controls on production
database(s), testing and/or training database(s). Failure of any one of these
databases should not adversely affect the operation of the others.
4.1.2
The proposed software shall be user friendly, menu-driven and have GUI.
4.1.3
On-line help facility and comprehensive messages shall be available.
4.1.4
There shall be extensive use of function keys, short cut keys or intuitive
defaults wherever possible.
4.1.5
Basic edition functions must be provided during data entry.
4.1.6
Data must be accessible by concurrent processes in update or enquiry
mode under all circumstances.
4.1.7
Facilities shall be provided to extract data from the proposed system and
generate standard ASCII files with ISO 10646 character set for further
manipulation by common software packages.
4.1.8
Processing of records with traditional Chinese characters shall be
supported. Facilities shall be provided to create, input, store, process,
display, edit, enquire, print and output of traditional Chinese characters
amongst different system software components such as operating system,
database/application system and application software. Over 13,000 predefined traditional Chinese characters of common usage, the Hong Kong
Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS) and user-defined Chinese
characters shall be available for these processing.
4.1.9
The system shall support Chinese language and comply with the language
requirements of ISO10646 standard and the HKSCS coded in the ISO
10646 standard. The ISO10646 standard and HKSCS standard should be
the latest versions published in the market.
4.1.10
It is also desirable for the proposed software to be able to process records
with simplified Chinese characters, in addition to traditional Chinese
characters. Facilities to create, input, store, process, display, edit, enquire,
print and output of simplified Chinese characters amongst different system
software components such as operating system, database/application
system and application software are desired.
4.1.11
Software shall provide sufficient audit trail/activity logs for tracking of
system/application activities and scheduled processing.
4.2
Server Operating System
14
4.2.1
The operating system shall be Windows server-based, UNIX or nonproprietary operating system.
“Non-proprietary operating system” means there exists multiple major
vendors support in development tools, application and database solutions
and multiple hardware vendors support in hardware platforms,
peripherals and OEM parts.
4.2.2
There shall be sufficient number of user licences to support the maximum
number of concurrent users for the proposed system.
4.3
System Administration Tools
4.3.1
The System shall allow to add/remove user accounts of the system.
4.3.2
Each user account shall be accompanied with a user-definable password
and facility to force users to change their passwords periodically shall be
provided.
4.3.3
User-friendly facility shall be provided for carrying out the system
administration activities.
4.3.4
The System shall provide job accounting and auditing facilities for all
users activities (online or batch).
4.4
Database Management System (DBMS)
4.4.1
The DBMS shall support transaction protection and be able to perform
transaction rollback in case of error.
4.4.2
The DBMS software shall work closely with the backup device to perform
periodic and automatic data backup while database is still available for
access and update.
4.4.3
The system must support database logging and provide ability to recover
from system errors. The DBMS shall provide a simple restoration
procedure for data recovery from backup after system failure.
4.4.4
The DBMS shall provide necessary maintenance tools for index rebuilding,
data integrity checking and database house keeping.
4.4.5
The DBMS shall be expandable in order to cope with the growth of
transaction volume.
15
4.4.6
Service providers are required to propose the necessary items with
sufficient number of user licences to support the maximum number of
concurrent users.
4.4.7
Sufficient development licences shall also be included for implementation
maintenance and support of the proposed system.
4.4.8
The DBMS shall include utilities for database administration work.
Security functions such as definition of user classes shall be supported.
4.4.9
The DBMS shall support different types of operating systems and
hardware platforms including the server platform(s) as proposed by the
Contractor.
4.4.10
The DBMS shall support high availability features to automatic fail-over
of on-line database from the production database to the standby/backup
database. The database system shall also support database replication
features.
4.4.11
The DBMS shall provide facilities for transaction control, automatic
deadlock detect and resolution as well as performance monitoring.
4.4.12
The DBMS shall have the capability to process English, traditional
Chinese and the characters contained in HKSCS. The capability to process
simplified Chinese characters is desirable. Those processes shall include
input, display, printing and storage.
4.4.13
The DBMS shall be able to search, index and sort English and traditional
Chinese characters.
4.4.14
It is most desirable that the DBMS be able to search, index and sort
simplified Chinese characters.
4.4.15
The DBMS shall support Chinese language and comply with the language
requirements as described in Section 4.1.8.
4.4.16
It is most desirable that the DBMS would provide indices and indexing
capability of Chinese characters contained in HKSCS and user-defined
characters based on number of strokes to support sorting of query result.
16
Hardware Requirements
5.1
Overview of the System Configuration
5.1.1 The existing PPIS production server is located at Cornwall House. The new
production server(s) shall be installed in the main computer room on 10/F of
NPGO to facilitate central control and in the proximity of the Systems
Administration Section.
5.1.2 Service provider shall propose all the hardware as required in the proposed
system. These include, but not limited to the Database Server(s),
Application/Web Server(s), Data Capturing Device(s), Printer(s), Data
Backup Device(s) to be installed at the Government sites for proper running of
the System.
5.1.3 The hardware configuration shall provide resilience, but not be limited to the
following extent:
(a)
Service clustering approach for database servers;
(b)
Cold standby application server which shall have full processing
capacity of the original system and shall be capable to store 100% of
production data; and
(c)
Cold standby web Server which shall have full processing capacity of
the original system and shall be capable to store 100% of production
data.
5.1.4 The proposed hardware shall support the following execution environments:
(a)
Production environment;
(b)
Testing environment; and
(c)
Training environment.
5.1.5 The service provider shall provide the development environment in their own
site by themselves.
5.1.6 The service provider shall propose a full set of hardware facilities and
software to be used in the production, testing and training environments.
Service providers shall consider sharing the servers among production, testing
and training environments in order to reduce the hardware and software cost.
5.1.7 The same versions of software and firmware shall be used for all the
environments.
5.1.8 Each environment shall run in parallel with the other environments containing
its own version of application modules and data. The use of one environment
17
shall not disturb the operation of other environments.
5.1.9 The configuration shall support system management tools to provide
automatic system alert/error notification and support the following activities:
(a)
Network management – administration and monitoring of connectivity
devices (hubs, routers, switches, and remote access server);
(b)
Server management – administration of hardware and software
components of the server platform;
(c)
Application and database management – administration of the PSMS
application software and underlying database system;
(d)
Job management – job control and scheduling with notification
services; and
(e)
Software distribution administration – ad hoc or scheduled roll out of
new/enhanced/upgraded software or patches to a large number of
workstations.
5.1.10 Capacity planning – analysis of previous performance history to determine if
the current configuration can meet future demands. Initial sizing model of
PSMS shall sustain up to the end of its expected life or at least five years after
the Acceptance Date and production run.
5.1.11 All workstations shall be able to install local printers for the output of
management reports with high speed printers for pre-printed forms or
continuous stationery to handle large volume of work. All the printers shall
support the printing of Chinese language.
5.2
Network Infrastructure Requirement
5.2.1 The system is to be installed under the existing GLD network. Service
providers shall provide advice on the additional network equipment required
for the proper running of the proposed system. The service provider is also
required to perform the necessary configuration on the network equipment, as
the case may be, to connect the new server/network equipment to the System.
5.2.2 In the proposed network infrastructure, servers shall be grouped into two
Demilitarised Zone (DMZ): namely “external DMZ with Web Presentation
Servers” and “internal DMZ with Application Servers”. The external DMZ
shall serve to provide minimal network services for external users. All core
servers shall be located in the internal DMZ.
5.3
Hardware Component Requirements
5.3.1
The following general requirements shall be observed for the Database/
Application Server Hardware, Web Server Hardware, Data Capturing Devices
and Peripherals:
18
The System shall run on Windows server-based, UNIX or non-proprietary
operating system with sufficient processing power and main memory to drive
the full hardware and software configuration of the System to fulfil the
projected workload and performance requirements of the System.
“Non-proprietary operating system” means there exists multiple major vendors
support in development tools, application and database solutions and multiple
hardware vendors support in hardware platforms, peripherals and Origin
Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) parts.
5.3.2
Service provider shall propose the server comply with, but not be limited to,
the basic requirements stipulated below (a)
Operating system
support
– Refer to 5.3.1
(b)
Storage capacity
– Shall support the capacity to provide sufficient
storage for all data plus 5 years' growth as well
as the basic requirements such as operating
systems, applications, clients, workspace, etc.
(c)
System unit features
– Redundant power supplies, redundant cooling
sub-systems, air-cooled design.
– Operate in normal office environment, i.e.
under normal air-conditioning and power
supply environment.
– Support rack-mounted option.
(d)
Data protection
– Shall support RAID 0 + 1 or RAID 5.
(e)
Disk storage for
database
reorganization
– Allocation of sufficient disk storage for
scheduled database reorganizations must be
available.
5.3.3 Requirements for Disk Arrays:
– Shall support RAID 0 + 1 or RAID 5.
(a) RAID level
(b)
Hot Swap capability
– Shall support hot plugging of failed disk units
with replacements without stopping
operations.
(c)
Dual controller
– Shall support at least 2 active controllers to
prevent interruption due to single point of
failure with 1 controller.
19
(d)
Redundant power
supply
– Shall include redundant power supplies.
(e)
Rack mount
capability
– Be rack mountable with rack mount kits
supplied.
5.3.4 The tape backup device shall provide, but not be limited to, the following
features:
6.
(a)
providing suitable tape drive to facilitate efficient backup
(b)
supporting unattended, scheduled backup
(c)
supporting hardware data compression
(d)
supporting incremental and differential backup
(e)
providing software to support the backup modes mentioned
(f)
providing software to support system failure recovery
(g)
supporting multiple cartridges and auto-loading under tape/system
management control for servers with high storage capacity
The Services
The services provider is expected to supply a package with customization to
meet the full the requirements in Section 3 which will include:
7.
(a)
Supply the software and hardware of the system.
(b)
Implementation services including system analysis and design,
installation of hardware and software, site preparation, data conversion,
user training and system acceptance test.
(c)
Post-implementation services including nursing, maintenance services
and on-going support. (Response time to attend problems on site should
be within two hours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Friday and 9
a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday)
Information Required
The service provider is expected to provide the following information:
(a) Whether a package is available to meet the requirements in Section 3 and
the total cost. The price information should be supported by technical
literature to provide a detailed description of the various function;
(b) In case customization is required of certain functions, the estimated cost to
meet the requirement;
(c) The description of the proposed hardware and software and their costs;
(d) The implementation costs;
20
(e) The annual maintenance and on-going supporting costs with information
on the level of services ;
(f) Licence requirements of the system, hardware and software and their
respective costs, and unit cost for expansion or additional users;
(g) A description of the company profile and local support in Hong Kong
8.
Enquiry
Enquiry should be made by e-mail to psbsm2@gld.gov.hk.
21