Redesign of Hosting Websites and Maintenance ADDENDUM 1

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1 REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS RFP # June 26, 2013 City of Newport News OFFICE OF THE PURCHASING DIRECTOR 2400 Washington Avenue Newport News, VA Phone: (757) Fax: (757) Redesign of Hosting Websites and Maintenance ADDENDUM 1 It is agreed and understood that the following changes shall be made part of the original Request for Proposals (RFP # ) This published addendum consists of nine (9) pages as follows: Addendum Cover, includes announcement & Proposal due date (New due date). Questions, Answers to the RFP, pages two - nine. PROPOSAL DUE DATE IS CHANGED TO: JULY 12, Close of Business (COB) Contract Officer: Glenn Schofield, Purchasing Administrator; gschofield@nngov.com, and Hector Vazquez, Buyer Support Coordinator, hvazquez@nngov.com AN ORIGINAL AND FOUR (4) COPIES OF YOUR SUBMITTAL ARE REQUESTED Company Name: Print Name: Title: Signature: Date: (This Form Must Be Signed. Signature must be original, not photocopied) 1

2 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RFP # The current website offers a trip planner feature, will this feature be maintained on the new site? If so is this a third party functionality or was this custom developed for the City? Custom Developed 2. The RFP mentions that the selected vendor will receive an annual contract for hosting and maintaining the several additional sites( Lee Hall Mansion, Endview Plantation, Virginia War Museum, Newsome House Museum and Cultural Center Coastal Viriginia Interactive Map, and 100 Miles of Lights) Is the City assuming that the selected vendor will also redesign and develop these sites? Or will the contract be for hosting and maintenance only? At this time hosting and maintenance only a. If the contract is for hosting and maintenance only can the City offer any information on the current hosting environment and programming languages of the above mentioned sites? No b. What is the expected level of maintenance for the above mentioned sites? Varies from graphic updates to adding pages possibly to creating forms etc. 3. Page 13 of the RFP mentions a purchase and booking feature, can you please elaborate on this? Will site visitors have the ability to make reservations (i.e. will scheduling functionality be necessary?) Purchase tickets/items online 4. Are there any third party systems, internal databases, etc. that will be required to integrate with the website for the purpose of sending/receiving information? Possibly currently using Constant Contact and looking into another database 5. To be clear, you want the redesign of 1 website i.e. You DO NOT anticipate having separate websites for Lee Hall Mansion, Endview Plantation, Virginia War Museum, Cultural Center, etc - correct? They are separate and need to be treated as such 6. Do you know the cumulative number of web pages to be migrated with this project? If so can you share with me the total number of pages to be migrated? See current website Newport-news.org 7. What content management system (CMS) does the main website operate within? Is there a preference for a specific CMS (WordPress, Drupal)? Custom 8. What is the current host for the website and do you have any data on the amount of bandwidth currently used? Do not know 9. Do you expect that there will be a large amount of revisions to the content that is currently on the site (attraction and hotel descriptions)? No 10. The RFP calls for cross-browser compatibility between IE7+ as well as Firefox, Safari and Chrome. Currently, responsive design (which allows dynamic reconfiguration between desktop and mobil browsers) is not supported by IE7. Would you consider full support for IE8+? 2

3 Possibly 11. Regarding the secondary websites, would migration of those sites to a new hosting server be part of the RFP and what do those sites use for CMSs? Yes, custom as well like Newport-news.org 12. Ticketing: will it be a single ticket available for multiple attractions, or multiple tickets? Multiple 13. Excluding tickets, how many items will be available for purchase online? Approximately Does the City have a preferred Content Management System (ie open source vs..net)? It is custom 15. Under Specifications, item 4. Programming, sub item (i) Administration, sub item (i): "A multiuser content management system that will allow staff to administer venue listings, media (photos/videos), text, links, pages, etc. should be developed." Is this specification a directive that a custom content management system be developed or is integration of a third-party content management system acceptable? Yes, no integration 16. Under Specifications, item 4. Programming, sub item (ii) Modules, sub item (i): "Built to include all modules on current site map with minor adjustments." Is this specification a directive to include modules on the "existing" website and have them incorporated into the new site, or should these site map modules be newly developed? Where is the existing sitemap located and what portions of the site map are to be developed and/or used from the existing site? Newly developed to mirror current site 17. Under Specifications, item 4. Programming, sub item (v) Media Gallery, sub item (i): "Collective media gallery with the ability search and filter items. Media gallery should also be integrated to modules for specific localities as specified." Please clarify how the gallery items "should be integrated to modules for specific localities." Can t answer 18. Under Specifications, item 4. Programming, sub item (vi) Purchasing & Booking Feature, sub item (i): "Purchase feature will include specific custom developed program to buy specific logo items (campsites, picnic shelters, etc.) and attraction tickets." Please clarify "custom developed program" - is the contractor to develop these programs or is this a directive for the contractor to use pre-existing programs? Either is acceptable 19. Under Specifications, item 6. Testing, sub item (i): "Once initial development of the site is concluded and approved by NNTDO, staff will be permitted up to 20 hours of revisions/modifications/changes before being charged at the a rate of $75 per hour by the web development company." Is this specification a directive that the contractor will only be able to charge up to a rate of $75 per hour? No only when providing updates prior to site going live Do you have a specific Content Management System in mind, or are you open to our suggestions? Would you prefer an off-the-shelf CMS like WordPress or Drupal? 3

4 Open to suggestions There are features of your current site that are not included in the RFP, such as the Trip Planner and user account creation / log-in capability. Are we to understand they are no longer desired? If they are indeed wanted, please provide further specifications. For instance, what happens when a user registers? Does s/he access a custom interface? What can a logged-in user access that others cannot? Can a user save multiple trips to the Trip Planner? They are to be included as we had noted to see current website 22. We are located in Columbus Ohio, and the nature of our business of website design and back-end development is not restricted by geographical limitation as you can imagine. However, there have been certain situations where we have responded to other such RFP's, where there really was a strong need for a vendor to be local. Based on your knowledge of this particular project, is there a significant amount of gravity given to vendors in closer proximity? I was unable to find any such reference in the RFP, and it is often an important factor to those involved. We have only worked with a company that is in our state so this is hard to answer. We meet face to face 1 2 times a year at most 23. As we compile our submission, we wanted to confirm if there are specific page-count and format requirements. Our reading of the RFP did not find any stipulations related to length, font size, line spacing, etc., and we would like to ensure our submission is compliant with your needs. See current site for approximate # of pages 24. We understand that the Interactive Map is a critical element of the site redesign and therefore are seeking some clarification on the requirement. Will the Interactive Map System be an update of the map on the Coastal Virginia website or a new element featured on the main Newport News site? In other words, how will the map on Newport-News.org relate to the map on VisitCoastalVirginia.com? It will be similar to VisitCoastalVirginia.org 25. Regarding the Purchase & Booking Feature requirement, will the ticketing system require both ticket numbers and barcodes? Cannot answer 26. What is the technical infrastructure of all the other sites that need to be hosted? Are they all php? Are there existing CMS tools in place? See sites; Yes existing CMS tools are in place 27. What kind of traffic do the existing sites get now? Bandwidth consumed per month and visitors per month would be very helpful in estimating hosting costs. Current bandwidth will increase once videos are added to Newport-news.org 28. Is there a preference for open source or commercial content management tools? We have a custom CMS 29. What CMS' are currently in use on the other web sites? Custom CMS like Newport-news.org 30. For the purchase feature, how will orders be fulfilled? Is it outsourced and we need to integrate the vendor's ecommerce tools, or will fulfillment be done in house and orders need to be 4

5 delivered directly to Newport News? What credit card processing vendor will we be integrating with? Do not currently know 31. Same question for booking picnic shelters, buying tickets, etc. How is that done now, and what exactly are we doing? Are integrating with an existing fulfillment system, or designing the entire workflow from scratch? Currently do not have this feature 32. Is the script running the restaurant and attraction look ups tools an open source script? Something that was custom developed? Custom developed 33. Same question with regards to the trip planner. Is it custom code? Custom developed 34. Is it a requirement to maintain the existing apps as is, or can they be ported to the new CMS if that is easier to manage? Will consider 35. How many sites are currently in use to support the NNTDO mission? All mentioned in RFP 36. How many servers are in use at each site, to support the NNTDO mission? We have back up servers for all sites 37. How many web pages are in use to support the NNTDO mission? Approximately Page 13, #4, Programming, vi. Purchase and Booking Feature -"i. Purchase feature will include specific custom developed program to buy specific logo items (campsites, picnic shelters, etc.) and attraction tickets." - Could you please clarify the item request? I am assuming the following: You wish for the contractor to develop a custom ecommerce solution (shopping cart system) with the ability to purchase items for sale such as logo items, and include the ability to reserve/book a campsite/shelter? The user would pay for either or both upon checkout. a. Is this correct? Please correct my assumption if not accurate. Correct Can you please help with following Questions. (1) Whether companies from Outside USA can apply for this?? (From India or Canada) Outside of the USA companies may submit, but required travel to the City of Newport News will not be funded in any way. When the City requests face to face meetings during the year, all costs will be a burden to the vendor. (2) Whether we need to come over there for meetings?? Possibly (3) Can we perform the tasks outside USA?? (From India or Canada) Some tasks as I understand are performed from outside US contractors but work for current company 5

6 Development/Hosting 39. What platforms are the 7 sites hosted on? (Server operating system(s), CMS(es) if any)? Each site has a backup and custom CMS 40. What are the database platform and version requirements for the 7 sites? Cannot answer 41. What are the approximate bandwidth and data storage currently utilized by the 7 sites? Between all 7 sites about 10gb 42. Is there a specific retention period required for offsite backups? The server is checked for file changes on an ongoing, nightly incremental basis. Anything that is changed is backed up that evening to the off-site location. The system retains the archived data for 3 months. 43. Will NNTDO be responsible for fulfillment of logo items and attraction tickets, or will it be necessary to interface with another vendor? NNTDO will be responsible 44. How frequently does NNTDO update content on and the other hosted sites listed in the RFP? Daily 45. Is there an existing payment gateway? Are there any systems that require integration into the ecommerce aspects of the site? No 46. Beyond the existing features and functionality of the current interactive map and the requirements captured in the RFP, are there any expectations for new features or behavior regarding the map? See Coastal Virginia Map; a few features 47. Are there other systems currently supporting the websites beyond CMS platforms that would require integration, e.g CRM, ERP, etc. No. All systems are currently only using the CMS 48. How is the ticket sales portion of the site expected to work, and what system will be managing the assignment of seats, availability of tickets, and other information? Do not know 49. Will the logo items / sales require integration into a fulfillment house for product delivery? No 50. Is there any other functionality that the selected vendor will be required to modify or overhaul for the purposes of creating a new or improved user experience? If so, what specific features or modifications are required? Everything current site offers Testing 51. The RFP states that "Cross-Browser platform compatible between IE7+/Firefrox3+/Safari/Chrome. Some other requirements (HTML5, CSS 3) may conflict with older browsers, so please confirm required browser compatibility. Safari, Fire Fox, Internet Explorer Content 52. What amount of content needs to be incorporated into the new site that is not represented on the current site and from what sources? 6

7 Everything from current site 53. Are you interested in inline social media elements (commenting, user contribution. user provided tips) in addition to social sharing? Possible 54. Is the mobile optimized version of the web site expected to have all content from the main site, or will it be focused on features that are determined to be a priority when serving a mobile user? Serving mobile users Design 55. Does NNTDO intent to keep the existing branding/logo elements of the current site or will rebranding be a part of the redesign process? New look Proposal 56. Under the Submittals section, it states that "Qualifications of contractor(s), including resumes". Do you require only resumes of contractors or for the entire project team? Entire team would be nice 57. Is there a page restriction on proposals? No 58. Item 4.i.i: How many user levels will there be for the content management system? # of people to access will be Item 4.i.iii: Can you explain how the QR code generator will be used? Take users to specific pages 60. Item 4.i.iv: Will you be just using photos for the flipbook feature or will there be PDF documents? Both 61. Does the company that manages the website and redesign have to host the site themselves, or can that be outsourced to a hosting company with an impeccable record of uptime? Same company 62. Should the hosting estimate make the assumption that you will be adding more and more videos as the years go on? Yes 63. Under Programming, Forms Builder System, ii, you mention storing data in a database. Are there any databases that will need to be integrated/consolidated into the new site? If so, how many and in what types of databases? Up to two; constant contact and on to be determined 64. Under Programming, vi, there is mention of a Purchase and Booking Feature. Allowing purchases through a site is generally simple if the parameters are identified. A couple of questions arise: Is this purchasing feature new? This process would need to be mapped out clearly. Yes 7

8 For "attraction tickets": are there currently any e-commerce back-end systems in place for ticketing? No Would there have to be an integration with the museums, campsites, picnic shelters e-commerce systems, if any exist? Possibly For "(Campsites, picnic areas, etc) is there already a way to reserve this online? If so, do these current systems also have to be accessed through the website? Do not need this For the purchasing, should we assume that we would need to allow NNTDO staff to create and edit information as well? It's not specified like of the other modules Yes 65. Development and Buildout: Are there any Content Management Systems that NNTDO is adverse to using? Want to use current or similar 66. Development and Buildout: Your current site is built using PHP. Would you prefer to stick to that programming language or are you open to vendor recommendations? Language update 67. You mention making edits to your main and mobile and other sites. Would we have access to all the other sites source code in order to determine the types of edits? Yes 68. Is the redesign for the Newport News only ( or will all of the following sites need to be redesigned as well? Currently just Newport-news.org Lee Hall Mansion Endview Plantation Virginia War Museum Newsome House Museum and Cultural Center Coastal Virginia Interactive Map Miles of Lights Newport News Tourism Testing i. Once initial development of the site is concluded and approved by NNTDO, staff will be permitted up to 20 hours of revisions/modifications/changes before being charged at the a rate of $75 per hour by the web development company. Assume you mean "charged at a rate of no more than $75 per hour"? Yes 8

9 ii. Before application launch, Web Developer and NNTDO will both test the site for errors. The Web Developer will then address any questions, comments, fixes and bugs. Would this work also be performed at the aforementioned rate per hour, or would this be considered part of the initial bid? Part of bid v. Create a mobile optimized version of the site to provide information quickly and easily to users, on-the-go, featuring sections specified by NNTDO. Do you want a mobile app, or simply a mobile-friendly site with unique content? 70. Can you tell me the different user roles that the new site will need to accommodate including different levels of permission? (3) to have full access, (2) to have access to limited pages 71. Do you plan to continue to use the existing Live Chat feature on the new site? If so, are there any changes or enhancements planned for this third party component? Yes/No 72. Can you elaborate on the e-commerce functionality planned for the new site? Can you estimate number of products for your online store and requirements for the online reservations and ticket sales? Do you have a credit card gateway already selected? Up to 25 items no gateway currently 73. Can you provide additional information on the QR generator for staff? QR codes generator that would direct people to specific pages on website and mobile website 9