University of Derby Website Redevelopment

Tender description

Summary of the work The University of Derby requires a major overhaul to its website at derby.ac.uk. Expected Contract Length 12 months with an option to extend for a further of 12 months Latest start date 19/06/2017 Why the Work is Being Done The University of Derby requires a major overhaul to its website at derby.ac.uk. The existing site has been in place for a number of years with various additions and amendments over time. We need to implement a more ambitious and responsive web presence that is fit for the future and drives on-going student recruitment. This project includes the main website for UK and International undergraduate and postgraduate recruitment, online learning and business services. We are working to a proposed launch date of March 2018. Problem to Be Solved Outcomes to be based on research into customer groups. Whole website needs to be responsive. Delivering the right information to the right users at the right time during recruitment – design and UX led approach. Deliver an industry-leading, highly engaging website that matches the University’s ambitions for growth. Challenge us on what student recruitment will look like in 20 years, provide a website fit for long term future use. We need to bring strong visual content to the forefront, and enable customers to find it via slick navigation and overall UX - design that delivers a clear and integrated journey. Who Are the Users Key users are prospective students (undergraduate, postgraduate, international, online, part time), businesses who may wish to source B2B services from university, and current students. Prospective students want to find out more about what they can study, find out more detail about courses, book open days, order a prospectus, understand more about what it is like to study at Derby. They want to do this in order to make a decision to study at the University of Derby. Early Market Engagement Very limited early market engagement has been carried out. This was only to discuss how a supplier might propose resourcing and structuring a project like this. Findings were inconclusive - the initial discussions demonstrated that the resource and structure of the project could take a number of different forms, often determined by the suppliers expertise and once a better grasp of our internal resource was discussed. Work Already Done Initial discussions around potential resourcing options only. Decision has already been made about which CMS to use (Terminal Four) and this is non-negotiable. Existing Team We will not be working directly with another supplier. We have an in-house development team (one Senior Web Developer, one Junior Web Developer and a HTML Campaigns Developer) within the Digital Marketing team. Our team also includes two Digital Content Officers, a Digital Systems Officer, two Digital Assistants and the Digital Marketing Manager. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Must be able to meet the start and launch dates proposed. Start date July 2017, launch date February 2018. Evidence of delivering projects to timescales. • Analysis and evaluation of existing website structure, content and customer journeys - creating information architecture. • Delivering projects for websites with over 5,000 pages and multiple customer groups • Delivering projects at speed with clearly identified deliverables and timescales. • Extensive demonstrable experience of managing and delivering significant website development projects. Able to identify each stage of the project and what it will include. • Experience of deisgning websites that are intuitive and easy to use all deveices. • Excellent planning, coordination, communication and project management skills. • Extensive experience and success in customer profiling techniques and how these are used to inform technical and content development. • Experience of content strategy development • Experience of website personalisation • Experience of SEO and how it should be used during website development and content development activities. • Experience of integrating social media into websites, including the use of social media aggregation services. • Experience of using clear development methodologies, with a clear idea of how this would work in conjunction with a clients internal development team. • Experience of extensive testing internally and with end users in advance of launch and clear identification of what this might include. • Experience of managing content migration on a significant scale. • Clear understanding of strategy to launch a new website, minimising negative impact on SEO. Nice to Haves Understanding of the Higher Education sector and the student recruitment cycle. Work Location It is expected to be a mixture of on and off-site working. When on-site this will take place at the University's main campus in Derby (DE22 1GB). Working Arrangments The supplier will work closely with the Digital Team in Derby. It is anticipated that work will be conducted both onsite and offsite throughout the project. The supplier will submit regular reports to the Digital Marketing Manager regarding the status of the project, achieving key milestones and issues that may impact on timescales and cost. Significant updates required as necessary. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • 3% Identify the approach to website project planning and delivery, identifying the main stages and activities proposed at each stage. This should include a full project plan. • 3% Detailed resource plan - demonstrating how in-house, supplier and external resource will be used and at what stage. • 2% Identification about how the requirements of other areas of the University - University of Derby Online Learning (UDOL), International, Business Services - will be integrated into the project. • 3% Identification of all elements of the research/discovery phase of the project. Identify activities and outcomes throughout this stage and how this informs technical development, design and content development. • 5% Detailed explanation of the approach to identifying the core customer groups and how the content, layout and navigation, and user experience will be designed around this. • 2% Identify process mapping out the existing site structure, developing a new structure, and mapping customer journeys for the identified customer groups. Identify process and outcomes expected. • 3% Suppliers must demonstrate their experience in designing and development of websites through an extensive range of past work for clients on a similar scale. • 2% Part of the process of agreeing the designs will include seeking feedback and approval from various stakeholders. Suppliers should identify what this process will look like. • 3% Suppliers should identify how photography will be commissioned, how the photographers will be briefed, and how the overall style of photography will be determined. • 3% Suppliers must give an overview of the content strategy setting process and how this will be used throughout the project. • 3% Please identify how you will consider future opportunities to use personalisation features of T4 through content strategy and design. • 2% Identify how all existing content will be reviewed, and new content will be developed, in terms of resourcing, the overall process and with consideration to SEO • 2% Demonstrate how social media would be integrated into the website. Identify how our social media aggregation service can be incorporated. • 4% Suppliers are required to develop a UI kit as part of the design and build process. Demonstrate how this would be achieved and examples of outputs • 4% Give an overview of how the build phase structure and resource. Identify how there can be flexibility to explore additional features • 2% Identification of the ideal development methodology given the proposed structure of the project. • 3% Suppliers should give a detailed overview of how they would carry out ongoing testing, and what this would include – e.g. browser testing, device testing, proof reading etc. • 4% Give an overview of the content review, development and migration process that they would use throughout the project - including integration of areas moving from other CMS systems (UDOL). • 3% Suppliers should give an overview of the overall website launch process. Give an overview of the activity required at launch to minimise impact on SEO • 4% Plan for reporting to stakeholders: Project team, Marketing Leadership team and University Executive. Propose how to approach the governance/approval process Cultural Fit Criteria • 6% Ability to work with clients who have extensive in-house technical capabilities with a view to leading development in house.. • 7%Work as an extension to our team throughout the project. • 7% Future focussed, striving to deliver the best website possible. Payment Approach Capped time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Do you have budget signed off for this project, and if so, what is it? Our website is our shop window, it is the most important aspect of the student recruitment process and therefore we are prepared to resource it as such. This project comes at a time when competition in the marketplace is fierce, and we need to articulate what studying at the University of Derby really means. Our decision to omit the upper end of the budget is to ensure that suppliers proposals work towards our ambition of launching a sector leading website. 2. Do you want to follow the GDS Digital By Default Service Standards including understanding user needs and Agile methods of working? Also follow the Discovery, Alpha, Beta Live agile cycle? We would be comfortable following the GDS Digital by Default service standards in the main, though there may be some areas which might be inappropriate given the type of organisation we are – for example we would exclude points 13, 17 and 18.While we would be comfortable following the agile lifecycle for this project, we would be open adopted the development methodology suggested by preferred by the supplier. 3. Can I just confirm the tender process you are following? Will you be shortlisting against the 100 words skills and experience criteria submitted by suppliers through the digital marketplace and then moving into proposal stage following this evaluation? Or are you anticipating suppliers submit their full proposals alongside the 100 words? If the latter, please can you provide details on the format of the proposal required and the email address we should send this to? Thanks for your query. We will be shortlisting against the full proposal criteria, feel free to use a similar structure to the templates provided here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/digital-outcomes-and-specialists-templates-and-legal-documents#evaluation-templatesPlease provide information structured in line with each of the points within ‘Proposal criteria’ and ‘Cultural fit criteria’ identified on the opportunity. IF you would like to provide any additional information/evidence relevant to the proposal then you can do this as an appendix or similar.