October 21, 2014 Atlanta Regional Commission REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS Website Redesign The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is soliciting proposals to support the redesign of the ARC website. ARC is requesting proposals from consulting firms, or teams of firms, to assist the ARC with finalizing the project approach, schedule and cost. ARC reserves the right to negotiate scope and fee prior to contract award. The available funds for the project will be approximately $60,000-$80,000. Please provide a description of the proposed approach your firm would take, either individually or in cooperation with other firms, to accomplish the tasks outlined in the Scope of Work provided in Exhibit A. The proposal will provide a schedule, which will include major milestones and interim deliverables detailing all work to be completed as well as time for review of interim deliverables by ARC staff as needed. The proposal will provide project cost estimates in the format provided in Exhibit B. The consultant shall determine the level of effort for each task of the Scope of Work which must be clearly provided in the proposal. This level of effort is to be presented in a format which includes the total man-hours and cost for each task. ARC will convene an evaluation committee composed of members of ARC staff. The evaluation committee will review all proposals and make a consultant selection. Based on the responses to this request for proposals, the ARC may identify a short list of firms from the submissions received. Should it be determined that interviews are required, the shortlisted firms may be invited to participate in an interview process with the evaluation committee. ARC reserves the right to award this contract based on proposals received without interviews. ARC intends to award a contract for the project in December 2014, and the work shall be completed by April 2015. The successful consultant or team of consultants should be prepared to begin work immediately. ARC reserves the right to award all or part of the available funds for this project. The contract will be awarded to the consultant determined to be the most qualified to perform the work based on the following evaluation criteria: 1. Experience related to the scope of work of the firm (or team of firms) and individuals in the firm directly assigned to the project. (40%) 2. Proposed approach to address the attached Scope of Work (Exhibit A) in developing an effective Website Redesign Implementation Plan. (35%) 3. Consultant s cost estimates versus work provided. The cost estimate shall follow the format outlined in Exhibit B. (20%) 4. Three references including a contact person and information from similar previous projects. (5%)
Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE) shall have equal opportunity to participate in the performance of ARC s contracts. Such DBEs are encouraged to compete, as prime consultant, consultant team members or sub-consultants and should be so identified in responses to this RFP. Proposals should be limited to a total of no more than 15 pages (not including cover, table of contents, divider sheets, resumes, and cost proposal) and should include the following information: 1. Name of the lead firm, and other firms or sub-consultants; 2. Point of contact (name, title, email address and phone #) at lead firm; 3. Project Manager (name, title and phone number) at lead firm; 4. Qualifications and technical competence of consultant and sub-consultants; 5. Description of consultant s similar experience on projects related to the Scope of Work; 6. Identification of specific personnel committed to work on the project, the office locations of this personnel, and a description of their education and experience directly related to the Scope of Work. One page resumes of key staff should be provided as an appendix to the proposal; 7. A proposed work plan including: a. approach to accomplishing the work described in Exhibit A; b. schedule, interim deliverables and milestones; c. reasons for proposed task additions, modifications or expansions; d. list of anticipated needs from the ARC. 8. A proposed project cost proposal in the format of Exhibit B to this RFP (not included in the page limit); 9. Any other pertinent information including potential additional services beyond the scope of work. All of the proposed approaches provided should be based at a minimum on the applicant s review of ARC s current website. http://www.atlantaregional.com. Questions regarding this RFP must be submitted no later than November 3, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. and should be submitted in writing to David Dudley (ddudley@atlantaregional.com). Pertinent information, including questions and responses to written questions, will be posted on the ARC website by November 10, 2014 close of business. No other direct contact related to this Request for Proposal is permitted between prospective consultants and the ARC staff. Responses to this RFP must include six (6) printed copies of the proposal, as well as an electronic copy in Microsoft Word or PDF format (on CD or thumb drive), no later than 5:00 p.m. on November 24, 2014. No responses received after this date and time will be considered. Font size should be a minimum of 11 point. The delivery package shall be labeled: Atlanta Regional Commission Proposals shall be delivered to the following address: Atlanta Regional Commission ATTN: David Dudley 40 Courtland Street, NE Atlanta, GA 30303
EXHIBIT A SCOPE OF SERVICES About ARC The Atlanta Regional Commission is the regional planning and intergovernmental coordination agency for the 10-county area including Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties, as well as the City of Atlanta. For over 65 years, ARC and its predecessor agencies have helped to focus the region's leadership, attention and resources on key issues of regional consequence. ARC is dedicated to unifying the region's collective resources to prepare the metropolitan area for a prosperous future. It does so through professional planning initiatives, the provision of objective information and the involvement of the community in collaborative partnerships. Vision The Atlanta Regional Commission is the regional leader in identifying values, developing policies and executing plans that matter to residents and communities that ensure competitive advantage and that preserve long term sustainability. Mission The Atlanta Regional Commission will demonstrate professional and forward looking leadership to ensure sustainable growth and competitive advantage by focusing and balancing environmental responsibility, economic growth and social needs. Audience The core of our audience consists of elected local government officials and their staff, planning professionals, partner agencies and engaged citizens within the 10 county metro Atlanta region. Website Background ARC s website, http://www.atlantaregional.com, serves as the agency s main online outlet to provide information about its plans, programs, services, regional data, meetings and other information to its various audiences. The website was last redesigned by internal staff in 2009, and it was developed in a proprietary content management system (CMS) through a Software as a Service (SaaS) agreement. The overall website is managed by ARC s Communications and Marketing division, while the content is maintained by an internal Web Team composed of representatives from each division. Web traffic is tracked by Google Analytics and is currently tracking 595 pages and reports roughly 34,000 unique visits a month.
Dynamic Content Parts While the majority of the site is static content, there are a few dynamically generated content parts such as: The document repository Example: http://atlantaregional.com/land-use/livable-centers-initiative/recipients/search-lcirecipients Press Release lists Example: homepage and http://atlantaregional.com/about-us/news-press/press-releases RFP lists Example: http://atlantaregional.com/rfps-rfqs Events lists Example: Homepage and http://atlantaregional.com/info-center/arc-events The rotating feature gallery on the homepage The site search function Example: Global Comments feature Example: http://atlantaregional.com/local-government/arts-culture/conversations-on-arts-culture Web forms Example: http://atlantaregional.com/contact-us The regional map (Flash) Example: Homepage we do not want any Flash technology on the new site Special Sections There are two sections that deviate from the look and feel of the rest of our website PLAN 2040 and the Regional Plan. The Regional Plan, formerly known as PLAN 2040, is ARC s long range plan for the Atlanta region. This effort includes a plan development process that unifies elements of ARC s community development, and transportation planning activities, local growth as outlined in local Comprehensive Plans and Livable Centers Initiatives (LCI) plans and other local policies. Examples: The Regional Plan: http://atlantaregional.com/the-regional-plan/the-regional-plan PLAN 2040: http://atlantaregional.com/plan2040 Major Pain Points of the Website The design is outdated and not mobile-friendly. The large amount of content and the antiquated site architecture make it difficult for our visitors to locate the information they are searching for. We do not have a content strategy or guidelines to help the Web Team keep content current, useful and relevant. It is not integrated with our other online outlets like Social Media. We have internal staff with design and development skills; however, our current CMS setup limits our ability to utilize these skills to improve our site.
What we do like about our current website It has a document repository that allows users to easily search through and filter large amounts of documents related to a given topic. An example of this application can be seen at: http://atlantaregional.com/land-use/livable-centers-initiative/recipients/search-lci-recipients. At the very least, we need a similar feature on the new site. However, we are open to suggestions for improvement or a more comprehensive solution to serving our many documents. Our current CMS allows us to easily organize our site assets through various libraries for documents, images and content items. Other Online Communication Outlets The following are separate from the current site: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/atlantaregionalcommission Twitter - https://twitter.com/atlantaregional LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/company/atlanta-regional-commission Vimeo - http://vimeo.com/atlantaregional YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/atlregcomm Eventbrite - http://www.eventbrite.com/o/atlanta-regional-commission-543459774 Campaigner for email marketing Online mapping applications example: http://garc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/publicinformation/index.html?appid=e9fa19ad262d4f4e9a0e8e 971a144b5b News Center http://news.atlantaregional.com, (this is done in WordPress) SharePoint (currently, internal, but may have external license soon) Project Objectives The primary objective of the website redesign is to improve the user experience for our various audiences. One of the most frequent complaints we get of our website is that there is too much information on our site and that the information people are looking for is too difficult to find. The goals we want accomplish in this project are: Allow users to easily find information about our plans, programs, services, regional data, latest news and upcoming meetings and events. Have a mobile optimized website Have a clear set of content and design guidelines for use by our Communications and Marketing division and Web Team. Allow users to share our content through social media outlets and email. Integrate our site with our social media outlets. Allow users to engage or provide feedback where appropriate through web forms, comments and surveys Allow users to quickly and easily locate reports and other documents. While we have a lot of pages on our website, the bulk of our content is located in the many documents we have linked on the site. We need a better way to distribute this information. Give the Web Team the ability to feature/promote content such as plans, events, news, call-toaction, important dates, user surveys, time sensitive information, etc.
Have a calendar that combines our meetings and events into one interface and allows users to filter events and meetings by category, day and month. Note: Our current meetings are populated by SharePoint while our events are populated through our current CMS. Integrate our News Center website so that they are not separate websites. http://news.atlantaregional.com Wiki Knowledge Management This Wiki Knowledge Management application, also known as ARC-ipedia, will be our online encyclopedia of everything that is ARC, and it will be used as an information sharing resource for ARC staff. We expect that this functionality will be provided by a WordPress plugin. This section will not need to be populated with content from the consultant. This is a new feature that will be populated over time by ARC staff. This Wiki will have the following: Will only be accessible by internal ARC staff The ability to be edited by all ARC staff Multisite integration Font-end editing Revision history Integrated page discussion tools Intuitive navigation Notification system The plugin must be actively developed, updated and supported Media integration such as videos and images. Technical Requirements The consultant will develop the website in WordPress. The consultant will develop in the Bootstrap framework. The consultant will use JQuery. The consultant will utilize best practices in separating style, function and content. The site will be hosted in the WPEngine hosting environment. All WordPress and JQuery plugins used will come from reputable sources and will be actively maintained. ARC will require a multi-step approval process with email notification. ARC will require the ability to schedule content publishing and expiration. Site development will utilize responsive design for mobile optimization. The consultant will provide code commenting to explain the use of custom functions. Site will be compatible with the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer, versions 8+
Project Tasks All tasks listed below are not meant to limit the consultant process, and we are open to recommendations. If there is an objection to a task deliverable, please present the objection along with the justification in the proposal. Task 1 Project Planning A. Prepare project schedule for all tasks in this scope of work that includes a project kickoff meeting and minimum of three (3) meetings to update ARC staff on progress and review interim work products. No work will proceed until project schedule is approved by ARC s website redesign project manager. B. Provide a discovery process that will include but not be limited to: 1. A content audit/analysis of the current website 2. Target audience analysis 3. Stakeholder interviews and user surveys 4. Define ARC, user and site objectives C. Prepare a design and strategy brief based on the results of the discovery process. Deliverables Task 1 Project schedule for all tasks itemized in the scope of work; results of site analysis, stakeholder interviews and user surveys; definition of business, user and site objectives and desired outcomes; target audience profiles; design and strategy brief. Task 2 Site Structure and Content Strategy A. Develop sitemap and navigation options to demonstrate use cases. B. Develop wireframes that demonstrate content parts, functionality, special features and user flow. C. Develop content strategy defining the purpose and function of each content part as well as best practices. Deliverables - Task 2 Three sitemap and navigation options with use cases; final sitemap and navigation option based on ARC input and revision; three wireframes for homepage, secondary page and tertiary page (for mobile, desktop and tablet); final wireframe set based on ARC input and revision; content strategy document. Task 3 Website Design A. Provide final design based on the ARC approved wireframes. B. Prepare a design guidelines document for the website. Deliverables Task 3 Three design comps for homepage, secondary page and tertiary page, (for mobile, desktop and tablet); final design based on ARC input and revision of comps; design guidelines document based on ARC approved design. Task 4 Website Production A. Develop the website in WordPress. B. Populate site with new content and migrate the content from the current site. C. Develop quality control and testing plan. D. Prepare site to go live.
Deliverables Task 4 One development site for Windows local environment, one staging site in WPEngine and one production site in WPEngine; populate site with new content and migrate current content from old site; present a logistics plan prior to go-live date; take necessary measures to successfully launch the website; redirect all URLs from current site; ensure that Google Analytics is tracking. Task 5 Post Production A. Provide onsite CMS training for ARC Web Team. B. Provide website documentation that explains the purpose and functionality of each template and content part as well as each plugin. The document will also contain the source of each plugin (this includes WordPress plugins and JQuery plugins) as well as any custom web fonts. C. Project asset handover D. Allow for a 60 day testing period starting at the official site launch date. Deliverables Task 5 Onsite CMS training and training document for ARC Web Team; documentation that explains the purpose and functionality of each template and content part as well as each plugin. The document will also contain the source of each plugin as well as any custom web fonts; allow for a 60 day testing period starting at the official site launch date; delivery of all project assets including but not limited to graphics, stock imagery, fonts, source code, licensing, and documentation.
EXHIBIT B BUDGET BY TASK Proposed cost for each task should be a lump sum for that task. Task 1: Project Planning $ Task 2: Website Building $ Task 3: Website Finalization $ TOTAL $