IT Service Provider

INTRODUCTION

CLASP serves at the epicenter of collaborative, ambitious efforts to mitigate climate change and in the global movement for clean energy access, through appliance efficiency. Our mission is to improve the energy and environmental performance of the appliances & equipment we use every day, accelerating our transition to a more sustainable world. We work hand-in-hand with governments, experts, industry, consumers, donor organizations and others to propel policies and markets toward the highest-quality, lowest resource-intensive appliances possible.

CLASP has worked in more than 100 countries since our inception in 1999. CLASP is headquartered in Washington, DC, with teams in Europe, Kenya, India, China, and Indonesia. We are mission-driven and committed to a culture of diversity, transparency, collaboration, and impactful work. See our Team Page to learn more about us.

OUR VALUES

TRANSPARENCY

• Our team members collaborate across programs, projects, and continents. We value direct and open communication with our global partners and always ensure that our work lives up to the standards of scientific rigor and best practice.

SERVICE

• CLASP serves as the primary resource and voice for appliance energy efficiency on-, off-, and in weak-grid sectors, anywhere in the world. From the beginning, we have worked in service of the field of appliance energy efficiency and in service to key stakeholders from improving the environmental and energy performance of appliances. Anywhere we go, we aim to leave a healthy ecosystem behind.

COLLABORATION

• CLASP seeks out the most qualified, respected partners to address the multifaceted energy environment, and humanitarian issues of our time. We partner with the world’s foremost technical and market experts for best outcomes, working with whomever is the highest caliber in the sector, specialty, or region.

IMPACT

• CLASP addresses the urgent global issues of mitigating catastrophic climate change and delivering sustainable energy services to the world’s poorest people. We pursue these dual objectives to advance a more sustainable world for people and the planet. Accordingly, we prioritize impactful actions and make the most out of financial, human, and intellectual resources.

DIVERSITY INFO OVERVIEW

CLASP strives to reflect diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of the organization. CLASP team members represent a diverse population across cultural, religious, and demographic backgrounds. Our partners should also reflect the communities we serve.

CLASP works to include and support diverse businesses and partnerships in our supply chain. This creates opportunity, promotes innovation, and stimulates growth that enriches our sector.

Though CLASP strongly supports partners who have a diversity program in place, it is not a disqualifying factor.

A diverse supplier or partner organization is a business owned and operated primarily (more than 50%) by an individual or group that is part of a traditionally underrepresented or underserved group. If you believe your organization qualifies as diverse based on this statement, please select the category or categories that best describe it below:

• Minority Person(s)
  – Black/African American
  – Latino/Hispanic
  – Asian
  – Native American/Alaskan native
  – Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
  – Other (please specify)
• Woman/Women
• Veteran(s)
• Disabled Person(s)
• LGBTQ+(s)
• Other (please describe)

Please submit your Diverse Business Certification along with your submission, if applicable.

CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT

This Request for Proposal (RFP) contains confidential and proprietary information that is the property of CLASP and is provided for the sole purpose of permitting the recipient to respond to the RFP. The recipient agrees to maintain such information in confidence and not to copy nor disclose this information to any person outside the group responsible for responding to its contents. The contents of this document may not be used for any purpose other than preparation for a response to this RFP. If you have any questions about disclosure of records you submit with your response, please contact the CLASP Data Protection Officer, Andrea Testa, at atesta@clasp.ngo.

SCOPE OF WORK

CLASP seeks to hire a qualified IT service provider for managed device services, security and network operations, and IT training services. The ideal partner should be based within the Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia (DMV) area, with the capacity to provide 24/7 and global support. National partners with a physical presence in the DMV will also be considered.

The IT partner will work closely with CLASP to manage and maintain our current infrastructure with a proactive approach to discovering, conceptualizing, and developing IT best practices.

We envision the initial partnership/collaboration to be as follows:

PHASE 1

• Transition process with current IT partner to understand our current environment
• Partner to document findings to present in Phase 3

PHASE 2

• Introduction/onboarding to CLASP staff
• New procedure and supported infrastructure rollout

PHASE 3

• IT partner will provide a comprehensive report of all issues, risks, and improvement opportunities identified during onboarding, along with recommended remediation steps.
• Priority 1 – Critical: Items that require immediate action due to security risks, system instability, or significant operational impact.
• Priority 2 – High Importance: Items that should be implemented promptly but do not pose immediate risk; improvements that enhance reliability, performance, or user experience.
• Priority 3 – Medium / Low Importance: Non-urgent updates, clean-ups, optimizations, or maintenance tasks that can be scheduled for later phases without operational impact.
• Deferred / Parking Lot Items: Optional enhancements or long-term improvements that offer value but can be addressed at any time or folded into future projects.
• IT partner will work closely with CLASP to develop implementation projects and deliverables.

ONGOING

• Monthly check-ins

EXPECTATIONS & SERVICE REQUIREMENTS

CLASP envisions this partnership to be a proactive collaboration between the two parties. The goal is to have the IT Partner coordinate with CLASP on all relevant IT initiatives with support and collaboration from CLASP when needed. For the partnership to be successful, the IT partner must be able to provide strategic guidance as well as day-to-day support for the infrastructure and staff.

An ideal IT partner will include the following (not limited to):

• Overall characteristics and business values:
  – Reliable
  – Flexible
  – Responsive
  – Proactive
  – Intuitive
  – Transparent
  – Collaborative
• Provide timely and detailed responses to requests, questions, and comments from CLASP team
• Proactively work with CLASP to provide options and recommendations for new features, security, and staff training
• When implementing new software, CLASP will lead discovery processes
• Once CLASP selects an application, the partner will provide an implementation plan that includes required technical documentation for CLASP staff, including hardware and software upkeep/upgrades
• Proactively raise concerns and challenges for improving CLASP’s IT infrastructure

CLASP will (not limited to):

• Proactively engage IT partner on upcoming IT changes/modifications
• Collaborate with IT partner to jointly discover and define comprehensive roll outs of new platforms, training, and support to CLASP
• Provide IT partner with required support to successfully implement new projects
• Regularly provide IT partner with feedback received on performance to find successful ways to improve partnership

CLASP understands that not every partner will be able to provide all services listed below, but we encourage everyone to respond. An ideal partner will be able to do the following:

General IT Services

• Document internal processes
• Application support and maintenance
• Including coordination, implementation, installment, and management of new applications, as well as documenting processes and providing ongoing support
• Proactive support (on-site and off-site)
• Warranty and asset inventory management
• IT project management
• Technology strategy planning
  – Including IT Policy reviews and development
• Manage DNS/firewall changes and infrastructure in collaboration with web development team

Microsoft Suite Management

• Improvement/recommendations/maintenance/monitoring

IT Managed Services/ IT Operations

• Hardware & Network System Monitoring
• Mobile Device Management
• Software licensing control

Cyber Security & Compliance Services

• Cybersecurity Consulting
• Patch management services including 3rd party application patching, preventative maintenance, troubleshooting
• 24/7 threat detection and response
• Internal and external vulnerability scanning
• SIEM or XDR, log aggregation, correlation
• Anti-malware, spam filtering, Antispyware support / maintenance

Business Intelligence & Data Services

• Business continuity & disaster recovery
• Data restoration assistance and recovery
• Server monitoring
• Replacement assistance for any failed system

IT User Training Services

• General IT training
• Security awareness training

Other duties as assigned.

CLASP GENERAL & TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT OVERVIEW

The following provides an overview of CLASP’s demographics and technical environment:

Office Locations:

• New Delhi, India
• Jakarta, Indonesia
• Washington, DC, US
• Nairobi, Kenya

Total number of team members (staff): 92

Board of Directors: 12 members

TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT (General)

• Core hardware (server, switches, firewalls, routers, etc.)
  – No servers
  – Meraki access points
  – SonicWall firewalls
  – Cisco switches
  – Site to site VPN between offices
• Software systems (Email platforms, security programs, applications, and other software used)
  – Office 365
  – Microsoft Suite
  – Teams-  Zoom
  – Box
  – KnowBe4
  – NordPass
  – NordLayerVPN
  – Adobe Creative Cloud
  – Cookiebot
  – Google Cloud Platform
  – 101 Domains
  – CloudStrike
  – DNSFilter
  Support provided internally or by outsourced partners (partial support required)
  – Intacct
  – Vena
  – Zoho
  – Nexonia
  – Bill.com
  – HubSpot
  – Docusign
• Remote access and VPN
  – ConnectWise
  – NordLayerVPN
• Cybersecurity, Compliance, and Device Management- Microsoft Intune
  – ConnectWise
  – Microsoft Sentinel
  – CrowdStrike
  – CloudAlly
• Website and DNS- Cookiebot
  – 101Domains
  – Google Cloud Platform
• Workstations and other devices- Dell Latitude 7300 series
  – Lenovo ThinkPad series
  – Neat Meeting devices
  – Zoom Room conferencing systems
  – Printers
  – BYOD (phones/tablets only)

RFP PROCESS OVERVIEW

PROCESS TIMELINE & KEY DATES