UNICEF has now issued a Request for Proposals in order to select a supplier to undertake the Office Central UPS Upgrade project . [ This RFP is open to companies based in Malawi as well as those countries located in the Southern Africa Region] ******************************************************************************************************************************************************** BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES UNICEF Malawi currently has 20 kVA UPS equipment installed at the Lilongwe UNICEF office. This system is underperforming due to bad state of health of the batteries. Also, the UPS kVA size is needed to be increased, as 20 kVA, soon enough, will not be able to meet the office requirements. Thus, there is a need to install an additional new UPS to back up the essential equipment. An internal load assessment was carried out and all the equipment were divided into two categories: Type A and Type B category based on backup priority. The Type A equipment which majorly comprises of server, router and Lan switches were decided to have a backup of up to 2.5 hours. The new UPS will solely power and provide backup to Type A equipment. And the Type B equipment, which mainly consists of docking station and monitors, will be powered by the already installed UPS with newly replaced batteries. The list of Type A and Type B equipment is attached as Annex A. *********************************************************************************************************************************************** This tender will be run through the UNICEF e-submissions system. By clicking on the blue ‘Express Interest’ button in the UNGM tender notice, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document (including instructions on how to access the tender documents and submit an Offer) will be automatically emailed to the ‘contact persons’ included in your UNGM registration. Alternatively, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document is publicly available on the UNICEF supply internet pages here: https://www.unicef.org/supply/index_procurement_policies.html . In the tender management site, if you navigate to the documents tab and opt in to confirm your intention to submit a Bid – you will then see the mandatory placeholders for documents that must be attached prior to submitting your Offer (you will also see if there are any mandatory questionnaires to complete). As such, you are recommended to `opt in` well before the submission deadline so you are clear exactly what documents are required to be uploaded prior to completing your submission. Please note that in order to access the tender documentation through UNICEF’s e-submissions system, vendors must: (i) be registered with UNICEF in UNGM as a company/NGO; (ii) have successfully completed all mandatory information currently required by UNGM when registering. Please ensure that any files submitted as part of your Bid are not corrupt or damaged in any way. Please exercise particular caution when using compressed files. Any corrupt or damaged files may lead to your Bid being invalidated. All vendors are strongly recommended to regularly log in to the UNICEF e-submissions system to check for any deadline extensions, new clarifications, new correspondence or updated tender documents relating to this tender.