The Vendor is required to provide public-facing website creative, digital, and website development services to design, develop, and implement a secure, visually-pleasing, and easily navigable website that will serve as both a promotional platform and a definitive source of information.
 - A full-service agency offering end-to-end services, including web design, website development, brand management, digital marketing, market research, and strategic planning with the breadth of experience to deliver a cohesive, high-performing solution.
- Conduct stakeholder interviews with executive leadership and the communications office to identify overarching goals and core agency informational elements of the public-facing website; the contractor shall conduct interviews with the remainder of the 30 agency offices to identify shareable content and assess the appropriateness of its placement on
• The public-facing website,
• Restricted community subsites, or
• Other agency -maintained platforms.
- Perform content analysis and categorization to review the identified content and assign it to
• The public-facing website,
• Restricted community subsites, or
• Or agency -maintained platforms.
- Develop a set of functional requirements defining business and functionality requirements for the new website, detailing content types for different stakeholders, organizational structure for public content, and specifications for ease of navigation and access to address stakeholder needs.
- Develop a website framework design that provides a visual map and textual description of the overall structure of the website, specifying major content categories, pathways for each stakeholder group, and key content areas for
• The public-facing website, or
• Restricted community subsites.
- ensure that the website pages are self-explanatory and easy to navigate and utilize search function (i.e., end user training not required).
- Date on current industry security standards and include the necessary components in the new website, including single sign-on or multi-factor authentication for website logins.
- Utilize an open-source content management system, such as Drupal or WordPress, for the website; department will not use or otherwise procure proprietary content management software.
- Ensure all design elements and themes will include the department logo and branding; the contracted company will work with the department communications office but will have creative freedom; all final decisions must be made/approved by department.
- Utilize up to date and consistent coding techniques (such as html5 and CSS), so the new website displays effectively and uniformly on all browser versions, including but not limited to, Microsoft edge, chrome, Firefox, opera, and safari; furthermore, the contractor must provide a responsive site that scales appropriately to display effectively on desktops, notebooks, tablets, and smartphones.
- The website must contain department privacy statement and be act compliant. act compliance must be documented through a voluntary product accessibility template (VPAT).
- The website will include links to several subdomains, must allow for integrating or embedding custom department or 3rd party dashboards, visualizations, data, downloads, AI chatbot, and reporting content via iframe, URL links, or other methods.
- Provide recommendations for a balanced digital strategy that is integrated with department website; these online products/campaigns may include, but are not limited to: search engine marketing, paid media, search engine optimization, and social media; the agreed upon elements would be implemented by the contractor and managed by the department communications office.
- Responsible for the design, development and deployment of any new creative development (including but not limited to written content, graphic design, videos, pictures, or illustrations) consistent with the overall aesthetic design needed for the new website; these designs must be approved by department prior to being incorporated into the new website.
- Work with department to design, create, and populate webpages on the new general public-facing website, as well as develop a series of page templates staff can utilize to create pages more easily in the future; the contractor will also design and create a template for the restricted community subsites and facilitate initial population of content with department.
- Create a main landing page that will allow for easy content updates, as well as consistently feature information relevant to website visitors (i.e. business hours, event/program schedule, current/upcoming meetings, etc.); the main page must allow for the quick addition and removal of content as needed and include the ability to add messages/ notifications (i.e. “department closed due to poor weather,” etc.) when necessary; it must offer easy navigation options for the user (i.e., menu drop downs, search bar, etc.); it must also feature social media links, as well as the linked logos of affiliate organizations as designated by department .
- For significant revisions to the website, including the initial launch, the contractor shall use a development uniform resource locator (URL) during development/testing with transition to the live URL on the revision date/go live date without compromising any site functionality.  
- Coordinate with the hosting provider (department or another) during the new website’s development, including testing the site before the go live date, to ensure proper operation.
- During the initial contract period and any additional optional years, the contractor shall inform department about industry trends that may be relevant to department needs.
- Knowledgeable of department target audiences (parents, students, teachers, administrators, legislature, public, etc.) and make effective recommendations to department for website enhancements.
- Set up an analytics system via google analytics or a similar tool and ensure the department has the ability to monitor and create web traffic and overall analytics reports, including data capture of end-user site use through MS clarity or a similar tool.
- Contract Period/Term: 3 years
- Pre-Proposal Conference Date: February 24, 2025
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: February 25, 2025