Introduction
Swisscontact was established in 1959 as an independent foundation by notable figures from the worlds of commerce and science in Switzerland. It is exclusively involved in international development co-operation and has carried out its own and mandated projects since 1961.
Swisscontact’s working principles include inclusive systems development, learning culture, evidence-based adaptive management, and engaging private sector. In addition, the organisation’s sustainable criteria comprise of gender equality and social inclusion, financial capability, environmental responsibility, and good governance.
Background
The Ready-Made Garments sector of Bangladesh employs 3.3 million workers (52% women)1. The sector is vital to Bangladesh's economy, representing 84.5%2 of total exports of the country. Followed by EU Green Deal, the global apparel industry is undergoing a significant transformation due to increasing demands for ESG compliance, supply chain transparency, and carbon reduction mandates like the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)3. However, ESG reporting is currently fragmented, manual, and costly, requiring companies to comply with multiple standards, which leads to inefficiencies and unreliable data. Many factories, particularly small and medium enterprises, lack access to technical expertise, digital tools, and affordable services to improve their sustainability performance. At the same time, unsustainable production practices contribute to environmental pollution, climate risks, and poor working conditions, affecting workers and surrounding communities. As a result, factories often comply with multiple, overlapping global frameworks and buyer-specific standards, leading to fragmented data systems, manual reporting processes, audit fatigue, and rising compliance costs. Without a structured and scalable solution, these challenges limit industries’ competitiveness, reduce market access, and hinder Bangladesh’s transition towards sustainable and inclusive economic growth.
To address this gap, Swisscontact is implementing the Technology for Responsible Accountability in Corporate ESG (TRACE) project. This project is financed by the Embassy of Sweden and the Embassy of Switzerland. The project aims to support RMG industries to transition from fragmented, manual sustainability reporting to a digital, data-driven ESG management system. Through a centralised digital platform, factories, brands, and service providers can measure, manage, and improve their environmental, social, and governance performance enhancing global competitiveness, compliance, and climate resilience.
OBJECTIVE OF THE EOI
This Expression of Interest (EOI) invites qualified local and international Software/IT Service Providers, Technology consulting firms, Technology Consortiums and Tech Startups to express interest in providing product design and development services for a digital platform. The selected service provider/firm will deliver the end-to-end product design, development, testing, piloting, product maintenance and operation, continuous product development, capacity development, and knowledge transfer for a cloud native platform. The following key objectives will guide the design, development, and implementation of the proposed platform:
- Design and build a secure, maintainable digital SaaS product that can scale horizontally for multiple clients, sectors and user types.
- Deliver a product that enables standardised data collection, strong data validation, transparent workflows, and meaningful analytics to support decision making.
- Support user experience led design and engineering, ensuring iterative feedback loop base product development lifecycle.
- Capacity development and knowledge transfer on the platform’s product features and underlying technology to strengthen the technical and operational capabilities of factories and relevant stakeholders across the ESG ecosystem to effectively adopt, use, and sustain the platform.
Detailed information about targeted stakeholder segments, current processes and systems will be provided to shortlisted firms under confidentiality arrangements.
PRODUCT VISION
The digital ESG platform is envisioned as a long-term digital initiative that intend to support factories, brands, service providers, auditors, verifiers, assurers, investors, government agencies, accreditors in managing ESG data, improving transparency, and strengthening sustainability practices across the apparel value chain.
The key feature includes but not limited to:
- End to End ESG Data Management
- Continuous Learning & Capacity Building
- Future-Ready Architecture
- Trust, Security, and Data Protection
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SCOPE OF WORK
The scope below outlines the principal services expected from interested service providers: respondents should demonstrate experience and capability across the full lifecycle of product design and development. The product development lifecycle covers end-to-end discovery, design, engineering, and rollout. It focuses on validating as-is user journeys and assessing demand across user clusters, translating common operational and data challenges into prioritised digital interventions, and iterating redesigned interactive prototype. Insights from these processes will be consolidated into the MVP backlog, forming the foundation for subsequent development, testing, and phased platform deployment. The scope also includes structured technical and user training (including ToT), and post-rollout support and continuous product development to incorporate feedback, resolve issues, and ensure long-term stability and scale.
Eligibility Criteria
- Local and international Software/IT Service Providers, Technology consulting firms, Technology Consortiums and Tech Startups with a minimum of five (5) years of demonstrated experience in designing, developing, and implementing large scale enterprise-level IT systems of similar scope.
- Prior experience working with international development organizations (e.g., INGO’s, UN organizations), bilateral (e.g. SIDA, SDC, JICA, DANIDA, DFAT) and multilateral donors (e.g. World Bank, ADB, EU) will be an added advantage.
- Prior experience of designing and delivering scalable SaaS products (cloud native, multitenant).
- Availability of skilled personnel, including product and project manager, full stack software engineers, software architects, business analysts, cloud infrastructure architects, UX researchers, QA engineers, Devops experts, SAAS security experts and technical writers.
Submission Guidelines
- Organisational Profile: Organisational profile including core business and service offering, summary of project portfolio, geographic coverage, key clients, and partners. Maximum of five (5) pages.
- Experience in large scale enterprise IT projects: Please follow the template in Annex 1.
- Experience of designing and delivering scalable SaaS product: Please follow the template in Annex 2.
- CVs of the Key Personnel: Please follow the template in Annex 3.
- The ownership structure of the firm/ organisation with the supporting documents.
- Valid registration documents (e.g., trade licence, incorporation certificates, etc.).
- Bank solvency certificates from the scheduled bank of the applicant.
Submission Deadline
All EoIs must be submitted via email to bgd.trace@swisscontact.org no later than 9th April 2026. The subject line should read: “Expression of Interest (EOI) for a digital platform - Swisscontact.”.
Click the below link for the annex files:
Annex1ProjectTrackRecord
Annex 2_Product development track record
Annex3_ProfessionalStaffCV_ template
Evaluation Process
Evaluation criteria will include:
- Core business and years in business of the firm.
- Relevance of the firm’s experience in large scale enterprise IT projects.
- Relevance and depth of SAAS product development experience.
- Capacity and composition of the proposed team.
- Compliance with the legal and financial requirements.
Only shortlisted firms will be contacted and shared detail ToR, timeline and invited to submit detailed technical and financial proposal. For any queries or additional information, please email to bgd.trace@swisscontact.org.
Swisscontact reserves the right to accept or reject any or all submissions due to disqualification or any unforeseeable reason. |
