Website Development and Digital Service Partner Recruitment

Tender description

Summary of the work The NFC is looking for a digital partner to support the organisation with the following: i) Management of the current websites and systems. ii) Website convergence options and website development. iii) Database, CRM, internal and third party system integration. iv) Product development including digital fulfilment. v) Hosting and maintenance support. Expected Contract Length 2 Years Latest start date Monday 9 October 2017 Budget Range We anticipate the following spending caps: Financial Year 2017/18 £50,000+vat Financial Year 2018/19 £40,000+vat To include research, design, development, testing and integration with both internal and external databases and systems. Hosting and maintenance support is also required. Why the Work is Being Done To help the National Forest become more sustainable we need to get more support from businesses, its community and visitors. The latest National Forest business plan includes new brand guidelines and an income generation strategy. The plan aims to raise our profile and to generate long term sustainable income to supplement our Defra funding. We are developing new products and campaigns to help generate donations from people benefiting from the Forest. A new website, database and CRM integration is required to help meet the these requirements. Phase 1 work is required for completion by 31 March 2018. Problem to Be Solved We have three websites which need converging into one and refreshed with our new brand guidelines, content and new products as they are launched. The new website also requires integration with our database, CRM system, internal and external systems. Hosting and maintenance support is also required for the new website. To see the full brief follow this link http://www.nationalforest.org/document/national_forest_website_development_brief.pdf Who Are the Users Our main users are businesses, residents and visitors. We are wanting these audiences to engage in our programmes and ultimately to donate to the National Forest Charity. The concept is that beneficiaries of the Forest contribute to its sustainable growth. Businesses sponsor us to benefit from brand attribution. Residents benefit from improvements to their local environment and visitors enjoy short breaks and day visits. Existing Team The supplier's principal contact will be the National Forest Development Director who will be supported by a small in-house team including a Digital Content Producer and Systems Administrator. Current Phase Not started Skills & Experience • Capacity of web development staff to accelerate project timelines • Website redevelopment projects in the charity and/or sustainability sector - convergence of multiple websites into one • Content Management System (CMS) working with various levels of access for both internal and external users. • Branded design look and feel with emphasis placed on user-experience • Analytics packages to measure and report on KPIs related to corporate scorecards and key user journeys • Integration of database and a customer relationship management system with a website • Discovery phase of a similar project, including mapping user journeys and how you converted these into useful website requirements • Website redevelopment that has led to proven improvements in: brand perception; traffic; conversion rate; regular donations and corporate sponsorship • Integrating third party data into such sites ideally for bookable product and/or ticketing • Government Digital Service and accessibility standards • Quality of service around maintenance support service level agreements you manage • Data security and assurance for a government organisation Work Location No specific location. They can work remotely however we would envisage that the supplier provides weekly updates and meets with the team on-site on a monthly basis. Working Arrangments Suppliers will be required to work on-site as required, although it is envisaged that the majority of the work will take place remotely at the suppliers’ premises. The supplier will submit weekly reports to the NFC representative regarding the status of the project, milestones met and any issues that may impact on timescales and cost. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Overall road map • Transition management • Strategy - methodology and approach • Architectural design approach • Innovation & sustainable development • Project management • Client management - we are a very small in house team • Deployment processes • SLA management for ongoing maintenance • Hosting & infrastructure experience • Database integration and management • Costs - hourly rate for maintenance • Fixed cost for FY 17/18 including number of hours estimated for research, design, development and integration • Fixed cost for FY 18/19 including number of hours estimated for research, design, development and integration Cultural Fit Criteria • Understanding our vision - creating a digital platform strategy roadmap which helps us achieve our sustainability aims and objectives • Approach and values supporting sustainability • Innovative approach to online product development and digital fufilment • In kind support offered • Experience of working with a small in house team Payment Approach Capped time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 20% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. Does the two year budget of £90k include all the tasks in the Summary of work or will supplementary funds be available for: i) Management of the current websites and systems. ii) Website convergence options and website development. iii) Database, CRM, internal and third party system integration. iv) Product development including digital fulfilment. v) Hosting and maintenance support. We would expect a budget of at least twice this for such a scope of work. Can you explain the reasoning behind the stated budget? The reason for the budget level is that we expect that there will be different approaches to fulfilling the brief based on the digital partner’s views and opinions on complexity, solutions, capacity and capabilities. Therefore by assessing these different approaches it will help us determine the best value for money option for the charity. To clarify there are no supplementary funds for this summary of work to be delivered. 2. The services required are quite broad and require different skills sets from architecture to integration to website development and support. Could you please confirm that budgets are £50K and £40 plus VAT. thank you. Yes the budget is as stated. You may find the answer to the first question helpful. 3. What level of support and maintenance is typically required for the existing websites, in terms of time spent, and is this level expected to continue in the future? We currently have a contract through which we buy a 100 hours of support per annum for general maintenance and updates. Any specific project development is additional.We are hoping that the level of support required will decrease as we become more confident using the CMS system – however for the first year the level of support required is likely to remain at least at this level. 4. Can you confirm your intention of the successful supplier taking over support, management and hosting of the current websites during the development of the new website. Are there any existing contracts in place that could cause difficulty in the transition period? Yes – to confirm this is the intention. The new supplier will be required to work with the existing supplier to handover. There is an existing contract in place with the current provider that will terminate on 31 March 2018. It is not anticipated to cause any difficulty in the transition period. 5. Are there any requirements to continue with the current hosting provider, or is there an existing contract in place that will continue during some or all of this opportunity? No requirements to continue however there is an existing contract in place with the current provider that will terminate on 31 March 2018. The intention is to move to one supplier as detailed in our brief. 6. Are you able to provide additional information around the existing custom database, in terms of how data is entered and managed and the technical stack/hosting of this? Can you confirm your intention of the new supplier managing the on-going hosting and management of this database? Our intention is to look at this area of work following future supplier advice. This can be discussed in more detail during the full proposal phase for invited suppliers. 7. What email management platform do you currently use? You note a database of "approaching 90K" users. Do you know whether all these users have undertaken double opt-in (i.e. confirmation by email after the initial sign-up)? We use outlook as our main corporate email system and MailChimp for designed, bulk email distribution. We are currently reviewing our data to ensure that we meet GDPR requirements by May 2018. 8. Can you please supply an ERD (Entity Relationship Diagram) of the National Forest Custom Database? This can be supplied during full proposal phase for invited suppliers. 9. You mention the "National Forest Festival", is that related to http://www.thenationalforestwalkingfestival.org.uk/ or something entirely new? If new, can you summarise what the festival is? This is a new festival currently under development. 10. There is a very wide range of functionality described in the brief, are you expecting this all to be covered by the budget caps you have, or are you looking for a supplier who will advise you on what can be done to best use your budget? We are open to advice to obtain the best value for money options, however we would expect functionality to be included to deliver a minimum viable product. We understand that third party licenses could incur additional fees which we would need to discuss further with the supplier. 11. Is there scope to change hosting platform or provider if the chosen supplier recommended a different hosting infrastructure for your new website? No requirements to continue however there is an existing contract in place with the current provider that will terminate on 31 March 2018. The intention is to move to one supplier as detailed in our brief. 12. Are you expecting these three websites to be re-built, or are you looking for a new supplier to re-use existing code (e.g. plant a tree) where possible and improve on it? We are flexible on the approach to this and will be guided by the supplier to develop the best approach to get the functionality we require. 13. Can you confirm the three websites that you want to merge into one website for this project are: http://www.nationalforest.org/ http://www.visitnationalforest.co.uk/ http://www.nationalforestway.co.uk/ And that this website is not intended to be merged into the single nationalforest.org website: http://www.thenationalforestwalkingfestival.org.uk/ To confirm that is correct. The walking festival website is hosted by a partner and not owned by the National Forest Company. 14. How technically savvy will the administrators of your website be? We have a small team with limited expertise. 15. Do you have a preference on the content management system that will be utilised? No 16. You require the performance of the website to be monitored. Are there any particular metrics you wish to apply KPIs to? We will work with the supplier to apply KPIs based on the aims and objectives shown in the brief. KPIs will focus on reach, engagement and retention metrics. 17. Do you require all aspects of your website(s) to be mobile friendly / optimised? Giftshop for example which currently isn’t. We require all website pages to be responsive. 18. Will your staff require different levels of access to the content management system? Possibly – currently, those with access have full administrator rights. 19. Will your content need to be print friendly? Not all pages – but there will be a requirement for downloads to be print-friendly. 20. Do you have the requirement for your content to be distributed outside of the UK? For the purposes of this brief the content is to be distributed to the UK. As we grow our profile as an international exemplar we will consider translating content into relevant languages in later phases of work. 21. Do you require W3C accessibility guidelines to be followed strictly? i.e. 100% coverage The web design needs to conform fully to latest accessibility requirements to WC3 AAA compliance and meet the Equality Act 2010 adhering to BS 8878 web accessibility code of practice. 22. What are the main functional frustrations you experience with your current website? Please read the brief that details our future requirements, the main functional frustrations are managing three separate websites, integration with our CRM, internal and third party systems, responsiveness and CMS to allow flexibility and complete content control. 23. Can you provide API documentation for the ThankQ API integration? Yes this will be supplied at the full-proposal stage to invited suppliers. 24. Can you give a breakdown of current traffic levels overs the past 3 - 6 months? www.nationalforest.org – 43K sessions in the last 6 monthswww.visitnationalforest.co.uk – 69K sessions in the last 6 monthswww.nationalforestway.co.uk – 7.7K sessions in the last 6 months 25. Can you give a breakdown of your site visitors by ‘device’ for the past 3 - 6 months? www.nationalforest.org Desktop 47.52% Mobile 36.36% Tablet 16.12%www.visitnationalforest.co.uk30.55% 51.72% 17.74%www.nationalforestway.co.uk43.06% 34.52% 22.42% 26. Is your current bespoke database accessible remotely? The current bespoke database contains product information that is accessible online through the website. 27. Please can you provide us with an ERD for your custom database? This can be supplied during full proposal phase for invited suppliers 28. Brand licensing: are you expecting this to be functionality within your website or are you open to use third-party software for this? We are open to the use of third party software, however we are expecting this to be accessible on the website. 29. Does your existing supplier offer in-kind support and if so, what is this? Yes – elements of pro-bono work 30. Can you detail what software runs each of your current sites (e.g. version of PHP, CMS software and version, if you have custom code does it use a web framework) http://www.nationalforest.org/ http://www.visitnationalforest.co.uk/ http://www.nationalforestway.co.uk/ http://www.nationalforest.org/ PHP 5.5.38Fusebox (Version 3 ish)QCubed (version 1.1.1)http://www.visitnationalforest.co.uk/PHP 5.5.38 (on the same server)WordPress 5Custom WordPress pluginsQCubed (version 1.1.1)http://www.nationalforestway.co.uk/PHP 5.5.38 (on the same server)QCubed (version 1.1.1)