2_EITRM-SpendMgmt_Service Description.pdf

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Service Description

Spend Management Solution

(Purchase-to-Pay, Accounts

Payable, Expenses, Corporate

Cards and Travel)

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1. Overview

1.1. Vision for Spend Management

As an organisation entrusted with public funds, EIT RawMaterials is committed to the highest standards of transparency, accountability and sound financial management. All expenditure is subject to internal approval rules and external audits. Wherever we use EU funding for our action, we must comply with the principles derived from EU Financial Regulation and ensure that expenditure on supplies and services is made in accordance with competitive, transparent and non-discriminatory procurement rules.

With the introduction of a spend management solution, EIT RawMaterials seeks to establish a single, group-wide platform through which all expenditure is requested, approved, processed and documented. This comprises purchase requests and purchase orders, supplier invoices, employee expenses, corporate cards and business travel across all legal entities of the organisation.

The solution shall ensure that approval requirements are applied consistently and automatically, that budget owners and management have real-time visibility of committed and actual expenditure, and that each transaction contains the information required for accounting and EU grant reporting from the outset. In doing so, it shall strengthen compliance, improve the reliability of financial information and reduce administrative effort across the organisation.

Group structure relevant to this procurement: EIT RawMaterials e.V. and EIT RawMaterials GmbH are based in Berlin and use DATEV for accounting. In addition, EIT RawMaterials operates Co-Location Centres (CLCs), each a separate legal entity with its own local accounting system: CLC North (Sweden), CLC Baltic Sea (Finland), CLC Central (France), CLC West (Belgium), CLC South (Italy) and CLC East (Poland).

1.2. EIT Raw Materials

EIT RawMaterials is a ‘Knowledge and Innovation Community’ (KIC) created by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), aimed at promoting innovation in the raw materials sector across Europe. Established in 2015, EIT RawMaterials works to secure the sustainable supply of raw materials to the European industry by driving innovation, education, and entrepreneurship along the entire raw materials value chain.

We are a knowledge-driven business and a catalyst for industrial progress. Our offerings leverage our expertise and that of our network – the world's largest network in the raw [and advanced] materials sector – which includes companies at every stage of evolution, from start-ups to market leaders, along with leading international universities, research organisations, and top experts and future talent from the sector.

Our activities span from mining and mineral processing to material recycling and substitution, focusing on increasing resource efficiency and fostering a circular economy.

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We inform policy, apply knowledge, accelerate innovation, create opportunity, and unlock commercial value – for our partners and customers throughout the raw materials value chain to develop the raw materials sector as a strategic strength and foundation for a secure, sustainable future for Europe.

Our offerings are designed to help our partners and industry to be part of Europe’s strategic agenda to ensure supply chain security and make the ‘Green New Deal’ a reality that benefits the people of Europe and partner nations.

For more information about our company please visit the following website:

https://eitrawmaterials.eu/

2. Scope of work

2.1. Objectives of the Assignment

EIT RawMaterials is procuring a cloud-based spend management solution (Software-as-a-Service) that covers the full purchase-to-pay cycle in one platform:  purchase requests and purchase orders (POs) with approval workflows that follow the EIT RawMaterials Procurement Policy and Delegation of Authority;  incoming invoice processing, including matching of invoices to POs and confirmation of delivery;  employee expenses and reimbursements;  corporate cards (physical and virtual);  travel requests, booking and trip expenses in line with the EIT RawMaterials Travel and Expense Policy;  budget visibility for approvers and budget owners;  transfer of fully coded postings and documents to accounting, including a DATEV interface.

The solution has three goals:  Compliance – every purchase follows the approval path required by EU public procurement law and EIT RawMaterials' internal rules, with a complete, audit-proof trail;  Transparency – Finance and budget owners see committed spend (open POs) and actual spend in real time, at full (gross) cost;  Less manual work – invoices, receipts and card transactions are captured once, coded once and passed to accounting without re-typing.

The solution must be easy to use for all employees and easy to administer for EIT RawMaterials without ongoing external support.

2.2. Scope of Services

The contractor shall provide a cloud-hosted spend management solution, its implementation and configuration, user and administrator training, and ongoing support, covering the requirements below. Requirements marked "must" are mandatory; requirements marked "should" or "desirable" are evaluated as added value.

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Purchase requests and purchase orders (MUST) The solution must allow employees to raise purchase requests, have them approved and convert them into purchase orders (POs). It must support:  configurable request types with their own mandatory fields and questions;  capture of the estimated value (net and gross) and the contract term;  upload and storage of supporting documents (e.g. offers, approvals, contracts, procurement documentation) with the request and the PO;  automatic generation of POs with unique PO numbers and sending of POs to suppliers;  POs that run over several periods and receive several invoices, with the remaining balance visible;  change, cancellation and closing of POs with full history;  reporting and export of open POs as committed spend (e.g. for accruals).

Tenderers shall describe the end-to-end process from purchase request to PO, including how documents are attached, how multi-period POs and partial invoicing are handled, and how open commitments are reported.

Approval workflows (MUST) As a general rule, EIT RawMaterials applies public procurement rules when purchasing goods and procuring services and works with an internal Delegation of Authority. Approval rules differ by type of spend and change over time. The solution must therefore allow EIT RawMaterials to define its own approval processes for purchase requests, POs, invoices, expenses, card requests and trips. It must support:  approval rules based on roles (e.g. line manager, budget owner, department head, Finance, Compliance, management) and on amounts, with any number of thresholds;  further conditions such as request type, department, cost centre, project and legal entity;  sequential and parallel multi-level approvals;  mandatory documents or fields depending on the amount or request type;  the four-eyes principle and segregation of duties (no one approves their own request);  display of the full gross cost (including non-deductible VAT) and the budget impact to the approver;  delegation and substitution of approvers;  approval via web, mobile app and notifications (e.g. e-mail, Microsoft Teams);  a complete, non-editable log of every approval step.

EIT RawMaterials administrators must be able to set up and change roles, thresholds and workflows themselves, without involvement of the contractor.

Tenderers shall describe how approval workflows based on roles and amounts are configured, which conditions can be combined, and how administrators change workflows after go-live.

Incoming invoices and matching (MUST) The solution must support:  receipt of invoices via e-mail, upload and structured e-invoice formats (e.g. XRechnung, ZUGFeRD); 4

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 automatic data extraction (OCR) of invoice data, including line items, in multiple languages;  automatic matching of invoices to POs, also when the invoice does not show a PO number;  three-way matching of PO, confirmation of delivery/service and invoice before payment release;  configurable tolerance rules and exception workflows for differences between PO and invoice;  approval workflows for invoices without a PO;  splitting of invoices across cost centres, projects or VAT rates, and detection of duplicates.

Tenderers shall describe their invoice intake channels, data extraction, matching logic and how confirmation of delivery and tolerance rules are configured.

Employee expenses and reimbursements (MUST, unless marked otherwise) The solution must support capture of receipts via mobile app, upload and e-mail; out-of-pocket expenses, mileage and per diem allowances configurable per legal entity and country; approval at the level of individual expense items; review by Finance; reminders for missing receipts and submission deadlines; and reimbursement to employees per legal entity (e.g. via SEPA payment file). Support for travel advances for employees without a corporate card is DESIRABLE.

Corporate cards (MUST) The solution must provide corporate cards, or integrate a card offering, for all legal entities, i.e. for entities based in Germany, Sweden, Finland, France, Belgium, Italy and Poland. Cards must be available to employees of each of these entities. It must support physical and virtual cards for named employees; card requests with approval; individual limits per employee or role; approval of funds before spending (“request before spend”); card controls (e.g. merchant category, country, online and cash use); immediate blocking; and enforcement of receipt submission.

Tenderers shall confirm for each of the countries listed above whether cards can be issued to the respective EIT RawMaterials entity (and state any restrictions), and shall state the card scheme and issuer, the funding model, the lead time to issue a card, and all card-related fees.

Travel (MUST, unless marked otherwise) EIT RawMaterials has a group-wide Travel and Expense Policy with local rules for individual legal entities (e.g. per diem, mileage). The solution must support:  trip requests with approval before booking, based on roles;  booking of flights, rail, hotels and rental cars within the solution or through integration with a travel agency  travel policy rules configurable per legal entity (e.g. class of travel, hotel category, price limits), with out-of-policy bookings flagged or routed for extra approval;  consolidation of all costs of a trip in one trip report.

Tenderers shall describe their travel booking capabilities, any travel agency integrations, and how a written travel policy is translated into booking and expense rules per legal entity.

Budgets and spend visibility (MUST) The solution must allow budgets per department, cost centre, project and legal entity, and show budget 5

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versus committed spend (open POs and approved requests) versus actual spend. Budget owners and approvers must see the remaining budget at the moment of approval. Reports must be available at group level and per legal entity.

Accounting data and DATEV integration (MUST, unless marked otherwise) The solution must support:  coding of every transaction before export with legal entity, GL account, cost centre, project, VAT/tax code and additional custom fields (e.g. EU cost category);  coding suggestions and rules, with mandatory and visible fields configurable per role;  a separate chart of accounts and accounting settings per legal entity;  a DATEV interface for the entities that use DATEV, transferring postings and documents without manual re-entry;  configurable exports (e.g. CSV/Excel with document images or document links) for entities that use other accounting systems (e.g. the CLCs);  generation of SEPA XML payment files and/or payment from the solution with automatic reconciliation (SHOULD);  multi-currency transactions with conversion into EUR.

Tenderers shall describe their DATEV integration (interface type, data and documents transferred, known limitations), the export options for non-DATEV entities, and how the EU cost category and other custom fields are captured and reported.

Multi-entity and multi-language (MUST, unless marked otherwise) The solution must run all legal entities (e.V., GmbH and CLCs) in one platform, with clear separation of data and accounting per entity, and a consolidated group view. Entities must be addable or removable without re-implementation. The user interface must be available at least in English; availability in German, French and Italian is DESIRABLE.

Usability, low administrative burden and trial version (SHOULD) The solution should be intuitive for employees and approvers and should allow non-specialist administrators to manage day-to-day administration (users, cards, approval workflows, coding rules, reports) without support from the contractor. Usability and administrative effort will be evaluated on the basis of a trial version of the offered solution.

Tenderers shall provide EIT RawMaterials with access to a trial version of the offered solution, including login credentials, for the duration of the evaluation period. Tenderers shall also describe the typical steps and time required for an administrator to change an approval workflow, add a new user or cost centre, and produce a spend report, and shall indicate the training required before an administrator is self-sufficient.

Users, roles and identity (MUST, unless marked otherwise) The solution must provide role-based access (e.g. employee, approver, budget owner, accountant, administrator, read-only auditor, external user) with custom roles, single sign-on with Microsoft Entra ID and multi-factor authentication. Synchronisation of employees, entities and departments from the HR system is a SHOULD requirement. 6

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Tenderers shall describe their access model, including log-in options (SSO via Microsoft Entra ID, multi- factor authentication), the user types and roles available, and how these user types correspond to the user categories in the Price List (full users, light users). Additionally, tenderers shall outline existing native integrations with HRIS systems.

Staging / sandbox environment (MUST) The solution must provide a sandbox or test environment, separate from production, in which EIT RawMaterials can configure and test workflows, integrations and settings and train users before changes go live.

Tenderers shall state whether a sandbox is included as standard, whether it mirrors the production configuration, and how settings are moved from sandbox to production.

Reporting, audit trail and integrations (MUST, unless marked otherwise) The solution must provide the following reporting and audit functions:  Standard reports (MUST): account statements per legal entity listing all transactions and showing the current account balance, available as PDF and as Excel/CSV.  Ad-hoc reports (SHOULD): reports that authorised users create themselves whenever needed, by selecting fields, filters, groupings and periods, and can save for re-use – without support from the contractor.  A documented API for integration with other systems, e.g. Power BI, the internal grant management platform or a treasury tool (SHOULD).  A complete, non-editable audit trail of all transactions, approvals and configuration changes, and support of compliance with GoBD, German commercial and tax law and GDPR (MUST).  Availability of all data for internal and external audits, including by EU bodies, as EIT RawMaterials is publicly funded (MUST).

Tenderers shall provide a list of the standard reports included, describe their ad-hoc reporting and export options, their API, and how the audit trail can be viewed and exported by auditors.

Hosting, data protection, and information security (MUST) To ensure GDPR compliance, all data must be hosted in the EU and meet all applicable EU data- protection requirements. The solution must be cloud-hosted, and the tenderer must be able to offer GDPR-compliant data hosting.

Tenderers shall state where data will be hosted, describe their data-protection and security posture, and provide a DPA compliant with GDPR, including technical and operational measures (c.f. Article 32 GDPR). The DPA itself provides transparency on sub-processors, data retention/deletion capabilities, and clarification on international data transfers. The tenderer shall demonstrate security protocols in line with ISO 27001 (or similar), MFA for admins, audit logs, encryption, penetration testing, and security incident notification. For secure verification/identification of accounts, the tenderer shall provide Entra ID/SSO support and role-based access management. The tenderer shall also speak to their business continuity solutions including requirements for backups, disaster recovery, RTO/RPO targets, and minimum uptime commitments. Where the solution uses AI functions, the tenderer shall state where AI processing takes place and confirm that EIT RawMaterials data is not used to train models.

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Scale and pricing model The solution must cover all legal entities of EIT RawMaterials (e.V., GmbH and the CLCs) and all employees who raise requests, approve, submit expenses, travel or hold a corporate card. The Price List provided with the tender documents sets out indicative volumes for each price factor. These volumes are the common basis for comparing offers; they are not committed volumes. Fees will be paid on the basis of actual quantities only (e.g. number of users, cards issued, POs, incoming invoices or transactions).

Tenderers shall state all price components in the Price List , the price per unit used for each variable component, and how prices change when the number of users, cards or entities goes up or down. EIT RawMaterials must be able to adjust volumes annually without penalty. Tenderers are responsible for selecting the licence package that covers all requirements of this Service Description and the indicative volumes stated in the Price List. Price components that are not listed in the Price List shall be explained in the comments column; components not stated in the Price List cannot be charged.

Optional services Additional services (e.g. further training, consulting, configuration changes, additional integrations) shall be offered as a separate service contingent at fixed daily or hourly rates, to be called off by EIT RawMaterials as needed.

Contract length EIT RawMaterials seeks a contract for an indefinite period with an annual termination option for EIT RawMaterials. For the estimated contract value, EIT RawMaterials applies 48 times the monthly value.

Implementation (SHOULD, unless marked otherwise) Ease and speed of implementation are a priority. Implementation is expected to be completed within a maximum of 6 months after contract signature for all legal entities. Completion for EIT RawMaterials e.V. and EIT RawMaterials GmbH by 31.12.2026 is DESIRABLE, at latest 3 months after contract signature.

Tenderers shall set out a realistic implementation timeline and clearly indicate the degree of off-the- shelf readiness, the configuration/customisation effort required, the effort expected from EIT RawMaterials, and the support provided during setup, data migration (e.g. suppliers, open POs) and onboarding.

Ongoing support and service levels (MUST) Separately from implementation support, the tenderers must set out the ongoing support arrangements offered for the duration of the contract, including:  the support channels available (e.g. email, ticketing portal, telephone, named account manager) and the hours of coverage, including time zone with service hours covering a minimum of 6 hours overlap with EIT RawMaterials business day of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. CET;  guaranteed response and resolution target times by severity level, including as a minimum at least a response time between 15 and 30 minutes as well as a resolution time of 2 to 4 hours for major incidents according to the applicable ITIL definition (a major incidents is a disruption that causes high impact to business-critical services and demands immediate, specialized response), and the platform availability/uptime commitment, together with any service credits or remedies where these are not met;  what is included as standard within the licence price, and what is charged additionally — 8

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support costs must be itemised in the financial offer using the Price List;the arrangements for planned maintenance windows, release/upgrade schedules, and advance notification;  user and administrator training and documentation provided at onboarding and on an ongoing basis.

Tenderers shall provide their offered Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Exit, data portability, and transition assistance (MUST) EIT RawMaterials requires in compliance with the EU Data Act (Regulation (EU) 2023/2854) that its data and documents remain fully portable throughout and at the end of the contract.

For this purpose, tenderers shall describe:

 how documents (invoices, receipts, contracts and other attachments) can be retrieved in their original format together with their link to the related transaction;

 the data deletion and certification-of-deletion procedures applied once the transition is complete.

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