SDSU Website Support and Maintenance Service

South Dakota State University (SDSU), through its University Marketing and Communications department, is soliciting proposals for ongoing support, maintenance, and enhancement services for sdstate.edu, a Drupal-based website hosted on the Pantheon platform. This is a Support and Project Work Contract that requires the selected vendor to provide routine operational support including monthly Drupal core and security updates, backup and recovery support, troubleshooting and incident management, Pantheon hosting platform support, code quality reviews, front-end theming improvements, automated testing development, and quality assurance testing. The vendor must demonstrate expertise with complex Drupal environments, specifically with Drupal 10.4.34 utilizing approximately 47 contributed modules and 26 custom modules, and must support a co-development environment with multiple team members requiring ticketing system access while SDSU retains full write access to GitHub repositories. All vendor-created web content must comply with WCAG 2.2 Level AA and Section 508 accessibility requirements, with accessibility remediation handled as separate project work if it exceeds the monthly retainer. The cost proposal must be organized into two categories: a fixed monthly support services fee not to exceed $5,000 per month (covering approximately 25-30 hours for business-as-usual activities with unused hours rolling over), and hourly rates for additional projects, features, and work requested outside the regular monthly support contract. The deadline for submitting questions is prior to the proposal due date of May 11, 2026, at 10:00 AM CDT, with inquiries directed to Karen Bravek at Karen.Bravek@sdstate.edu with subject line "RFP# SDSU04272026 QUESTIONS." The contract award decision and negotiation is scheduled for May 22, 2026, with an initial contract term of one fiscal year from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027, with the option to renew annually for up to seven years of total service.

The RFP document does not indicate any specific set-aside designations or restrictions on the types of organizations that can respond. However, the procurement notes that SDSU currently utilizes a third-party agency for Drupal maintenance and is open to all qualified vendors, indicating an incumbent provider exists though not specifically named in the available documents. The vendor must integrate with SDSU's existing Pantheon hosting infrastructure, including Pantheon's standard Dev-Test-Live deployment pipeline and Platinum enterprise-level support tier, and must clarify whether tools such as Slack, GitHub, and Tugboat are included in their pricing or require additional costs. The contractor must maintain specific insurance coverage including commercial general liability ($1,000,000 per occurrence), professional liability ($1,000,000), business automobile liability ($1,000,000 per accident), and workers' compensation as required by South Dakota law. The contract is structured with a fixed monthly retainer of up to $5,000 for routine support services, with additional project work billed at proposed hourly rates or fixed-rate quotes provided upon request for large-scale projects. Either party may terminate the agreement with sixty days' written notice, or immediately by the State in case of breach, and either party may terminate if appropriated funds become unavailable.