Basic Information

Reference Number

0000285481

Issuing Organization

CBC/Radio Canada

Solicitation Type

RFP - Request for Proposal (Formal)

Solicitation Number

NEWS20250110

Title

News Coordination System

Source ID

FD.CO.CAN.458875.C2476076

Agreement Type

Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)

Details

Location

Canada, All of Canada, All of Canada

DescriptionA - Previous Amendment

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING COMPLETELY AND CAREFULLY PAYING ATTENTION TO ALL REQUIREMENTS AND DATES.
CBC/Radio-Canada is seeking Proposals from industry in response to its Request for Proposal (“RFP) NEWS20250110 for News Coordination System
An Agreement resulting from this RFX may potentially be for three (3) years with four (4) irrevocable option(s) to extend for one (1) year period(s).

1. SUMMARY OF REQUIRED GOODS/SERVICES:
The key objectives in issuing this RFP are as follows:
CBC/Radio-Canada is embarking on a transformative initiative to enhance collaboration and communication within the coordination of news assignments and gathering across its teams. CBC/Radio-Canada is seeking a newsroom coordination solution for a story-centric, audience first newsroom, that delivers live and on-demand content, to multiple end-points, including connected TVs and mobile platforms.
The primary objectives of a proposed solution for CBC/Radio-Canada are to:

Enable a story first approach that increases cross-publishing opportunities for live and on-demand and maximizes the audience experience.
Streamline assignment-related information and communication processes.
Streamline the user experience by consolidating critical information related to News assignments into a single, unified tool, minimizing the need for users to interact with multiple disparate tools.
Improve clarity, coherence, and accessibility of information for all producers and related News staff.
Enhance discoverability and awareness of video assets through the assignment process for all publishing endpoints.
Facilitate collaboration, coordination, and efficiency in assignment management across CBC/Radio-Canada divisions and regions.
Reduce the duplication of work and overall, turnaround times to bring stories to audiences.
Ability to extract data from the system to improve both workflow and audience experience.

2. MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS:
This RFP should only be responded to by Proponents who will meet each of the following mandatory requirements. Please review the mandatory requirements to ensure you are able to meet the requirements before proceeding with obtaining the RFP documentation:

A.4.1 Flexible architecture
CBC/Radio-Canada requires the solution to be able to run on virtual machines and/or containers on generic or COTS (commercial off the shelf) hardware, hosted on prem or cloud based. The user interface must be accessible over an internet connection, without having to install any software other than a web browser, on a workstation (PC or Mac). Chrome is the preferred choice.
Mandatory Requirement: The proposed solution must be COTS based, accessible to users from a recent version of Chrome.

A.4.2 Mobile accessibility
CBC/Radio-Canada is seeking a solution that would allow staff to access information and work while on the go via mobile devices.
Mandatory Requirement: The proposed solution must be mobile-compatible at the time of implementation or included in your future roadmap, either through an application (IOS & Android) or a browser.

A.4.3 Bilingual
CBC/Radio-Canada operates its 2 main networks in French and English. UIs of your solution have to be available in both languages.
Mandatory Requirement: The user interfaces (UI) of the solution must be available in French and English by at least summer of 2026.

A.4.4 Support for extended character set
CBC/Radio-Canada operates its 2 main networks in French and English, with media and metadata in those languages. Solutions need to be able to handle all the characters used to describe stories or media metadata.
Mandatory Requirement: The solution must support extended character sets for at least French and English when entering or searching data in its interface and in the metadata fields (full French and English unicode character sets), including variations of accents and caps (e.g. celine Vs. Céline).

A.4.5 Metadata fields & labels
Custom metadata fields and labels are used in CBC/Radio-Canada’s systems for production as they allow for nuance specific to regional and editorial context to be incorporated into the metadata process and help facilitate specific organizational strategies.
Mandatory Requirement: The solution must allow administrators to create and modify metadata fields and labels or be able to integrate with a 3rd party or in-house taxonomy.

A.4.6 Advanced search capabilities
Newsroom staff need an ability to search for relevant assignments and media within a software solution.
Mandatory Requirement: The solution must allow for advanced searches and multiple entry points to information.

A.4.7 Centralization of stories and assignments
A story-centric approach relies on a universal user experience that organizes all shared work around stories, providing seamless access to news assets—regardless of our underlying technical architecture. Users must experience your system as a cohesive, unified platform where stories serve as the central organizing principle, enabling efficient collaboration and access to all relevant information.
Mandatory Requirement: By the time of implementation your solution must provide a unified user experience that organizes and presents all assets, metadata, stories, and assignments that CBC/Radio-Canada teams are working on, regardless of how many production systems are in use or where users are located.

A.4.8 Application programmatic interface (API)
Because multiple systems are used together in CBC/Radio-Canada’s production environment, the final solution needs to be open and have the capability to integrate with others, through pieces of code or plugins. The proponent shall provide an open and well-documented application programming interface (open API) for each product, to connect with technologically able CBC applications and certain other vendor applications that CBC uses.
Mandatory Requirement: The solution must have well-documented application programming interfaces (open API) that allow custom integrations with other applications. Please provide relevant documentation as an attachment, if applicable.

A.4.9 Single Sign-On
Accounts at CBC/Radio-Canada are managed through an Active Directory (clouded or on-premise).
Mandatory Requirement: The solution must support SSO (Single Sign On) SAML or OpenID Connect (OIDC).

A.4.10 Support
CBC/Radio-Canada operates newsrooms mainly in Canada, but also foreign correspondents deployed internationally. Being able to support news production workflows around the clock is mandatory.
Mandatory Requirement: There must be an ability to provide 24 / 7 / 365 support of some sort for the solution included in your offering.

4. TO OBTAIN THE RFP DOCUMENTATION
CBC/Radio-Canada uses MERX (https://www.merx.com/public/solicitations/open) and from here you can type CBC or Radio-Canada to manage its solicitation process. All Proponents must obtain the RFP documents through MERX.
Below is the link to the MERX Supplier User Guide for new users
https://www.merx.com/cms-portals/MERX/cms/public/help/guides/supplieruserguide-v1.0.pdf

Determine eligibility to participate based on the description of the objective statement for the RFP and Mandatory Requirements.
To obtain the documents the Proponents must be registered with MERX. If they are not already registered, they must do so by following the instructions included in the MERX Supplier User Guide link above and/or call 1-800-964-6379.
The Proponent understands that by accessing the RFx documents that it is bound by the Confidentiality clause elaborated in Part II: General Provisions Section A: Proponent’s Instructions 1. Confidentiality of the Main Document

5. COMMUNICATION WITH CBC/RADIO-CANADA

Any contact with CBC/Radio-Canada prior to obtaining the RFP documentation must be undertaken by e-mail and addressed solely to the CBC/Radio-Canada Representative, whose co-ordinates appear below. All e-mails pertaining to this RFX must state the RFP reference number in the “Subject” of the e-mail.

Imrana Choudry
Sr Manager, Procurement
Finance and Administration
CBC/Radio-Canada
E-mail: Imrana.Choudry@cbc.ca

Once the tender documents have been obtained, Proponents may have queries, require further information or clarification, or discover certain omissions or ambiguities in the RFP documents. If so, or if there is any doubt about the meaning of any part of this RFP, must submit their questions through MERX no later than the date specified in PART I: INTRODUCTION, Table 1: Critical Dates in the RFP Process of the main document.

CBC/Radio-Canada reserves the right, at its discretion, to answer only those questions submitted through MERX.

6. RECEIPT OF PROPOSALS
The Proponent has the sole responsibility for the timely receipt of a Proposal by CBC/Radio-Canada. The Proponent cannot transfer such responsibility to CBC/Radio-Canada. The MERX clock shall be used to determine the time of receipt of the Proposal, whether the time indicated on such clock is accurate or not.
Partial Proposals, amendments or revisions which are received after the date and time for the RFP Submission Closing Date will not be accepted.
This RFP is subject to Chapter Five (Government Procurement) of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA).
CBC/Radio-Canada retains the right to negotiate with Proponents on any procurement.

Dates

Publication

2025/01/16 05:34:55 PM EST

Bid Intent

Not Available

Question Acceptance DeadlineA - Previous Amendment

2025/01/24 08:00:00 PM EST

Questions are submitted online

Yes

Closing DateA - Previous Amendment

2025/02/14 08:00:00 PM EST

Contact Information

Imrana Choudry

(416) 205-3311

imrana.choudry@cbc.ca

Bid Submission Process

Bid Submission Type

Electronic Bid Submission

Envelope 1 - Technical

Pricing

No pricing in this envelope

Bid Documents List

Item Name	Description	Mandatory	Limited to 1 file
Bid Documents	Documents defining the proposal	No	No
No entries

Envelope 2 - Pricing

Pricing

Lump sum

Bid Documents List

Item Name	Description	Mandatory	Limited to 1 file
Bid Documents	Documents defining the proposal	No	No
No entries

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