The vendor is required to provide services for a new website content management system, which includes configuration, migration, and integration for the municipal website.
- The existing website is currently hosted on a SharePoint platform that will reach end-of-life in July 2026.
- Assistance in implementing a modern, scalable, accessible, and secure platform that integrates with existing municipal systems.
1. Accessibility and compliance
• Ensure full compliance with WCAG (web content accessibility guidelines) for digital accessibility.
• Implement assistive features, including but not limited to screen reader compatibility, alternative text for images, and keyboard navigation.
2. Community engagement and communication tools
• Support integration with automated translation services (e.g., google translate) for standard languages.
• Allow municipal staff to add manually translated content, such as for languages not supported by automated tools.
• Ability to share news and announcements, via website banners, posts and subscription-based notifications.
• Ability to build and maintain public feedback forms and surveys.
3. Content management system
• Enable self-service customization of page layouts, visual themes, and departmental content sections through configurable interface components.
• Ensure the content management system allows non-technical city staff to update content easily.
• Support role-based access control to ensure proper governance of content publishing.
• Ability to build and maintain customizable forms for user submitted data.
• allow file uploads via forms for unauthenticated users.
• Ability to tag content for internal record retention policies.
• Produce reports including performance and analytic metrics measuring website function (e.g., speed, user experience, efficiency, page last modified).
• Identify the platform or common technologies used in your content management solution.
• Provide test environment for implementation.
4. Integration with municipal systems and services
• Describe any ability to integrate with third-party api and services (e.g. online permit applications, GIS mapping, utility billing and payment portals, public records, city council meeting minutes, emergency alerts, and other notification systems).
5. Conversion of existing content
• Ability to reliably automate the conversion of thousands of standardized records (e.g. press releases, public notices).
6. Implementation and on-going support
• Provide an ongoing vendor support and maintenance agreement.
• Develop and implement a comprehensive migration and implementation plan.
• Supply training and support resources for city staff and website administrators.
7. Mobile responsiveness and optimization
• Website platform must be accessible and performant on mobile devices.
• Deliver a fully responsive design that provides a consistent experience across desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
8. Performance and analytics tracking
• Integrate google analytics or a similar government-approved analytics tool to monitor user behavior and engagement.
• Provide reporting for broken links and the ability to submit complaints to the webmaster.
• Provide up-time and performance metrics in addition to real-time alerting of critical issues.
• Provide content monitoring tools to see what pages are not linked-to and find stale pages easily within the system.
9. Search functionality and navigation enhancements
• Query content and site navigation via rest API.
• Ability to build custom searches including results from external services and data sources.
• Provide categorization and filtering options for streamlined content discovery.
• Allow promotion of pages in search top results.
10. Security and data protection
• Demonstrate how your platform meets data protection standards for all applicable use cases.
• Perform regular security audits and vulnerability testing to identify and mitigate risks, particularly for submitted forms.
• Require single sign-on (SSO) and two-factor authentication for editors.
• Describe all security measures used to protect sensitive information, especially for submitted forms.
• Must receive municipality of anchorage’s IT security team approval prior to the signing of software contracts.
• Support granular permissions by department or role.
• Employ modern security measures such as SSL encryption, secure authentication, and DDoS protection.
• Maintain compliance with government cybersecurity policies and best practices.
11. User experience (UX) and design enhancements
• Provide digital calendar functionality for users to view events, appointments, and schedules.
• Enable interactive webpages that encourage user engagement through interactive elements.
• Ability to embed or upload video content including third-party livestreaming platforms.
• Deliver a user-friendly interface focused on ease of navigation and accessibility.
• Ability to maintain an intuitive information architecture, allowing residents to easily find city services.
12. Website governance and maintenance plan
• Implement version control to track changes (who changed what, when, and what previous versions looked like).
• Provide a support and maintenance plan for hosted services including technical upgrades, troubleshooting procedures, and scheduled outages.
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: June 18, 2025