Online Community Engagement Platform

The Vendor is required to provide a qualified and cost-effective online community engagement platform (“OCEP”) that can be used to connect with community members through discussions, messaging, and shared content in a centralized digital space.
- This beginning-to-end service system must be robust, user-friendly, scalable and an efficient solution for the City and residents.
- These platforms are particularly valuable in reaching residents who may not be able to attend traditional in-person meetings or open houses. Through tools such as surveys, interactive maps, discussion forums, and project updates, municipalities can engage people where they are, on their own time, and from their own devices.
- Feedback collected through the platform can be analyzed to identify trends, priorities, and areas of concern, enabling council and staff to make more informed, evidence based decisions.
- Ultimately, the purpose of a municipal community engagement platform is to foster a more connected, informed, and engaged community
- The Online Community Engagement Solution (the “Solution”) chosen shall meet or exceed the City’s expectations while:
• Provide the capabilities of creating and managing digital communities where members can connect, communicate, and provide input on key topics.
• Facilitating engagement through forums, groups, events, polls, and surveys while encouraging the provision of input and participation.
• Offering moderation tools, analytics dashboard, and administration controls, to manage the community, monitor activities, and gain insights into user engagement.
• The City anticipates the need for a minimum of three (3) site administration roles with the Solution-wide access, and at least 20 project administrator roles who have access to one or more specific project pages.
• There are approximately thirty (30) to fifty (50) new engagement projects issued every year, however the City must have the ability to have unlimited number of active projects, as well as unlimited ability to show completed / archived projects.
- The services required for implementation will include the initial setup and configuration, integrations, and training of the City’s identified users, as well as the migration of all projects and information for the City’s current platform to the Solution.
- Hosting-related requirements
• All City data, including credentials, metadata, and usage patterns, must not be shared to other entities including Proponent partners, contractors or Solution providers, without first obtaining approval from the City;
• Target service uptime is 99.9% or greater
• A defined backup process (daily/weekly/monthly) is in place. Proponent to provide validation of their backup processes if requested by the City;
• Backup restoration testing must be completed quarterly;
• Backups must be stored at a separate data centre;
• Annual security assessments are performed and available upon request;
• Logs, processes, tools and resources to perform continuous cyber security monitoring for any suspicious activity across Proponent’s entire network, are employed; and
• A tested cyber incident response plan is maintained and available upon request.