Value-for Money Assessment of the MSF Shared IT Services (SITS)

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, healthcare exclusion and natural disasters. MSF offers assistance to people based only on need and irrespective of race, religion, gender or political affiliation.

MSF is an international movement of 25 associations. All are independent legal entities and most have an executive office that raises funds and recruits staff for MSF’s operations. The associations are attached to six operational centres, which manage MSF’s humanitarian assistance programmes. MSF offices, units, directorates and associations are formally bound as one movement by a shared name, a shared commitment to the MSF Charter and principles, and shared membership of MSF International.

The Vienna Evaluation Unit, based in Austria, is one of three MSF units tasked with managing and guiding the evaluation of MSF projects. For more information see http://evaluation.msf.org/

Subject/Mission: Value-for Money Assessment of the MSF Shared IT Services (SITS)

Expected start: May 10, 2022

Duration: Final deliverables to be submitted by July 20, 2022

Application Requirements:
1) A proposal containing an initial version of assessment matrix and the expected budget (max. 2 pages)
2) A cover letter highlighting applicant’ experience with similar past assignments (max. 1 page) 3) CV
4) One example of past assessment report in a similar context or topic
Applications should be sent to [email protected]

Deadline to apply: April 25, 2022

Please specify the gross amounts and applicable VAT/tax rates (or indicate if a VAT exception applies) in the budget proposal. Please note that MSF Austria is not part of the EU’s Reverse Charge VAT mechanism.

CONTEXT

Shared IT Services (SITS) was established in 2019 in order to streamline the delivery of information technology (IT) services in MSF that would lead to gained efficiency, reduction in duplicated efforts and improvement in quality of shared technology support services in MSF. SITS is a key partner in IT projects across MSF, with the capabilities and resources to provide end-to-end solutions for sections with minimal internal IT resources, including all associated aspects from design, build and implementation to change and communication management. For larger sections and global strategic projects, SITS provides services which improve quality, efficiency, and overall success of technology innovation.

As of January 2022, the SITS catalogue of services includes some 130 services organized in 84 subcategories. These make up 5 main service areas that include Azure, Microsoft 365, Security, Infrastructure and Licenses. Some 43 MSF offices and entities avail themselves of these services though none use all services and no single service is universally used with the exception of 365. In total there are about 36,000 users in MSF from an overall staff of about 65,000.

Value for Money

After about 2,5 years of service delivery and rapid growth due to ever-increasing demand from around the MSF movement, SITS has developed a first set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to aid in monitoring progress, success, emerging challenges and to help make important decisions about direction and evolution of the entity, as well as to report to the wider movement. Some of those KPIs have to do with efficiency and effectiveness and specifically Value for Money, but to date SITS and MSF as a whole have no baseline to measure against, apart from some theoretical benchmarks used in the 2017 Business Case.

A major part of the value proposition of building SITS as a movement-wide strategic investment has to do with efficiency gains, and although this is predicated on broad if not wholesale buy-in across the movement, many client sections question this theoretical gain versus the alternatives. A Value for Money assessment may show variable degrees of efficiency and value, but it may also shed light on what conditions are required for those efficiencies and values to be optimised or improved.

PURPOSE, OBJECTIVES, AND QUESTIONS

This assessment is commissioned by the SITS Board and is to be conducted by an independent consultant, with proactive support from the SITS and facilitation from other stakeholders around the MSF movement, essentially the client sections.

As SITS is a relatively new entity and has just published its first functional service catalogue, the consultant would first need to assess whether SITS services in their current form and organization are comparable to services from external venders (whether the service catalogue is at a level of maturity to allow comparison to external service offers).

Once comparison is indeed confirmed as feasible, the Value-for-Money assessment shall seek to answer the following key questions:

1. Economical: How do SITS services compare to market alternatives (including sections DIY and the private sector) in terms of cost for quality service?

2. Efficiency: Do SITS services achieve the desired outputs to the general satisfaction of its clients (the MSF movement) with relatively fewer inputs than would be required by market alternatives (including sections DIY and the private sector)?

3. Effectiveness: Does SITS achieve the desired outcomes from a movement standpoint for its services?

And specifically, the following questions:

Economical:

1. How do SITS security services compare to market alternatives (including sections DIY and the private sector) in terms of cost for quality service?

2. How does SITS License management service compare to market alternatives (including sections DIY and the private sector) in terms of cost for quality service?

3. How does SITS’ management of Microsoft SaaS (M365) services compare to market alternatives (including sections DIY and the private sector) in terms of cost for quality service?

4. How does SITS cloud hosting services (especially for applications used by multiple sections – e.g. HERO) compare to market alternatives (including sections DIY and the private sector) in terms of cost for quality service?

Efficient:

1. Do SITS security services achieve the desired outputs to the general satisfaction of its clients (the MSF movement) with relatively fewer inputs than would be required by market alternatives (including sections DIY and the private sector)?

2. Does SITS License management service achieve the desired outputs to the general satisfaction of its clients (the MSF movement) with relatively fewer inputs than would be required by market alternatives (including sections DIY and the private sector)?

3. Does SITS’ management of Microsoft SaaS (M365) services achieve the desired outputs to the general satisfaction of its clients (the MSF movement) with relatively fewer inputs than would be required by market alternatives (including sections DIY and the private sector)?

4. Does SITS cloud hosting service achieve the desired outputs to the general satisfaction of its clients (the MSF movement) with relatively fewer inputs than would be required by market alternatives (including sections DIY and the private sector)?

Effective:

1. Does SITS achieve the desired outcomes from a movement standpoint for security services?

10.Does SITS achieve the desired outcomes from a movement standpoint for License management services?

11.Does SITS achieve the desired outcomes from a movement standpoint for management of Microsoft SaaS (M365) services

12.Does SITS achieve the desired outcomes from a movement standpoint for cloud hosting services?

Equitable:

3.Are the benefits and costs of SITS fairly distributed across the MSF movement?

NB: in comparing relative costs between entities that have different geographical bases (especially but not only within MSF), differing salary-scale baselines shall be considered when describing supposed cost differentials.

EXPECTED OUTPUTS

An inception report outlining the scope, workplan, timeline, methodology, limitations, possible challenges to the assessment and proposed ways forward – to be provided by May 25, 2022.

A first draft report containing preliminary findings and recommendations – to be provided by June 26, 2022.

A final report with an executive summary, charts visualizing data, findings, and recommendations – to be provided by July 10, 2022.

A presentation of assessment findings and recommendations to MSF stakeholders – to be held until July 20, 2022.

PROFILE / REQUIREMENTS FOR THE APPLICANT

• University studies in information technologies, business management, audit or a related field
• Experience with auditing information solutions in a decentralised organisation
• Good knowledge of Microsoft SaaS (M365) and market alternatives
• Good knowledge of applications hosting technologies, including cloud providers and on-premises solutions
• Experience working collaboratively, effectively, and responsibly in a fast-paced environment
• Good knowledge of English; knowledge of other MSF working languages would be an asset