Tender Notice - Procurement and Delivery of IBM QRadar SIEM Configuration Services and IBM QRadar SOAR Implementation Services for the Central Election Commission of Ukraine

Tender Notice - Procurement and Delivery of IBM QRadar SIEM Configuration Services and IBM QRadar SOAR Implementation Services for the Central Election Commission of Ukraine

International IDEA - The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance

Tender Reference No: 2026-07-095
Assignment Name: Procurement and Delivery of IBM QRadar SIEM Configuration Services and IBM QRadar SOAR Implementation Services for the Central Election Commission of Ukraine
Project Name: NORAD project (U-Vote)

Deadline for Submissions: Proposals must be submitted on or before 23:59 (CET), 25 September 2026. Late submissions will not be considered for evaluation.

Address for Submissions: E-mail: tendersubmissions@idea.int

This email address is set up with an auto-response to acknowledge emails received. If you do not receive an auto-reply, please send a text message prior to the submission deadline (NO CALLS; CALLS WILL NOT BE ANSWERED) to +46725375735. In your text message, please provide the following:

• Tender reference no. and title;
• Email address you used for submission;
• Date and time you sent your submission (e.g. 01 December 2021, 12:30 CET);
• Please also send the above information to tender@idea.int before the deadline for submission.

Format for Submissions: Proposal must be submitted by email. Technical and Financial proposals must be submitted in separate files and marked accordingly. Price should not be mentioned in the Technical Proposal.

The following text should be put in the subject field of the email: Tender No. (2026-07-095) Technical and Financial Proposals – Do not open before 23:59 (CET), 25 September 2026.

Email Address for Clarifications: E-mail: tender@idea.int

Clarifications may be requested via e-mail no later than 11 September 2026 at the above email address. Note a response to a request for clarifications will be issued to all tenderers on our website http://www.idea.int/. Therefore, tenderers are advised to check the website regularly during the process.

Note: there are two different email addresses as outlined above, one to be used for Submission of your final proposal and the second one to be used for clarifications and other related correspondence.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Section 1 General Information

1.1 The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) is an intergovernmental organization established in 1995, with member states across all continents, which aims to support sustainable democracy world-wide and assist in the development of institutions and the culture of democracy. At the interface between research, fieldwork and the donor community, IDEA provides a forum for dialogue, builds networks of experts, develops training materials and provides strategic advice at international, regional and national level, cooperating with a range of organizations.

1.2 International IDEA now invites proposals from qualified consultants (firms, organizations, individuals) for procurement and delivery of the IBM QRadar SIEM Configuration Services and IBM QRadar SOAR Implementation Services for the Central Election Commission of Ukraine. A detailed description of the assignment is provided in the Terms of Reference attached to this Request for Proposals.

1.3 Tentative timeframe: It is anticipated that the services will commence in October 2026 and will be completed according to the delivery schedule defined in the Terms of Reference (TOR) and agreed in the contract.

Section 2 Preparation of Proposals

Essential Requirements

2.1 Language: The official language for the proposal, contract, reports and any other documents in relation to the assignment is English. All documents for the CEC, as well as correspondence with the CEC, must also be translated into Ukrainian.

2.2 To be eligible for consideration, the bidder must demonstrate the following experience and capabilities:

A. Legal and Organizational Eligibility

1. The Bidder must be a legally registered entity with an established presence in Ukraine and hold all licenses, permits, and government approvals required to perform the Services under this solicitation;
2. Subcontracting is not permitted under this solicitation. However, this restriction shall not prevent the Bidder from escalating technical issues to the software vendor/OEM support channels, provided that the Bidder remains solely responsible for the performance of the Contract and for meeting all contractual obligations.

B. Relevant Experience

1. The bidder must demonstrate successful completion of at least three (3) projects for IT software maintenance, technical support, software development, SIEM implementation, or other comparable enterprise cybersecurity services of comparable size and complexity within the last five (5) years. Experience related to IBM QRadar SIEM and/or IBM QRadar SOAR implementation, configuration or optimization will be considered particularly relevant. The Bidder must provide the name and contact details of a client reference for each project submitted. International IDEA reserves the right to contact the references provided and/or complete a Service Provider Evaluation as part of the verification process.

C. Capacity Statement

1. The bidder must have sufficient financial, technical, and managerial resources, as well as the necessary facilities, to successfully complete the Scope of Work.

D. Personnel Qualifications and Expertise

1. The Bidder’s technical team must include at least two (2) specialists with valid IBM Certified Analyst - Security QRadar SIEM V7.5 certifications;
2. The Bidder’s technical team must include at least two (2) specialists with valid IBM Certified Deployment Professional – Security QRadar SIEM V7.5 certifications.

E. Post-Deployment Technical Support and Maintenance

1. The Bidder must provide technical support and scheduled maintenance for 1 (one) year after the final acceptance of the deployment;
2. The support services must include:
   1. Consultations on fine-tuning IBM QRadar SIEM and IBM QRadar SOAR;
   2. Technical guidance on firmware updates and security patching for the IBM QRadar SIEM and IBM QRadar SOAR.

F. Service Level Agreement (SLA)

The Bidder must provide a clear SLA (Service Level Agreement), specifying:

1. Response and Resolution Times, defined by incident severity levels;
2. Availability of technical assistance via phone, email, and a dedicated ticketing system;
3. Defined procedure for escalating critical issues to the vendor.

2.3 The proposal should provide the following information:

1. A brief description of the company/organization and an outline of recent experience on assignments of a similar nature;
2. The list of the proposed staff by title (and name if already identified), the tasks that would be assigned to each staff team member, and their timing, estimates of the total staff input needed to carry out the assignment;
3. CVs for the Team Leader and other proposed professional staff, including information on their previous experience in similar assignments;
4. A completed and signed declaration of honour form.

2.4 Declaration of Honour Form:

For Section VI – Declaration on honour on restrictive measures: Please tick “YES” to confirm that the candidate/tenderer is not subject to any restrictive measures or sanctions as described in this section.

Financial Proposal

2.5 The price should be broken down in fee (showing unit rates and input) and any incidental expenses likely to be incurred. The Bidder must act in accordance with the applicable tax laws and regulations of Ukraine as it relates to providing services to the customer/client. The Bidder shall be responsible for their own tax obligations in accordance with Ukrainian legislation. The prices shall be provided with and without VAT. VAT exemption may be requested where applicable in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, in particular the Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 153 “On the creation of a unified system for attracting, using and monitoring international technical assistance” and applicable provisions of the Tax Code of Ukraine. The assessment of the financial proposal will be based on the applicable price indicated in the Bidder’s proposal, considering the relevant tax treatment for the specific project/assignment.

Section 3 Submission of Proposals

3.1 Proposals should be submitted in electronic format by e-mail. Technical and Financial Proposals must be submitted in separate files and marked accordingly duly labelled in accordance with Annex 2.3. Full details on submission procedures are provided in the Tender Notice at the beginning of this document. Please submit each requirement listed above as a separate document, clearly labelled according to the corresponding section number and title. Large files should be compressed in ZIP format or submitted through separate emails, duly labelled (e.g., email 1 of 2, email 2 of 2, as applicable).

3.2 Proposals must remain valid for at least 90 days following the deadline for their submission stated under the Tender Notice. In the event of unforeseen delays, International IDEA will continue to treat proposals as valid, unless the proposal explicitly specifies a different validity period after the 90 days. During this period, consultants are expected to ensure that the professional staff proposed for the assignment remain available.

Section 4 Evaluation of Proposals

Technical Evaluation

4.1 The proposals will be evaluated and scored against the following technical criteria with respective corresponding weights:

Proposals must score a minimum of 60 points to progress to the financial evaluation.

The maximum technical score (T) is 100 points.

Financial Evaluation

4.2. The financial proposals will be verified and, if necessary, adjustments will be made to the prices to ensure consistency with the technical proposals in terms of work input and to eliminate arithmetical errors.

4.3. The corrected prices will then be converted to the currency of evaluation to obtain the evaluation price (E). The exchange rate is the IDEA monthly exchange rate.

4.4 The currency used for evaluation is EURO.

4.5 The financial scores (F) will be computed as follows:

The lowest evaluation price proposal (E_m) will be given a financial score (F_m) of 100 points.

The financial scores of the other proposals will be computed applying the formula:

F = 100 x E_m/E, where:

• E_m is the lowest evaluation price; and
• E is the evaluation price of the proposal under consideration.

Consolidated Technical and Financial Score

4.6 The final consolidated scores (S) will be computed by applying the formula:

S = t x T + f x F, where:

• t is the weight given to the technical score;
• f is the weight given to the financial score.

4.7 The weights given to the technical and financial scores are:

• t = 70%;
• f = 30%.

4.8 The consultant ranked highest will be invited to negotiate the contract. If negotiations are successful, the selected consultant will be awarded the contract. Should the negotiations fail, the second-ranked consultant will be invited to negotiations.

4.9 International IDEA reserves the right during the negotiation stage to vary at the time of award of contract, the quantity of services and/or goods, or scope of work by up to a maximum of twenty-five per cent (25%) of the original TOR. This negotiation will not permit any changes to unit fee rates or other terms and conditions outlined in the tender proposal.

4.10 International IDEA reserves the right to directly award a follow-up contract to the contractor selected for the tender to carry out potential future work related to this initial assignment. This will depend on satisfactory delivery of the tender assignment.

Section 5 Final Considerations

5.1. International IDEA will not be bound to select any of the proposals.

5.2 The following documents are enclosed with this Request for Proposals:

• Annex 2.1 Terms of Reference;
• Annex 2.2. Technical requirements for IBM QRadar SIEM and IBM QRadar SOAR deployment services for the Central Election Commission of Ukraine;
• Annex 2.3 Documentation provided by bidder;
• Annex A3 Declaration of Honour Form;
• General Terms General Terms Conditions.

5.3 Further information on International IDEA may be found on our website: http://www.idea.int/.

5.4 Both successful and unsuccessful bidders will be notified in writing following the completion of the evaluation and contract award process.

Complaints regarding any aspect of the tender process should be addressed in writing to both the Internal Auditor and the Executive Director at International IDEA. The address is tender.complaints@idea.int.

The Tender Notice and Request for Proposals, Terms of Reference, Deployment Services QRadar_SIEM_SOAR, Documentation to be provided by the Bidder, Declaration of Honour Form and Agreement General Terms are available at: https://www.idea.int/procurement-and-tenders.