Networked Services Project
Request for Tender for NLA Networked
Services
Chapter 4 - Project Capabilities Sought
4.5 Administrative Support System
4.5.2 Mapping to Configurations
4.5.3 General Capabilities Sought
4.5.4 Specific Capabilities Sought
4.5.6 Links to Other Configurations
4.5.1 Overview
The Library is seeking a comprehensive administrative support system that will provide information to Service Managers to support the efficient, cost-effective and businesslike management of services. The majority of the functions included in the administrative support system will be accessible only to Service Managers.
The Library wishes to assist Customer Libraries to manage their activities cost-effectively by providing good quality management information, including reports about their use of the Library's services.
The Library expects to charge its customers for use of some services provided. It expects to charge most customers on a subscription or bulk purchase basis. However, transaction-based charging may be required for some activities or for some classes of users. The administrative support system will carry out the billing and invoicing activities related to the services provided and will also interface to the Library's financial system for management of receipt of payments and follow up of outstanding debts.
The Library seeks to provide Service Managers and authorised staff in Customer Libraries with flexible facilities to access the administrative information, much of which is in effect a directory to the services available. The Library seeks to provide Customer Libraries with the ability to derive information from the system to assist in management of the services they provide.
The Library seeks an administrative support system which provides detailed recording and reporting of activity in any of the services described in this Request for Tender, allowing the Service Managers to monitor, analyse and control how the Services are used. Flexibility to alter the presentation of this information quickly to support administration needs will ensure that the Library can efficiently and cost effectively manage and deliver the Services. This information will be used by Service Managers to monitor use and to assess market trends. Activity reporting is also required to be retained for a specified period either online or offline for audit purposes.
A security framework is being sought to ensure that access to the services and to administrative information is restricted to Service Managers and authorised staff in Customer Libraries.
The Library seeks an administrative support system to act as manager for the Networked Services cluster of servers. This will involve making available information about each of the Networked Services provided by the Library, disseminating administrative and publicity announcements and functioning as a network manager.
4.5.2 Mapping to Configurations
The administrative support system is required to receive and process data from all other systems described in this Request for Tender. A stand alone administrative support system, as described in Configuration #5 may provide all the required functionality. The Library is willing, however, to consider solutions where the administrative support functions would be installed as part of another tendered function, provided that the administrative support software could still receive and process data from all the other configurations.
4.5.3 General Capabilities Sought
The Library seeks an administrative support system which will receive data from the application modules for inclusion in service administration activities. Certain administrative activities will be undertaken by the administrative support system. For each of these activities, Service Managers will require input, update and delete functions to be available. In some cases, it is preferred that authorised staff in Customer Libraries are also able to undertake the input and update of information.
The Library seeks to allow each Customer Library defined to the systems described in this RFT to have a single user ID which will be the link to all that Customer Library's activity on the systems. The user ID will be the basic unit recognised by the systems for billing purposes, for setting up service defaults and preferences and for recording usage. In practice, a single user ID may represent many branch libraries, staff members or End Users of a Customer Library.
The Library seeks an administrative support system which will allow Service Managers and authorised staff of Customer Libraries to access, update and delete data and use the functions of all the administration components while the systems described in this RFT are running, without degradation of response time for customers of the services.
The Library seeks an administrative support system which has a facility to store and display Ônews' to all users of systems described in this RFT. Such a facility will be used by Service Managers to disseminate information about services and administrative matters.
4.5.4 Specific Capabilities Sought
The specific capabilities listed are not intended to be an exhaustive list of required functionality. They are designed to be illustrative of the range of functionality desired by the Library, and include capabilities which may be unusual in the library services marketplace. The Library does not expect that Tenderers will necessarily be able to provide all the functionality listed. However, the selection process will include detailed evaluation of the extent to which Tenderers are able to provide the capabilities listed.
4.5.4.1 Administrative Support
The Library seeks a facility which will allow Service Managers to create, maintain, access and display information about services, contributing organisations and Customer Libraries or for customers to create and maintain this information on their own behalf. The following functions are sought:
a) Information about services and service usage
b) Customer registration and authentication
c) Ability to restrict access to specified functions to Service Managers
d) Security access rules
e) Management information reporting
f) Billing system
g) Archiving transaction information.
4.5.4.2 Access Management
A facility is sought to manage access to individual services, by validating users at signon. It will also store information about the contents, format and charges for individual components of the services provided. Alternatively, it could provide access to this information stored on other servers in the cluster of servers. Such information acts as a service directory as well as being used in the generation of products, reports and billing data. Access to this data will be required by Service Managers, staff of Customer Libraries and End Users. The required functions are:
a) Verify access requests
b) Restrict access to authorised users
c) Support the online creation, modification, deletion of information relating to services using the same general functionality as specified for online input of information; or provide access to this data on other servers
d) Restrict the creation, modification and deletion of service data to Service Managers
e) Provide statistical reports on usage
f) Store and display announcements about services and administrative matters.
4.5.4.3 Customer Registration
A facility is sought to allow Service Managers to create, maintain, access and display customer registration information, and for staff of Customer Libraries and End Users to create and update certain elements of this information on their own behalf. The Customer Registration facility should include:
a) Ability to search the Customer Registration file
b) Security authorisation at levels appropriate to the services allowed to the Service Manager, Customer Library, or End User
c) Recording of the following details for each Customer Library is sought:
i. name, address and other contact information
ii. mailing and billing addresses
iii. electronic addresses
iv. name and position of Chief Librarian and other contact staff
v. information about related stakeholders
vi customer number from the Library's Financial Management Information System (FMIS)
vii. customer's order number(s)
d) The Library seeks to allow Customer Libraries to request access for multiple users; the following customer registration details are required for each authorised subordinate customer defined to the system:
i. access and security level
ii. billing category
iii. confidential information such as the user's credit card number for billing purposes
e) Customer profile with defaults for services available to the relevant customer
f) Interface defaults
g) Search defaults
h) Output defaults
i) Document request and supply defaults
j) Customer status variations
k) Third party customer management
l) Output of reports by selected customer groups
m) Output of reports by selected attributes
n) Output of reports in electronic format for input to other software packages, including spreadsheets and report writing software
o) Ability to perform global changes on entire file or any subset that can be selected through searching.
4.5.4.4 Management Information Report
The Library seeks a management information facility to provide data to assist Service Managers and staff of Customer Libraries to manage their resources efficiently. Support for business analysis data and data on usage patterns for the use of Service Managers is also sought. This facility will report on all aspects of the business activities and will also provide reports on business data.
The Library seeks the facility to allow staff of the Library and authorised staff of Customer Libraries to request one off and regular reports of management information. Reports may be output as online displays, files for delivery to an electronic address or on paper. Online display of activity logs generated since the last billing period should be available at least to Service Managers, and preferably also to authorised staff in Customer Libraries. The electronic format should include formats suitable for export to proprietary software packages for further manipulation. The reports sought include billing details for transfer to the FMIS and to document suppliers.
The Library seeks the ability to generate activity reports on calendar and financial year bases. Thus the management information facility should have sufficient data storage capacity to allow this.
The Library seeks the following functions in the Management Information facility:
a) The ability to specify output content, formats and frequency
b) The ability to generate reports for specified periods of up to 12 months
c) Statistical analyses of resource details
d) Directory data
e) System reports generated from other processing and operation of the system.
4.5.4.5 Billing System
The Library seeks Billing capabilities which will store charging details for activities, receive usage data from each of the individual services, perform calculations to produce reports on each Customer Library's activity for the billing period, and output these reports plus printed invoices for each Customer Library and registered End User. The Library also requires output of an electronic report listing the total debit or credit incurred by each Customer Library; this report will be exported to the Library's Financial Management and Information System (FMIS). The FMIS will manage receipt of payments and any follow up action required. The Library also seeks a facility to map Customer Identifiers from the administrative support system to customer numbers in the Library's FMIS for management of the Library's budgetary activities.
The following list illustrates possible billing capabilities sought:
a) Flexibility in charging for the use of services
b) Site license, subscription, bulk purchase options
c) Transaction-based charges
d) Charges for individual system outputs
e) Ability to apply different charges for different customer groups
f) Ability to include manually input debits and credits in the automatically generated invoices
g) Ability to generate credits automatically for specified transactions
h) Periodic charges
i) Billing of users against credit card numbers allowing transmission to an electronic banking facility
j) Import billing data from third party service providers
k) Suppress invoices for customers whose total debit falls below a specified ceiling; statements of use for these customers should be prepared each billing period, cumulating until the billing threshold is reached.
4.5.4.6 Aggregated Document Delivery Billing
The Library seeks a facility to support the ILL Payments Service. This facility will record the document supply transaction and allow suppliers to extract and manipulate charging data to support local invoicing. This data will not include fees imposed for the use of the document request management facility, but will only address charges negotiated independently between requesters and suppliers for supply of documents. Although it should be possible for participants in this scheme to set their own charges, it is likely that a default charge will be available. The service will act as a financial clearing house by undertaking the debiting and crediting of the requester and supplier for users who elect to use this service.
The document delivery billing service is described in Section 4.4. Elements for management in the administrative support system include:
a) Ability to receive data from the document request billing service
b) Ability to apply credits and debits for use of the document delivery billing system to the administrative support system
c) Availability of default charge structure
d) Ability for participants in the scheme to vary the default charge.
4.5.4.7 Archiving
Service Managers will require access to completed Service Requests for a certain period of time, after which they may be archived by the Service Managers, or automatically by the system at specified intervals. Archiving will occur at different times dependent on the activity. The Library seeks to include the following functions in the Archiving Transaction Information Facility:
a) Ability to archive completed service requests
b) Automatic archiving of data after a specified period
c) Ability for Service Managers to access archived data.
4.5.5 Questions
4.5.5.1 Administrative Support System
a) Does your product have an administrative support system?
If the
answer to this question is yes, please also answer the following questions:
b) Does it provide a customer registration facility?
c) Does the administrative support system provide for input, update and deletion of data?
d) Does the administrative support system have a billing facility?
e) Does the administrative support system include a facility to archive usage and financial information?
f) Does the administrative support system maintain information on use of the services?
g) Does the administrative support system restrict access to authorised users?
h) Can the administrative support system restrict access to specified functions?
i) Can the administrative support system access functions maintained on other servers providing the services described in this Request for Tender?
j) Does the administrative support system allow Service Managers to design or modify user interface screens, eg to accommodate new services?
4.5.5.2 Access Management
a) Does your product have an access control system?
If the answer
to this question is yes, please also answer the following questions:
b) Can the access management system validate signon requests?
c) Can the access management system restrict access to specified functions or services?
d) The Library wishes to provide access via site licenses, which limit access from a Customer Library to a specified number of concurrent users. Can the access management system:
i. limit the number of concurrent accesses allowed for a Customer Library?
ii. restrict signon access to requests from specified communications network domain names?
d) Can the access management system provide links to data stored in separate servers of the Networked Services?
e) Can the access management system display information about services running elsewhere in the system?
f) Can the access management system restrict the ability to create, edit and delete information about services to Service Managers?
g) Does the access management system include a broadcast news facility?
h) Can this broadcast news be addressed to subsets of the currently active Customers?
i) Can the access management system provide access to selected information about services prior to customer signon?
4.5.5.3 Customer Registration System
a) Does your product have a customer registration system?
If the
answer to this question is yes, please also answer the following questions:
b) Does the customer registration system provide security authorisation for access to all levels of the Networked Services?
c) Can the customer registration system include the following details for each Customer Library or registered End User:
i. multiple name, address and contact information?
ii. mailing address for each name?
iii. billing address for each member organisation or registered end user?
iv. electronic address for each name?
v. information about related stakeholders?
vi. Customer Library purchase order number?
vii. FMIS number to enable linking between the Administrative Support System and the Library's financial management activities?
c) Does the customer registration system allow for Customer Libraries to have multiple subordinate registered users with varying levels of security authorisation?
d) Can the customer registration system include the following details for each Subordinate Registered User:
i. name address and contact information?
ii. authorised access level?
iii. billing category?
iv. link to 'parent' library?
v. confidential information such as users' credit card data?
e) Over time some customers will withdraw. Can the customer registration system continue to provide Service Managers online access to the data for these inactive customers?
f) Does the customer registration system allow customer registration records to be updated?
g) Can Service Managers authorise staff of specified Customer Libraries to update specified elements of their customer registration records?
h) Can the system output printed reports:
i. for the entire list of Customer Libraries and End Users?
ii. for specified subsets of the list of Customer Libraries and End Users?
i) Can the customer registration system output electronic files in a format suitable for manipulation by proprietary software packages:
i. for the entire list of Customer Libraries and End Users?
ii. for specified subsets of the list of Customer Libraries and End Users?
j) Can the customer registration system accept customer registration
data from external systems in electronic formats?
If the answer to this
question is yes, please name or describe the formats.
k) Does the customer registration record allow recording and maintenance of customer profiles, with the ability to set up defaults for the most commonly used configurations?
l) Does the customer registration system provide facilities for third party customer management?
m) Access to the services described in this Request for Tender will be via the Internet which offers the opportunity for casual access. Can the customer registration system create registration for a single session with a default profile for End Users wishing to use credit card billing?
n) Can potential customers submit registration applications online?
o) Is there a limit to the number of customer registration records that
the customer registration system can accommodate?
If the answer to this
question is yes, please state the number of customer registration records
allowed.
4.5.5.4 Management Information Report System
a) Does your product have a management information system?
If the
answer to this question is yes, please also answer the following questions:
b) Can the management information system provide reports at specified intervals?
c) Can reports be limited to specified activities?
d) Can the layout of reports be specified?
e) Can reports be output at remote sites?
f) Can reports be output in electronic format, suitable for loading
into spreadsheet or other data manipulation software?
If the answer to
this question is yes, please name or describe the formats.
g) Can the management information system provide directory-style data?
h) Please describe any statistical analysis functions.
i) How does the management information system store retrospective data?
j) Is there a limit on the quantity of management information data
available online?
If the answer to this question is yes, please state the
limit.
4.5.5.5 Billing System
a) Does your product include billing capabilities?
If the answer
to this question is yes, please also answer the following questions.
b) Does the billing system provide connect time charging?
c) Does the billing system provide transaction-based charging?
d) Does the billing system provide charging for specified system outputs?
e) Does the billing system provide subscription based charging?
f) Does the billing system provide charging based on the number of concurrent sessions purchased by a Customer Library?
g) Does the billing system provide for prepayment by Customers?
h) Can the amount prepaid be reduced as it is spent in system activities?
i) Can the billing system provide a warning when the amount remaining in the account is reduced below a nominated level?
j) Does the billing system allow Service Managers to allocate discounts to individual users or groups of users?
k) Does the billing system allow variable charges to be applied to individual users or groups of users?
l) Does the billing system allow manual input of credits and debits?
m) Are manually input credits and debits included in the statements of use and the billing function?
n) Does the billing system provide an automatic credit function, to compensate for specified activities eg input of cataloguing data?
o) Does the billing system allow Service Managers to create new billing categories or items?
p) Does the billing system allow Service Managers to vary the charges in existing billing categories or items?
q) Can the billing system receive billing data from external sources in electronic formats?
r) Can the billing system accommodate billing against credit card numbers, with transmission to an electronic banking facility?
s) Can the billing system suppress production of invoices until a customer's account reaches a specified threshold?
t) Can the billing system combine data for a number of End Users and bill the total to one Customer Library?
u) Can the billing system provide statements of use by a Customer Library's subordinate registered users?
v) Can the billing system provide an electronic output file for transfer to the Library's FMIS?
w) Does the billing system provide a preliminary report for Service Managers to review before production of a final file for transfer to the Library's FMIS?
x) Does the billing system flag exceptions for Service Managers to review?
4.5.5.6 Aggregated Document Delivery Billing
a) Can the billing system provide a service to manage document delivery
request credits and debits as described in Section
4.4.
If the answer to this question is yes, please also answer the
following questions:
b) Can the aggregated document delivery billing system import data from the Interlibrary Loans and Document Delivery Service?
c) Can the aggregated document delivery billing system balance debits and credits between the multiple Customer Libraries participating in the scheme?
d) Can the aggregated document delivery billing system export an aggregated figure for each participating Customer Library for inclusion in the Networked Services Billing system?
e) Can the aggregated document delivery billing system incorporate a default charge for document supply?
f) Can authorised staff of participating Customer Libraries vary the default on an individual item basis?
4.5.5.7 Archiving
a) Does your product have an archiving system?
If the answer to
this question is yes, please also answer the following questions:
b) Can the archiving system archive completed service requests?
c) Can the archiving system archive usage data after a specified period?
d) Can the archiving system retrieve the archived data?
e) Can subsets of archived data be retrieved by interrogation of the archiving system?
f) Can the archiving system provide access to data about former Customers?
4.5.5.8 Technical considerations
In addition to the above questions, Tenderers are required to answer all questions in Sections 5.10.1-5.10.13, as applicable to Configuration 5.
4.5.6 Links to Other Configurations
The Administrative Support System will be required to link to the National Bibliographic Utility (Configuration #1) and the Interlibrary Loans and Document Delivery (Configuration #4). Tenderers should explain relationships between these Configurations.
Return to Start or Continue to Chapter 4-6
Last updated 27 March 1997
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