Request for Proposals for Website Development & Digital Marketing Services

Transcription

1 Request for Proposals for Website Development & Digital Marketing Services Questions and answers. Answers to all questions received by the deadline of 5 p.m. EDT on Friday, Sept. 21, 2012 are listed: Is there an incumbent agency that has previously been contracted to fulfill for this assignment? If so, can you share who that agency is and the tenure of the relationship? There is no incumbent digital agency. What measures of success were used for some of the online campaigns/initiatives you have previously executed? During the creative brief process we identify what success looks like, and which metrics we will use to evaluate the campaign. These include standard digital metrics that very based on the specifics of the campaign. What are VEIC's growth goals for the next 5 years? The Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC) is a mission-driven nonprofit organization, that is dedicated to reducing the economic and environmental costs of energy consumption through costeffective energy efficiency and renewable technologies. Any growth will be in support of that mission as deemed appropriate. May we have access to the current budget? As part of this RFP you are being asked to provide a detailed fee proposal which outlines the specific activities that will be performed during the website development process, as well as Phase 2 of the scope. We will evaluate the proposals based on the RFP criteria to pick the best partner for our needs. Do you have an identity style guide? May we have access to it? DriveElectricVT.com does not have a style guide or brand platform beyond the existing site. Both Efficiency Vermont and VEIC have style guides and brand platforms which will be made available to the subcontracted agency. Do you have web and social media guidelines/best practices? We have both official and unofficial guidelines for the different brands or projects. We will be happy to communicate this information to the subcontracted agency. How many agencies are currently planning to participate? We prefer not to disclose this information due to the competitive nature of the RFP. Would you accept proposals from a European company, when the project would be done at least partly remotely? Effective communication is one of the most crucial components to web development projects. As long as we are able to establish strong communication channels, we don t have a preference to the geographic location of our partner.

2 Will the website communicate with users via s/ newsletters? If yes, what will be average volume per month? And what would be the estimated number of recipients that a single batch of newsletter should support? We utilize a 3 rd party system to manage our subscriber base and send newsletters. Any integration with the site would be only for sign-up purposes. As part of these efforts we may require support in managing these communications, and to create content as needed. Will the website need to support localization? We expect the need to only support the English language for these sites. There may be features or functionality that asks/determines users location and displays the content accordingly. Are there any design/brand guidelines to be followed design of the website? DriveElectricVT.com does not have a style guide or brand platform beyond the existing site. Both Efficiency Vermont and VEIC have style guides and brand platforms which will be made available to the subcontracted agency. Where is the website hosted? Would the web development team have access to the web servers to do the deployment? Or should the final deliverable be in the form of an installation package? All websites will be hosted on VEIC s internal servers. We are able to provide CMS level access to these servers, but it is anticipated that the final deliverable will be in the form of source code, and an installation package. We are assuming that all deliverables will have been tested by the developer in their development environment prior to being deployed on our servers. Post website development, would you need training on Sitefinity or content management on the developed website? If yes, what medium of training would be required - Videos, webinars, user manuals or onsite training? While we are knowledgeable in Sitefinity, we expect the site to be documented in order for VEIC to complete updates and changes as needed. We welcome additional training, but don t anticipate needing onsite training. Does the project require any member of the development team to be onsite? Effective communication is one of the most crucial components to web development projects. As long as we are able to establish strong communication channels, we don t have a preference to the geographic location of our partner. We don t anticipate needing members of the development team to be onsite. Can we subcontract design work for the project? As per the RFP, we are open to sub-contracted work as needed; however, please list all services provided in-house and those services provided by outside consultants. If any services are to be provided by outside consultants, please provide a brief description of the firm, its role, and capabilities. Who are all the stakeholders and users of this project (actors/users)? And how many users in all are expected to use the site on a regular? Project Get Ready is a program that aims to accelerate the electric vehicle industry by fostering ecosystems in which the technology can most succeed. In Vermont the Project Get Ready efforts (rebranded as Drive Electric Vermont) are led by the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation. We are partnering with Rocky Mountain Institute, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Agency of Transportation, and the

3 Vermont Department of Public Service and a wide array of stakeholders statewide to facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles across Vermont. Users are expected to include electric vehicle stakeholders and policymakers as well as potential and current electric vehicle consumers and electric vehicle industryrelated businesses. Are there any additional functional requirements of the site, that you have not yet described? Functionality requests included in this RFP have been reviewed by Drive Electric Vermont stakeholders, however additional or revised functionalities may be recommended during the initial conceptual phase of the VEIC/agency partnership. What nonfunctional requirements does the project have? (performance, scalability, availability, security) VEIC will be handling the hosting of our websites, but in general we aim for: Security: o We desire a very high-level of security due to the types of contracts that we run and the associated state and local governments, we need to ensure that our sites have a very highlevel of security. Uptime/Reliability: o 99.9% Site Uptime o Load Balancing, and switch over capabilities (when performing maintenance on one iteration of a site, a duplicate will be online) Hosting Speed: o 90 th percentile of site speed as measured by defined by industry standard Speed testing services o Pass Google Site Speed Tests o Robust Server to Database connections (Current Server Load Time for ES & DC is 7-9 seconds) o Ability to handle increasing multimedia/high-bandwidth web content. It appears that VEIC will be providing a server environment for the development of the site. Just to confirm, does this mean that you will not require hosting for your site? (just making sure) Correct VEIC will handle all site hosting and licensing. It would be our recommendation to integrate Google analytics is this something you are going to want for the site? Absolutely, and we are currently using Google Analytics for all of our web properties. Do you have an estimated page count for the site would you estimate a 10 page site, 50 page site, or 100 page site? The site will likely include an initial count of between pages, depending on how we render the content we are planning to provide in each central section.

4 The note on page 3 that the vendor is responsible for information architecture our assumption is that you would like us to create the sitemap and full architecture from scratch, or do you have something in mind right now? We are looking for our development partner to provide the sitemap and architecture, based on our input and the creative process. Do you have a more detailed scope of work / functional overview for the Electric Car website that you could share? If not, could we meet with you to go over a list of options? We plan to share the current web content plan with the agency chosen to partner with us on this project. Major sections include information for electric vehicle consumers, businesses/fleets, and policy makers. As per the RFP, we are not able to meet prior to proposal submissions. We are also some what concerned about the date for the delivery of the question answers is so close to when the proposal is due. Any chance the questions could be answered earlier or the deadline for proposals pushed out? The RFP provides 6 working days between questions being posted and responses due we feel this is adequate. Historically, what type of work has been done to the site / ongoing marketing efforts? Can you describe some larger projects that have come up, vs. ongoing maintenance? What are the frequency of your online campaign activations? We aim to continuously improve all of our websites. Prior projects have included content rebuilds based on marketing campaigns, or website specific initiatives including the Home Explorer visual navigation tool, store finders, responsive/mobile tools, and additional functionality, etc. For DriveElectricVT.com, are there any supporting research, program, brand or marketing documents available? If so, can we get a copy of them? Please view the Project Get Ready site at for general information about this national initiative. A Drive Electric Vermont-specific creative brief and web content plan will be provided to the agency chosen to partner with us on this project. Is there any event or action driving a specific launch date? What is that date? We are looking to launch the site in Q In terms of "Content Creation," should we assume that we would be responsible for the overall content strategy, plan and delivery of all required content for all projects associated with this assignment? We will be able to supply draft content & subject matter expertise, but will be looking to our subcontractor to lead the content strategy, planning and delivery of all content. In addition to VEIC's marketing, IT and digital team, will there be other additional stakeholders associated with this assignment? If so, who are they and what role will they play? Would EVT assign a single point of contact for TNM on this project? Project Get Ready is a program that aims to accelerate the electric vehicle industry by fostering ecosystems in which the technology can most succeed. In Vermont the Project Get Ready efforts (rebranded as Drive Electric Vermont) are led by the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation. We are partnering with Rocky

5 Mountain Institute, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Agency of Transportation, and the Vermont Department of Public Service and a wide array of stakeholders statewide to facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles across Vermont. State stakeholders outside of VEIC must be provided at least a week s worth of time to provide feedback on any major project milestones. Are there currently any Electric Car policy or legislative goals with the site that would require user signatures or engagement? Should the Drive Electric site have the feel of a social activation campaign? At this time the site is meant to drive information sharing, though social activation certainly plays a role in promoting the use of electric vehicles in the Vermont landscape. Would the Ongoing Website Development & Digital Marketing effort begin in October as well? Yes. Can you clarify who would do Sitefinity development in scenario 2-- Codevelopment? It is anticipated that VEIC would use internal resources for co-development. You mention that you will provide a Development environment on your servers, do you currently maintain a Staging environment too, for QA and content entry before releasing a major update? Yes, for all sites we have development website/database that can be used for staging major updates and testing functionality. Do you have source code control outside of SiteFinity? Yes. Related to Part 1 - DriveElectricVT.com website, are you looking for full cost estimates related to all activities you outlined in section 2 under Scope of Work including paid search & advertising, and social media strategy & implementation? For part 1 of the scope of work, we are looking for the subcontractor to provide a detailed fee proposal which outlines the specific activities that will be performed during the website development process. For part 2, we are looking for a fee structure for related digital marketing activities some of which may be applied to the DriveElectricVT.com project, or may also be applied to our other projects. Are there any restrictions related to percentage of work performed in-house (by the firm responding to the RFP) versus use of subcontractors and/or 3rd party companies? No, but we will evaluate each proposal based on the criteria outlined in the RFP to select the agency that is best suited to handle the work. If using partner companies, are all participants subject to the insurance clause of the contract? Or just the primary company responding to the RFP? Only the primary contractor is required to comply with the insurance provisions. Related to your specification for mobile optimization, are you looking for a "mobile-friendly" site (same site served up on both computers and mobile hand held devices that allow for touch screen usage) or mobile version with auto-detection (serves up an entirely different format/size/feature set?

6 A Mobile-Friendly/responsive site is the preferred approach, as opposed to a mirrored or forked development approach with two different websites. Sitefinity 5.x has responsive design functionality, but we would be open to all options. Does VEC have a preference on how much of a role in actual site production internal IT and Digital Media employees have in development and delivery of the first and on-going sites? VEIC should be considered a collaborative partner in all efforts. Our preference is to establish effective/efficient collaborative processes that result in the best final product. Do you have a target not-to-exceed budget for all scope of services per website outlined in section 2 under Scope of Work? We have not identified a not-to-exceed budget for Phase 2. We are looking for a detailed price list & fee structure which addresses the specific activities listed in Part 2. Selection of the successful proposal will be made by VEIC based upon the bidder s: Responsiveness to work scope and program needs (40%) Demonstrated experience and expertise in similar projects (35%) Cost effectiveness (15%) Comprehensiveness (10%) Will the VEIC be purchasing the license themselves or will the implementation firm be responsible for purchasing licenses? As stated in the RFP, VEIC will be responsible for purchasing all CMS licenses. Will the VEIC be upgrading licenses for the other sites? VEIC will handle the upgrading of all CMS licenses as needed. Will the new site be required to integrate with any outside databases or systems that we should be aware of? There is the possibility that we will identify database functionality during the discovery phase of website development, which may include geographic representation of electric Vehicle implementation across the state. If needed, VEIC will provide a SQL Server database to support this type of functionality. How many concurrent back end users will the VEIC require? VEIC will handle all CMS licensing, and will determine which license best meets our needs. Are you interested in hosting and support services post launch? No, it is anticipated that VEIC will handle all hosting post launch. Has the VEIC identified a budget for the implementation process? For part 1 of the scope of work, we are looking for the subcontractor to provide a detailed fee proposal which outlines the specific activities that will be performed during the website development process, including implementation as needed.

7 Will the VEIC be providing site content or will the selected vendor be tasked with providing these services? VEIC will provide a content roadmap as well as subject matter expertise and guidance, however a collaborative and strategic content development process with the agency partner is envisioned. Can you please elaborate on the strategic campaign support expectations? VEIC frequently identifies the need for marketing campaigns to support our efforts. These may include paid search, online advertising, Facebook advertising (ads & promoted posts), video (Youtube), and other online/digital mediums. In order to provide the most accurate proposal, would VEIC be able to provide examples of websites that have comparable functionality and content to what the organization has in mind for DriveElectricVT.com? Please view examples of other Project Get Ready city campaigns at: Do you have specific criteria for by which you will measure success? As stated in the RFP, the Objectives for are: Clearly communicate the case for electric vehicles specific to Vermont s consumer and business needs Generate excitement about the market and encourage champions to spread the word Inspire interested parties to collaborate on and actualize infrastructure and policy changes Create a knowledgeable, informed community and keep them up to date on improvements to state electric vehicle infrastructure/incentives Ultimately put more electric vehicles on the road Do you have specific functional requirements envisioned for the site that you could share with us? Apart from the items listed in this RFP, as well as the answers to the questions in this document we have not identified additional functional requirements. We look forward to partnering with the selected subcontractor to identify additional functional requirements as needed to support the website development. Has the team developed any outline of the site structure and content to help us develop an overall scope? Please view the Project Get Ready site at for general information about this national initiative. A Drive Electric Vermont-specific creative brief and web content plan will be provided to the agency chosen to partner with us on this project. Will we have direct access to the working development environment hosted on your servers? All websites will be hosted on VEIC s internal servers. We are able to provide CMS level access to these servers, but it is anticipated that the final deliverable will be in the form of source code, and an installation package. We are assuming that all deliverables will have been tested by the developer in their development environment prior to being deployed on our servers. It is possible that we will grant developer access to our servers, but this will be determined on a case by case basis.

8 Is the content producer working with us to develop an IA and other site content for We will be able to supply a content roadmap as well as subject matter expertise and guidance, however a collaborative and strategic content development process with the agency partner is envisioned. In addition, we will be able to supply draft content & subject matter expertise, and review all proposed content. The site will likely include an initial count of between pages, depending on how we render the content we are planning to provide in each central section. We plan to share the current web content plan with the agency chosen to partner with us on this project. Major sections include information for electric vehicle consumers, businesses/fleets, and policy makers. VEIC is looking to present informational content in an engaging and visually exciting way that best conveys the goals of the project. The tone should feel bold, energetic, fun, pioneering, smart, collaborative, transparent, instructive, comprehensive, and feasible. Can you please give us a sense of what you envision production assistance to entail? We envision production assistance to include taking a site from an alpha or beta to the finished product. It is our preference that the sub-contractor provides a turn-key site, but we are open to receiving HTML/CSS files to be implemented by VEIC. Is there a desired date for launch? We are looking to launch the site in Q Who is involved in the approval process during the course of the project? State stakeholders outside of VEIC must be provided at least a week s worth of time to provide feedback on any major project milestones Is your plan to award the Ongoing Website Development and Digital Marketing Services (Part 2) based upon Part 1 of the agency's proposal? We will review all proposals based on both Parts 1 and 2 of the scope of work, and to pick the agency or agencies that are the best fit. We seek to establish a strong relationship with our agency partner in order to streamline future projects. Is there a budget cap for the website development of While a budget has not yet been set, a competitive estimate will be a factor in the agency selection process, as per the RFP. Can you disclose the allocated budget to cover "Ongoing Website Development & Digital Marketing" for each of the three sites mentioned in the RFP? Please provide a detailed price list & fee structure which addresses the specific activities listed in Part 2. VEIC has not allocated a specific budget for this work. Do we require travelling and having meetings in person during implementation of the project? If yes, would the travel and boarding expenses be reimbursed? Effective communication is one of the most crucial components to web development projects. As long as we are able to establish strong communication channels, we don t have a preference to the geographic location of our partner. In addition, as part of VEIC s mission we seek to minimize the environmental impact of travel.

9 Where the current site is hosted? Internally at VEIC. We assuming future hosting will remain the same. Do you have any specific budget identified for the project? While a budget has not yet been set, a competitive estimate will play a factor in the agency selection process as outlined by the RFP. Is Hosting, Maintenance, Support included in the budget? All hosting and support related to hosting will be handled by VEIC. Is there any onsite presence required or work can be done remotely? Effective communication is one of the most crucial components to web development projects. As long as we are able to establish strong communication channels, we don t have a preference to the geographic location of our partner. Do you have any reference sites that you would like to mention for designing purposes? VEIC is looking to present informational content in an engaging and visually exciting way that best conveys the goals of the project. The tone should feel bold, energetic, fun, pioneering, smart, collaborative, transparent, instructive, comprehensive, and feasible. Will "VEIC" handle loading the content to the site, or would you like us to do that? If we need to do it, who will be responsible for content creation? We will be able to supply a content roadmap as well as subject matter expertise and guidance, however a collaborative and strategic content development process with the agency partner is envisioned. In addition, we will be able to supply draft content & subject matter expertise, and review all proposed content. The site will likely include an initial count of between pages, depending on how we render the content we are planning to provide in each central section. We plan to share the current web content plan with the agency chosen to partner with us on this project. Major sections include information for electric vehicle consumers, businesses/fleets, and policy makers. VEIC is looking to present informational content in an engaging and visually exciting way that best conveys the goals of the project. The tone should feel bold, energetic, fun, pioneering, smart, collaborative, transparent, instructive, comprehensive, and feasible. It is our preference that our sub-contracted partner will handle the content load and page creation. What is the financial goal of this project? (i.e. how much extra revenue will we need to generate in order to consider this a success?) The goal of the Drive Electric Vermont website is to put more electric vehicles on the road in the state of Vermont within the parameters of the project budget (to be developed with the selected agency partner). What have you done so far to try and reach this goal? (i.e. what worked? what didn't?) Drive Electric Vermont has organized stakeholders from across the state; organized electric vehicle-related events and demo days; mapped charging stations; produced fact sheets; and provided a nascent web and social presence since the initiative launched earlier this year. Now that we know your goal. Where are you right now in terms of sales? Sales are a goal of the project only insofar as they reflect statewide sales of electric vehicles. As of July 2012 there are roughly 90 electric vehicles on the road in the state of Vermont.

10 General responsibilities are great, but what effect would you like me to have, if things went perfectly? VEIC hopes that the selected agency will help to drive the sale of and support of electric vehicles in the state of Vermont. The project offers an exciting opportunity to partner in the transformation of the automotive market. What do you have more of: Money or Time? (i.e. do you prefer a solution that may cost more but you don't have to do anything or do you prefer to get hands-on to save money?) VEIC has an internal marketing department and Transportation team that are able to provide support on content and strategy; however we will be looking for a strategic partner role as well as implementation assistance from the selected agency. The RFP states that the period for services "through the end of 2013". What happens after that? VEIC will reassess our options, and proceed accordingly. The last time we responded to your RFP, you asked for a marketing partner with significant branding experience. Six months later, you're asking for a partner for website and digital marketing services. VEIC is currently engaged in branding work in support of three of its existing brands. Can we assume that the branding challenges that you were facing at the time have all been resolved? Postponed? It should be assumed that our branding and rebranding initiatives were successful. We understand that Gotham City Graphics currently provides graphic design services. Can you please comment on the winning bidder's relationship with Gotham City Graphics? Is the scope of work they are now performing the result of an RFP? Can you also comment on the status of your relationship with KSV -- as we understand they have created the Jessie "Fewer" Watts campaign? In addition to in-house Creative and Digital teams, VEIC has relationships with and engages in project work with various firms in support of our work in Vermont, Washington DC, Ohio and New Jersey. VEIC does not have an agency of record. Can you please comment on how the partner that provides "cutting edge, dynamic, flexible, and informative digital strategy, media & web sites" will co-ordinate with the entities providing all other marketing communications? We ask this question, as it is our experience that brands are best managed when both traditional and online communications are orchestrated. At VEIC, we take a strategic approach to marketing which includes, among many founding principles, close collaboration between the Project Manager, the client, and the internal and external creative team(s).

11 You describe your team as including "a front-end developer, back-end developer, content producer, project managers and the digital strategy & development manager". These would appear to include all the skills necessary to provide the scope of work in the RFP. Can you please comment on why you are you looking for a partner when you have these skills sets in house? Is this simply a matter of current resources being temporarily overburdened? Currently VEIC s Digital team does not have the capacity to handle all of the current projects. In addition, VEIC values the perspective and ideas that can come from an outside organization. For DriveElectricVT.com you request that the winning bidder will handle "content creation". This is a very open ended aspect of the RFP, making it difficult to provide a man hour estimate for this scope of work. Can you help describe in more detail the nature of the content you intend for the site, the role your "content producer" will play and the volume of pages it is likely to require? We will be able to supply a content roadmap as well as subject matter expertise and guidance, however a collaborative and strategic content development process with the agency partner is envisioned. In addition, we will be able to supply draft content & subject matter expertise, and review all proposed content. The site will likely include an initial count of between pages, depending on how we render the content we are planning to provide in each central section. We plan to share the current web content plan with the agency chosen to partner with us on this project. Major sections include information for electric vehicle consumers, businesses/fleets, and policy makers. VEIC is looking to present informational content in an engaging and visually exciting way that best conveys the goals of the project. The tone should feel bold, energetic, fun, pioneering, smart, collaborative, transparent, instructive, comprehensive, and feasible. You describe the option for the winning bidder to work with an existing partner providing "HTML & CSS (including navigation) files". Can you please tell us who this existing partner is? While not a preferred solution, we are open to the option of the winning bidder providing VEIC with HTML & CSS that we would implement within our CMS. We note that is running on SiteFinity 3.x, while you request that the new site ( be built in version 5.x. Will the winner be responsible for upgrading the base-brand website to the latest SiteFinity version? We anticipate that the redevelopment of VEIC.org will use Sitefinity 5.x. Whether this is a migration of the current site, or a new site developed from scratch is still to be determined.