IFES CMS Questions and Responses RFP/14/123

Transcription

1 IFES CMS Questions and Responses RFP/14/ Is the tender open to operators/vendors not based in the US? o This RFP is open to any qualified company. However, IFES strongly prefers a vendor based in the United States. In-person trainings and rapid response is critical to ensure IFES staff develop the skills to create and build content. Thus, close proximity and ability to provide quick support is very important to success of the RFP. If your company is not based in the U.S., please describe how you will provide in-person training and any costs associated. 2. With regard to point 6.2 of the RFP (qualification and references - evidence of successful completion etc.), what would be the supporting documents/evidence that should be provided together with the references? For example, is it possible to provide a signed reference letter by a customer discussing the successful completion of the project(s) that we intend to present as reference? o Signed references are good. IFES would also like contact information for those references. 3. What is the current technical expertise within the organization to support a Drupal solution? o IFES has a limited number of staff familiar with Drupal. Many of the people that will have the most contact with the CMS are familiar with Sitecore, but not Drupal. 4. Rather than specifically attempting to replicate all Sitecore features, would you be open to a process that provides a completely new and updated user experience? This process may open up new features and functionality you didn t consider, as well as avoid wasting time trying to replicate features that are not helpful. o IFES would be open to new and updated user experience provided that the needs and functions outlined in the RFP are available. 5. Regarding the ECM, are you expecting the vendor to build an ECM from scratch into the Drupal CMS? Assuming that the subscription workflow is integrated into the Drupal site, are you open to using a third party ECM solution (e.g, Mail Chimp or Constant Contact)? o IFES is open to third-party options. Integration between the Drupal CMS, IFES CRM and ECM is paramount. IFES currently uses ACT! However, IFES is exploring new CRM options (including MS Dynamics). Ensuring contacts can be

2 synchronized across all platforms and be seamlessly integrated for the purpose of events, targeted mails, etc. is critical. 6. How do payments currently get processed? Is there a third-party e-commerce vendor/system involved? o Currently, IFES can process credit card payments through Authorize.Net, we can also accept payments via Paypal. 7. How structured are the content pages in the Sitecore CMS? How clean is the markup? o The content pages on Sitecore are highly structured. There are often multiple layers of folders to drill down through to get to a particular piece of content. 8. Regarding users logging into the site, other than signing up for events, what kind of preferences do you expect visitors to have? o IFES would like to have the option to target content to users based on their stated preference. For example, if a visitor says that he/she has an interests in Europe then the content from our Europe programs should be highlighted. 9. Explain more about the dark site (e.g. purpose, types of emergencies, etc.). What are the basic modules included in that? What platform is on? How many pages? Can we see the site prior to bidding? o The current layout of the dark site contains 3-4 pages. The idea is to redirect IFES.org to this site should we ever experience a major crisis that requires all online content to be devoted to one topic. The site includes basic information such as press contacts, public statements and about us language. The current dark site was developed in WordPress. The site is not accessible to interested vendors or bidders. 10. Many of the drivers for this project appear to be around technology replacement. Do you feel that there are opportunities to better engage your audience with an updated content strategy? o Yes. IFES is open to new ideas and suggestions based on our needs and the capacities of Drupal. 11. Are you open to an agile project approach, whereby there is not a fixed scope for launch, but a backlog of features that is frequently prioritized and worked off in incremental sprints? o Yes, we are open to this approach and encourage you to fully articulate how the migration would be managed in your bid. 12. Regarding the statement: The vendor is expected to make the current frontend UI templates responsive by updating the CSS and HTML files - This is not recommended. Rather, new responsive HTML/CSS templates would be created specifically for the Drupal site. o In your response to the RFP, please explain why and your recommendations. Please explain how IFES can meet its other needs through your recommendations.

3 13. Is there a proposed budget range for this project? We find there s almost always a target in mind and we can help tailor and prioritize the feature set to this desired budget accordingly. o IFES will select a vendor based on best value, cost is one factor. 14. Under back-end enhancement it is written that logged-in users should be able to buy tickets for events. Do they want to implement the entire ticket management system as well or there would be a third-party API available that will support ticket booking and we just have to integrate with it? o As mentioned above IFES can uses Paypal or Authorize.Net to facilitate payments. IFES is open to third-party platforms that integrate with Durpal. 15. Please suggest the mechanisms that should be implemented in order to encourage user sign up. o IFES will send e-blasts encouraging people to sign-up. Registration may be a requirement to order tickets for events. IFES may provide targeted information and early releases to those registered. Another idea is to require sign-up before publications can be downloaded. Other suggestions will be entertained. 16. Under ECM we are not able to understand the requirement of personalized subject and body for each recipient. How is this supposed to be implemented? Will the personalization come from recipient s settings or the sender would manage it for each mail per recipient? o There are a number of things that the EMC must allow. 1) The sender should be changeable. For example our monthly newsletter may come from IFESnews@ifes.org; however, there are other times when we would like a targeted message or event invitation to appear to come from IFES President and CEO Bill Sweeny. Thus we should be able to adjust the sender. 2) IFES would like to be able to mail merge s. This includes the subject line and body of the We cannot provide ability to abort an e-blast if it has started processing. It can be aborted before its scheduled time provided that a buffer/cut-off would be maintained. Please let us know if this is OK. o Please provide an explanation of specific limitations that you anticipate. 18. Can you tell us more about the content that is contained in SiteCore that must be migrated? How many different content types are there? How many total content items? Is there non-cms content that must be migrated (i.e. videos). Is there local CSS styling applied? Can the content be made available in a machine-readable format? Which format? Are you expecting the new contractor to manage this export or will it be provided by IFES or your current vendor?

4 o IFES has a variety of content types in Sitecore. These include images, NavTree, news, and Feed readers. A final decision on the number of items to move over will be discussed as IFES narrows down the vendors during the selection process. 19. Is this bid open to any respondent, or have you only sent it to a pre-qualified list? o It is open to any respondents. 20. Have you worked with any of the bidders previously? o All bidders are assessed on the same criteria. 21. How many responses are you expecting? o IFES cannot discuss any details related to the procurement process at this time. 22. Tell us more about the decision-making process that will following our proposal submission. Will you expect an in-person presentation? If so, how many will be invited? What is the expected date for these presentations? What do you expect to learn from them? o At the current time IFES cannot detail the procurement process. 23. Can you provide us access to your website s analytics (i.e. Google Analytics)? Note: We are requesting interactive access (not simply a PDF export of key screens). Please provide access to analytics@forumone.com. o IFES cannot provide access to our website analytics at this time. 24. Does the new version of the website have to maintain the current look and feel, or is IFES interested in developing an enhanced visual design and user experience? o IFES is interested in new ideas, including design and user experiences. 25. Should we assume the development of an enhanced Information Architecture as a part of this engagement? o Yes. 26. Can IFES please offer further explicate the following two requirements: 1) Ability to configure and relocate various elements on the front-end layout. 2) Ability to create new templates/pages or customize existing ones. Are the requirements that nontechnical administrators have the ability to perform these functions, or that the CMS offers developers this type of flexibility during design and development? o It should be assumed that the CMS will largely be handled by nontechnical staff. Once the main page and other pages are created there shouldn t not be much need to change the layout or relocate elements on the front end. However, there are time when IFES will need flexibility on other pages and would like to move elements. Nontechnical administrators should be able to configure and relocate or at least be trained on basic functions. o Nontechnical staff should be able to create new templates and customize existing ones assuming it does not require custom coding.

5 27. Can IFES please provide further detail on the requirements for content management workflows? For example, will it be sufficient to have one role for content editors/creators and one role for administrators, or will there be a variety of more targeted content editors/creators, multiple tiers of approval, etc. o IFES would prefer to have multiple tiers of approval. For example: someone from the program team, may want to create a new piece of content for their page(s). Once they create the new content it should be sent to Communications Editor, and then from there can be sent to a Director for approval. This is just an example of the potential workflow. 28. Can IFES please provide detail on the current website s administrative user roles (types and number of users)? o IFES will determine the types of roles in consultation with the selected vendor. However, IFES may be interested in allowing staff to create content and thus start a workflow.