Website Redesign Services

The vendor required to provide website redesign services, CMS implementation, content governance and ongoing support.
- Goals
•    Deliver a resident-first, act-compliant website that is fast, secure, and easy to navigate.
•    Consolidate and streamline content across departments, reducing redundancy and outdated pages.
•    Implement an enterprise-grade content management system (CMS) that supports governance, workflows, analytics, and future scalability. 
•    Improve digital service delivery (online forms, payments, service requests) and integrate with core city systems.
•    Establish ongoing support, training, and measurement practices to keep content accurate and useful.
- Requirement:
1. Discovery and strategy
•    Conduct stakeholder interviews and resident research (e.g., surveys, task testing).
•    Perform a comprehensive content audit and inventory, including rot analysis (redundant, outdated, trivial content).
•    Review site analytics (ga4), search query logs, and perform top-tasks analysis.
•    Develop a governance blueprint.
2. Information architecture and UX
•    Create a site map and navigation structure using a task-based model.
•    Develop page templates and components (e.g., service pages, program pages, department hubs, project updates, alerts).
•    Optimize search functionality (site search tuning and a metadata strategy).
3. Visual design and brand system
•    Provide a modern, mobile-first visual design and establish a pattern library and design system.
•    Ensure accessible color palettes and typography (high-contrast, keyboard-friendly interactions).
•    Design reusable components for alerts, closures, events, agendas, and emergency messaging.
4. CMS implementation
•    Recommend and implement an enterprise CMS (open-source or commercial) that supports:
o    Role-based permissions and editorial workflows, including content review and expiry dates.
o    Structured content types and components for consistent page layouts.
o    Media management with a digital asset manager (DAM), image optimization, and document governance.
o    Content versioning, staging, and preview capabilities, with rollback functionality.
o    API-first architecture to facilitate integrations with other systems.
o    Document and file management and records retention: implement versioning, metadata tagging, automated content review and expiry, and archival processes consistent with state public records requirements. 
o    Include features like bulk upload, inline document viewers, OCR and indexing for search, automated broken-link checking, and accessible document support (e.g., pdf alternate formats).
o    Storage model and costs: clearly define the storage included with the solution and any per-GB overage costs. 
o    Offer options to store or link to external repositories (e.g., SharePoint and OneDrive, google drive) while preserving canonical URLs and search indexing.
o    Data portability: ensure non-proprietary export of all content, media, configurations, and metadata to prevent vendor lock-in.
•    Migrate prioritized content into the new CMS and decommission legacy pages according to the governance rules.
5. Integrations (as applicable)
•    Integration approach: favor API-driven integrations over iframes wherever possible. 
•    If an iframe is unavoidable, it must be fully responsive, accessible, visually consistent with the design system, and support deep-linking.
•    Target systems (non-exhaustive): integrate with key city systems, including:
o    Recreation and programs: RecTrac, WebTrac and CivicRec for program listings and registrations.
o    Public records: GovQA (or successor platform) for FOIA and public records request workflows.
o    Resident services/311 and CRM: the city’s service request platform and knowledge base.
o    Meetings and agendas: Legistar and Granicus for meeting schedules and agenda management.
o    GIS and maps: Esri for interactive maps and geographic information.
o    Email and alerts: Mailchimp and the city’s SMS and email alerting systems.
o    Payments: secure payment gateways currently used by the city.
o    Identity management: oauth2 solutions, as applicable, for single sign on.
o    Analytics and search: google analytics 4 (ga4), google search console (GSC), and any site search tuning tools.
•    Integration’s matrix: proposers must provide a matrix listing each proposed integration with details such as the method, endpoints utilized, data flow diagrams, and any required middleware.
•    Case studies: provide at least two governmental case studies demonstrating successful implementation of similar integrations.
•    Data portability: explain how data from integrated systems can be exported and retained to meet records retention and compliance requirements.
6. Accessibility and compliance
•    Standards compliance: all web deliverables must conform to WCAG 2.2 aa (or higher) and section 508 requirements. 
•    Proposers should include accessibility testing reports and a remediation plan for any issues identified.
•    Authoring tools: the CMS authoring environment must support accessible content creation (e.g., prompts for alt text on images, proper heading structure, meaningful link text, and table accessibility helpers).
7. Performance, security and hosting
•    Hosting model: describe the hosting approach (vendor-managed service, cloud provider, or on-premises). 
•    Include details on tenancy (single-tenant vs. multi-tenant), environment separation (development, testing, staging, production), and confirmation of country data residency.
•    Uptime and resilience: commit to a minimum of 99.95% monthly uptime. 
•    Strategies for auto-scaling, content delivery network (CDN) usage, caching, and handling peak traffic.
•    Specify maintenance windows and required advance notice for scheduled downtime.
•    Disaster recovery and business continuity: provide daily backups with encryption (at rest and in transit). 
•    The solution should support a recovery point objective (RPO) of ≤15 minutes for CMS database and a recovery time objective (RTO) of ≤4 hours. 
•    Include quarterly backup restore testing procedures.
•    Security measures: implement robust security features such as a web application firewall (WAF), protection, regular patching cadence, vulnerability management, and annual third-party penetration testing. ideally, the hosting environment.
•    Provide a vulnerability disclosure policy and an incident response plan.
•    Access and logging: support single sign-on (SSO) via SAML and oauth2 and enforce least privilege access controls. 
•    Maintain audit logs in accordance with the city’s records retention policy, and allow integration of logs with the city’s security information and event management (SIEM) system.
•    Monitoring and status: provide real-time monitoring and a public status page for the system. 
•    Establish incident communication protocols that include timelines and post-mortem analysis for any major incidents.
•    Cost transparency: offer detailed pricing for hosting, including scaling tiers, bandwidth and storage limits, and any overage fees.
•    Civic plus transition: the city’s current website uses civic plus. 
•    Proposers should compare their hosting capabilities and migration approach relative to the current civic plus environment, noting any potential constraints, efficiencies, or transition risks.
8. Content migration and writing support
•    Develop a content matrix identifying all content to be migrated, along with content ownership and review cadence for each section.
•    Rewrite high-priority pages following plain-language standards to ensure content is clear and easy to understand.
•    Create standardized templates for evergreen service pages and timely project updates to maintain consistency across the site.
9. Training and change management
•    Provide comprehensive training for both administrators and content authors (include live training sessions as well as recorded modules for later reference).
•    Supply detailed authoring guides, a style guide, a governance handbook, and quality assurance (QA) checklists to support ongoing content management.
10. Post-launch support and continuous improvement
•    Warranty: include a post-launch warranty period of at least 180 days. 
•    Define service level agreements (SLAS) for issue resolution by severity.
•    Support model: outline the support model, including support hours (noting if 24/7 support is provided for critical incidents), response and resolution time SLAS, escalation paths, a dedicated account manager, and plans for quarterly business review meetings.
•    Knowledge transfer: deliver thorough administrator and author documentation, operational runbooks, and conduct handover sessions. 
•    Plan for refresher training sessions after launch to ensure knowledge transfer to city staff.
•    Roadmap and optimization: propose a process for quarterly site optimizations based on analytics data and resident feedback.
•    Pricing protections: include a rate card for any out-of-scope work and cap any annual rate increases for at least 3 years. 
•    Disclose any third-party pass-through costs that may be incurred.
•    Exit and transition: describe how you will facilitate a smooth transition at contract termination or expiry. 
•    This includes providing complete data and configuration exports, transition assistance, and other measures to avoid vendor lock-in.

- Questions/Inquires Deadline: November 17, 2025