RFP NSCC17-03 Website Redesign-Content Management.pdf

NSCC Web Redevelopment – Content Management System and Redesign

NSCC17-03 RFP

North Shore Community College

One Ferncroft Road Danvers, MA 01923

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS NSCC17-03

Website Redesign:

Content Management System Implementation with Digital Communication Strategy

ISSUE DATE:

March 30, 2017

PROPOSALS MUST BE RECEIVED BY:

May 1, 2017

12:00 Noon EST

Send Proposals To:

Attn: Reynaldo Ramos

1 Ferncroft Road

Table of Contents

Institutional Overview 3 Purpose of RFP 3 Timeline 3 Contact Information 4 Inquiries 4 Bidders’ Conference 4 General Information 4 Execution of Contract 5 Insurance 5 Smoke-Free Campus Policy 6

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 6

Submission of bid 7 Proposal Preparation 7 Preparation Costs 7 Confidentiality 7 Vendor Demonstrations 7 Evaluation Criteria 8 Digital Communication Strategy & Design 8

AUDIENCE 8

STUDENTS BY AGE 9

GENDER 9

REGIONAL IMPACT 9

COMMUNITIES SERVED BY NSCC 9

OVERVIEW OF DIGITAL STRATEGY, STRUCTURE AND GOVERNANCE 9

SITE REDESIGN 10

STRATEGIC GOAL 10

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES 10

FUNCTIONAL OBJECTIVES 10

SITE STRATEGY DELIVERABLES 11

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS 11

DETAILED PROJECT PLAN 12

DESIGN LAYOUT OPTIONS 12

TEMPLATES 12

DOCUMENTATION 13

DESIGN STRATEGY TEAM RESOURCES 13

NSCC RESOURCES 13

SITE REDESIGN QUESTIONNAIRE 14

Content Strategy Development and Design Process 14 Digital Communication & Design Implementation Cost 14 Content Management System Implementation 15 Overview of site architecture and technical environment 15 Subdomains 15 Custom Toolsets 15 Desired Situation 17

Company Background and Functional Requirements 20

PRODUCT OVERVIEW 20

CMS PRODUCT QUESTIONNAIRE 20

COMPANY OVERVIEW 20

Integration Capabilities 21 Features and Functional Requirements 22 Content 22

ASSET MANAGEMENT 22

SEARCH 23

MULTI-LINGUAL SUPPORT 23

ANALYTICS 23

Workflow and Communications 23 Technical Requirements 24 System Administration 25 CMS Implementation Costs 25

CHECKLIST OF FORMS 26

Institutional Overview

North Shore Community College is an agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and is a comprehensive community college offering 46 associate degree programs and 29 certificates spanning liberal arts, humanities, social sciences, STEM, health careers and other professional fields. Annual FTE is 4,283 and annual credit headcount is 9,831 with an additional 3,679 enrolled in our non-credit corporate and professional education programs. The College is also the largest provider of corporate training solutions and workforce development to business and industry on Boston’s North Shore.

Purpose of RFP

North Shore Community College seeks proposals for a turnkey solution with companies who have established relationships/partnerships to accomplish the following objectives:

● Redesign NSCC’s public website based best-practice digital communication strategies, institutional governance and policies, focused on recruitment and enrollment goals.

● Develop a Web Content Management System that will enable college staff to create, edit, and publish content on the NSCC website.

Our expectation is that a CMS vendor and one of their digital marketing business partners bid on this project and complete this RFP together. However, a single vendor that can provide both solutions is acceptable. In the case of business partners, each vendor is responsible for filling out their respective section of this RFP. CMS vendors will be expected to provide software, system implementation, ongoing support and maintenance, and site hosting.

Timeline

Date Activity

March 30, 2017 RFP released and posted to vendors

April 7, 2017 Vendor Letter of Intent and questions due by 12:00 noon

April 24, 2017 Vendor questions/answers posted

May 1, 2017 Written proposals are due by 12:00 noon as per delivery instructions

May 5, 2017 Vendors selected for demonstrations are notified

May 15 -19;

May 30 - June 2

Vendor product demonstrations are scheduled

June 5 - June 9, NSCC Team evaluation period

June 12-14, 2017 If needed, a technical conference call to address additional integration questions with NSCC IT Department

June 19-20, 2017 Vendor selected and bid awarded

July 2017 Estimated Project Start Date

Dates may be revised due to unforeseen circumstances. Every effort will be made to inform respondents of changes to the timeline. Please note that the finalists will be required to participate in a one day on-site demonstration to a NSCC user group for final evaluation.

Contact Information This Request for Proposal (RFP) has also been distributed electronically using the Commonwealth Procurement Access and Solicitation System (Commbuys system, http://www.commbuys.com ). The project title is Website Redesign: Content Management System Implementation with Digital Communication Strategy and the project number is NSCC17-03. Correspondence to NSCC should include project number as well as the title. Interested parties are advised to check the “last change” field on the summary page of this RFP on Commbuys to ensure that they have the most recent information. If you are having trouble viewing or downloading any of the files on Commbuys, please contact the Commbuys help desk at commbuys@state.ma.us .

Information submitted in response to this RFP is subject to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L., Chapter 66, Section 10, and to Chapter 4, Section 7, Subsection 26. Any statements in submitted information that are inconsistent with these statutes shall be disregarded. The Commonwealth makes no guarantee that any services will be purchased from any contract resulting from this RFP.

Inquiries Questions about this proposal, and procedures should be submitted by email to:

Reynaldo Ramos Procurement Manager http://www.commbuys.com/ mailto:commbuys@state.ma.us

Email: rramos@northshore.edu

Bidders’ Conference In lieu of a Bidders’ Conference, any questions concerning the specifications must be emailed to rramos@northshore.edu by April 7, 2017 at 12 noon. The answers to those questions will be posted as an amendment on Commbuys on April 24, 2017.

General Information This RFP contains instructions governing the response to be submitted and the material to be included, a description of the services to be provided, and other requirements which must be met by interested parties to be eligible for consideration. All proposals submitted in response to this RFP are subject to all terms and conditions contained in this RFP.

Interested vendors must submit a complete proposal to this RFP by the deadline presented in timeline on page 3 and received no later than 12:00 Noon EST. Proposals must be emailed to Reynaldo Ramos, NSCC’s Procurement Manager, in order to be considered. Incomplete proposals and proposals not prepared in accordance with this RFP will be rejected.

NSCC is not responsible for delays by the U.S. Postal Service, or any other means of delivery employed by the Respondent. Similarly, the NSCC is not responsible for, and will not open, any proposal responses that are received later than the deadline date, time and location as put forth in this RFP. Late proposals will not be considered.

Execution of Contract The vendor to whom the Contract is awarded shall, within (10) days after the prescribed documents are presented to him/her for signature, execute and deliver insurance coverage. The contract shall not be binding upon the college until it has been completely executed and a copy of such fully executed Contract and a “notice to proceed” is delivered to the Vendor.

The successful bidder must sign the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Standard Contract Form and Commonwealth Terms and Conditions with North Shore Community College.

The agreement, if awarded, shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which include but are not limited to the items identified in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Standard Contract Terms and Conditions (OSD Forms are available at http://www.mass.gov/osd). Attached forms must be completed and signed by applicant.

North Shore Community College intends to use this RFP and the successful proposal as a basis for the agreement.

Insurance The vendor shall carry professional and personal liability insurance sufficient to cover its performance under this contract.

Type of Insurance Minimums of Liability

Contractors Liability (including protective and Contractual Liability)

$1,000,000 combined (bodily injury and property damage) single limit-mailto:wmannix@berkshirecc.edu mailto:wmannix@berkshirecc.edu each occurrence $2,000,000 aggregate

Automobile Liability (owned and Non-owned vehicles)

$1,000,000 CSL – each occurrence

Workers Compensation and Disability

Massachusetts Statutory Benefits

Insurance shall be with a company or companies licensed to do business in Massachusetts and acceptable to North Shore Community College. Vendor shall furnish North Shore Community College with a Certificate of Insurance showing that such insurance is in effect. The policies will include a clause stating that the insurance will not be canceled or reduced without at least thirty (30) day’s prior written notice to North Shore Community College.

All liability insurance policies shall name North Shore Community College as an additional named insured and shall include a severability of interest clause with respect to claim, demands, suits, judgments, costs, charges and expenses arising out of, or in connection with any loss, damage, injury resulting from the negligence or other fault of the vendor, vendor’s

Smoke-Free Campus Policy Smoking is prohibited within the confines of all college grounds, buildings and property. Smoking is only permitted in private vehicles lawfully parked on campus lots. Effectiveness of the policy depends on the courtesy, respect and cooperation of all members of the campus community. Complaints concerning Contractor(s) of the College should be brought to the attention of the Facilities Management. It is anticipated that violators would first be reminded and provided with educational literature. Disciplinary measures would be expected to be reserved for repeat infractions or infractions that interfere with the College’s academic or workplace needs or responsibilities

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

North Shore Community College is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, religion, age, veteran status, genetic information, gender identity and expression, or sexual orientation in its programs and activities as required by Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and other applicable statutes and college policies. The College prohibits sexual harassment, including sexual violence. Inquiries or complaints concerning discrimination, harassment, retaliation or sexual violence shall be referred to the College’s Affirmative Action and/or Title IX Coordinator, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission or the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

The undersigned as bidder, declares that the only parties interested in this proposal as principles are named herein; that this proposal is made without collusion with any other person, firm or corporation;

that no officer or agent of NSCC is directly or indirectly interested in this bid; and he/she proposes and agrees that if this proposal is accepted he/she will contract with NSCC in accordance with the specifications, also the terms and conditions as spelled out in this bid form.

-No Person, including but not limited to corporations, partnerships, limited partnerships or limited liability corporations, shall be eligible to receive a contract under this invitation to bid and/or request for proposal if that person has been convicted of any felony offense involving the distribution of controlled substances as that term is defined under Chapter 94C of the General Laws and, for contract to be performed for on-site services at North Shore Community College, if that person or any person to be employed by that person in the performance of such on-site services has been convicted of a “sex offense” or a “sex offense involving a child” or “sexually violent offense” or would meet the definition of “sexually violent predator” as those terms defined in Section 178C of the General Laws and who must register with the sex offender registry board.

The contractor will be required to indemnify and hold harmless North Shore Community College, for all damages to life and property that may occur due to his negligence or that of his employees, subcontractors, etc., during this contract.

Submission of bid Vendors shall return their original proposal and three (3) copies in a sealed package, labeled

RFP NSCC17-03

Proposals, including completed Vendor Questionnaire, and Cost Matrix A and B (attachments) must be submitted to:

Reynaldo Ramos Procurement Manager 1 Ferncroft Road

Proposal Preparation Bidders are expected to submit the following with their proposal:

1. Executive summary

2. Table of contents

3. Itemized project budget individually provided by digital communication vendor and CMS vendor

4. Completed checklist of forms (see page 25)

5. All documents as required by RFP

6. Completed Vendor Questionnaire

7. References and supporting material

8. Terms and conditions

9. Full contact information of CMS and Digital Marketing Strategy teams.

10. Contact information for at least three references. Additional supporting materials may be added in appendix here.

Preparation Costs All preparation and presentation costs incurred by vendors in responding to this proposal request are the sole responsibility of the vendor. All documentation submitted to NSCC as part of a response to this proposal becomes the property of NSCC.

Confidentiality The College reserves the right to review the content of vendor responses with internal or external persons for the purposes of vendor selection.

Vendor Demonstrations

Finalists will be required to conduct an onsite demonstration to potential users. This demonstration will give an overview of day to day interaction with the CMS and show the intuitiveness of the system.

Digital Marketing vendors will be expected to demonstrate their process and give examples of previous work. In addition, vendors must cover how key data from our ERP can be incorporated into the CMS system. College participants will be asked to provide feedback.

Evaluation Criteria All proposals will be reviewed in accordance with the general evaluation criteria listed below.

Proposals which have been determined not to be in compliance with the RFP requirements will not be considered. Pricing will only be considered on those proposals that are deemed acceptable. The contract will be awarded to the vendor partnership whose proposal is most responsive to needs of NSCC and provides the highest value to NSCC, considering cost as well as other factors based on the evaluation criteria described herein.

All information gathered will become the property of NSCC. The submission of this RFP does not constitute a contract between NSCC and the Bidder.

Members of the North Shore Community College CMS Team will evaluate all proposals received.

Proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria:

Evaluation Criteria Weight

Meets functional and strategic requirements as outlined in this RFP 25%

Integration with NSCC Banner ERP systems and external networks 25%

Overall value proposition including costs 15%

Implementation Methodology – Implementation support, data integration and ongoing support options

15%

Company vision and philosophy best aligned with project roadmap 15%

Industry reputation 5%

In addition, the Bidder’s previous record (i.e., references), company history, sales representation, terms and conditions, and explanation of any variances noted shall also be considered. NSCC reserves the right to review any variances, waive informalities, alter the scope of the project, reject any/all proposals, or cancel this RFP.

At the request and option of NSCC, Bidders may be required to make a presentation either onsite or online, and/or provide written clarification. These presentations or written clarifications will provide an opportunity for the Bidders to clarify--but not modify--their proposals.

BID Section One: Digital Communication Strategy & Design

BACKGROUND

AUDIENCE

As a community college, NSCC focuses on several main audiences:

(1). Prospective students interested in obtaining an affordable associate degree;

(2). Transfer students pursuing an affordable pathway to a Bachelor’s degree at a four-year college or university;

(3). Students selecting career training certificates for direct entry into the workplace;

(4). Students seeking short-term professional education (5). Current students

NSCC also seeks to maintain robust communication with:

A. Faculty and staff;

B. Alumni;

C. Donors and friends;

D. Regional business sector;

E. Other external audiences that may be unique, but growing in importance, such as

Hispanic/Latino communities in NSCC’s services area.

STUDENTS BY AGE

A. 17-21: 42.1% B. 22-29: 33.7% C. 30-49: 20.4% D. 50+: 3.7%

GENDER

A. Male 34.4% B. Female 65.6%

REGIONAL IMPACT

Over 92% of our 37,000 alumni live and work on the North Shore.

Established in 1965, North Shore Community College is one of the oldest of the 15 community colleges in Massachusetts. Operating from campuses in Danvers, Lynn, and Middleton, we serve 26 cities and towns along the coastal region from north metropolitan Boston to Cape Ann.

COMMUNITIES SERVED BY NSCC: LYNN, SAUGUS, SWAMPSCOTT, NAHANT, BEVERLY,

DANVERS, ESSEX, GLOUCESTER, HAMILTON, HATHORNE, IPSWICH, LYNNFIELD,

MANCHESTER, MARBLEHEAD, MIDDLETON, PEABODY, PRIDES CROSSING, ROCKPORT,

ROWLEY, SALEM, SOUTH HAMILTON, TOPSFIELD, WENHAM, Chelsea, Everett, REVERE, WINTHROP, Boxford, Malden, Melrose, North Reading, Reading, Stoneham, Wenham, WAKEFIELD, WEST BOXFORD

OVERVIEW OF DIGITAL STRATEGY, STRUCTURE AND GOVERNANCE

The College presently hosts its website on campus. The site has lacked centralized management, structure, and clear workflow processes; rather, it has been administered by a single individual.

Further, the site lacks strategies for content management and updating, growth, project prioritization, and development of sustainable policies and governance.

It is our intent, via centralized management under NSCC’s Marketing Communications Department and supported by a well-defined digital content strategy, to launch a site built on a CMS platform governed by sound guidelines based on best practices and true analytics.

SITE REDESIGN

STRATEGIC GOAL

NSCC’s website (northshore.edu) is the primary marketing and communications vehicle for showcasing the College's programs, services, and resources. The site also reflects the visibility and current perception of an institution which recently marked its half-century anniversary. The Marketing Communications department is charged with revitalizing the relevance, functionality and cachet of the site to better compete in the crowded space of higher education recruitment and enrollment. The ultimate goal is to provide visitors with an optimal user experience that supports consumer engagement and conversion to enrolled students.

With new executive and academic leadership in place, NSCC also has embarked on a mission to redesign its academic structure around defined career and transfer pathways to ensure student success throughout the course of study. The new website must reinforce the Pathway concept as well as the transformational value of a college education, with a functional focus on recruitment and enrollment. But it must be more than a visually appealing site. As a vital resource for the entire college community, it is expected that this project will touch all areas of the institution and will require reworking content and architecture. The chosen vendor will facilitate cross-college cooperation and communication to design a website that can accomplish the following objectives and goals:

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

• Increase College enrollment

• Present and reinforce an institutional brand that that focuses on the transformational value of a college education.

• Communicate that North Shore Community College thrives on the front lines of higher education through innovation, technology and commitment to keeping college affordable. Our product is student success.

• Clarify and highlight academic strengths and differentiators. NSCC is an institution where all are welcome and each is challenged.

• Highlight the quantity of consumer choice and quality of programs and experience.

http://northshore.edu/

• Celebrate the highly skilled and credentialed faculty; highlight award-winning staff.

• Showcase a “learn locally – think globally” philosophy. NSCC prepares students both native and new to the United States to live, work, think critically, and thrive in a global society.

• Highlight diversity of students, faculty and staff

FUNCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

• A complete redesign of www.northshore.edu

• A complete redesign of news.northshore.edu

• A complete redesign of community.northshore.edu

• A complete redesign of corporate.northshore.edu

• Conduct user research and usability testing—site must be user-focused

• Utilize mobile-first hierarchy emphasizing content strategy

• Anticipate visitor needs based on user research and best practice

• Develop a cohesive, templated site

• Expand and refresh NSCC’s established brand

• Direct visitors to important information and desired content quickly

• Provide easy access to web-based systems

• Inform community members of news and events

• Provide means to obvious "follow through" (call to action) on each page

• Attract prospective students (full and part-time, traditional and adult learners)—and employees, donors and regional leaders

• Implement a new, easy to maintain workflow and authorization package

• Search engine optimization

• Fully ADA compliant

• Support integration with student portal, CRM, sub-domains

• Support social media integration/engagement/blogging capabilities to provide additional information, dynamic content and functionality

• Multimedia capabilities

• Include tracking and other remarketing options to support the university’s marketing efforts

• Integration of the existing news and event content management system

• Help NSCC community take ownership of the website, and understand the important role they play managing their content

SITE STRATEGY DELIVERABLES

http://www.northshore.edu/

It is expected that at various points throughout this project the vendor will produce the following tangible documents, files or services.

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

The consultant/firm will be charged with leading the stakeholders in the College community through a comprehensive engagement in two areas: research and needs assessment. NSCC expects there to be an onsite component to the research and discovery phase.

The research phase includes:

● Identification and prioritization of the intended audiences for the new website (i.e., “the users”);

● Stakeholder engagement and facilitation;

● Needs assessment for prospective students, internal stakeholders, academic and administrative departments;

● Articulation of the existing workflow and procedures for digital asset management, content management and editorial oversight;

● Usability survey, testing and results;

● Measurement of the effectiveness of the current site in supporting the College’s strategic goals and initiatives, and as a tool for the Admissions, Marketing and Communications, and Institutional Advancement departments;

● Identification and articulation of emerging trends and best practices in website functionality and design in the higher education sector;

● Emerging trends and best practices in social media, and how it can be and has been leveraged and/or integrated to facilitate a more comprehensive, unified user

The needs assessment phase includes:

● Quantification and documentation of the research phase which provides a meaningful assessment of the current state of the website;

● Documentation, which may include executive summaries, analytics, summaries of interviews with stakeholders/focus groups, presentations, reports, graphs, charts, and other appropriate supporting documentation;

● Gap analysis comparing the existing website versus:

○ Optimal user experience;

○ Use of content strategy;

○ Best standards and practices in website design and development, information architecture, user experience, navigation, digital asset management, editorial workflow and approval, accessibility, responsiveness, leverage of and/or integration of social media, and related technologies and functions;

○ Best standards and practices in digital marketing and communications;

○ Emerging trends and best practices in the higher education sector.

DETAILED PROJECT PLAN

• Name, contact info of CMS and digital marketing strategy project managers and teams

• Project timeline

• Discovery process and results from needs assessment

• Description of NSCC’s role, responsibilities and deliverables

• Web content needed (text, photos, files, etc.)

• User acceptance/usability testing plan

• Template development

• Migration plan and content review

• Identification and "training" of content providers/liaisons

• Web maintenance schedule and workflow

• Additional training: Basics of writing for the web

DESIGN LAYOUT OPTIONS

• A minimum of three layout options from which to select final template design

• Variations for web, mobile and print

TEMPLATES

• A minimum of twelve coded templates that incorporate responsive design

• Variations for medium (Web, mobile, print, etc.)

• Form templates

All files used to create webpages, templates, images, or other elements associated with this project shall be delivered, and all copyrights transferred to NSCC prior to project completion.

This includes, but is not limited to the following types of files: HTML, PHP, Javascript, CSS, Microsoft Word, PDF, Photoshop, TIFF, JPG, and Flash.

DOCUMENTATION

• Documentation file(s) explaining all delivered elements

• Code must be well commented with references to separate documentation

• PSD files must contain notes with references to separate documentation

• Style guide outlining proper display of content

• Design guidelines for third party integration solutions

DESIGN STRATEGY TEAM RESOURCES

In addition to providing top-notch technical talents to this project, the vendor’s team or partner must include these skills and experiences:

• Project manager

• Digital communication and content strategist

• Designer

• Copywriter

• Developer

• ADA compliance specialist

• User research/usability testing specialist

• Brand specialist

NSCC RESOURCES

While NSCC’s Marketing Communications director, Chief Information Officer, and Web Administrator will be directly involved in design and architecture decisions, the following resources will be available as needed:

• Developer

• Copywriter

• Photography

• Designers

SITE REDESIGN QUESTIONNAIRE

Content Strategy Development and Design Process

1. Describe how you guide and develop content strategy.

2. Describe how you’d guide development of governance structure, policies and institutional buy-in.

3. Describe your discovery process.

4. Describe your review process for existing content.

5. Do you help clients plan/prepare for scalability?

6. Describe your creative process when designing a website for a higher education institution.

7. How many rounds of revisions are allowed?

8. What happens if NSCC doesn’t like the initial design?

9. What do you expect from NSCC?

10. What assets does the College need to supply?

11. What is your approach to usability? Can you show examples of projects with similar needs?

12. Do You Offer Conversion and Usability Testing?

13. Do you do A/B testing?

14. Explain your approach to taking current website traffic into consideration before making design decisions.

15. Explain how you do competitor research and what role it plays in your design process.

16. Explain your approach to integrating social media into your websites. Please give examples.

17. Explain approach to incorporating video into site.

18. Are website designs generated from template layouts to choose from or are they custom built from scratch?

19. Are your website designs W3C validated?

20. Do you build search engine optimization into websites?

21. How do you determine keywords for my site?

22. How do you ensure ensure our website redesign project is executed properly?

23. Please explain how you typically staff a redesign project of this nature?

24. How will our redesign project be managed?

25. What support do you offer after the site goes live?

26. How will design help with institutional goals?

27. Please explain how we will measure results?

Digital Communication & Design Implementation Cost

Please include ancillary costs such as on-site meetings. Include estimated hours. Itemize as needed.

Please Complete “Appendix A - Cost Matrix – Communication & Design Implementation”

BID Section 2: Content Management System Implementation

Background

Overview of site architecture and technical environment NSCC uses the ERP Banner as our primary data source. All of the College’s course, program, department, faculty and staff information is stored in Banner. A nightly Cron job exports all Banner information used on the website into a series of mySQL tables located on separate servers. This Banner import can also be run manually so changes made in Banner can be displayed on the public website immediately. Additionally NSCC employs several custom toolsets to add data directly to the mySQL tables for use on the website, including a custom keyword search and A to Z guide. All of the servers, databases and tools that make up the College public website presence are hosted on premise.

Several custom java web tools integrate directly with these mySQL tables, including:

● Course Search

● Employee Directory

● Program listing page

● Individual program pages

● Department pages

● Faculty listing

● Keyword search

Subdomains NSCC has several subdomains for related sites, including:

http://community.northshore.edu - this site is for our noncredit division. It is managed by the same tools as the main website.

http://corporate.northshore.edu - this is the College’s Corporate Training division site. It is also managed by the same tools as the main website.

http://news.northshore.edu - is the website for the College Public Relations department to publish news items, a weekly internal newsletter and bi-monthly faculty newsletter. It is a Wordpress site created and hosted internally by NSCC.

http://r3p.northshore.edu - is a website for an external partnership. It is also a Wordpress site created and hosted internally by NSCC.

Custom Toolsets

Alert messages:

The website also has a custom Alert system which is used to create alert messages on the public website and our CAS login page. The messages can be labeled as one of 3 different priorities - Informational, Warning and Critical. Messages can be directed to the public website, our CAS login page or both. They can be set to expire, and they can be set to allow the end-user to dismiss them.

http://www.northshore.edu/search/courses http://www.northshore.edu/search/directory http://www.northshore.edu/academics/programs http://www.northshore.edu/academics/programs/acd http://www.northshore.edu/academics/departments/cos http://www.northshore.edu/academics/faculty http://www.northshore.edu/search http://community.northshore.edu/ http://corporate.northshore.edu/ http://news.northshore.edu/ http://r3p.northshore.edu/

Calendars:

Currently several Google iCal feeds are integrated into the NSCC website in multiple ways. Some academic calendars are pulled into .jsp pages via a custom written tool that parses the feed and styles it. Other calendars are embedded using the standard inline frame code available from Google.

Several departments also use static .pdf files linked from their pages.

Course Search:

The College’s course search is a custom toolset that is coded in Java. Upon submission of the request, it pulls information directly from the mySQL tables. The information pulled includes the Course CRN, Course title, Course prerequisites, Course description, Term, Time, Day(s), Location/Room, Credits, Seats taken/available, Start/End dates, Instructor and a link to buy books.

Faculty/Credential Listing:

Faculty and their credentials are listed on the main College website. Their data is imported from Banner nightly and stored in the mySQL table for use in the website listing.

Faculty/Staff Search:

All faculty and staff are listed in a custom built directory. Directory information includes: name, title, department, email address, phone number and room. This information is imported nightly from Banner into a mySQL table for use on the website.

Keyword Search A tool for administrators is used to add keywords to a database of searchable items. This includes the keyword itself, the URI, a description, which of the subdomains the keyword applies to, and a yes/no selector for whether the keyword is to be added to the website’s A to Z directory.

Term Selection An administration tool is used to select the terms that are active on the website. When a term is made active, any courses that are tied to that term become active in the course search. When a term is made inactive, it is removed from the website’s course search

Mobile Website m.northshore.edu - custom developed website that contains a condensed site aimed at current students compatible with mobile devices; this site has since been de-supported and is not promoted.

Desired Situation NSCC wishes to deploy a website that has all of the custom features listed above replaced by toolsets that are proprietary to the website CMS. Banner will remain our primary data source. A feed containing the College’s course, program, department, faculty and staff information will be available for the CMS to use in the website. Ideally, this feed will be integrated once a day automatically, but also have the ability to be run manually as needed without impacting the performance of the website.

Data Integration We must be able to populate all key components of the new site with data from our Banner ERP on a scheduled basis. Minimally we need to address the presentation and search capability for the following areas:

● Faculty/Staff directory

● Course/Schedule search

● Program Information

Website Features The new site must incorporate the following features:

● Responsive design

● An alert module to publish college-wide alerts to the website

● a keyword search which allows administrators to pre-rank or better focus search results

● reside completely in the cloud

The ideal solution for NSCC would be to abolish our hybrid environment consisting of multiple servers and technologies along with proprietary database and toolsets; these would be replaced by a consolidated solution provided by the CMS vendor.

Company Background and Functional Requirements

COMPANY OVERVIEW

1. How many institutions use your organization’s solutions today?

2. Describe the scope of services and support offered by your organization.

3. Describe any business relations that your firm currently has or has had with North Shore

Community College.

4. Explain your organization’s experience in the higher education space, especially as it relates to two-year schools and institutions in Massachusetts or New England.

5. How are customer requests incorporated into your product development process?

Vendors must meet a minimum set of criteria to be considered for this project. Please respond only if you meet all of the following requirements. Vendor:

1. Has been in operation for at least three years

2. Has extensive experience with higher education

3. Does all development, implementation, and design in-house, or with a design partner (no subcontractors)

4. Can provide references for successful prior projects with comparable scope

5. Can demonstrate outstanding budget, quality, and timeline control

When responding to the questionnaire, state whether the capability is an add-on and/or requires an additional cost. These items should be broken out as separate line items in the RFP submission.

The following questions are required to complete prior to submitting your proposed CMS solution.

When answering a question, state whether your product DOES NOT MEET, PARTIALLY MEETS, MEETS, or EXCEEDS the requirements as presented.

PRODUCT OVERVIEW

1. Name of proposed product.

2. Describe what differentiates your product from your competitors’ products.

3. Describe the quantifiable benefits North Shore Community College will achieve by implementing proposed system.

4. Describe the history of product and experience with community college website development.

CMS PRODUCT QUESTIONNAIRE (to be Completed by CMS vendor)

COMPANY OVERVIEW

1. Please provide a general overview of your organization including the following: the nature of company ownership (i.e. privately or publicly held), number of employees and the year the organization was founded.

2. Have there been any changes in ownership over the past five years. If so, please describe.

3. Describe the financial strength of your company and provide audited financial statements for the last three years.

4. How many institutions use your organization’s solutions today?

5. Describe the scope of services and support offered by your organization.

6. Describe any business relations that your firm currently has or has had with North Shore

Community College.

7. Explain your organization’s experience in the higher education space.

8. Please describe your company’s technology vision and product roadmap for the next three years.

9. How are customer feature requests incorporated into your product development process?

Integration Capabilities

1. Explain in detail for the specific integration bullets below your strategies for integrating the system with our Banner ERP. Add diagrams as necessary if that will help explain.

a. Course Data

b. Program Data

c. Directory Data

2. Log In: NSCC is working towards a Single Sign on method for all Enterprise services and applications.

a. The new CMS solution must have the capability of working with this initiative. CAS integration is preferred. LDAP or AD integration is acceptable

3. Other Integration Points: There must be the capability to integrate with other systems. Example systems that may need integration would include: Learning Management systems such as

Blackboard.

a. Integration via Web services API including SOAP and REST web services

b. Integration via other web-based services such as Paypal, YouTube

c. Social networking platforms – have the ability to integrate with existing social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

4. Does your product include pre-built functionality for querying databases? If so, what databases are supported? Is there an easy way for non-technical content contributors to include database queries on their pages? If so, describe.

5. Does your product allow for importing of data from our ERP and this data to be searched via a custom form developed in your system?

6. Does your product have the ability to import feeds from third party content providers? If so, what data feeds are supported? Is there an easy way for content contributors and site administrators to manage these feeds?

7. How will our users access the product / service?

Features and Functional Requirements

CONTENT

1. Describe how content is entered or submitted using your product. Is there a WYSIWYG editing tool that is familiar to word-processor users? Please provide screenshot(s).

2. Does your product have the ability to easily import legacy web content (HTML)?

3. Does your product have the ability to easily import XML based content?

4. How is content stored in the system?

5. Does your product allow users to edit and preview their content for multiple display formats, e.g., for a desktop, tablet and phone?

6. Does your product have a built-in spell checker? Can custom dictionaries be added to the spell checker?

7. Does your product allow copy and pasting from Microsoft Word, Excel and other office productivity applications? Does your product offer the option of stripping-out Microsoft formatting?

8. Can your product import content from HTML editors and recognize HTML formatting tags within text content type? Explain.

9. Does your product allow for direct editing of the HTML in the edit environment?

10. Does your product have a code validator for catching errors in HTML, XHTML, XML, etc.

11. Does your product provide any tools for creating and managing forms? Is this an added cost?

12. Are URL links in the system maintained when content files are moved to a new directory?

13. Is there a utility or tool for checking and repairing broken internal and external links?

14. Is there is a way to set-up permanent, descriptive URLs (whether dynamically generated or static)?

15. Does your product have the ability to archive content in a separate data repository?

16. Can archived content that is no longer on the production Web site be searched and retrieved for display on the live Web site?

17. How is content re-used in the system? For instance, can content be updated in multiple places by modifying a single content instance? Can multiple instances of a single piece of content appear differently on different pages?

18. Can page or content publishing be scheduled? Can instances of a single piece of content be scheduled to appear for different lengths of time in different places?

19. Does your product allow site visitors to render any given page as a PDF document?

ASSET MANAGEMENT

1. Describe how your product accommodates various content types, such as: text, HTML, PDF, MS-

Word, XML, graphics, audio, rich media, etc. in terms of storage & management, and types natively supported.

2. Does your system allow for associating metadata with content assets? Explain.

3. Describe how your product supports indexing and cross-referencing of files (images, multimedia, pages, etc) through metadata, content keyword attributes or explicit content identifiers.

4. Can metadata and meta-tags be defined and entered by content contributors?

5. Does your system allow for video files to be uploaded locally and streamed?

6. How are images and other multimedia objects stored and managed in your system? Can users associate metadata with images and multimedia objects? Explain.

7. Does your system make uploading images, PDFs, MS Office docs, and media to the proper directories self-evident? Explain.

8. Are there easy-to-use methods to add directories and manage documents within them (adding, renaming, moving, deleting, archiving). Can access to this feature be managed based on a user’s role?

9. Can your system automatically format images and other rich media based on pre-defined standards for resolution, size and number of copies?

SEARCH

1. What search functionality does your product have for searching content on the published site?

How is this implemented? Is there an additional cost?

2. Does your product integrate with any of the large-scale Internet search engines for searching content on the published site? If so, which do you recommend?

3. What search capabilities are available for finding content within the CMS?

4. Does your product include or exclude content for search capability by various criteria?

5. Can content classifications, such as metadata, keywords or explicit content identifiers be used to search for content, build content listings, build content navigations and optimize content for search engines?

6. Is there a way to prioritize search results based on a list or database of keywords maintained by the College?

MULTI-LINGUAL SUPPORT

1. The College would like to provide translation into multiple languages on its website. Does your product support translation of content into different languages? Explain how.

2. For pages that are manually translated, are multinational character sets supported?

ANALYTICS

1. Does your product leverage 3rd-party tracking tools?

2. Does your product integrate with any of the major analysis tools? Explain.

Workflow and Communications

1. How is access to content and functionality controlled or restricted through user roles and permissions? Describe the level of security available and what fine-grained control of access exists? Above and beyond roles level access can you grant access to different functions within the system on individual accounts?

2. Is the functionality of your product role based? Does it allow for creation of any number of roles?

3. Does your product support workflow for editorial and approval processes? Describe.

4. How are users notified of workflow assignments? Are notifications customizable?

5. How do users track their tasks and assignments within the CMS?

6. How does your product support reviewers’ comments or notes?

7. Does the product support content versioning and roll-back?

8. Does your product provide the ability to develop content (sets of pages, individual pages, or specific content within a page) with specified expiration dates? Are expiration dates set manually or are they automatically generated? Can administrators pre-define expiration dates that happen annually or by semester/term for any given content?

9. How are users notified when content is near its expiration date? Are notifications customizable?

10. Can site administrators and editors search for pages that have not been updated in "x" number of days, weeks, months, or years?

11. Does your product support workflow for editorial and approval processes? Describe typical workflows in use by your other complex clients.

12. Does your product support a staging or test server for development work? Please provide details.

13. Is there an option to preview content prior to staging?

Technical Requirements

System Information

1. Describe your technology architecture and include the following: replication including redundancy and load balancing options.

2. What server operating systems are supported?

3. What client operating systems are supported?

4. Is the access to the administrative portion of the CMS client completely browser-based?

5. What browsers are fully supported?

6. What databases are supported by your solution?

7. What web servers are supported? In order to maintain NSCC custom toolsets - if necessary

8. What are the recommended hardware requirements for any systems that NSCC would need to host?

Technology Infrastructure

1. Describe the base data model for your product.

2. Outline the Open Standards (e.g. LDAP, XML, XSLT, etc) that are supported by your product.

Describe how your product uses them.

3. Identify proprietary and non-standard components of your product.

Implementation, Training and Support

1. How are technical support issues escalated and resolved? Describe the typical resolution process.

2. Describe your training program. Include class schedule, length, and indicate whether training is offered at your site or at customer's site. Indicate whether or not any training materials are provided.

3. Describe the professional services offered to facilitate installation and customization? What are the rates for such services?

4. Describe your software maintenance contract, the warranty, and the maintenance service provided under the warranty. Provide the costs for the next three (3) years.

5. Are there any limitations to the number or type of technical support calls that a customer can make each year?

Security and Compliance

1. Who owns the rights to the data being processed, stored and handled by this product?

2. Who owns any intellectual property derived from the use of this product?

3. Please describe your legal responsibilities for protecting the data being processed, stored and handled by this product?

4. What functions and processes exist to ensure data integrity within the system? What mechanisms are used to ensure duplicate content does not enter the system?

5. Does your system have protection against spammers and abuse?

6. Does your system employ a tool to check content as it is created for ADA compliance? Does your system have a tool that can check sitewide for ADA compliance and assist with Meta data, tags etc that would be expected to fully address ADA compliance?

SaaS Cloud Based Hosted Solution

1. Is your solution completely Hosted? Do any web servers that support the NSCC public web site presence with your solution need to reside at North Shore Community College?

2. For your proposed SaaS/Cloud-based solution please describe your environment and take the following points into consideration:

● backups and restores

● redundant strategies for emergencies - if desired state can not be achieved (see diagram on

Page XX) can we co-locate a reduced website in case of emergency at your location?

● monitoring for availability, performance, and uptime? What actions are taken when an issue is discovered and how quickly?

● Describe the capabilities for accessing the system using secure methods, i.e., SSL or SFTP.

Is secure remote access available for users outside the internal network? Explain.

System Administration

1. Describe how accounts and privileges are created and managed for use within the CMS.

2. Can users be authenticated using either CAS, LDAP or Active Directory? Please describe all methods. Will support services be provided to assist with the single sign-on authentication connection?

3. What skill-set and training time are required for system administrators to manage modifications, permissions, and other system additions?

4. Describe system administrator reporting capabilities. Please provide a listing of system administration delivered reports? Describe your capability to create custom reports.

5. Does your product provide for automated archiving? Is so, describe how your product handles archiving of old / expired content and what tools or features you provide to manage content whose expiration date has passed?

CMS Implementation Costs

Please Complete “Appendix B - Cost Matrix - Content Management System”

NORTH SHORE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

ONE FERNCROFT ROAD

DANVERS, MA 01923

Request for Proposal - CHECKLIST OF FORMS

REQUIRED FORMS (to be completed and submitted with bid response)

Affirmative Action…