Sitecore development, maintenance and support for the University of Portsmouth website March 2020

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done The University’s Web Transformation Project has been running for 3 years. It’s aims are to: - Build the University’s brand and reputation - Drive student recruitment - Increase research funding - Foster participation with other businesses - Streamline the user experience for key audiences We have 3 University websites built on the same Sitecore 9.01 instance allowing the sites to share content: - www.port.ac.uk: The University-wide public facing website. - myport.port.ac.uk: For new and current students. - sport.port.ac.uk (live 30.04.20). The University’s sports site’s objective is to sell sport memberships to students, staff and the public. There are a number of changes in the wider external environment, higher education sector and the University which will create challenges and opportunities that the University’s websites will need to address. These include: - A more competitive marketplace - A more sophisticated, digitally savvy consumer - Ahe need to provide a personalised user-friendly customer experience for key customer groups - The need to have a 360-degree view of customers by integrating with the University’s CRM system - Efficiencies driven by automating the publication of detailed course information from the course management system onto the Sitecore based web pages. Problem to Be Solved The University has recently completed a website transformation project and the University website, www.port.ac.uk, is now largely stable on Sitecore. The University is moving to a 2-year digital roadmap that encompasses a range of new requirements. We are seeking the right Sitecore specialist agency to help deliver on the ambitious roadmap: https://shorturl.at/AFMP3 with particular focus on: - Increasing emphasis on customer (and student) experience - Integration with third party systems to automate the publishing of key information - Integrating with third party and University systems to enhance customer experience - Move away from phone to text as preferred communication channel for under 25 year olds - Automation of routine tasks - Better supporting the various recruitment cycles Additionally, there are a number of changes in the wider external environment, higher education sector, and the University which will create challenges and opportunities that the website will need to address. We are also expecting unforseen challenges to present themselves as we move through the next 2 years. We require a Sitecore specialist agency that can be flexible and accommodating to changes in direction, sometimes at short notice. Who Are the Users As a prospective undergraduate or taught postgraduate student I need to find out about degree courses I'm interested in and what Portsmouth University (UoP) is like. As a prospective PhD or MPhil student I need to find out what research UoP does, who their academics are and how to apply to study with them. As a prospective overseas student I need to find out about courses, UoP and studying in the UK at UoP. As an U18 year old students’ influencer (teacher, parent and careers advisor), I need to find about what UoP offers and why it is the right choice for the prospective student. As an Academic from another institution, I need to find relevant research programmes and/or researchers to collaborate or work with. As a Decision maker from R&I funding bodies, such as Research England, I need to validate claims made in funding proposals Other users: - Decision maker from business looking for consultancy services - Parents of existing students looking for support, help or advice - Influencers of public opinion: journalists, MPs, local community members - Alumni looking to engage with each other and support the University - Other prospective job-seekers seeking employment Early Market Engagement Work Already Done The first phase of the Sitecore website was launched in July 2018. In March 2020, the first Sitecore microsite was launched (myport.port.ac.uk). The core design/UX work is largely complete and there is already a large amount of core front end functionality that's been delivered to support the content display and user experience. Additionally the sites' are integrated with a staff portal API for staff listings; EventBrite events API and SalesForce via embedded forms. The site is currently in English only. Existing Team We have an internal web-team comprising: Head of Web and Digital Marketing Two managers 2 senior editors 5 faculty-focussed web content staff 2 content creators 2 graduate level web assistants Team expertise in digital strategy, content strategy, user-experience, SEO and a level of technical oversight. There are no in-house Sitecore developers or cloud-facing system-administrators. The website’s Azure hosting and maintenance is currently moving to a specialised enterprise web hosting provider. The successful agency will be expected to work closely with this hosting provider. The successful agency will be expected to work with other platform vendors as required for integration projects. Current Phase Live Work Location University of Portsmouth Portsmouth Hampshire PO1 2UP Working Arrangments The agency should have at least one dedicated representative on-site or online for managing deliverables over the contract period. This is likely to be a digital producer and/or someone responsible for gathering requirements and managing our agency engagement on a daily basis. We would expect the direction and production work to be done remotely, either in the UK or overseas. During the specification phases of each deliverable, we would expect at least one senior Sitecore developer to be available on-site or online. QA testing can be done remotely. Agreed deployment cycles through the year. A ticketing system for managing issues. Security Clearance Additional T&Cs Additional terms and conditions are described under 'Buyer specific amendments to/refinements of the Call-Off Contract terms' in the Call off Contract. Skills & Experience Extensive experience with Sitecore 9.x Extensive experience with developing and supporting enterprise websites that enjoy over 1 million sessions per year, with at least 1000 pages and large data sets Experience in supporting multiple websites on the same Sitcore instance Have the following in-house specialisms: Sitecore Technical Architect, Experienced Sitecore Developers, Experienced Front End Developers, Experienced Design/UX specialists, Visual Design Over 5 years' experience working with Sitecore CMS Experience with integrating Sitecore with third party platforms and APIs (one and two-way) uch as SalesForce or MS Dynamics; EventBrite Setting up and managing Sitecore personalisation (Sitecore 9) Designing user friendly form journeys. Setting up and managing Sitecore forms in Sitecore 9 Experience with supporting and deploying codebase to MS Azure and MS SQL Server Experience with managing and optimising SOLR Proactively maintaining and supporting an Enterprise level Sitecore instance over more than 2 years A rigorous pre-deployment QA and testing regime Demonstrable ongoing performance testing regime Have the resource and flexibility to respond to and deliver ad hoc requirements over and above scheduled work within agreed time frames Able to adhere to agreed Service Level Agreement which will include sub- 1 hour responses to Priority 1 issues and provide the option for extended hours support as required Ability to communicate complex technical issues to non-technical business owners Nice to Haves Be a Sitecore Gold or above Partner Have at least 1 Sitecore MVP In-house system administration specialist Experience with setting up and managing multi-variant testing in Sitecore 9 Use of industry standard ticketing system to manage issue reporting and support (e.g. Jira) Digital Marketing expertise including SEO Broad enough knowledge of Sitecore and CRM to effectively leverage it to deliver the digital strategy Ability to deploy resource on-site at client's site in Portsmouth as required No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria The approach to doing the website healthcheck How well has the agency anticipated actioning outcomes from the health check Has the agency addressed all of the Digital Roadmap requirements How effectively the agency has predicted the resourcing and delivery requirements for each of the Roadmap deliverables Ability to demonstrate good requirement gathering and specification Technical competence with Sitecore 9.x and end user experience Cultural Fit Criteria Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes Take responsibility for their work Share knowledge and experience with other team members Challenge the status quo Be comfortable standing up for their discipline Can work with clients with low technical expertise Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Case study Work history Reference Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 10% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers No questions have been answered yet Budget range the budget has been split over two years. - the sla and maintenance budget is £100,000 per annum - the budget for the health check, urgent remedial works if required, and onboarding is between £20,000-£35,000 - the total new-works development budget is £270,000 per annum all budgets inclusive of vat @ 20%