Snapshot of Requirements (please refer to Statement of Requirements for more detail)

Major elements of application portal:

• Intuitive interface with customised look and feel (Austrade to provide branding assets) – look and feel to align with www.exportawards.gov.au
• Secure, easy user registration process
• Evaluation/Judging and administrative functions

Portal Design requirements

• Sleek and contemporary look and feel - utilising Nation Brand assets (Austrade to provide)
• Modern and intuitive applicant/nominator experience
• All portable devices responsive

Type of data collected via the platform

• Applicants’ business details and contact information
• Business plans
• Business financial information into auto-calculating tables as well as upload of financial reports
• Applicant’s images and logos
• Judges and Admins contact details

Online Application Forms

• Applicant’s ability to create user account
• Allow one or multiple categories applications per registration.
• Ability of questions customisation depending on the category selected.
• Ability to create application forms with flexibility of number of questions, text fields.
• Word count limit, spellchecker and auto-save functions.
• Important to have an integrated ABN Lookup function – businesses name verified against business registered ABN number.
• Forms to be able to collect financial data and perform a degree of auto calculations.
• Unlimited file uploads in any format.
• Countdown functions to place on form top banner as reminder of time left until closing date.

Automated communication

• Ability to create customisable automatic email responses upon account creation, account cancellation, pending application, successful submission.
• Ability to schedule broadcast communication to different groups via filtering submitted and started only applicants.

Technical Support

Software provider will provide ongoing support: technical inputs addressing user-errors, identify and rectify potential difficulties, security reviews and regular data backups.

The supplier will work closely with the National team (Austrade) and state levels to identify a workflow process for implementing changes to the system when required. As many of these required changes may directly impact the online delivery, the provider will outline procedures and response times for implementation for these updates depending on the urgency and severity of the issues and will acknowledge request from the AEA team within 2 to 3 hours upon receipt either by phone or by email.

Technical support for applicants, administrators and judges should be made available across all Australian States and Territories business hours and weekends.

The software provider will notify and discuss with the National team (Austrade) at least 24 hours in advance of maintenance or any scheduled server or software upgrade will be notified to the National team (Austrade). Provider to notify National team (Austrade) and State & Territory contacts immediately upon portal outage event.

System and Hosting

Disaster recovery and downtime plans to be submitted and approved by the Austrade to mitigate the risk of data and loss of access.

Database - The database structure to be built in a manner to achieve strict and optimal segmentation of each state (exporter data) and national data (investors data).

Secure SSL certificates required - encryption of users’ data traffic. Data backups - to be stored in an encrypted environment. Supplier will perform regular server maintenance and backups and identify strategies to split/reduce loads during the busiest time of the submission process. Regular backup will be performed on a daily, weekly and monthly interval. The supplier will liaise with the National team (Austrade) regarding timing of server maintenance to minimise disruption to applicants.

Hosting - supplier will host AEA collected data with an Australian based hosting provider that is Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) certified or cloud-base provider that meets Privacy Act government/ Austrade requirements. Provider to inform AEA organisers of hardware and software hosting specifications of chosen third-party hosting provider.

Security Requirements

Must be capable of supporting the requirements identified for Australian Government Non-Corporate Entities as outlined in the Protective Security Policy Framework, the Australian Signals Directorate’s Information Security Manual (including the Essential 8 strategies to mitigate against cyber security attacks). More detail on security requirements is set out in Attachment A. 

Estimated start date: Wednesday, 12 March 2025

Initial contract duration: 12 months

Extension term: 12 months

Number of extensions: 2

Working arrangements: Remote

Electronic delivery / Email/ Video link meetings on Teams

Additional budget information: Ongoing support for the solution will be required, so pricing for this should be identified as well.