REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) FOR THE DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT, AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WEBSITE RFP Circulation Date: 10/14/13 Proposal Submission Deadline: 11/04/13
CITY OF GALESBURG PURCHASING 55 West Tompkins Street Galesburg, IL 61401 Phone: 309/345-3678 Instructions to Offerors 1. An advertisement requesting proposals for the above work was published in the Galesburg Register-Mail on October 14, 2013. As stated in such notice, sealed proposals will be received until 12:00 p.m. local time, November 4, 2013 at City Hall, 55 West Tompkins Street, Galesburg, Illinois. Proposals shall be addressed to the Purchasing Agent. 2. The person, firm or corporation making a proposal shall submit it in sealed envelopes on or before the hour and the date stated above. The words as specified herein shall appear on the outside of the sealed envelopes. 3. Each respondent shall insert the cost, and supply all the information, as indicated in the RFP. The cost inserted shall be net and shall be the full cost for the equipment specified, including all factors whatsoever. 4. No charge will be allowed for taxes from which the City of Galesburg is exempt: the Illinois Retailer s Occupation Tax, the Service Occupation Tax, the Service Use Tax, the Use Tax, Federal Excise and Transportation Tax. 5. Each respondent shall affirm that no official or employee of the City of Galesburg is directly or indirectly interested in this proposal for any reason of personal gain. 6. The City of Galesburg reserves the right to reject any and all proposals and to waive any informalities or technicalities in the proposal process. Any proposal submitted will be binding for sixty (60) days after the due date of the proposals. 7. The City has adopted an Equal Employment Opportunity Clause which is incorporated into all specifications, purchase orders, and contracts, whereby a vendor agrees not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin or ancestry. A copy of this clause may be obtained at the City Clerk s Office, City Hall, Galesburg, Illinois. 1
8. The City of Galesburg has adopted an Affirmative Action Program. All formal sealed proposals must be accompanied by a properly prepared Certificate of Compliance Form, whereby the vendor certifies the number of employees he has in each class of employment, and that affirmative action has been taken to ensure equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment. 9. The City requires that vendors be paid through ACH (automatic clearing house). The awarded vendor will be required to provide the City with applicable banking information for proper payment. An ACH form is attached to this document for vendor review. 10. These instructions are to be considered an integral part of any proposal. Dated: October 14, 2013 Kraig Boynton Purchasing Agent 2
City Economic Development Website RFP General Description The Economic Development Department of the City of Galesburg, IL is issuing this Request for Proposals to individuals and firms interested in providing website design and development services to create a new Economic Development (ED) Website for the City. The ED Website will be used as: a) a site selection tool for consultants and businesses interested in making an investment or locating their business to Galesburg, b) an economic development tool for economic development partners, c) a business development and resource tool for entrepreneurs, business, and industry, and d) a communication and marketing tool for promoting entrepreneurship, innovation and globalization throughout the region. Specifically the website will provide/assist users with: a) information needed for business location decisions to include community and demographic information along with available sites and buildings, b) identifying and obtaining business development resources for the start-up and growth of businesses, and c) directing business, entrepreneurs, and investors to key staff and agencies to assist with their development needs. Background In 2010 the City of Galesburg was awarded a $1.2 million economic development grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to start the Entrepreneurs, Innovate and Go Global Initiative (the EIG Initiative). This initiative s three strategic objectives are to 1) build an entrepreneurial culture - entrepreneurs 2) transfer ideas into value - innovate, 3) expand market opportunities - go global. The ED Website would assist with the implementation of these strategies with the primary goal of creating, attracting, retaining, and expanding jobs in the Galesburg region. Key Dates 10/11/2013 RFP Release Date 10/14/2013 RFP Advertisement Date 10/24/2013 Final Date for Clarifying Questions 11/04/2013 (12 PM CST) Proposal Due Date 11/18/2013 Tentative Selection of Proposal Preliminary Scope of Work The following provides only a preliminary scope of our expectations. The ED Website should serve the following targets: a) site selection consultants, b) existing businesses, c) aspiring entrepreneurs, d) potential investors, and e) other economic development partners. The ED should serve as a one-stop shop by making available: a) building/sites for sale and lease, b) marketing brochures, c) community and demographic information, d) business development resources, and e) development opportunities and profiles. The ED Website shall designed with the following attributes: a) separate but seamlessly linked to the City s existing website, b) easy 3
to navigate and highly functional to each targeted users, b) promote a professional brand, c) accessible for individuals with disabilities, c) used by local and international clientele and convertible into different languages, and d) easily modified with City staff for content changes. This RFP is for web design and development only and does not include web hosting. If you wish to include web-hosting rates, please keep these rates separate from the design rates. List price per month and all other relevant information including server, software, hardware, etc. A new URL will be secured. Technical requirements: 1. Platform/Language: It is recommended that the website and CMS be developed off a Microsoft ASP.NET platform backed by a Microsoft SQL database server. Vendors who do not meet these criteria are still encouraged to bid. 2. Training: Vendor must provide one on-site training session for the CMS. Any other training is preferred to be on-site. 3. Export Capabilities: Any information collected via a form through the website, must be able to be exported to.csv of Excel file without necessary vendor involvement. 4. Ecommerce: The website should have an ecommerce component of the website in order to collect payments for events and programs. The vendor must propose a solution which is PCI compliant in nature. 5. Maintenance and Hosting: As the website will accept payments, the hosting environment must be PCI compliant. 6. Login Area: The website requires a secure login area. Interested parties must be able to request accounts. There will different types of accounts with different information displayed based on the type of account. Initially there will be 5 different types of accounts. Users must be able to reset their passwords, without internal staff involvement. 7. Export: The CMS must allow data collected in forms to be exported into.csv or Excel format. 8. Best Practices for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should be observed in the website coding. This includes the use of descriptive title and meta tags to increase the website s visibility. Other Requirements: 1. Design a professional-looking yet creative website to fulfill all requirements outlined in this proposal. 4
2. Design a consistent, user-friendly navigation. 3. Design an attractive homepage that will allow for easy access to all components of the site. 4. Design a template for all pages within the site. This template must be consistent, professional and innovative. 5. Design should be ADA and Section 504 compliant. 6. The purpose of this website is to serve as a communication tool between the staff and the business/investment community we are serving. To meet the needs of both, the website should include each of the following: Social networking site integration Compatibility with mobile devices The respondent may include a separate price quote for a customized mobile site. This is recommended, but not required. Ability to search the entire site via integrated or Google Search Box Ability to integrate either Google Analytics or other visitor statistics tracking Ability to access existing databases of economic development information 7. Any other features the respondent believes would be advantageous to our website should be included and itemized. 8. The ED website must be fully complete by March 15, 2014. The following are components to be included in the site s organizational structure: Homepage A clean navigation menu and ascetically pleasing design is needed for the homepage. Staff Pages Individual pages for the Director and each staff member. Why Galesburg - A list of reasons an individual or company should be interested in starting, expanding or moving a business to Galesburg. Resources - Access to existing databases, PDF documents for download, etc. In addition, a link on this page will lead to our team s dashboard allowing visitors to track our team s progress on key initiatives. Blog - For the purposes of providing updated information to visitors about our project, we wish to have a blog. This page will need to receive an RSS feed from a Google Blogger or similar account. Member-Only Area Users should be able to create a login name and password for entrance into the member-only area. Five several account-types will need to be available, each with 5
varying levels of access or permission. As previously mentioned, payment collection will need to be included both for membership sign-up and for event registrations. Qualifications The selection of a proposal will be at the sole judgment of a team made up of City ED Staff and the City Purchasing Agent. Only those respondents that meet the following qualifications will be considered: Respondent must submit a time-line of work to be completed by the Respondent and the anticipated date of completion. Key responsibilities of the City shall also be specified in the work plan. Respondent must submit with their proposal a portfolio of past work. This portfolio may be either paper or online. In the case of an online portfolio, please include a hyperlink. Respondent s portfolio must contain a minimum of 5 Economic Development websites. These must not be ED pages within municipal sites, but stand-alone websites. Work for both public and private Economic Development organizations can be included. Respondent must provide at least 2 references that can be contacted and asked about the quality of past products and services. References must be from Economic Development entities. Fee The maximum budget for this project is $30,000. Proposal should include a total not-to-exceed contract proposal amount. Please be very explicit in listing and describing any services or items not covered in the proposal fee amount. Proposal fee should be broken down to include major fee categories. Upon selection, final contract amount will be subject to negotiation to determine exact scope of services to be provided and final contract fee amount and a contract outlining all relevant terms shall be executed by both parties. Selection does not guarantee award of the contract. In the event the contractor and the city fail to agree to a contract, the city will choose from remaining respondents or put out another Request for Proposals. The city will not reimburse respondents for any costs incurred in preparation or submission of the proposal. All proposals are made at the sole cost of the Respondent. Proposed fee should not include or consider the costs incurred in preparation of the proposal. Submission Proposals should be received at the address below before 12:00 P.M. CST on November 4, 2013. Late proposals will not be accepted. Proposals should be hand delivered or mailed. Emailed or faxed proposals will not be accepted. Respondents are to submit all materials together in a sealed packet and clearly mark on the outside of the package their company name and Website Proposal. 6
City Hall ATTN: Purchasing Agent 55 W. Tomkins St. Galesburg, IL 61401 Proposals should be sent in triplicate (3 hard copies and 3 CDs or DVDs) and should include the following: Timeline with expected completion date and key steps Portfolio Sample (may include link) 2 Reference Contacts Fee and fee breakdown The city reserves the right to request additional information from any respondent after submission of proposal including but not limited to: additional design templates, clarification of submitted materials, and/or interviews or to allow for corrections of misinformation or omitted information. The city reserves the right to change proposal submission requirements and to change the due date at any point during the RFP process, upon notification of all firms and individuals who have expressed to the city the intent to submit a proposal (collectively the Expected Respondents ). By submitting the proposal the Respondent relinquishes all rights to submitted proposals or the ideas contained therein, and the city reserves the right to retain all submitted proposals and to use any ideas in any proposal submitted, regardless of whether or not the proposal is selected. All material submitted in response to the RFP shall become property of the city and will not be returned. Prior to the execution of the agreement between the city and the Contractor, the contents of each proposal will remain confidential, to the extent permitted by law, and not made available to anyone except those involved in the selection process. Clarifications & Questions Any questions about requirements or any other instruction contained within the RFP or relating to the RFP should be directed to either Cesar Suarez, Economic Development Director via email at csuarez@ci.galesburg.il.us. All requests for clarification about any item contained or relating to the RFP should be made in writing and expressed through email. Any clarifications made in response to questions received will be emailed to all expected respondents providing contact information and requesting the city do so, as appropriate and as judged necessary at the discretion of the city. Anyone planning to submit a proposal should contact the city contact listed above to convey such intent. The deadline for requesting clarification is seven (7) days prior to the due date for proposals. 7
Selection Process The selection of a proposal will be at the sole judgment of the City ED Staff and the City Purchasing Agent. The city will consider all parts of the proposal collectively, but place an emphasis on template design, prior experience, and cost in the selection process. The selection process may include an interview session. This interview session may be recorded for later review by city staff. The city will select the respondent that in the sole judgment of the city best satisfies the requirements in the RFP and the expectations of the city and can do so at the best value to the city. Selection may not be the proposal with the lowest cost. Respondents may not contest for any reason the selection of the city. Selection does not guarantee a contract. After selection, the Contractor and city will discuss and agree on final scope of work and final contract amount and terms of the Contract. If the Contractor and city fail to reach an agreement, the city is free to select from remaining available respondents, cancel the RFP, or issue an additional Request for Proposals. Contract and Completed Website The Contract between the Contractor and the city will include provisions indicating compensation schedule and timeline for completion of and transition to the new website. The city will retain the right of approval for any and all work performed in designing the website. It is the expectation and desire of the city to transition to the new website as soon as possible. The contract will be for the design and implementation of the city website and will include no guarantee or intent to contract for future services. Upon completion of the contract all content, site design, site templates, and any other item or idea used in the completed website or contained therein will become property of the city. Contractor will relinquish all rights to the website and the city will have sole control over website design, content, and appearance. Insurance Requirements The city requires respondents to hold the following insurance coverage: $1 million General Liability Coverage $1 million Professional Liability Coverage, also called Errors and Omissions (This is not to be confused with General Liability Coverage.) 8
RETURN WITH BID TO THE CITY OF GALESBURG, ILLINOIS CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE EMPLOYMENT SUPERV ISORY SALES OFFICE SKILLED SEMI- SKILLED NON- SKILLED WHITE BLACK OTHER MALE FEMALE (PLEASE FILL IN THE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN EACH CLASS) 1. The Contractor of Company will not discriminate against any employees or applicant for employment because of race, creed, color, sex, age, national origin, handicapping condition unrelated to ability to perform the job; and, will take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed without regard to their race, creed, color, sex, age, handicap or national origin. Such action shall include, BUT NOT be limited to, the following: Employment, upgrading, demotion OR TRANSFER, recruitment or recruitment advertising, layoff or termination, rates of pay or other compensation, and selection for training, including apprenticeship. The Contractor or COMPANY AGREES to post, in conspicuous places, available to employees and applicants for employment, notices setting forth the provisions of this non-discrimination clause. 2. The Contractor or Company will, in all solicitations or advertisements for employees or on their behalf, state that all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, creed, color, sex, age, handicapping condition unrelated to ability or national origin. The same shall hold true when recruitment sources are used to secure applicants. 3. The Contractor or Company agrees to notify all of its subcontractors of their obligation to comply with the nondiscrimination policy. 4. In the event of the Contractor's or Company's non-compliance with the non-discrimination clauses of the Contract or Purchase or with any of such rules, regulations or orders, the CONTRACT OR Purchase may be cancelled, terminated or suspended in whole or in part and the Contractor or Company may be declared ineligible for further City Contracts or Purchases in accordance with the Affirmative Action Program adopted by the Galesburg City Council at their meeting on August 6, 1990. By: Bidder 9
THIS FORM IS BASED ON IRS REQUIRMENTS FOR THE SAME ESSENTIAL INFORMATION AS A W-9 RETURN TO: CITY OF GALESBURG ATTN: A/P 55 W TOMPKINS ST GALESBURG, IL 61401 OR FAX TO: 309-343-4765 The follow ing information is needed to complete your vendor file and to comply w ith IRS requirements. Please fill out this form as completely as possible to ensure proper payment to you. Please return completed form as soon as possible to The City of Galesburg at the above address or fax number. Please call 309-345-3674 w ith any questions. BUSINESS NAME: INDIVIDUAL NAME: (for Sole Proprietors as appears on Social Security Card) BUSINESS ADDRESS: CITY, STATE, ZIP: YOUR TAXPAYER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER: (FEIN or business tax ID. No.) OR, YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER: If using SSN, enter the name on the card above as Individual Name.) PLEASE CHECK APPROPRIATE BOX: Individual/Sole Proprietor Corporation Partnership Other YOUR COMPANY PROVIDES: Legal Services Services Materials Other ARE YOU SUBJECT TO BACKUP WITHHOLDING? Yes No PERSON TO CONTACT: PHONE NUMBER: UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY, I CERTIFY THAT THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ABOVE IS CORRECT AND COMPLET Signature Date Title FOR OFFICE USE ONLY ENTERED INTO SYSTEM VENDOR NUMBER: 10
Only required to be submitted if your firm is the awarded vendor. 11