The vendor is required to provide from qualified proposers to redesign and upgrade its current website infrastructure from Drupal 7 to Drupal 11.
- The university’s primary website (cu.edu) and associated department sites are currently built on Drupal 7, hosted by pantheon.
- As of January 2025, Drupal 7 is no longer supported, making security and maintenance increasingly costly.
- Redesigning the current site and migrating from Drupal 7 to Drupal 11.
- Enhancing website content management and user permissions.
- Ensuring WCAG 2.2 accessibility compliance.
- Improving search capabilities and search engine optimization (SEO) performance.
- Modernizing design and user experience.
- Provide Drupal 7 security support and patching to the current environment, as needed, during the project through go live of Drupal 11.
- Include for services
1. Project plan and timeline:
• Provide a detailed project plan outlining the phases of the project, key milestones, and a timeline for completion.
2. Requirement’s analysis:
• Conduct a thorough analysis of the current website, including reviewing existing content, functionality, and user experience.
• This should also include gathering requirements for the new website.
• The current state document already completed for cu.edu can be used and updated as needed.
3. Design and UX/UI:
• Develop a comprehensive design plan including mockups and prototypes for the new website.
• The design should address user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) elements.
• Evaluate the utility and privacy concerns of publicly displaying employee directory information.
• Ensure responsiveness for mobile and tablet devices.
4. Content migration plan:
• Outline a strategy for migrating content from Drupal 7 to Drupal 11, ensuring accuracy, efficiency, and minimal impact on SEO.
• Migration must account for
o Exclusion of historical event content, transferring only future events.
o Conversion of short codes to modern components such as experience builder or paragraph entities.
o Migration of files (images and documents) to media entities.
o Retention of embedded tableau visualizations.
o The possibility of leveraging a third-party database for salary data
5. Development and customization:
• Build the new website, including required custom modules, features, and integrations with third-party systems and APIs.
• Specific development requirements include:
o Replacing the unsupported “builder” module used for department layouts.
o Implementing enhanced content moderation workflows and granular user permissions.
o Improving the file replacement process and media tagging tools.
o Ensuring continued use of Vimeo and YouTube for embedded videos.
o Implementing robust search functionality beyond Drupal core search with federated search capabilities across multiple platforms.
o Addressing accessibility compliance and eliminating inaccessible interactive content
6. Testing and quality assurance:
• Conduct comprehensive testing, including functional, usability, accessibility, and performance testing.
• Provide a plan for testing across various devices, screen sizes, and browsers, including how issues will be addressed.
7. Training and documentation:
• Provide training sessions for the cu team and deliver detailed documentation, including user guides and technical documentation.
8. Deployment and launch:
• Develop a launch plan, including a timeline and necessary support during the transition period.
9. Post-launch support and maintenance:
• Recommend an ongoing support and maintenance plan, including regular updates, security patches, and performance monitoring.
10. Project management and communication:
• Ensure regular updates and communication throughout the project, including status reports, meetings, and a dedicated project manager.
• Include a stakeholder management plan and recommended project governance, including the decision-making process.
• Cu will assign a project manager to partner with the consulting project manager.
• It is expected that the consulting project manager will be the lead, with the cu project manager acting as the primary liaison with the cu team, ensuring cu project resources and processes are managed effectively to support the project.
11. Data security and privacy plan:
• Provide a strategy for ensuring data security and privacy during the migration, including handling sensitive information and compliance with relevant regulations.
• Authentication and security requirements include:
o Single sign-on (SSO) integration compatible with PingFederate for both content access and admin authentication.
o Secure email sending via cu’s dedicated send grid account.
o Validation of reCAPTCHA ownership and security measures on forms.
12. Performance optimization strategy:
• Define a strategy for optimizing website performance, including load time improvements, caching strategies, and potential content delivery network (CDN) implementation.
13. SEO migration strategy:
• Provide a plan to maintain and improve search engine rankings, including URL mapping, redirects, metadata preservation, and benchmarking.
14. Analytics and reporting setup:
• Implement analytics tools and outline a plan for tracking website performance post-migration, including custom reporting needs.
- Content management and user permissions
• Implement improved content moderation workflows with more granular user permissions.
• Ensure certain content and files are restricted behind a secure single sign-on (SSO) system
- Search & media management
• Provide enhanced search capabilities beyond standard Drupal core search.
• Enable federated search to index multiple sites and content sources.
• Improve the file replacement process and provide advanced media tagging and management tools.
- Site functionality & integrations
• Replace the custom "builder" module (currently used for department layouts) with a modern, supported alternative.
• Convert short codes to contemporary components such as experience builder entities or paragraph entities.
• Ability to use and manage embedded tableau visualizations.
• Support integration with third-party databases for salary data.
• Provide seamless embedding of Vimeo and YouTube videos.
- Content migration & exclusions
• Migrate relevant content from Drupal 7 to Drupal 11.
• Exclude historical event content; only future events should be transferred.
• Migrate files to Drupal media entities.
- Email and security enhancements
• Maintain email notifications with robust support for conditional email sends via webforms.
• Transition email sending from the vendor's SendGrid account to a university-managed account.
• Validate the use of reCAPTCHA on forms and confirm proper account ownership.
• Ensure content requiring authentication is protected via SSO for both content access and site admin access.
- Compliance
• Remove interactive and h5p (html5 interactive content) due to accessibility concerns and limited usage.
• The comments feature is no longer required.
• The new solution must support a mix of public and private content requiring authentication.
- User experience & additional features
• Implement a translation function (e.g., google translate alternative) to improve multilingual support.
• Enable additional search functionality to allow searching for publicly available directory information for cu employees.
• Develop a landing page for access to system and campus job listings, faculty/staff profiles.
• Provide an intuitive layout management tool allowing site editors to make basic page layout changes without requiring code development.
- Proposer responsibilities:
• The proposer must provide project management, technical expertise, and the necessary resources to fulfill the project requirements.
- University responsibilities:
• The university will assign a project manager as a liaison and provide access to required resources.
- Resource estimation:
• Proposers must estimate required staffing and project hours per phase.
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: March 11, 2025