BID ADDENDUM 06 - Answers to Questions.pdf

IMPORTANT BID ADDENDUM

August 26, 2026

FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BID ADDENDUM IN ACCORDANCE WITH INSTRUCTIONS

MAY SUBJECT YOUR BID TO REJECTION ON THE AFFECTED ITEM(S):

BID Number: RFP 115-6181 COMMODITY: Website Redesign ADDENDUM Number: 06 USING AGENCY: Pitt Community College PURCHASER: Jane Alligood OPENING DATE/TIME: September 2, 2026 @ 2:00 PM ET

INSTRUCTIONS:

Please make the following change(s) in the bid referenced above:

Reference Vendor Question PCC Response 1 Section 5.3, Page 18 For the stakeholder and user discovery identified in Phase 2, does PCC anticipate providing access to representative prospective students, current students, faculty, staff, employers, and other stakeholder groups for interviews, workshops, surveys, usability testing, or other research activities?

Yes. PCC will assist with identifying, recruiting, and connecting the Vendor with appropriate participants as available.

2 Section 5.2, Page 17 Does PCC have existing Recovery Time Objective (RTO), Recovery Point Objective (RPO), backup retention, disaster recovery testing, or business continuity requirements that the proposed website and intranet environment must meet?

RTO, 1 hour preferred.

RPO, 1 hour preferred. 24 hours minimum.

Daily backups, retention 30 days is a minimum. Daily, weekly, monthly backups with 12-month retention preferred.

US based location for hosting. Able to demonstrate recovery testing.

Testing should be at least annually, prefer semi-annually.

3 Section 5.3, Page 18 The RFP assigns 20% of payment to each of Phases 2 through 6.

Should Vendors assume these percentages are required payment terms regardless of the Vendor’s proposed allocation of effort and cost across phases, or may

The payment allocations identified in the RFP represent PCC’s anticipated payment structure.

However, Vendors may propose an alternative milestone-based payment approach if they believe it

Vendors recommend an alternative milestone-based payment structure while maintaining the required deliverables?

better aligns with their project methodology and deliverables.

4 Attachment A, Pages 22–23

Has PCC established an anticipated annual budget for Years 2–5 covering hosting, licensing, maintenance, technical support, accessibility monitoring, security updates, and continuous improvement?

PCC has established a budget for the project; however, the College will not disclose the specific amount.

5 Section 5.1 and 5.2, Pages 14–17

Can PCC provide additional information about its desired employee-facing intranet or internal content solution, including whether the College anticipates this being an authenticated section of WordPress, a separate WordPress instance, an existing Microsoft 365/SharePoint environment, or another platform?

PCC’s goal is to establish a separate, secure, and user-friendly intranet for faculty and staff that is distinct from the College’s public-facing website. The intranet would serve as a centralized location for internal communications, resources, documents, forms, policies, announcements, and other employee information. PCC does not have a preference regarding whether the intranet is built within WordPress, as a separate WordPress instance, or on another platform. PCC is open to the Vendor’s recommendations regarding the best platform or approach to achieve this goal, including third-party solutions such as Interact. The proposed solution should be easy for both employees to use and College staff to manage, while providing appropriate security, authentication, permissions, and integration with PCC’s existing technology environment.

6 Section 5.2, Pages 16–

Does PCC currently use a centralized identity provider or single sign-on solution for employees, such as Microsoft Entra ID, and should the proposed intranet integrate with that system? If so, can PCC identify the authentication platform and any known requirements?

PCC uses Microsoft Entra ID for employee authentication and would like the proposed intranet to integrate with the College’s existing Single Sign-On (SSO) solution.

7 Section 5.2, Page 16 Does PCC currently use a third-party or custom website search

PCC currently uses SearchWP for on-site search. PCC does not have a solution, and does the College have a preference regarding continued use or replacement?

Should Vendors include any anticipated licensing or subscription costs for an advanced search platform in their pricing?

specific preference regarding whether the existing search solution is retained or replaced and welcomes Vendor recommendations based on the needs of the redesigned website.

Vendors should include any anticipated licensing, subscription, hosting, or recurring costs associated with their proposed search solution in their pricing.

8 Section 5.3, Page 18 Approximately how many PCC employees should the Vendor anticipate training as content contributors, editors, approvers, and administrators? Does PCC anticipate primarily live training, recorded training resources, written documentation, or a combination?

PCC anticipates approximately five individuals will regularly manage the public website and serve in content approval roles. The number of individuals who will manage the intranet has not yet been determined. PCC anticipates a combination of live training, recorded resources, and written documentation. Vendors should recommend the training approach they believe will best support long-term website and intranet management by College staff.

9 Section 5.2, Page 15 Does PCC have an existing brand standards or visual identity system that the redesigned website must follow, and will those materials be provided to the selected Vendor?

Is the scope intended to include any refinement or extension of the existing digital brand system, or should Vendors assume the current institutional brand will remain unchanged?

Yes, PCC will provide existing logos, fonts, color palette and photography/video assets. The selected vendor will be responsible for developing the website's visual design concepts and creative direction, including the overall look, feel and application of the College's brand across the website.

10 Sections 5.3–5.5, Pages 18–19

Can PCC describe the anticipated internal project team and identify which College departments or roles will participate in project decisions, content review, technical review, accessibility review, approvals, and final acceptance?

PCC anticipates that members of the Marketing team, appropriate subject-matter experts, and IT staff will participate throughout the project, including Discovery, stakeholder and user research, content review and creation, migration planning, technical integration, design review, accessibility review, user acceptance testing, launch preparation, and final approval.

Specific participants and stakeholder groups will be determined during the Discovery phase based on project needs and content areas. PCC will identify appropriate staff and subject-matter experts to provide content review, feedback, and approval.

11 Section 5.3, Page 18 The estimated durations shown for Phases 2 through 6 total approximately 13 months if performed sequentially, while the RFP states that the project shall not exceed 12 months. Should Vendors assume that PCC expects phases such as design, development, migration, testing, and training to overlap where appropriate?

The phase durations listed in the RFP are estimates and may overlap as appropriate. Vendors may propose a schedule that fits within the 12-month maximum.

12 Section 4.1 and Attachment A, Pages 12 and 22–23

Has PCC established an anticipated budget range or not-to-exceed amount for the initial redesign, development, migration, intranet, training, and launch engagement? If so, can PCC provide that range to help Vendors propose an appropriate level of effort and solution?

PCC has established a budget for the project; however, the College will not disclose the specific amount.

13 Section 5.1 and Attachment A, Pages 14 and 22–23

Does PCC have established expectations for post-launch support service levels, including desired support hours, response times, severity classifications, uptime expectations, security updates, WordPress/plugin maintenance, accessibility monitoring, and ongoing optimization? Or should Vendors propose their recommended support and SLA structure?

PCC has not established specific post-launch support service levels.

Vendors should propose their recommended support and SLA structure.

14 Section 5.2, Pages 15–

Should Vendors assume that PCC will provide approved photography, video, testimonials, and other multimedia assets for the redesigned website, or should the proposal include production or sourcing of new photography, video, or other media?

PCC will provide approved photography, video, testimonials, and other multimedia assets for the redesigned website.

15 Section 5.2, Page 16 Existing WordPress Environment Can PCC provide additional information about the current WordPress environment, including

PCC’s current WordPress website is hosted by SiteGround and uses WordPress Version 7.1. The site uses the Classic Editor and hosting provider, WordPress version, theme architecture, major plugins, custom functionality, multisite configuration if applicable, and any known technical or security constraints?

Elementor for more dynamic pages.

Major plugins include Elementor, Gravity Forms, Employee Directory, TablePress, WP Mail Logging, SearchWP, and Events. PCC does not currently use a multisite configuration.

16 Section 5.1, Pages 14–

Hosting and Infrastructure Does PCC expect the selected Vendor to provide and manage hosting for the public website and/or intranet, or will the solution be deployed within a PCC-managed or State-managed hosting environment? If PCC maintains the hosting environment, can additional technical specifications be provided?

PCC expects the selected Vendor to provide and manage hosting for the public website.

It can be on infrastructure such as AWS. All services need to be US based.

17 Section 5.2, Page 17 Existing Integrations Can PCC identify the primary third-party systems expected to integrate with the redesigned website, including student information systems, CRM/enrollment systems, application platforms, course/program data systems, event calendars, directories, forms, Foundation/donation platforms, emergency notifications, or other institutional systems?

PCC’s current systems and platforms include Colleague, Element451, Modern Campus, FundFive, SharePoint/Microsoft Entra ID, and Moodle (soon to be Canvas). Most of these major systems are linked to rather than directly integrated. Vendors should identify any recommended integrations and include associated costs in their proposals.

18 Section 5.2, Pages 15–

Program and Course Data How are academic programs, continuing education offerings, courses, credentials, and related program information currently maintained? Does PCC expect this information to be manually managed within WordPress, migrated from the existing website, or integrated/synchronized with another institutional system?

Academic program and course information is currently maintained through Modern Campus, which serves as PCC’s academic catalog and source of program data.

Continuing education and workforce development program information is maintained through FundFive, which also supports registration and enrollment for those offerings. PCC would like to explore opportunities to integrate with these institutional systems and reduce the need for duplicate content. Vendors should propose an approach for integrating with or linking to these systems rather than assuming all program information will be manually managed within WordPress.

19 Section 5.2 and 5.3, Pages 16–18

Current Content Inventory The RFP identifies migration of up to 500 combined pages.

Approximately how many public website pages and internal-facing pages exist today, and has PCC completed a recent content inventory that can be shared with the selected Vendor?

The current PCC website contains approximately 2,477 core content URLs, including 1,362 static pages and 1,115 news posts. The media library currently contains approximately 5,321 items. The 500-page migration limit applies to public-facing website pages only.

20 Section 5.2, Page 16 Content Rewriting and Creation For the content migration effort, does PCC expect the Vendor to rewrite and substantially revise content across the full migration set, or should Vendors assume that PCC staff will provide approved final content with the Vendor providing content strategy, recommendations, templates, editing guidance, and targeted rewriting of priority pages?

PCC expects a combination of both approaches. The selected Vendor should provide content strategy, information architecture, recommendations, templates, editorial guidance, governance recommendations, and migration support, while also performing content editing and rewriting within the approved 500-page migration scope. PCC staff will participate in content review and provide final approval and will be responsible for migrating any remaining content identified for inclusion in the new website.

21 Section 5.2, Pages 15–

Documents and Digital Accessibility Does the migration scope include accessibility remediation of existing PDFs, Word documents, forms, and other downloadable files, or should Vendors assume PCC will be responsible for remediating legacy documents based on guidance and standards established by the selected Vendor?

The selected Vendor’s scope should include accessibility remediation of existing PDFs, Word documents, forms, multimedia, and other downloadable files that will be retained and migrated to the new website. PCC would like to reduce the number of downloadable documents where possible by transitioning information into accessible web content. Any remaining downloadable files should be made accessible in accordance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA requirements.

22 Section 5.2, Page 15 Accessibility Baseline Has PCC completed a recent accessibility audit of the existing website or identified known accessibility issues that can be shared with the selected Vendor?

Are there specific accessibility

PCC has completed accessibility reviews of the current website and can provide relevant accessibility audit information and findings to the selected Vendor. PCC does not have a preferred accessibility testing methodology, vendor, tool, testing tools, reporting formats, or institutional/state standards PCC expects the Vendor to use beyond WCAG 2.1 Level AA?

or reporting format beyond demonstrating compliance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA requirements.

23 Section 5.2, Pages 16–

Analytics and Existing Performance Data What analytics and performance platforms are currently implemented on the PCC website, and will the selected Vendor receive access to historical analytics, search data, conversion data, accessibility reports, and other available performance information during discovery?

PCC currently uses Google Analytics, Siteimprove, and Google Search Console for website analytics, monitoring, and search performance. The selected Vendor will receive access to this data.

24 Section 4.7, Page 13 Cyber Liability Insurance Can PCC confirm whether there is a minimum required coverage amount for the Cyber Liability Insurance described in Section 4.7, or whether proof of commercially reasonable cyber liability coverage satisfying the listed coverage areas will meet this requirement?

PCC requires a minimum of $1,000,000 in Cyber Liability Insurance coverage. Therefore, vendors must provide evidence of cyber liability coverage meeting or exceeding this limit and addressing the coverage areas identified in Section 4.7. Coverage that is merely 'commercially reasonable' but below the $1,000,000 minimum would not satisfy the requirement.

25 Section 4.4, Pages 12–

Education Reference Requirement The RFP requires at least three references, with a minimum of one from education. Can PCC confirm whether K–12, higher education, nonprofit educational organizations, workforce-development organizations, or other education-sector clients may satisfy the education reference requirement, provided the referenced engagement is similar in scope and complexity?

Yes. PCC will accept references from K–12 institutions, higher education institutions, nonprofit educational organizations, workforce-development organizations, or similar education-sector entities, provided the referenced project is comparable in scope and complexity to the services requested in this RFP.

26 Section 5.1, Page 14 Has PCC already created reference user journeys?

PCC has not established reference user journeys. The selected vendor will be expected to develop user journeys as part of the project.

27 Section 3.4, Page 10 Does PCC have already established information architecture diagrams from the existing WordPress

PCC does not currently have formal information architecture diagrams for the existing WordPress website.

28 Section 5.4, Page 19 Does PCC have a Project Management Organization or

PCC does not have a formal Project Management Office (PMO) or department with PMO standards for projects?

established PMO standards for projects.

29 Section 5.3 , Page 18 Based on Phase 6, Launch, does PCC have an expected secure way of communicating passwords to users? For example encrypted email or messaging?

PCC does not have a specific preferred method for communicating passwords to users.

Vendors should recommend a secure approach consistent with industry best practices.

30 Section 3.4, Page 10 The criterion, "Strategic Understanding, Audience Strategy and User Experience" is rated highest according to the rubric. What are examples of excellence on this criterion PCC can provide to show expected artifacts and information?

PCC is looking for Vendors to demonstrate a strong understanding of the College’s audiences, goals, and user-experience challenges and to propose a thoughtful strategy for addressing them. Examples of strength in this area may include a clear Discovery methodology, audience research approach, user journey development, information architecture recommendations, content strategy, usability testing plans, and examples of how findings will be translated into actionable design and content recommendations. Vendors should describe the deliverables, artifacts, and processes they believe are necessary to support a successful website redesign and employee-facing intranet solution.

31 Section 5.3, Page 18 Will PPC provide support for identifying, recruiting, and conducting moderated usability testing with users at various points throughout the project lifecycle? E.g., connecting us with visually impaired users who depend on screen readers to navigate the system.

PCC will assist the selected vendor with identifying and connecting with appropriate users for usability testing, as available.

32 Section 5.3, Page 18 Has PPC conducted any user research into the current site, evaluating usability, friction, and other accessibility "debt".

PCC has not conducted a formal user research study of the current website. The selected vendor will be expected to conduct user research and usability testing as part of the Discovery phase.

33 Section 4.1 - Pricing What is the anticipated budget for this project?

PCC has established a budget for the project; however, the College will not disclose the specific amount.

34 Section 5.2 - Specifications, Content Management

How many people will be contributing content to the website? How many approvers will there be?

PCC anticipates approximately five content approvers. Individuals contributing content or suggesting updates will submit requests through a designated feedback form or email, unless the selected vendor recommends a more effective approach.

35 Section 5.2 - Specifications, Content Management

How many people on the PCC team will manage specific sections of the site on an ongoing basis?

PCC anticipates central management of the website, with approximately five individuals responsible for content approval.

36 Section 5.2 - Specifications, Functionality and Performance

Does Pitt CC have a current analytics platform? Will the vendor have access to current and past website analytics reports?

PCC currently uses Google Analytics, SiteImprove, and Google Search Console for website analytics. PCC can provide the selected vendor with access to current and historical analytics data and reports as needed.

37 Section 5.2 - Specifications, Design & User Experience

Where will assets like photography, video, etc. come from? Is there an existing content library for photos or videos?

Yes, PCC will provide existing assets, while the selected vendor will be responsible for developing the website's visual design concepts and creative direction, including the overall look, feel and application of the College's brand across the website.

38 Section 5.2 -

Platform and Technology

Who is expected to host the new website?

PCC expects the selected vendor to provide and manage hosting for the new website. Hosting must be US based.

39 Section 5.2 - Specifications, Platform and Technology

Are there any specific plugins on the current website that should be included on the new site (Calendar, search, staff director, chat bots, etc.)?

PCC expects functionality provided by key existing plugins, including search, employee directory, forms, events, and chatbot functionality, to be maintained or replaced with equivalent functionality in the redesigned website. Vendors may recommend alternative solutions where appropriate.

40 Section 5.2 - Specifications, Platform and Technology

Approximately how many users will the intranet have?

PCC anticipates approximately 1,200 employees and 45,000+ student users.

41 Section 5.2 - Specifications, Platform and Technology

Is the new intranet intended to replace myPittCC, integrate with it, or operate separately?

The new intranet is intended to replace myPittCC.

42 Section 5.2 -

Functionality and Performance

Does PCC have any multi-lingual requirements?

PCC does not have specific multilingual requirements at this time.

43 Section 5.2 - Specifications, Functionality and Performance

Are there any critical integrations between the PCC website and other college systems?

PCC has limited direct integrations between the website and other college systems. Current integrations include Colleague for employee directory information.

Other systems primarily connect through links or embedded functionality rather than direct integrations.

44 Section 5.2 - Specifications, Functionality and Performance

Does PCC have a CRM? If so, what is the goal for how the website and CRM operate together?

Element451. PCC expects the website and Element451 to work together to support prospective student engagement and recruitment, including lead capture, inquiries, communications, and related recruitment activities.

45 Section 5.2 - Specifications, Functionality and Performance

Are there any other subdomains that the vendor should account for (athletics, library, etc)?

The project scope is focused on the main PCC website domain.

46 Section 5.3 - Tasks & Deliverables

Will the vendor have access to members from each target audience for discovery interviews (current and former students, faculty, local business partners, content managers, etc.)?

Yes. PCC will provide access to appropriate representatives from key target audiences to participate in Discovery interviews and feedback sessions.

47 Section 5.3 - Tasks & Deliverables

The current sitemap has about 900 pages, in addition to other content types (posts, directory entries, documents). As part of the content migration strategy, should we include a plan for all existing content and pages?

Yes. The content migration strategy should include a plan for all existing content and pages. The vendor will be responsible for migrating up to 500 pages, while PCC staff will be responsible for migrating the remaining content identified for retention.

48 Section 5.4 - Project Organization

How many PCC team members will be involved throughout the duration of the website project?

Have final approvers been identified?

PCC anticipates that members of the Marketing team, along with appropriate subject-matter experts and IT staff, will be involved throughout the project. The specific number of participants will vary by project phase and area of responsibility. Final approvers have not yet been identified.

49 General Are there any penalties or limitations associated with using

No. Vendors should disclose the location of personnel proposed for full time employees who work outside of the United States (specifically for graphic design)?

the project and comply with all applicable RFP and contractual requirements.

Execute Addendum:

BIDDER: ____________________________________________________________________

ADDRESS (CITY & STATE): _____________________________________________________

AUTHORIZED SIGNATURE: __________________________________ DATE: ____________

NAME and TITLE (Print): ________________________________________________________