October 28, 2009 Request for Proposal: St. Elizabeth Medical Center Website Redesign, Development & Deployment I. Invitation St. Elizabeth Medical Center is seeking proposals from qualified Advertising/Website Design Companies that are interested in providing a website redesign plan for St. Elizabeth Medical Center (SEMC), www.stemc.org, as specified in this RFP. Interested and qualified companies that have demonstrated their ability at comparable work are invited to submit proposals. Proposals will be accepted until November 19, 2009. Submittals and requests for information relative to this RFP should be addressed to: Sandra Fentiman, Manager Marketing, Public Relations & Government Affairs St. Elizabeth Medical Center 2209 Genesee Street Utica, NY 13501 sfentiman@stemc.org
II. About St. Elizabeth Medical Center St. Elizabeth Medical Center (SEMC) occupies a 25-acre campus on 2209 Genesee Street in Utica. The Medical Center has 201 Acute Care Beds and is responsible for the operation of 13 primary and rehabilitation care centers in Oneida and Herkimer counties that comprise St. Elizabeth Medical Group. SEMC has served the Mohawk Valley for over 142 years. SEMC is recognized as a Regional Teaching Institution with the St. Elizabeth College of Nursing, the School of Radiography, St. Elizabeth Family Medicine Residency Program and the Fellowship in Gynecologic Endoscopy. The Mohawk Valley Sleep Disorders Center is located on site, St. Elizabeth Home Care serves patients in their homes and St. Elizabeth Health Support Services offers respiratory services and durable medical equipment to patients in their homes. St. Elizabeth Family Medicine Center offers multiple sub-specialties and manages the School-Based Health Center located at Kernan Elementary School. SEMC offers inpatient services in General Medicine and Surgery, Intensive Care, Intermediate Care, Cardiology, Psychiatry, Pediatrics and much more. Under the umbrella of the Mohawk Valley Heart Institute, SEMC offers Cardiac Surgery, Angioplasty, Cardiac Catheterization, Electrophysiology and houses Cardiac Intensive- Care and Special-Care units. In addition, the Medical Center operates Utica s first Sports Medicine Center (Adirondack Sports Medicine and Physical Therapy Center), which offers specialized physical therapy services for sports-oriented and active individuals. SEMC operates Marian Medical Imaging, an outpatient laboratory, radiology and a mammography testing center. New projects include a new $2.4 million Orthopedic Unit in September 2009, a state-ofthe-art Cardiac Catheterization Lab in 2008, along with expansion of parking areas. These build upon the $13 million Emergency/Trauma Department-Kitchen and Cafeteria project completed in 2007. Mission Statement: St. Elizabeth Medical Center community, inspired by St. Francis of Assisi and faithful to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, is committed to excellence in health care and education. We pledge to do this with compassion and respect for the dignity of all. Vision Statement: The St. Elizabeth Medical Center ministry will be recognized in the communities we serve for excellence in healthcare services and education and as the healthcare employer of choice and the preferred partner of physicians. III. The Project Goals & The focus of this project is on the redesign, development and deployment of St. Elizabeth Medical Center s public website, stemc.org.
St. Elizabeth Medical Center seeks a partner with significant web development, design and deployment experience that can provide a hands-on best practices approach to the project. The redesign and deployment should focus on providing practical and valuable information and enhanced functionality, navigation and interactivity for the major segments of SEMC s audience: general consumers, patients and their families, and internal audiences (i.e., employees, physicians, volunteers). Note: Content development will be coordinated internally and is not part of this engagement. The site needs to be accessed easily by stakeholders in a more user-friendly way. It must also be easily maintained using a web-based, database-driven administration tool that allows key management personnel to easily update content and graphics. Goal 1: To promote the SEMC brand and identity as the provider of choice for quality healthcare in the market. - use the website to support and compliment other branding efforts undertaken by the hospital; - use the website as an extension of key St. Elizabeth service lines and other programs and services; - use the website to send/offer consumer-based information to consumers and patients. Goal 2: To develop and optimize the site s technical structure to ease maintenance and be able to easily incorporate add on features in the future (example: online bill payment). - Develop a web maintenance and content management system (CMS) infrastructure for internal use that supports dynamic updates and easier site enhancements and modifications; - To streamline the site s database structure. Goal 3: To better organize SEMC s extensive offerings. - improve search functionality; - to provide more intuitive interface and improve the customer/user experience; - to make site administration and updating easier and faster; - to enhance site interactivity and navigation. Goal 4: To maximize the website s return on investment. - to be able to gather information that we can use to build consumer profiles and measure web visitor behavior. - use the website to send information back out to the consumer (ie, notification of health seminars, health screenings, e-newsletters, etc.) - to enhance search engine optimization. Goal 5: To integrate with existing or new websites and databases:
- Provide seamless integrations with the existing databases or third-party products such as: Physician Portal and Care Manager? - To be able to add new, third-party modules to the system, if applicable. IV. Creative Design and Site Usability Make it Compelling: Message Site design plays a critical role in communicating a message to target audiences directly (through images) and indirectly (through theme or feel ). Creative must better reflect the image and personality (the brand ) of St. Elizabeth Medical Center. The hospital would expect to review 3 design concepts. Make it Easy: Site Navigation Site design provides the user with a logical, intuitive flow through the site. Navigation must allow for quick and easy clear paths for distinct user groups, enabling the consumer, media and other audiences to know just where to go to find the resources of interest to them. Make it Happen: Reinforce the SEMC Brand and market leadership and give the user of the site the incentive to take action. V. Contents of Proposal The proposal submitted by the web development firm will consist of narrative, graphic examples and any other information needed to illustrate the firm s experience and, more importantly, its ability to meet St. Elizabeth Medical Center s web development goals and objectives. Proposals must contain the following information: A. Firm Information: Please include: 1. Name of key contacts for this procurement, address, phone, e-mail and your company s website. 2. Brief background on firm history and web development/design experience. Case studies of similar projects as outlined in this proposal are encouraged. 3. Describe your philosophy and stewardship process when working in an ongoing account-management role with a customer. B. Deliverables: The majority of the proposal will outline, in detail, the services and strategies the firm proposes to assist St. Elizabeth Medical Center in reaching the goals outlined in Section III - Project Goals &. Submitting firms will address each of the following: 1. A project development schedule and approximate timeframe for project completion. 2. Please discuss how you will approach the design of the site to include creative design, technology, navigation, user interface, interactivity and administrative tools.
3. How the newly designed site will be field tested with potential user groups prior to deployment. 4. Ongoing site maintenance, update options and proprietary options. 5. A description of the commercially available technical tools (software) to be used to code the site. 6. Please discuss any hardware or software vendor partnerships. 7. Hosting: Final decision has not yet been made to host on or off-site. Hosting costs will be addressed separately from this proposal. 8. What type of team will be assigned to this project? What will each person s role be? List and describe the expertise of the members of your account team who will be responsible for servicing the SEMC account. 9. Briefly describe your firm s project management process. 10. Are you utilizing a third-party content management engine? If so, please include product documentation. If not, a technical review session will need to be scheduled. 11. Please discuss the strengths your solution provides over your competitors. C. Pricing Structure: Proposals will outline the pricing structure of all services and deliverables included in the quote. Outline any items, expenses, services and optional deliverables that would/could occur that are not included in the quote. D. Subcontractors: If the execution of work to be performed by your company requires the hiring of subcontractors you must clearly state this in your proposal. Subcontractors must be identified and the work they will perform must be defined. E. References: List references where similar types of services were provided (including corresponding website addresses). Provide name, title and telephone number of one marketing department and one IT department representative from each reference site who can provide an independent assessment of the firm s performance. F. Miscellaneous Information: Outline any other information pertinent to this process that would be helpful in the decision-making process for selection. If applicable, include other services the firm could provide that would bring added value to the proposal. VI. Timeline St. Elizabeth Medical Center expects to complete the selection process by December 4, 2009 and begin to develop an action/implementation plan with the selected firm, with the goal of having the redesigned stemc.org site launched no later than the 3 rd Quarter 2010.
VII. Proposal Evaluation Criteria The selection committee includes St. Elizabeth Medical Center s Chief Operating Officer (Bob Scholefield); Chief Financial Officer (Lou Aiello);VP of Marketing, Public Relations & Governmental Affairs (Catherine Hanover); Manager of Marketing, Public Relations & Governmental Affairs (Sandra Fentiman); and Web Coordinator (Kevin Foresti). The following criteria will be used to evaluate submitted proposals (their order is not necessarily indicative of their relative importance). 1. Demonstrated experience providing the services requested and forward-thinking approaches to website use and design. 2. The firm s plans to perform the work and meet the objectives as outlined in Section III - Project Goals &. 3. Composition of the firm, including key personnel committed to the St. Elizabeth project, their experience and track record of performance, and the firm s reputation for providing high-quality web design and development services. 4. Firm s financial proposal, including terms. 5. Administration and personnel (length of time firm has been in business, qualifications of key personnel, assignment of support staff). 6. SEMC s compatibility and comfort level (i.e., fit ) with the firm as it relates to our mission, vision and values and the perceived level of customer service we anticipate the firm will provide during such an engagement. VIII. Contract Terms St. Elizabeth Medical Center will negotiate contract terms upon selection. All Contracts are subject to review by St. Elizabeth Medical Center legal counsel and Chief Financial Officer and a project will be awarded upon signing of an agreement or contract. Provisions of this RFP and the contents of the successful responses are considered available for inclusion in the final contractual obligations. IX. Submission Requirements To be considered, the proposal must be submitted to St. Elizabeth Medical Center by November 19, 2009. All data/material developed or acquired by the firm as a result of work under the RFP will be the property of St. Elizabeth Medical Center. St. Elizabeth Medical Center reserves the right to reject any or all proposals submitted. Five copies of the proposal should be submitted to Sandra Fentiman (see Page 1).