EAX is a regional commodity
exchange, which began its trading operations through auctions and spot trades
in June 2013. EAX was established to link smallholder’s farmers to the wider
agricultural markets; to secure competitive and fair prices for their produce,
and to facilitate their access to finance. EAX deals with high-quality products
meeting the requirement of EAC standards. Key value proposition is guaranteed
on quantity and quality of farmers’ grains, reliability of trade and settlement
services and high level of risk mitigation
exchange, which began its trading operations through auctions and spot trades
in June 2013. EAX was established to link smallholder’s farmers to the wider
agricultural markets; to secure competitive and fair prices for their produce,
and to facilitate their access to finance. EAX deals with high-quality products
meeting the requirement of EAC standards. Key value proposition is guaranteed
on quantity and quality of farmers’ grains, reliability of trade and settlement
services and high level of risk mitigation
TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR A
SOFWARE DEVELOPER CONSULTANT IN USSD AND ANDROID MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
SOFWARE DEVELOPER CONSULTANT IN USSD AND ANDROID MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
Date: 18 September 2018
Purpose
In line of transforming
agriculture from subsidiary to commercial, EAX has been awarded a grant from
Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA) Rwanda aiming to increase trade competitiveness
and strengthening export capacity of staples. To implement this grant, EAX is
looking to recruit a software developer consultant who will assist internal IT
work to improve trade efficiency. The purpose of the work is to deliver a USSD
and Android based mobile application which will be used by East Africa Exchange
(EAX) members. The application targets to streamline processes of buying and
selling in grains business especially maize and beans markets. EAX hereby
invites submission of financial and technical proposals from local consultants
(companies or individual software development service providers) to support EAX
Information Communication Technology (ICT) and market data department in the
development of mobile user interfaces, database and backend application made of
both android and USSD functions. The below Terms of References (TOR)
define the scope of work, a selected consultant will be asked to accomplish in
integrating new mobile application features with the current existing web based
electronic warehouse receipt system and associated IT system architecture.
agriculture from subsidiary to commercial, EAX has been awarded a grant from
Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA) Rwanda aiming to increase trade competitiveness
and strengthening export capacity of staples. To implement this grant, EAX is
looking to recruit a software developer consultant who will assist internal IT
work to improve trade efficiency. The purpose of the work is to deliver a USSD
and Android based mobile application which will be used by East Africa Exchange
(EAX) members. The application targets to streamline processes of buying and
selling in grains business especially maize and beans markets. EAX hereby
invites submission of financial and technical proposals from local consultants
(companies or individual software development service providers) to support EAX
Information Communication Technology (ICT) and market data department in the
development of mobile user interfaces, database and backend application made of
both android and USSD functions. The below Terms of References (TOR)
define the scope of work, a selected consultant will be asked to accomplish in
integrating new mobile application features with the current existing web based
electronic warehouse receipt system and associated IT system architecture.
Contract duration
Four (4) months.
Background
EAX is a regional commodity
exchange, which began its trading operations through auctions and spot trades
in June 2013. EAX was established to link smallholder’s famers to the wider
agricultural markets; to secure competitive and fair prices for their produce;
and to facilitate their access to finance. Trading operations are powered by
desktop NASDAQ OMX trading system and web based electronic warehouse receipt
system playing the role of central depository of traded receipts hold by
members. EAX has already established an organized marketplace, where buyers and
sellers come together to trade, while being assured with guarantees of
preserving of quality and quantity as well as timely payment and delivery of
commodity products. EAX certified registered members (buyers and sellers of
agriculture commodities) especially those from the group of small holder
farmers’ cooperatives don’t have access to computers therefore trade at EAX
with limitations on access to NASDAQ System. However a good number of traders
own mobile smart phones and the majority of cooperatives’ members have access
to feature phones that can allow Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD)
interfaces. This project will come up with a solution of building software
components with features of USSD and Smart phone android application programs
to support and improve the efficiency of EAX marketplace in linking producers
(cooperatives and agribusiness companies) to EAX buyers.
exchange, which began its trading operations through auctions and spot trades
in June 2013. EAX was established to link smallholder’s famers to the wider
agricultural markets; to secure competitive and fair prices for their produce;
and to facilitate their access to finance. Trading operations are powered by
desktop NASDAQ OMX trading system and web based electronic warehouse receipt
system playing the role of central depository of traded receipts hold by
members. EAX has already established an organized marketplace, where buyers and
sellers come together to trade, while being assured with guarantees of
preserving of quality and quantity as well as timely payment and delivery of
commodity products. EAX certified registered members (buyers and sellers of
agriculture commodities) especially those from the group of small holder
farmers’ cooperatives don’t have access to computers therefore trade at EAX
with limitations on access to NASDAQ System. However a good number of traders
own mobile smart phones and the majority of cooperatives’ members have access
to feature phones that can allow Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD)
interfaces. This project will come up with a solution of building software
components with features of USSD and Smart phone android application programs
to support and improve the efficiency of EAX marketplace in linking producers
(cooperatives and agribusiness companies) to EAX buyers.
Context of the problem to
solve
solve
This project seeks to resolve
a problem of communication inefficiency found in connecting farmers to the EAX
marketplace. The development work will deliver features that integrates well
with existing software systems such as electronic warehouse receipt (EWR),
membership database MIS and X-stream Nasdaq trading. The mobile
application should improve the following key ICT functions:
a problem of communication inefficiency found in connecting farmers to the EAX
marketplace. The development work will deliver features that integrates well
with existing software systems such as electronic warehouse receipt (EWR),
membership database MIS and X-stream Nasdaq trading. The mobile
application should improve the following key ICT functions:
- buying &
selling process by bringing efficiency in electronic commodities trading
and; - Member’s
messages notifications between participants and EAX market controller.
The outcome shall facilitate
communication between EAX market controller and members via mobile phones. EAX
built a membership database that caters for registration information of farmers
and have developed an electronic warehouse receipt system to store and manage
agriculture commodities depositories. Member’s representatives from
cooperatives and agribusiness companies are provided with usernames and
passwords to use while accessing electronic warehouse receipts and while
trading at EAX marketplace using NASDAQ trading platform. There are three types
of trading initiatives at the EAX: (1) Auction in which one seller is selling
to multiple buyers; (2) Reverse Auction in which one buyer is buying from
multiple sellers and (3) Spot trading in which multiple sellers sell to
multiple buyers. When there is a trading event, EAX invite both sellers and
buyers to participate in the trade event organized and operated by the EAX
market controller. Members who deposited their grains in EAX certified
warehouses can participate in the trade as sellers and are issued with
electronic warehouse receipt prior the trade date. The electronic warehouse
receipt is a record indicating information about product type, receipt number,
receipt ownership, grade, product origin and quantity in Metric Tons (MT) owned
by receipt holder. The following diagram shows system integration strategy of
EAX and an overview of what areas of intervention required in terms of data
communication, the new mobile application will cater for.
communication between EAX market controller and members via mobile phones. EAX
built a membership database that caters for registration information of farmers
and have developed an electronic warehouse receipt system to store and manage
agriculture commodities depositories. Member’s representatives from
cooperatives and agribusiness companies are provided with usernames and
passwords to use while accessing electronic warehouse receipts and while
trading at EAX marketplace using NASDAQ trading platform. There are three types
of trading initiatives at the EAX: (1) Auction in which one seller is selling
to multiple buyers; (2) Reverse Auction in which one buyer is buying from
multiple sellers and (3) Spot trading in which multiple sellers sell to
multiple buyers. When there is a trading event, EAX invite both sellers and
buyers to participate in the trade event organized and operated by the EAX
market controller. Members who deposited their grains in EAX certified
warehouses can participate in the trade as sellers and are issued with
electronic warehouse receipt prior the trade date. The electronic warehouse
receipt is a record indicating information about product type, receipt number,
receipt ownership, grade, product origin and quantity in Metric Tons (MT) owned
by receipt holder. The following diagram shows system integration strategy of
EAX and an overview of what areas of intervention required in terms of data
communication, the new mobile application will cater for.
Scope of duties and
responsibilities
responsibilities
Specifically, the software
development service provider will be required to:
development service provider will be required to:
- Develop and
deploy a USSD and Mobile application using android platform and accessed
by three types of users such as non-registered trader, registered member
and a market controller. - Conduct
software requirement gathering and document the system development product
specification as the inception
project report. The system development product
specification is recommended to outline the statement of work to be done,
project plan containing milestones and sprints deliverables, required
resources, software testing procedures and should be approved by EAX ICT
and market data management. - Write the
program source code, implement database tables, capture existing
information and plan the CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) process for
members data, messages data, stock positions data, trades schedules and
trade prices and trade quantities. - Work with
respect to the requirement gathering and software system specification; - Work in
accordance to agile software development methodology with sprints of three
days reporting and weekly reports on work progress. - Implement
software features as per discussed in the weekly meeting and endeavor to
document after three month, the
mid-term work progress report. - Provide the
training, and deployment of the system to test server and live server. - Document user manual and
the final
system implementation report that will include the
maintenance plan
- During the
course of implementation of this consultancy work, any change requested by
EAX ICT and Market Data department in respect to the scope of work
outlined above, will be executed by the Consultant without any further
cost. The final payment will be subject to the EAX ICT and Market data
department approval of the quality of deliverables.
Deliverables and payment
schemes
schemes
The payment of the work
completed will issued to the consultant in three installments subject to the
approval of quality of following deliverables:
completed will issued to the consultant in three installments subject to the
approval of quality of following deliverables:
- Detailed
weekly reports - Application
program source code and database files for an android application - Application
program source code for USSD application - User manual
documents - System
documentations: (Inception, mid-term and final) - Approved
inception project report – 1st payment installment of 20% - Approved
mid-term work progress report – 2nd payment installment of 40% - Approved user
manual and final system implementation report – Final payment installment
40%
Management
The software developer
consultant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of EAX Head of
ICT and Market Data.
consultant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of EAX Head of
ICT and Market Data.
Criteria to measure success
Both USSD and Android
applications will be measured for success based on three major criteria:
applications will be measured for success based on three major criteria:
- Cleaner code
that allow reusability, scalability ; - Accuracy of data
stored and retrieved; - Efficient data
access and manipulation and; - Efficient
application programs. - Very well done
system documentations
Qualifications and experience
The contractor to be selected
to work as software developer consultant should have minimum qualification of a
Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering, Information
Technology or Information Systems or Software Engineering or a related fields
with hands on experience of a minimum of 5 years in software development, Android
and USSD application program coding and system integration. A Master’s
Degree in a related field is preferred.
to work as software developer consultant should have minimum qualification of a
Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering, Information
Technology or Information Systems or Software Engineering or a related fields
with hands on experience of a minimum of 5 years in software development, Android
and USSD application program coding and system integration. A Master’s
Degree in a related field is preferred.
The contractor should master
Android and USSD with Java or PHP programming. He/she should have strong skills
in JavaScript, JQUERY, XML, HTML5 and Android.
Android and USSD with Java or PHP programming. He/she should have strong skills
in JavaScript, JQUERY, XML, HTML5 and Android.
The contractor should have a
good understanding and experience of software development frameworks in JAVA
such as Spring framework or Struts 2 framework; and in PHP such as Code
Igniter, Zend Framework, Cake PHP or Yii.
good understanding and experience of software development frameworks in JAVA
such as Spring framework or Struts 2 framework; and in PHP such as Code
Igniter, Zend Framework, Cake PHP or Yii.
Expert knowledge in design
and development of database systems such as MySQL and NoSQL types of
databases such as MongoDB;
and development of database systems such as MySQL and NoSQL types of
databases such as MongoDB;
Hands-on experience of
working on APIs and Amazon Web Services EC2, is highly required.
working on APIs and Amazon Web Services EC2, is highly required.
Submission of financial and
technical proposals
technical proposals
Interested software developer
service providers must submit a financial
and technical
proposal; and detailed CV listing at least three references to: ( eaxsystems@ea-africaexchange.com
)
service providers must submit a financial
and technical
proposal; and detailed CV listing at least three references to: ( eaxsystems@ea-africaexchange.com
)
Address:
RSSB Tower II, 6th Floor,
African Union Boulevard | KN 3 Rd (Péage), Kiyovu, Nyarugenge,
African Union Boulevard | KN 3 Rd (Péage), Kiyovu, Nyarugenge,
Kigali, Rwanda, Phone: +250
788 197 000
788 197 000
Deadline of submission is Sunday, 30th
September 2018.
September 2018.
Note:
Quotations must clearly
distinguish the financial proposal and the technical proposal with details in
line with the scope of the work. All quotations received after this date will
not be considered.
distinguish the financial proposal and the technical proposal with details in
line with the scope of the work. All quotations received after this date will
not be considered.
