process and will have access to responses. Those persons will be under obligation not to disclose any proprietary information from the responses.

Transcription

1 th Street, NW 4th Floor Washington, DC Phone: (202) Fax: (202) Request for Proposals: NAWDP Website Redesign The National Association of Workforce Development Professionals (NAWDP) is accepting proposals to recommend and implement a content management system (CMS) and design, develop, and conduct usability testing of NAWDP s website, The purpose of this Request for Proposal (RFP) is to provide a fair evaluation for all contractors and to provide contractors with the evaluation criteria against which they will be judged. This RFP does not obligate NAWDP to enter into a contract or purchase products or services from any party. NAWDP reserves the right to accept, reject, or use any information submitted in response to this RFP. Only designated members of NAWDP staff are involved in the RFP process and will have access to responses. Those persons will be under obligation not to disclose any proprietary information from the responses. Potential contractors are welcome to respond to this RFP in its entirety or submit responses to any of the seven requested components. Proposals must include a detailed pricing schedule for the total cost for the supply and delivery of the required items. Potential contractors should indicate in their proposal any development resources or software items and if they intend to use subcontractors to satisfy the requirements of the RFP. Schedule 15 April 2013 Vendors who intend to respond to the RFP must submit a statement of intent to Bridget Brown no later than 5:00 pm EST and any questions about the requirements must be made in writing to Bridget Brown, Executive Director, at [email protected]. 25 April 2013 Final RFP submissions must be made in writing and received electronically by Bridget Brown, Executive Director, at [email protected] no later than 5:00 PM EST. Following the review of RFP responses, NAWDP may ask one or more vendors to provide a web or in person demonstration at its offices in Washington, DC. Contract negotiations will begin immediately upon NAWDP s selection of a vendor at the end of April 2013.

2 II. Purpose, Description, and Objective Purpose An opportunity exists to re engineer NAWDP s web site to better reflect the mission and incorporate updated web technology. Upon completion of the development of the site, NAWDP will assume full responsibility for website content maintenance and administration. All content, custom coding and graphics will become the sole property of NAWDP. Description Create a flexible, user friendly, intuitive, informative, and visually appealing website that is easy to maintain and access. The contractor must develop a user friendly site that can deliver frequently updated information to our stakeholder groups. NAWDP will maintain content through a CMS, which should allow for controlled access (e.g. author, reviewer/editor, and publisher). In general, the NAWDP website must be: Easy and intuitive to navigate Visually pleasing Informative Safe and secure Quick to load and operate III. NAWDP Background The National Association of Workforce Development Professionals, Inc. (NAWDP) is a professional association for individuals working in employment and training and related workforce development programs. It is dedicated to enhancing the professionalism of the field and developing the professional skills of practitioners. NAWDP, with 501(c)6 tax status, often works in partnership with the Partnership Education Fund, its educational arm, which has 501(c)3 status. NAWDP was created in 1989 by the National Job Training Partnership (now the Partnership Education Fund), with start up funding from the U.S. Department of Labor. NAWDP was founded to provide professional development and representation to the individuals who work in the workforce development field, with a special emphasis on front line staff. NAWDP has approximately 3,500 members. Because its membership base is individual instead of organizational, NAWDP works to encourage peer exchanges and information, and to advance issues of system change, cross training, and program collaboration. NAWDP s membership includes professionals who assist returning veterans, unemployed adults, at risk youth, welfare recipients and other citizens in securing meaningful employment. Our members also provide much needed assistance to local businesses by matching their human capital needs with existing skills of job seekers and by supporting on the job training that enhances the skills of the employers existing employees.

3 Mission Statement The mission of the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals is to be the national voice for the profession and meet the individual professional development needs of the membership. Our current website is visually outdated, difficult to update, and has a sprawling, inefficient navigation bar. We would like to improve our website s aesthetics, functionality and efficiency with the help of a skilled designer. One of the biggest challenges we ve encountered is presenting our varied programs and services in a clear and visually appealing way on our website. Even though NAWDP focuses on a specialty population, we have a very broad constituent base and many sub groups. We also have a supporting community of donors and volunteers that is even broader than the communities we reach with our services. Additionally, our programs and offerings change regularly, so we need a website design that is fluid and easy to navigate so that internal staff can make updates and edits as needed. IV. CMS Requirements User management features, such as change tracking, multiple permission levels, and the ability to password protect individual pages and files Integration of social media features throughout the entire site Support of search engine optimization (SEO) tags (title, URL, meta description) Dedicated IP address Blog and RSS feed capability Ability to schedule published items Ability to publish content dynamically such as news releases, announcements, and articles on the homepage (or elsewhere on the site) Media archive that supports embedded video, audio, podcasts, and photo files through the website Ability to seamlessly embed videos hosted on YouTube anywhere on the website and search, sort, and filter all rich media in a single dynamically assembled archive Calendar solution that supports content rich events, meetings, conferences, and other milestones Ability to create custom forms that allow for attachment upload Web 2.0 framework that includes hierarchical navigators, Google site search, topic/category navigators, dynamic sitemap, and content type specific directories to make it easy for visitors to find information quickly Easy to use content editor Easy to manage design, navigation, and styles Built in spell check utility Assign permissions and roles that give users the appropriate level of control for the content and sites they manage

4 Ability to create user groups Security feature to lock down content sections for certain user groups Automatically schedule content publishing and expiration dates Classify and structure content into groupings using taxonomies Define unlimited metadata fields for better searching Validate site and prevent broken links across all content, menus, CSS and JavaScript Community features that allows members to update their own profiles, comment on content throughout the website, participate in blogs and forums, bookmark pages, indicate affiliations, like/dislike content, manage individual walls, and view a summary of activity associated with each person (comments posted, content liked/disliked, etc.) (Optional feature) V. Reporting Requirements Ability to embed Google Analytics tracking code throughout the site Web analytics, such as traffic or the number of visitors coming to the site; stickiness, or the amount of time users spend on the site and the number of pages they view; conversion against user defined goals and customer retention, or the number of visitors who return to our site and the frequency of their visits Ability to export custom form input to a comma separated format VI. Technical & Integration Requirements The selected CMS platform must: Be open and extensible Be able to integrate with the imis 10 and in the future imis 100, a customer relationship management platform Meet all Federally mandated access requirements adopted by the Federal Access Board under section 508 subsection of the Rehabilitation Act Be built in accordance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, provided by the W3C and should be easily accessible to the novice as well as the experienced Internet user Be designed with a balance of text and graphics, with each page loading in 3 seconds or less on the average computer VII. Graphic Design Requirements NAWDP will provide the selected contractor with current brand standards, which include a logo and a branded color palette for each NAWDP stakeholder group, to guide the design of the new website. These design standards are different from what is visible on the current site as these standards have not yet been incorporated. NAWDP does not have an in house graphic designer, but we do have source files (EPS, etc.) for logos and images that can be repurposed. NAWDP

5 requires a designer s assistance with developing a complete new look and feel from the current site. Additional requirements include: Clear visual hierarchy Easy to distinguish heading levels Easy to understand and consistent site navigation Search Tool Link to the homepage on every page Underlined links VIII. Usability Testing During the course of the design process, define 2 3 information architecture options and, using wireframes or storyboards, conduct usability testing. NAWDP will assist with identifying appropriate user groups for testing. Please describe your capabilities and experience in this area. IX. Budget All costs incurred in preparing proposals shall be borne by the prospective contractors. Any final contract awarded will not provide for costs of the proposal to the selected contactor. Bids may not exceed $8,000. Please disaggregate the proposed costs for each phase or major component. We expect this project to include several phases, which may include: Discovery/Requirement Analysis Design Usability Testing CMS software cost Development Testing Training X. Proposed Timeline We hope to begin in May 2013 and deploy the new site by the end of June XI. Submission Requirements Proposal Format Prospective contractors must submit the proposal electronically in PDF format. Proposals must not exceed 20 pages, not including a cover letter and examples of previous related work. All

6 responses must be signed by a company official with authorization to bind the organization to its provisions. Required Documentation Cover Letter Pricing Schedule broken out by component (e.g., Design, Usability Testing, etc.) Terms & Conditions of Contract for the Supply of Services Three references from projects of similar scope Bios of key personnel to be involved in project Delivery of Proposal Please submit an electronic copy of the proposal to the contacts noted below no later than 5:00 pm, EST, on 25 April Proposals should be addressed to the attention of Bridget Brown, Executive Director at [email protected]. Communication with NAWDP NAWDP will respond to questions that are submitted in writing only and received no later than 5:00pm EDT on April 16, Send questions to [email protected]. Questions and answers will be posted on the website for all potential applicants to view. XII. Contractor Selection Process NAWDP may, at its sole option, either accept a prospective contractor s initial proposal by award of a contract or enter into discussions with prospective contractor s whose proposals are deemed to be reasonably susceptible of being considered for an award. After discussions are concluded, prospective contractors may be allowed to submit a Best and Final Offer for consideration. A final decision will be made in April Scoring will be based solely on written information. Score matrix will include the following: development plan with operational timeline (40 points), organizational capacity (25 points), budget (25 points), and familiarity with the needs of small associations (10 points).