Long-Term Agreement (LTA) of Individual Consultant as Telecom Consultant, ICTD Digital Core, PSD, Remote

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, a connected world.

The overarching strategic goal of UNICEF’s Information and Communication Technology Division (ICTD) is to transform and build partnerships with our stakeholders to successfully implement UNICEF programmes globally through the use of innovative technology-enabled solutions.

As part of the standardization of local PABXs used in Field Offices, ICTD started implementing an Enterprise Telephone network using Skype for Business in 2017. However, in July 2021, Microsoft  announced that Skype for Business was being retired, and all users have been migrated to Microsoft Teams. Currently, the Enterprise Telephone network is rolled out to 55 locations in the organization, with several more purchasing equipment to adopt the service. Central to the Enterprise Telephony network is a gateway installed at each location, which acts as a firewall for voice traffic, an interface between the local public telephone network, the telephone users in an office, and Microsoft servers in the Cloud. Due to the importance of the Enterprise Telephone network for communication, there is the need for it to be set up to function optimally and performance issues to be addressed promptly.

How can you make a difference?

The purpose of this LTA is for the organization to have quick access to expert knowledge and hands- on experience in the management of an Enterprise Telephony network. There are various media, appliances and Cloud services that must work together for the service to be provisioned. A fault or misconfiguration in one part of the architecture can destabilize the local telephone network or could have a ripple effect on the global Enterprise Telephone network. While technical support is available from Microsoft and the vendor of appliances we use (Ribbon), it can take several days before an engineer is assigned to address the incident. It is essential that the organization can draw on a wide range of technical knowledge and experience if an issue cannot be resolved quickly with in-house expertise or excessive delays from the technical support teams in Microsoft and/or Ribbon.

The programme area of this assignment focuses on Unified Communications.

Objectives:

The objective of utilizing an off-site, on-demand individual allows PSD/ICTD access to a highly technical expert resource with the flexibility to use their services on an as-needed basis. There may be no service requirement for the consultant in any given month, but it is expected to be at most six hours. The selected consultant will be compensated hourly only for services provided for each troubleshooting incident or advisory session.

Major tasks to be accomplished:

a. In-depth troubleshooting of external media connections and integration to the voice gateways, the Enterprise Telephony network and architecture as and when required.

b. Provide guidance for maintaining and supporting a secure and robust Teams Direct Routing – Ribbon SBC Enterprise Telephony solution.

c. Provide implementation and technical support services for voice gateways, assist in the setup of voice gateways for operational and survivability modes.

Responsibilities of the Consultant:

a. The consultant shall use his/her laptop and accessories when consulting for UNICEF.

b. On working days, the consultant should be available on demand, or within 48 hours of a request from the business owner or the designated officer-in-charge.

c. The consultant should be able to identify the issue in 24-hours or point the business owners in the direction to investigate an issue.

d. Should be abreast with the latest firmware updates on Ribbon Session Border Controllers and advise the versions suitable for the UNICEF Enterprise Telephony environment.

e. Should be abreast with developments in Microsoft Teams Direct Routing and provide direction on enhancements to implement on the UNICEF network.

f. In exceptional cases, and with mutual agreement, be available to assist over a weekend to address severe outages.

 

Responsibilities of UNICEF:

a. Schedule troubleshooting or setup sessions with stakeholders using any of these tools for remote access: Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Team Viewer or AnyDesk.

b. Coordinate with Local Site Administrators to access their appliances for setup/troubleshooting purposes.

c. Share screenshots and log files with the consultant to facilitate troubleshooting.

d. At the request of the consultant, open and/or update trouble tickets opened with Ribbon or Microsoft technical support.

e. Keep a record of the date, location, duration, and tasks/projects worked on.

Deliverables:

S. No.	category (if applicable)	Deliverable
1.		Reported service-related issues on the Enterprise Telephony network are identified and fixed by performing in-depth troubleshooting of external media connections, the voice gateways, the Teams Direct Routing Environment, the MS Teams Admin Center, and by participating in meetings with third-party service providers who are critical to fixing a problem (for example Microsoft, Ribbon or an ISP).
2.		Advisory services are provided when Microsoft/Ribbon announces/deprecates features that affect the performance of the Enterprise Telephony network. Outcomes are a seamless transition to an alternative or uninterrupted service in the existing Enterprise Telephony network.
3.		Technical configuration services are provided when deploying Enterprise Telephony in complex environments that require skills beyond in-house expertise. These include configuration of voice gateways, implementing survivability mode, Teams Admin Center configurations, and network security settings for the voice gateways. Outcomes are the establishment of voice services in target office.
4.		A report is provided on the outcomes of each engagement highlighting the cause (definite or probable), the remedial actions taken, and the preventive measures to enforce. Where the solution to an issue depends on a third-party (for example, Microsoft, Ribbon, a Mobile Network Operator (MNO), ISP, etc.) a report is provided with the details of the issue for onward communication with the third-party.

Financial proposal:  Financial Bid template_Telecom Consultant.docx

Payment Schedule:

The LTA to be signed will have a fixed fee rate for a maximum of three years. However, UNICEF does not warrant that any quantity of services will be purchased during the term of the LTA, as this will depend on forthcoming needs.

Estimated duration of the LTA:

This Consultancy is off-site/remote and expected to have a maximum duration of 36 months from the start date.

Contracts created against the LTA

Whenever services are required, details of the requirement/deliverables including quantities and deadlines will be presented to the top-ranking LTA holders. Should these consultants not be available for the assignments, UNICEF will contact the next ranked consultants and so on. Upon receipt of confirmation of availability and interest in the assignment, a contract will be issued with the prices/fees agreed in the LTA. The consultant must sign the contract prior to the commencement of work. Payment will be made after completion of deliverables and submission of invoices for the actual work completed, subject to satisfactory performance. Contractors should submit invoices indicating the services rendered at the end of the month in which the activity was performed. Payment would be within 30 days of submission of invoice.

Travel:  

No travel is envisaged for this consultancy and all work is to be performed off-site/remotely.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Minimum of 7 years of experience implementing enterprise telephony systems using Ribbon 1K/2K and other major Session Border Controllers at a global enterprise or carrier level.

• 2 to 3+ years’ experience deploying secure and robust Ribbon SBCs with Microsoft Teams Direct Routing and other Unified Communications systems.

• Expert level hands-on experience with Ribbon SBCs configurations – signaling groups, route tables, transformations, media codecs, encryptions, and NAT usages.

• In depth knowledge on troubleshooting voice call flows between PSTN providers, Teams Phone, System, PBX, and voice gateways, in secure network environments.

• Fluency in English is required.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

 To view our competency framework, please visit here. 

Remarks:

The application to be submitted through the online portal should contain four separate attachments:

1. A Cover letter explaining the motivation for applying and explaining how the qualifications and skillset of the candidate (to be uploaded online)

2. Curriculum Vitae (CV) (to be uploaded online)

3. Three Work Samples – This includes three previously written human-interest stories / reports /

advertising materials / content created / proposal. (to be uploaded online)

4. A financial proposal indicating professional fee as per the above template. Please do not forget to specify your name in the file while saving. (To be uploaded under other supporting documents).

Important Note: Please do not indicate financials anywhere else in the online application form, pleasemark “n/or 00” under the fee-related questions in the online application form.

Without all the above 4 documents your application will be considered incomplete and invalid and will not be considered further.

• Any attempt to unduly influence UNICEF’s selection process will lead to automatic disqualification of the applicant.

• Joint applications of two or more individuals are not accepted.

• Please note, UNICEF does not charge any fee during any stage of the process.

• Female candidates meeting the requirements are strongly encouraged to apply.

• UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion and encourages qualified candidates from all backgrounds including persons living with disabilities to apply.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.