NALCO e-Tender Application

Project Type

A PKI based e-Tendering Application

Technology Used

Microsoft .NET MVC 5.0, Entity Framework, MSSQL Server 2016, HTML5 & CSS 3

Industry

Government

Project Overview

NALCO e-Tendering Application enables the process of Publishing Tenders for the sale of NALCO products (Metal and Alumina) to the bidders. The complete bidding process is very much streamlined through e-Tendering Application. The detailed process of e-Tendering Application as follows.

• Tender Manager will create a NIT.
• Attach alternative tender managers and bidders in the NIT.
• Enter bid close and bid validity date and time, then publish the NIT.
• Before the close of bidding time if any changes are required in the NIT, Tender Manager can add Corrigendum for the NIT.
• After bid closing, two committee members (one from Marketing Department and other from Finance Department) must be logged in.
• After the two committee members successfully logged in, Tender Manager can decrypt the price given by the bidder through the DSC.
• After the price decryption. Tender Manager can AWARD or SEND FOR IMPROVISATION or DO NOT AWARD the particular NIT.
• For AWARD NIT: – Select the bidder from the list who will be awarded. After awarding the tender, the Tender Manager fills up the tender closing form and closes the NIT.
• For SEND FOR IMPROVISATION (Before BID Validity Time) – Select the bidder from the list to send improvisation. Again the NIT will republish for bidding for the selected bidder.
• For DO NOT AWARD – NIT will be closed.

This system involves online bids, that is, the selected bidders submit their bids electronically against the seller’s specification. The application provides interface to Nalco side (internal) users like tender manager, bid opener etc. and external users i.e. bidders. Being an on-line bidding application, Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) requirement is inbuilt into the system. DSC only from Indian Certifying Authority (CA) is acceptable. The PKI is from a particular CA of India.

Challenges

NALCO was facing the following challenges in earlier e-Tender Application.

• Browser compatibility issue
• Static mail template for notification & communication
• Existing application framework has been deprecated and for that security threat may arise.
• Security features are not adequate according to business requirement.
• Earlier application user interface(UI) is not user friendly.
• In current application every setting needs to be done at application program level.
• Analytic report module was not there.

Solution Approach

The NALCO e-Tender Application has developed with the following technologies Microsoft .NET MVC 5.0, Entity Framework, MSSQL Server 2016, HTML5, CSS 3 and (n)code solutions – PKI component to secure methods for exchanging information.

For the NALCO e-Tender Application the following modules and features have been incorporated.

• Master data management for different operations.
• System Settings for different notifications.
• Manage authority of different departments.
• Assign user as tender manager & committee member.
• Manage digital signature DSC token verification and validity checking for bidding.
• Send DSC token verification mail to tender manager.
• Add bidders along with their contact person(s).
• Add representative and assign to bidder(s).
• Send DSC token verification mail to bidder(s).
• Manage NIT for different departments to create the bid.
• Publish tender with attached tender manager, committee member and bidder.
• Manage e-Tender and send invitations to customers.
• Bidder can bid a specific tender with encrypted price & that price can’t be visible to anyone before tender closed.
• Price decryption by tender manager along with four nos. of committee members when bid will be closed.
• Manage to open bidding and sorting bidders to H1 bidder.
• Award customers on bidding tenders.
• Archive tenders and NIT for future reference.
• Award Tender, Improvise Tender, Cancel Tender & Corrigendum options are also available for the tendering process.
• For this application both encryption & signing DSC is required but for bidder only signing DSC can be used.
• Alert for digital signature validity.
• Browser setting for bidders in the help manual.
• Compatibility to Firefox, Chrome, IE, Edge, Safari, etc.
• MIS report.

System being a web application; below table defines the software required to use the system.

Impact / Benefits of e-Tender Application are –

• It supports all type of browser with PKI components.
• User friendly email template for notification & communication. All mail templates can be configurable in the admin section without help of developers.
• Updated Framework & advance technology has been used.
• Security features have been implemented according to the GIGW compliance guidelines.
• New application user interface(UI) is very much user friendly and the latest version Bootstrap template along with JQuery and CSS has been used.
• The new application admin can manage several necessary settings & master data management in admin login.
• Enhanced analytic reports are available. 

The NALCO e-Tender Application is accessible from this link https://etender.nalcoindia.co.in/