|
| Request for Proposals
(RFP) |
The City of Pasadena is seeking the services of a qualified firm to design
and implement a new website.
To view the project details visit:
-
How to download the RFP
| Vendor submitted
questions & answers |
The city does not
plan to hold a pre-proposal bidders conference. Instead, the City will
accept written questions (including FAX transmissions and e-mail) received
no later than the deadline for RFP questions listed in section 1.3 of this
document. Questions regarding this Request for Proposal should be directed
only to the person designated below. Do not contact any other City employee
or official regarding this RFP.
Bryan W. Sands,
Administrator
Office of Technology &
Information Systems
City of Pasadena
Department of Information Services
285 East Walnut Street
Pasadena, CA 91101
Voice: (626) 744-4252
Fax: (626) 449-2165
e-mail: bsands@cityofpasadena.net
Answers to written questions will be provided to all proposing firms on the
Technology & Information Systems website:
www.cityofpasadena.net/tis/
Click on one of the links
below to find questions submitted on that day:
Monday, March 17th
1. What is the desired date to officially launch the new City of
Pasadena website?
No specific date for launch of the new website has been
established. It is
anticipated that the specific timeline will be developed in consultation
with the selected vendor as the project gets underway.
2. What is the average Page Views for the current website on a daily,
weekly, and monthly basis?
The City of Pasadena uses visits to track website usage. A visit
is a series of actions that begins when a visitor views the first page
from the server, and ends when the visitor leaves the site or remains
idle beyond the idle-time limit which is currently set for 30 minutes.
The City of Pasadena Website statistics for 2007 are
as follows:
3. Will the City of Pasadena assign an internal project manager for
the duration of the project?
Yes. Our City Webmaster, Kim Myers, will serve as the internal project
manager and will be responsible for day-to-day management of the
project.
4. Will a core team be identified to make approvals for the
functional, technical, and visual deliverables? What are the
roles/responsibilities of these team members?
The Principal Technology Officer and/or City Webmaster in the
Department of Information Services will be responsible for final
approval of all functional, technical and visual deliverables.
It is anticipated that the vendor will interact with the following
internal teams at various stages during the design and implementation
process.
Website Redesign Project Team
This team will be headed by the City Webmaster and will include
4-6 staff level representatives from key city departments. These
will be staff that work regularly with the city website and they will be
charged with providing feedback to the vendor on various design and
implementation proposals.
Executive Sponsors
This group is comprised of key stakeholders from the city's
Executive Committee such as the City Manager, Public Information
Officer, Police Chief, Fire Chief, Library Director and Finance
Director. They will primarily be involved in approving the overall design of the new website and
will not be involved in the
day-to-day details of the implementation process.
5. Are there any requirements as to the frequency in which the
vendor must be on-site for this project?
There is no specific requirement for the vendor to be on-site for this
project. However, it is difficult to imagine how a prospective
vendor could succeed in this endeavor without some opportunity for
onsite data gathering, consultation, and training
6. If working remotely, will the vendor have access to the
Development and Production environments (web servers and data servers)?
Yes, our Infrastructure Manager will work with the selected vendor to
provide necessary access to all relevant servers through secure
connections.
7. Has the City of Pasadena defined the Information Architecture, or
should Consulting efforts to assist in this definition be included within
the Response?
Yes. Developing a comprehensive strategy for organizing the
information contained within the new website is considered part of the
scope of this project.
8. Will the City of Pasadena require assistance with implementing a
Distributed Content Management Model?
Yes. We wish to implement a system that supports distributed
management of web content throughout the city organization. For
example, individual content creators within a department must have the
ability to create new content, have it approved within their department,
and then have it approved by the City Webmaster.
9. How many total Content Pages will need to be completed within this
response (3.3.13)? While 50 is the minimum, what is the maximum? And
to confirm, all content will be prepared and delivered by the City of
Pasadena, correct?
Section 3.3.13 should have used the word "maximum" rather than minimum".
As such the vendor would be required to develop a maximum of 50
top-level pages using content derived from the existing city website.
It is our expectation that the selected vendor will extract the content
used on these pages directly from the existing city website.
10. Will the City of Pasadena require assistance with developing a
content migration strategy for remainder of the content pages?
Yes.
11. Should additional training for Administrators and Content Managers
based on the Ektron configuration also be provided within this RFP? This
would be in addition to the Ektron Quick Start Training.
No. We anticipate handling training for departmental Content
Managers in-house. Additional training for Administrators if
deemed necessary will be the subject of a separate purchase from the
chosen vendor or directly with Ektron.
12. Should Administrator documentation for the configured Ektron
Workarea be provided as a final deliverable within this RFP?
Yes.
13. Will the City of Pasadena require consulting to implement and
fine-tune the Ektron Search Synonym Sets and Suggested Results?
Yes. We would like to explore the use of Ektron's inherent search
capabilities. However, we would also be interested in exploring
the pros/cons of implementing the Google search
appliance as an alternative search platform.
14. Has the City of Pasadena reviewed the Ektron Government Starter
Site, and determined the custom development is required for their new
implementation?
Yes. We have reviewed the
Ektron Government Starter Site and have determined that custom
development is required to meet our requirements.
15. What assumptions were made to determine that 25-30 .ASPX Templates
are required? Do wireframes or functional specifications exist for these
25-30 .ASPX Templates?
The 25 - 30 .aspx templates represent the
maximum number of distinct temples envisioned for the site. No
specifications or wireframes exist for these templates.
16. Is the goal of the (up to) 50 Stylesheets to enable the
Departmental webpages to have
a unique visual display? Would/Could several of these stylesheets become
.NET Themes?
Yes, the intent is to be able to support a unique look and feel for
departmental pages while maintaining a consistent overall theme among
all pages on the site. The use of .NET themes could be considered.
17. While Ektron does provide basic Website Analytics, has the City of
Pasadena already selected a commercial-based Analytics tool? If not, will
the City of Pasadena procure this software outside of this RFP? Or is the
desire to solely utilize the Ektron Analytics?
We have already procured
and are currently using Webtrends 7.0 Professional. We will continue to
use this Webtrends in additional to Ektron's Website Analytics.
18. Is there more detail available regarding the type of integrations
with the CMS/MS Access Databases (as stated in 3.3.9.c)? Are there specific
examples of this integration on the current website (please provide example
URLs if available)?
Examples of current databases include:
19. Is there more detail available regarding the extensive integrations with
the Community Calendar? Is this simply Template integration, or are there
additional requirements? Would the City of Pasadena consider utilizing
Ektron functionality (rather than Trumba Connect) for the Community
Calendar?
We are committed to using
Trumba Connect as the calendar solution and are not interested in
utilizing Ektron's built-in calendar system at this time. The Trumba
integration would involve a simple template integration.
20. Are there any requirements for the .ASPX Templates to support
multi-language outputs from the Ektron Content Blocks?
No. We do not intend to implement
multi-lingual capabilities at this time.
21. Does the City of Pasadena expect to utilize the Ektron multi-site
functionality for this implementation?
No. The initial implementation will be focused on the single
public internet website but staff may choose to repurpose some content
in the future as part of an Intranet site.
22. Should technical documentation for the .ASPX Templates be provided
as a final deliverable within this RFP?
Yes.
23. Is there a desire to provide a more interactive experience as part
of the new Design?
Absolutely!
24. Should Flash Development services be included within this response
for the Department Pages 3.2.17?
The intent of section 3.2.17 was to require compatibility with Flash
animation on the department and city home pages. It is not our
expectation that the selected vendor would create specific flash content
for each of these areas.
25. What type of media libraries are available for the visual design
efforts? Should a separate external media budget be included within this
response?
The selected vendor will have access to
the photo city's photo collections which are maintained by the Public
Affairs Office. Some of the photos are already in digital
format and others will require conversion by the vendor. If the
available images do not meet the needs of the project the vendor should
be prepared to create additional photos for use throughout the
website.
26. Does the City of Pasadena have a Style Guide or Communication
Standards that will be made available for Design efforts?
The Pasadena Housing & Development Division commissioned
the creation of a style guide in 2000 that has been unofficially adopted
by several other city departments. A copy of the document is
available for review at the following URL:
27. Exhibit E of the proposal lists taxpayer
Disclosure Form that is not in the current Addendum. Could you
please provide a link to the form or a downloadable file?
Correct.
Apparently when the RFP was set up in the system this form was
inadvertently omitted. We will be adding the form to the bidding
website as an addendum so registered vendors should be notified by
e-mail once it is posted.
Wednesday,
March 19th
Reference:
Section 3.1
1. Has a determination been made if you will be using the Ektron
CMS Authentication System or integrating with a Microsoft Active
Directory System?
No firm decision
has been made.
2. If integrating
with Active Directory, does the AD system already exist or is it in the
scope of this work to design and setup the AD if it does not exist?
MS Active
Directory is available within the city's network and would be the
preferred solution.
Reference:
Section 3.2,
Bullet 1
3. Do the audio and video files already exist and are they in the
desired format or should we include time for Audio/Video processing?
The intent of
this section was not to require creation of new content but to ensure
compatibility of existing content of this type.
Reference:
Section 3.2,
Bullet 2
4. Are there specific types of mobile devices that should be
supported or can we target modern smart phone type devices such as the
Blackberry, iPhone, and MS SmartPhones?
No specific
types are "required". Focusing on common modern smart phone type
devices would be sufficient.
Reference: Section
3.2, Bullet 5
5. Is the integration of web applications such as the business
license application just links to existing external applications or
should we include time to integrate these applications with the new
site?
The intent of this section was to focus
on links to these applications.
Reference: Section
3.2, Bullet 8
6. What is the process for becoming a member? Will there be a sign
up form that automatically grants visitors access or will there be some
sort of review and approval process?
Sign up and
automatically grant access.
Reference: Section
3.2, Bullet 9
7. What types of personalizations do you envision users being able
to make?
This is open to
discussion but we envision the user being able to set preferences about
what content blocks might be displayed on their opening page.
Reference:
Section 3.3,
Bullet 6
8. What types of variations do you anticipate there being for
style sheets?
General layout,
text, color, size, graphics.
Reference: Section
3.3, Bullet 9
9. How many different databases will need to be integrated into
the site?
No more than
five.
10. Do these
interfaces provide read-only browse/search/display of information or
will there also need to be screens built to allow data entry and
database administration?
Yes. Read
only browse/search/display.
11. How complex
are these databases? Is there any schema information available to
assist in determining the complexity?
The databases
are fairly simplistic and should not require extensive work by the
vendor.
Reference: Section
3.3, Bullet 11
12. How do you envision the membership groups and security
working? Can you provide any specific examples?
These issues
will be determined in consultation with the selected vendor and it is
understood that the capabilities may be limited by the inherent
functionality of the Ektron CMS400.net. In general we anticipate
each city department would have a small number of users who might have
access to their own content, which would be approved internally before
being submitted to the webmaster for final approval.
Reference:
Miscellaneous
13. Are there specific end-user Operating Systems and Browser
compatibility requirements?
Focusing on IE,
Firefox and Safari over the last three years would be sufficient.
14. How many
FrontPage Templates are used in maintaining the current site?
We are currently
using 2 different FrontPage templates.
15. How many total
pages are there on the current site?
The
current site has over 5000 web pages.
16. How many
departments and sections are there on the current site?
Less than 30.
17. Is the vendor
expected to specify or recommend any of the hosting hardware/software?
No. See
section 3.1.
18. Is the vendor
expected to perform the initial server hardware installation and
configuration?
No. This
will be handled by city personnel.
19. Are there
specific pieces of documentation that you are expecting at the
completion of the project?
Yes. See
questions 22 and 12 from Monday, March 17.
20.
Will the
website contain or collect any sensitive information that should have
controlled access or require encryption before storage?
The only
requirement would be that data submitted through web forms is protected
using https.
Reference: Section 3.2, Bullet 2
21.
Do you mean browsing the web on Mobile? Or sending SMS etc. Browsing on
Mobile with Windows OS would not be a problem but will have to be tested
on Symbian OS. Let us know if any other OS has to be taken into
consideration.
Yes. See
Question 4 from Wednesday, March 19, above.
Reference:
Section 3.2,
Bullet 3
22. Feedback & Request forms are OK. Spam control is
dependent on server configuration and setup and outside the application
scope.
We will work
with the selected vendor to ensure appropriate spam safeguards are
employed within the constraints of the Ektron CMS400.net platform.
Reference:
Section 3.2,
Bullet 4
23. We will need integration details from the service provider.
This should not be complex as it
involves integrating bits of predefined JavaScript. If you are
concerned, please feel free to contact the vendor (Trumba) directly.
Reference: Section
3.2,
Bullet 5
24. We assume separate application for maintaining this
information already exists. If not, please state.
Correct.
See Question 5 from Wednesday, March 19, above.
25. The scope here is for only viewing such information from
public site. Will the client provide any web service /API for accessing
this information?
Correct.
See Question 5 from Wednesday, March 19, above.
Reference:
Section 3.2,
Bullet 6
26. Please elaborate on ‘type of users’. Will ‘type of
users’ be a category in taxonomy? Please give examples, preferably in
tree structure.
Developing the
navigational structure of the new site will be the subject of dialogue
with the selected vendor. No specific details on this aspect of
the project are available at this time.
Reference:
Section 3.2, Bullet 8
27. Please elaborate on all the functionalities of a member.
See Questions 6
and 7 from Wednesday, March 19, above.
Reference: Section
3.2, Bullet 9
28. Please provide the list of preference settings that will be
allowed for personalization.
See Questions 6
and 7 from Wednesday, March 19, above.
Reference: Section
3.2, Bullet 16
29. Google Search Appliance would be more effective.
See Question 13
from Monday, March 17, above.
Reference: Section
3.2, Bullet 17
30.
Every flash animation will
be treated as an individual content. It is assumed that anything with in the
flash file will be static. Let us know if you feel otherwise.
See Question 24
from Monday, March 17, above.
Reference: Section
3.2, Bullet 18
31. Client will need to provide integration details. Will
Granicus be used for streaming as mentioned in #1 above?
This should not be complex as it
involves embedding a Windows Media Viewer. If you are concerned, please
feel free to contact the vendor (Granicus) directly.
Reference: Section
3.3, Bullet 7
32.
All can be achieved excepting “or format text outside of specified styles”.
This may not be supported as any user having access to work area and to any
content can change as per his will. Will have to look further into it.
We believe
restricting the ability to modify text formatting is an inherent
capability of Ektron. If this turns out not to be the case, we
will work with the vendor to explore alternatives.
Reference: Section
3.3, Bullet 9a
33. Are the outside
servers specific?
Yes.
34. Are you talking
of the database of the proposed website? If not, please elaborate.
The primary
focus of this section was to attempt to configure a searching strategy
that would access information stored not only on the city's servers but
also on external web platforms such as Granicus and Trumba which appear
to the end user to be part of the city's website.
35. Will these
meetings be entered in peoplecube.com / trumba.com?
Yes. The
meetings would be listed in Trumba, Granicus and in a table on the city
website.
Reference: Section 3.3, Bullet 9b
36. This is dependent
on the above mentioned point. The third party should provide similar
services.
We are unsure how to respond
to this comment.
Reference: Section
3.3, Bullet 9c
37. The MS Access
data will be converted into MS SQL. You will need to provide its structure
and necessary documents for analyzing.
We agree that
existing MS Access databases will be converted to MSSQL. See
Question 11 from Wednesday, March 19, above for more details.
Reference: Section
3.3, Bullet 9d
38. The statistics
will be limited to those provided by EKTRON
See Question 13
from Monday, March 17, above.
Thursday, March
20th
Reference: General
1. Are there
any other city or municipal websites that you feel that you want to
emulate?
Not particularly. We look forward
to exploring various options with the selected vendor and
developing design and structure that is unique to Pasadena.
2. Do they
have a site map and/or wireframe of the site?
See Question 15
from Monday, March 17, above.
Reference: Section 3.3.9c
3. You mention that the site needs to interact with outside databases. How many and are there and are they all SQL / Oracle other?
Please see Question
34
from Wednesday, March 19, above. We believe Trumba and
Granicus are using SQL Server.
If you are concerned, please feel free
to contact the vendors directly.
Reference: Page 13, Local Preference
4. You
mention Local Business considerations. What constitutes Local?
This section contains boilerplate
language specified by the City's Purchasing Division. Please
contact them directly for clarification.
Friday, March
21st
Reference: Section 3.2
1. Is the services contract open for amendment?
All vendors must be prepared to
perform the services outlined in the Section 3.2 as part of their
proposal response so that all bids may evaluated on a level playing
field. However, once a vendor is selected for the project the city
will be willing to review specific elements of the project before
finalizing a contract.
Reference: Section 3.2,
Bullet 5
2. Do these applications already
exist and do we need to integrate with these applications? Please provide
more detail.
The applications
already exist. See Question 5 from Wednesday, March 19, above.
Reference: Section
3.3, Bullet 9d
3. Does the City of Pasadena plan to use the statistics tool within
Ektron or will it be procuring another tool? If so, which tool?
Both. See
Question 17 from Monday, March 17, above.
Reference:
Miscellaneous
4. What is the anticipated launch date?
See Question 1 from
Monday, March 17, above.
5. What is your desired timeline for implementation?
See Question 1 from
Monday, March 17, above.
Reference: Section
3.2, Bullet 5
6. Can you provide any additional details about the “CMS interfaces to
existing MS Access Databases….” (Page 8 – question 9c)? Or do you want the
vendor to work with the City to identify and potentially develop approaches
for integrating this information?
See Question 18
from Monday, March 17, and Question 11 from Wednesday, March 19, above.
Reference:
Miscellaneous
7. Is there an approved budget for this project? Is so, what is the
budget range?
The city does not have a formally
approved budget for this project and therefore no specific figure or
range can be provided. However, sufficient funds are available in
reserve and will be appropriated once a final proposal is selected.
8. What type of training is desired?
See Question 11
from Monday, March 17, above.
9. How large is your overall site (in terms of content)?
See Question 2
from Monday, March 17, and Question 15 from Wednesday, March 19, above.
10. What web analytics platform do you want to use?
See Question 13
from Monday, March 17, above.
11. How many individual urls will be managed by the CMS?
Currently we are using one main
URL with 20-plus additional URLs used for web forwarding back to
different directories within the main URL. We will also use the
CMS to manage the URL for an intranet site that will be developed by
city staff and is outside the scope of this project.
12. Is it acceptable for the project team to work remotely, utilize WebEx
and conference calls to minimize travel costs, and to generally work with
little on-site presence (with exceptions for milestone and strategy
meetings, on-site training, etc.)?
See Questions 5
and 6
from Monday, March 17, above.
13. Would you consider delaying the RFP due date based on the timing of
when the Answers are provided?
We have decided to extend the
deadline for submitting responses to this RFP by one week. The new
deadline will be April 10, 2007 @ 5:00pm. All vendors who have registered and
downloaded the RFP will be informed of this change electronically via email.
The deadline for prospective bidders to submit questions remains March
21, 2008 and will not be extended. Answers to all questions
submitted prior to the deadline will be posted on this site by city
staff no later than end of business on March 24, 2008.
14. Can you share any more
details on the specific business/operational drivers of this redesign
initiative?
The current website
design was implemented in 1999. Since then, the city has outgrown
both the limited design features and back-end technical capabilities
afforded by the use of FrontPage templates. Regular updates to the
site have become cumbersome to implement throughout the site because of
the lack of a CMS infrastructure.
15. Do you have any existing research (qualitative and/or
quantitative) on the various audiences/users you serve? If so, when was it
completed and what is the nature of it? Are you envisioning research being
an element of this proposal?
No. Research
involving the communities we serve is not part of the scope of this
project. The selected vendor will engage the various internal
groups outlined in question #4 from Monday, March 17th above in order to
gain insight as to how the site will be used and how it should be
structured. We also have access to statistics from Webtrends
showing how the existing site has been used. These may be helpful
to review during the design phase.
16. Web development projects can
vary greatly in terms of scope. As we would like to be sensitive to your
business and budget needs, are there any parameters you can provide from a
cost perspective?
Please see Question 7
from Friday, March 21, above.
Reference: Section 3.2
17. Has the decision already been made to use Windows Media over other
video delivery formats such as Flash or Quicktime?
While we would be
open to discussing the use of alternative video formats, our Granicus streaming media content
platform, which is used for council meetings and training
videos, is entirely based on Windows Media and Siverlight.
Reference: Section 3.3.c
18. In section 3.3.9.a you mention searching various content on CMS
managed and unmanaged, both residing on city and "outside" servers. Can you
clarify the definition of “outside” servers?
Please see
Question 34 from Wednesday, March 19, and Question 3 from Thursday,
March 20, above.
Reference: General
19. Where can we obtain the Form AA-2, in order
to follow the instructions as a Small Business?
This form is
included as one of the pages in the document "EEO Forms.doc"
which is embedded in the Addendum 1 file "ACF84C2.rtf"
which can be downloaded from same page where you downloaded the actual
RFP document.
http://www.planetbids.com/Pasadena/biddtl.cfm?BidNo=662
Reference: Section 3.2, Bullet 5
20. Can you please provide full details on the interface currently
available to interact programmatically with each item listed (if any is
available)? Will code need to be written that sends and retrieves data from
the items listed, or are there web pages that interact with them that are
already programmed and that can be reused by being embedded into iframes?
See Question 18
from Monday, March 17, and Question 11 from Wednesday, March 19, above.
Reference: Section 3.2, Bullet 17
21. Can you please provide more details on the
animations desired?
See Question 24
from Monday, March 17, above.
Reference: Section 3.2, Bullet 18
22. Will the integration be merely the ability to link to streaming
content in the Granicus streaming media solution?
See Question 31
from Wednesday, March 19, above.
Reference: Section 3.2, Bullet 19
23. Will the FAQ page be a normal content page which links to jump
down to FAQ answers?
Developing the
FAQ structure will be the subject of dialogue
with the selected vendor. No specific details on this aspect of
the project are available at this time.
Reference: Section 3.3, Bullet 9a
24. Is more detail available as to the nature of the unmanaged content
that needs to be searched (i.e. DOC, PDF, PPT, etc? How many different
locations does it reside on? Does its content need to be searched or just
its title and date(s)? Is the content currently cataloged in a database of
some sort?
See Question 34
from Wednesday, March 19, above.
Reference: Section 3.3, Bullet 9c
25. What are the details on the CMS interface that is desired for each
of the items listed?
See Questions 11
and 37 from Wednesday, March 19, above for more details.
Reference: Section 4.1
26. Review Process says "Submission of a bid will be deemed a
binding offer to enter into a contract on the terms contained therein for
120 days from the RFP opening" . Does this mean that the project duration is
estimated to be for 120 days?
The 120 day timeframe
discussed in Section 4.1 does not relate in any way to the duration of
the website redesign & implementation project itself. Rather, the
120 day timeframe refers to the window within which the city may accept
the proposal offered by any of the prospective bidders.
Reference: General
27. Will the contractor be given remote access (such as VPN connection
etc.) to do develop part of the project remotely, if required?
Yes. See
Question 6 from Monday, March 17, above.
28. Do you have a fulltime DBA on board who
can assist the contractor project development team or does a DBA service
have to be drafted into the contractor's bid?
No, the City Web
group does not have a fulltime DBA. However, the City Webmaster is
knowledgeable about the databases referenced in Section 3.3, Bullet 9c
and can assist the selected vendor in this area.
29. Will the contractor project team, be given
the necessary development tools (software development kits etc.) or is that
contractor responsibility to come up with all the necessary tools that are
required to complete the project?
The vendor is responsible for
providing all necessary tools required to complete the services outlined
in their proposal.
Reference: Section 5.5
30. Since duration of the project is not clear, is the contractor
expected to prepare the cost sheet based on the hourly rate alone or the
total cost is expected as well?
Section 5.5 clearly states
that a "fixed-price quotation is expected". The section goes on to
include guidelines for structuring elements of the proposal that may be
subject to an hourly rate and/or a not-to-exceed amount.
31.
How many vendors do you anticipate responding to this RFP?
To see a list of prospective bidders
for the website redesign &
implementation project,
please
click here.
Last Updated:
05/22/2008 04:23 PM
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