QA_2019_GA_04 April 24 2019~1.pdf

Massachusetts Technology Collaborative

(Solicitation No. 2019-GA-04) Questions and Answers

Wednesday, April 24th, 2019

QUESTION ANSWER

1. Can companies from outside USA apply? (ex.

India or Canada)

No restrictions.

2. Do vendors need to come to MassTech for meetings?

There are instances where an in-person meeting may be required or requested.

3. Can vendors perform tasks (related to RFP) outside of USA? (ex. from India or Canada)

No restrictions.

4. Can vendors submit the proposals via email? All applications must be submitted in writing, in Microsoft Word format, on 8 ½ x 11 paper (including all Required Submissions, see below), with 1 unbound original; and 1 bound copy (no three ring binders); and one electronic version as stated in section 4.1, subsection a. of the RFP by May 7, 2019 3:00pm EST.

5. How many vendors will be awarded for this project?

It depends. Applicants are welcome to submit proposals for one or all services requested;

therefore, one or more vendors can be awarded a contract. However, only one vendor will be awarded per service.

6. Is there any incumbent currently working on this project?

There is a current vendor under contract providing web development services and another separate vendor providing hosting services.

7. Are you currently using any tools or processes to monitor and report accessibility issues?

No.

8. The RFP mentions that projects or requests typically arise without a long lead time. From past experience, what would the typical lead time be for most projects (High, low, average?)

It can vary based on level of request. As stated in section 2.2 the ideal vendor for this work will provide a high level of responsiveness to Mass Tech Collaborative’s requests. We are seeking proposals that can provide a flexible and nimble process for reasonable, prioritized on-call tech support services (24-48 hours). Hosting services should have a 24/7 response system to quickly address critical issues such as website down-time or urgent security patches or breaches. For larger development projects that are scoped out, we will request a time estimate from the web developer.

9. Can you elaborate on some of the most critical integrations that the various sites are supporting?

(Active Directory, CRM, for example)

Two third-party integration tools are: (1) a Jobs Board tool by Monday.vc., which exists on the MassDigitalHealth.org site; and (2) Constant

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Contact subscriber forms on all home pages of sites.

10. Do you have a preference for onsite vs. remote collaboration?

There may be times where in-person meetings are requested, but both web hosting and development services can be performed remotely.

11. Can you elaborate on current tools and processes for monitoring SEO (Google Analytics, SiteImprove, etc)

Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.

12. Is the current provider of these services external to MassTech?

Currently, MassTech contracts with one vendor for web development and another for web hosting.

Both vendors are external to MassTech.

13. Could you provide the following information for each of the sites in scope (or an overall number):

i) Pageviews per month (average and peak) over last 12 months.

ii) The number of monthly unique visitors.

iii) Uncacheable Traffic (as percentage)

iv) File storage required

v) Total Number of Files

vi) Total Number of content items (pages, blog posts, etc)

i) Pageviews - MassTech: 11,643, MeHI: 5,703

MBI: 1,909

ii) Visitors - MassTech: 4,134, MeHI: 1,564, MBI:

iii) Only the administrative traffic is uncachable.

iv) It’s 15GB across all of the sites.

v) We do not have tracking in place to calculate the number of files.

vi) MassTech: 851, MBI: 356, MeHI: 4990

14. Do you have a specific SLA for uptime required from your hosting provider? What is it currently?

The current Service Level Agreement for uptime is 99.95% in any calendar month and we would prefer to maintain that level of commitment from a hosting vendor.

15. Are you currently using a Content Distribution Network?

No.

16. Can I confirm that all data must be stored within the United States?

There is a preference that data is stored in the United States.

17. Are responses where a Drupal consulting firm intends to subcontract or partner with a hosting company acceptable?

No restriction.

18. Where are the sites currently hosted? What are your current monthly page views, unique visits, and data storage requirements?

Sites are hosted on AWS, managed by Aquia.

19. Who is the current Drupal consulting vendor? Primaris Healthcare Business Solutions is currently contracted for web development services.

20. Is there any preference for a MA or Northeast based vendor?

We are seeking the most beneficial solution for MassTech.

21. We are a US based company with some employees working from outside of the US. Are there any restriction on non-US based employees working on your websites?

No restrictions.

22. Are the subsites configured as Drupal multi-sites? The Drupal CMS is configured as a multisite installation, with three fully distinct Drupal sites.

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23. Can you please provide clarification on how many vendors you intend to award for this project?

It will either be 1 or 2 awards based on the proposals received. Applicants can submit proposals to provide one or both services described in the RFP.

24. How many proposals are you expecting to receive?

Since this is a public bidding process, we will not know until the posted deadline for submission of proposals.

25. Do you give preference to local firms? No.

26. What are the primary challenges with the current site you hope to address?

It is running on a version of Drupal that will not be supported after 2020. There are some ad hoc items that could be improved. More user interfaces could be created or improved upon to allow for MassTech to manage more efficiently.

27. Can you provide a list of modules in use on the site? What is the breakdown of core, contributed, and custom modules?

MeHI/MassDigitalHealth has the most modules.

There are 171 active modules. The breakdown is Core: 31, Custom: 12 (7 of which are mostly feature scaffolding and the other 5 implement explicit custom development), Contributed: 128.

28. Can you provide an overview of the content types in use, and how much flexibility is enabled for general content authoring? (i.e. images embedded in pages, layout configuration, etc)

Content Types MeHI – 31; MassTech – 16; MBI –

15. Generally, we use plain text fields for building out editable UI and rich text fields with the CKEditor to drive the content sections. Files are handled through the media module for file fields and IMCE for embedding content in the rich text areas.

29. How many different admin/user roles does the current site have (content editor, builder, etc)?

Approximately how many users exist per role?

MeHI – (6 roles) Administrator (8), Client (6), Form Administrator (1), Organization (14), Company (104), Marketplace User (6) MassTech – (2 roles) Content Administrator (1), Administrator (4) MBI – (2 roles) Content Administrator (1), Administrator (2) Not all of these user accounts are active and some internal staff login with the same user account credentials.

30. Is there a documented established version control and code deployment practice/ workflow and deployment documentation?

Yes.

31. Is the site being currently maintained by an in-house development staff team?

- If so, would the hired vendor work directly with this staff team?

- If not, is the current vendor allowed to bid?

We contract with an external vendor for web code development and another one for hosting services.

Our in-house staff consists of our Communications and IT staff. MassTech’s Communications Team has working knowledge of the backend user interfaces for our web properties and manages content and menu structure. MassTech’s Information Technology team has proficiency in web servers and security along with some Drupal code-based working knowledge. However, there is

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Yes, the current vendor is allowed to bid on this

RFP.

32. Is ongoing maintenance cost expected to be provided in the proposal?

Yes.

33. Is training cost expected to be provided in the proposal?

Yes.

34. Will you accept a Time & Materials estimate with a range of estimated costs?

Yes.

35. Do you have a list of functional requirements? Web developer is to maintain the website documentation and provide MassTech with instructions on any new tools/modules/content types/user interfaces that are created. Provide a monthly activities report along with monthly invoice. Attend project management conference calls during normal EST business hours with MassTech Communications Manager and/or IT Administrator weekly or as needed. Maintain a project management system to monitor and manage projects and requests. Has a mechanism to maintain knowledge around Drupal updates and news to notify MassTech of action needed or awareness. As well as other requirements specified in Section 3 of RFP.

36. What subsystems currently exist/ what types of systems are currently integrated (e-commerce/ payment, etc)

- What use cases are supported by each integration?

None.

37. Would Mass Tech allow for a joint proposal in which one proponent offers for Web Development, and the other for Web hosting, - but as an integrated solution/strategy within a single proposal?

Yes, this is permitted. Both vendors will be evaluated as a team within the single proposal.

38. You list three applications (sites) with multiple domains at the bottom of the document.

Additionally, each application has multiple environments (master, development and staging).

Is each application its own Drupal instance?

The Drupal CMS is configured as a multi-site installation, with three fully distinct Drupal sites.

Each site and all subsites have Production, Staging, and Dev environments, and corresponding domains.

39. Each primary domain (https://broadband.masstech.org/, https://mehi.masstech.org/ and https://www.masstech.org/) seems to indicate it is running Drupal 7. Is this accurate and (if so) are all environments running the same version?

The sites are built on a Drupal 7 CMS, running on php 7.2, Apache 2.4 and Amazon Aurora.

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40. On average, approximately how many requests does each application receive per month?

Our development work greatly varies month to month based on the various programmatic needs and unanticipated troubleshooting.

41. Are there any non-Drupal applications which require management and/or maintenance as part of the scope of work (SOW)? If so, please provide the requisite details.

No.

42. How many unique content types exist, per application?

The following content types exist, but not all are in use: MBI – 15, MassTech – 16, MeHI - 30

43. How many nodes exist, per application? MassTech: 851, MBI: 356, MeHI: 4990

44. How many blocks are in use, per application? MeHI: 41 blocks enabled. MBI: 23 blocks enabled.

MassTech: 31 blocks enabled.

45. Do the applications use the features module? Yes.

46. Have any Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 migrations been initiated. If so, what is the current status?

None.

47. Do any of the applications use any group access functionality (e.g. organic groups)? If so, how are they employed?

No.

48. Do any of the applications integrate with any CRMs?

Our sign-up forms for newsletters integrate with Constant Contact.

49. Do any of the applications utilize any other third-party integrations?

A contract is held with Monday.vc for a jobs board application on the MassDigitalHealth.org site. Our sign-up forms for newsletters are integrated with Constant Contact.

50. How is the aggregated content consumed by other applications?

Our aggregated content is not consumed by other applications.

51. Do any of the applications utilize any API functionality?

REST API services are used to handle deployment between systems and file management. We have a custom internal REST API that handles CSV imports that dynamically maps and geocodes directory imports. We also use a number of the Drupal internal APIs, and connect third party APIs like Google Tag Manager.

52. If there do exist multiple Drupal instances, do any of them share the same codebase(s)?

The system is configured as a Drupal multisite, where all three main properties can share the code base.

53. How many different Drupal themes are used? The theme is called masstech_base and is a subtheme of the bootstrap module. There are 3 on Masstech, 3 on MeHI and 1 on Broadband.

54. What is your current server configuration? Production is currently on 2 AWS 7 ACU (Amazon Computing Units) server with 3.75GB in a failover/HA configuration. Development is on a single server with the same specification.

55. Do you know if you have specific server requirements (other than what is mentioned in the server-specific SLA) or do you have a specific preference for the project’s server requirements?

None. Vendors must meet requirements in the server-specific SLA and be scaled properly.

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56. Within the RFP you mention the planning and execution of migration to D8 but as part of the service agreement scope, can you confirm whether this is to be estimated as part of this RFP or as a separate estimation?

If execution of the migration to Drupal 8 would be a different cost structure than the other services for development, hosting, or tech support pricing, then yes, supply a separate cost estimate.

Otherwise, provide an hourly amount estimation for the work needed to be performed in order to complete a migration by web developer.

57. Is there likely to be an extension to the submission deadline?

Not likely.

58. Have you conducted audience research in the past?

MassTech has an internal research team that conducts audience research based on program requests for list building, program development, sector demographics, etc.

59. Do you have documentation on your primary target audience groups (who they are, what they are looking for, etc.)?

No formal documentation. There are various target audiences based our various divisions and programs ranging from tech sector companies and entrepreneurs, community partners (trade associations, government agencies), healthcare organizations, academia, accelerators/incubators, investors, research facilities, etc.

60. What third-party integrations are needed? Currently, we contract with Monday.vc for a jobs board application. No additional third-party integration identified at this time, but want a vendor to have experience in integrating such third-party tools if a MassTech program wants to explore such an option.

61. What are your specific goals for the website in 2019 and 2020?

Primary goal is to maintain the site’s operation and security. Second is to develop any new features or modules to support program needs. Third is to successfully upgrade to Drupal 8.

62. Do you have any plans for web personalization? No plans at this time.

63. What offline marketing initiatives are you (or do you plan to) focused on?

The marketing initiatives are programmatic to support and drive Massachusetts’ tech innovation economy. That involves growing the number of tech companies in the state as well as the talent in these areas. The priority sectors are digital health, advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, and robotics. We perform direct outreach, host convening events, educational sessions, and awareness efforts to support our division programs.

64. Is the incumbent, current vendor bidding, or being invited to bid?

The RFP is open to the public for bid; therefore, the current hosting and development vendors are allowed to submit a bid.

65. Is there a broader marketing plan for 2019 we should be aware of?

There isn’t a formal marketing plan in place. Each division/program/project develops a marketing plan and we utilize the website as a tool part of those plans to promote or support their work.

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66. Are there existing brand assets/style guides? If so, can we get them?

Yes, brand guides exist detailing color schemes, logos, etc. and will be provided to the chosen vendor post award as projects require.

67. Are there other agency partners you're working with on the site, or are you looking for a one stop shop?

We currently contract with one external agency for web development services and another for hosting. We are open to proposals that submit either scenario of one service or both.

68. Do you have data on usage by device? No.

69. I know the RFP is open the public, but I'm curious how many agencies you proactively reached out?

13 agencies received a general notification that an RFP was posted

70. What is the estimated budget? How much development work on average do you send to the vendor on a monthly or quarterly basis in hours?

So as to not limit the potential scope of proposals, Mass Tech is not releasing budget information.

Our development work greatly varies month to month based on the various programmatic needs and unanticipated troubleshooting.

71. Where is the site hosted today? How has your experience been with that host?

The 3 sites are hosted on AWS, managed by Acquia.

We would prefer to not discuss our relationship with any current or previous vendors as we do not feel it is relevant to this solicitation.

72. We do not have a DUNS number. Is a DUNS number required to bid? Is a lack of a DUNS number an evaluation criteria?

Not required.

73. How many agencies submitted questions on the

RFP?

10 agencies submitted questions.