RFI - Website Redesign.DOCX

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS

OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER

Request for Information (RFI) for Website Redesign

COMMBUYS Bid Number: BD-20-1079-1079C-1079C-47741 RFI Release Date: January 24, 2020 RFI Response Submission Deadline: March 10, 2020 at 5 PM Respondents to this Request for Information (RFI) are invited to respond to any or all of the questions in this document. Responses to this RFI shall serve solely to assist the Massachusetts Office of the Comptroller (CTR) in understanding the current state of the marketplace with regards to the solicited information and/or to inform the development of a possible solicitation for a Request for Responses (RFR), Request for Proposals (RFP) or Request for Quotes (RFQ) in the future. This RFI does not in any way obligate CTR to issue or amend a solicitation or to include any of the RFI provisions or responses in any solicitation. Responding to this RFI is entirely voluntary, and will in no way affect CTR’s consideration of any proposal submitted in response to any subsequent solicitation, nor will it serve as an advantage or disadvantage to the Respondent in the course of any RFR, RFP or RFQ that may be subsequently issued or amended.

THIS RFI AND ALL RESPONSES HERETO SHALL BECOME PUBLIC RECORD UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH’S PUBLIC RECORDS LAW, MASS. GEN. L. CH. 66 S. 10, REGARDLESS OF CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICES SET FORTH ON SUCH WRITINGS TO THE CONTRARY, AND CAN BE OBTAINED FROM THE MASSACHUSETTS OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER BY SENDING AN EMAIL TO ctr-pir@mass.gov. ANY PORTIONS OF A RESPONSE THAT ARE LABELED AS CONFIDENTIAL WILL STILL BE CONSIDERED PUBLIC RECORD.

Please Note: This is a single document associated with a complete Bid (also referred to as Solicitation) that can be found on www.COMMBUYS.com. All Respondents are responsible for reviewing and adhering to all information, forms and requirements for the entire Bid, which are all incorporated into the Bid. Respondents may also contact the COMMBUYS Helpdesk at COMMBUYS@state.ma.us or the COMMBUYS Helpline at 1-888-MA-STATE. The Helpline is staffed from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday Eastern Standard or Daylight time, as applicable, except on federal, state and Suffolk county holidays.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER (CTR) is seeking information regarding a re-design and re-launch of its two primary websites, MAComptroller.org and comptroller.state.ma.us.

Currently, CTR maintains two websites with starkly different methods of content management.

MAComptroller.org is administered through Wix, an entry-level application ideally suited for personal or small business websites. The Communications Unit has greatly stretched the capabilities of Wix, but these expansions have been built in an ad hoc manner than does not conform with web best practices and has created an uneven, disjointed user experience.

comptroller.state.ma.us is administered through Dreamweaver, which an advanced-level application used by the Communications Unit. Much of the code is ad hoc created by Communications staff and is proprietary, meaning only the Communications staff person who created it is able to troubleshoot and make adjustments.

Purpose To further the Office of the Comptroller’s mission of transparency, its goals of clarity and transparency, and in alignment with a forthcoming Communications Master Plan, the Communications Unit recommends the procurement of a web design firm to rebuild our suite of websites and install WordPress, or similar, as a content management system.

The rebuild would address critical security, workflow, and strategy, and user experience issues as described below:

CRITICAL ISSUES

Due to the limitations of the websites and past practices, the following critical issues exist across the suite of websites:

· No secure socket layer (SSL)

· Redunancy of domains

· Customer service delays

· Accessibility violations

· Lack of mobile responsiveness

· Caching delays

WORKFLOW ISSUES

· The Wix workflow causes the Communications Unit to spend too much time fixing layouts on each individual page.

· Whenever a new template is needed, rather than download an available template, Wix and Dreamweaver require Communications team members to hand-code an ad hoc solution. This is a timely and insecure process.

· Different processes for each of the websites, as well as a workaround to re-direct users from MAcomptroller.org to MAcomptroller.info add to unnecessary time spent.

· Only one user can be logged into Wix at a time, which delays postings and causes bottlenecks in productivity.

STRATEGY

The websites are lacking crucial capabilities which could position the Office of a Comptroller as a thought leader in its fields of expertise, namely cybersecurity, transparency, and good government. Additionally, they lack hierarchy of information which could strategically and effectively transmit crucial information (memos, process updates, reports) to intended audiences.

· Search Engine Optimization (SEO) through Wix is an onerous and time-consuming process, and therefore has not been employed on MAcomptroller.org. SEO would enable CTR to take full advantage of strategies that maximize its publicity and position it as a thought leader.

· MAcomptroller.org has no function that allows it to be indexed through news aggregator sites like Google News and Yahoo! News, which would allow greater distribution of CTR publications and updates.

USER EXPERIENCE

Finally, an agency whose subject matter is focused on highly technical expertise requires a web presence that delivers optimal user experience. A review of the current websites has found:

· There is inconsistency of navigation through each site, resulting in users potentially getting lost or finding themselves in dead ends.

· Users often require more than three clicks to navigate to their target destination.

· Many destinations do not allow the user to return to where they came from.

· Presentation suffers from a lack of a cohesive hierarchy of information

· There is no correlation between what is important and popular, and its placement.

· Dated styling sets poor impressions for cybersecurity subject matter expertise and customer/constituent service.

Responding to this RFI Who may respond Responses from any vendor or organization in industry or academia with experience in website design and implementation of a content management system (CMS) General Request and Questions The General Requests and Questions section lists requests and questions on subjects CTR is interested in learning about regarding potential software solutions.

The Respondent is encouraged but not required to respond to all requests and questions in this section. The outline and corresponding requests and questions provided are meant to inform the Respondent on the interest and depth of CTR’s business and technical needs. The response should provide a summary of the Respondent’s solutions capabilities that falls within the scope of this RFI.

Cover Letter The cover letter must include: (1) the legal name of the company, organization, or entity submitting the response, (2) one or more representative names and contact information, (3) a brief summary of your interest and expertise in this area, and (4) must identify the supporting documentation that is included in your response.

Questions

1. Company Profile Company Name

Headquarters Location

URL of Company Web Site

Contact Name

Contact Title

Contact Email Address

Contact Phone Number

Number of Years of experience in this service offering

Business Size – Annual Revenue

Primary Type of Service(s) Provided

Past client reference(s) (A client of similar business need suggested but not required)

2. Have you built similar websites with content management systems for the public sector? If so, please identify those entities and describe the services provided and cost/timeline considerations for those projects.

3. Given that these two sites would need very similar / interrelated design, is it better to build out one site and launch first, or build both sites concurrently?

4. Please describe the process for building out a website, including visioning meetings and testing.

5. Do you have live examples of responsive, accessible websites that you have built that you can send to CTR as examples?

6. Are there alternatives to WordPress for content management?

7. What is a reasonable timeline for building out the two websites, assisting CTR staff in migrating content, and launching?

8. What is a reasonable price structure for building out the two websites, including up to five page template styles per website?

9. Is that price inclusive of related costs, including domain name and hosting? If so, what are reasonable associated costs?

10. What is a reasonable price structure for ad-hoc maintenance support for the websites once they have been handed off to the client?

11. On average, how long does it take to receive a response to a critical website issue?

12. Do you have any other comments or suggestions that you would feel would assist in the success of this project?

General Instructions

Please note that this RFI is issued solely for the purpose of obtaining information. Nothing in this RFI shall be interpreted as a commitment on the part of CTR to procure or enter into a contract with any Respondent.

This RFI will be distributed electronically by posting it on COMMBUYS.

Respondents may contact the COMMBUYS Helpdesk at COMMBUYS@state.ma.us or the COMMBUYS Helpline at 1-888-MA-STATE. The Helpline is staffed from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday, Eastern Standard or Daylight time, as applicable, except on federal, state and Suffolk County holidays.

All vendors are responsible for checking COMMBUYS for any addenda or modifications made to the RFI subsequent to the initial posting on COMMBUYS. CTR will accept no liability for and will provide no accommodation to vendors who fail to check for amended RFIs.

Vendors may not alter (manually or electronically) the RFI language or any of its component files.

Respondents are responsible for entering content suitable for public viewing, as all of the responses and questions are accessible to the public. Respondents must not include any information that could be considered personal, security sensitive, inflammatory, incorrect, collusive, or otherwise objectionable, including information about the Respondent’s company or other companies.

Response Questions

Respondents may only make inquiries and request clarification concerning this RFI by submitting questions via COMMBUYS Q&A button under this RFI bid number.

Responses to inquiries and clarification questions will be provided electronically to all interested parties via a posting on COMMBUYS.

Respondents may not communicate directly or indirectly with any employee of CTR regarding this RFI, except as specified in the RFI or in the ordinary course of business (e.g. in connection with a different contract the vendor may have with CTR).

A Respondent may contact the CTR Procurement Contact designated in section 3.6 below if the RFI is incomplete or if the Respondent is experiencing difficulty obtaining any information electronically through COMMBUYS.

Responses Submission

Respondents should submit one (1) electronic copy as directed by the date and time in the schedule outlined in section 3.3. A late response may be disregarded.

All responses must include on the first page the official name, address and contact information of the firm or entity submitting the response, with signature provided. Please place consecutive numbers on all pages of the response.

Estimated RFI Schedule

(If necessary)

Times are Eastern Standard/Daylight Savings (US), as displayed on the COMMBUYS system clock displayed to Respondents after logging in. If there is a conflict between the dates in this estimated RFI calendar and dates in the RFI’s header, the dates in the RFI’s header on COMMBUYS shall prevail. Respondents are responsible for checking the RFI record, including Bid Q&A, on COMMBUYS for RFI calendar updates.

Informational Sessions and Demonstrations In addition to written RFI responses, CTR may invite any or none of the responding vendors to make optional, focused, in person demonstrations of experience, offerings, methodologies and expertise applicable to the defined effort. Any such demonstrations must relate directly to CTR needs outlined in this RFI and Respondents must not use this time for standard marketing sales presentations.

· If there are informational session(s) associated with this RFI they will be scheduled TBD.

· CTR retains the right to request additional information from Respondents.

· CTR may request further explanation or clarification from any and all Respondents during the review process.

· CTR may request onsite vendor visits.

Response Format CTR requests that all responses be submitted with a cover letter and a response to each applicable question set forth in Section 2 above.

If a Respondent opts not to respond to any question, please note and if possible, include an explanation for the lack of response.

Respondents are encouraged to provide alternative specifications/solutions and the basis for their inclusion or substitution of CTR business and technical considerations.

CTR Contact Information Please direct all communications to the following contact:

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY to identify sources that can provide website design and installation. The information contained in the RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER (CTR) has not committed to procuring any of the items discussed, and release of this RFI should not be construed as such a commitment or as authorization to incur the cost for which reimbursement would be required or sought. All submissions become the Commonwealth of Massachusetts OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER (CTR) property and will not be returned.

1/24/2020 DRAFT

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