Question Category - Cost
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Should we include hosting in the given budget?
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Will you accept proposals that may exceed your suggested budget by 2x or 3x+
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Before delving too deeply, I wanted to confirm that the budget published in the RFP is correct at
$20k, including 6 months of custom design and programming support (for launch in March), and
(unlimited?) post-launch support.
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I have been researching your website redesign RFP and wanted to see if you would be able to
share any details or broad ranges around your expected budget?
Answers: Please include hosting costs [p. 12 - Expenses – any subcontractors, licenses, software
acquisition, vendors, or hosting costs]. Bids exceeding the proposed budget would be accepted [p. 12 ACES reserves the right to award the contact to the candidate that they deem to offer the best overall
proposal. ACES is therefore not bound to accept a proposal on the basis of lowest price]. Expected
redesign budget is $20,000 [p. 1 - The budget for the website is $20,000, including post-launch
assistance]
Question Category - Intranet
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The intranet website that is referenced in the RFP, can you provide the URL and access
credentials (if applicable)?
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Does this project include redoing the "interfaces login" section of the existing site? If so can you
provide access credentials to the current system?
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The RFP mentions the need to create password protected sections on the site. Does this mean
you want a system that will allow you to create multiple, new sections on the site that will be
password protected?
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Goal 6: User-friendly intranet system – are there any other specific features that will be needed
for the intranet? What specific communication functionality is needed (e.g. is there a need for
an intranet-specific messaging system, or was the intent to simply list the contact information of
employees and give the ability to call or email from the site)?
Answers: ACES intranet content is private and not available for inspection. The existing system is an
enterprise level SharePoint site containing both internal communications and document storage. Only
the internal communications aspect is to be incorporated into the redesigned website. ACES posts
internal communications including announcements, events and agency references and resources on the
internal site. Authentication by employees should leverage existing active directory credentials.
Individual posts and pages should have individual permissions by department and role. Enhanced
communication technologies within the intranet would be seen favourably. See image below for
reference.
Question Category - Dashboard
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Interactive Data Dashboard – is this on the CMS side or Intranet side of things? Either way, what
specific pool of items are you wanting included as options for this?
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Can you provide requirements for what is needed for the "interactive data dashboards" (goal 7)
Answer: ACES has not selected a business intelligence platform but are in the process. We need to be
sure that our selected website vendor is flexible enough to support future integration.
Question Category - Support
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By the post launch assistance, do you mean one month, 6 month or 1 year support and
maintenance period?
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Do you have any preference on the kind of support coverage required (e.g. 18x5,24x5, 24x7)?
Answer: Please include pricing options as requested. [p.12 - Maintenance & Support – your estimated
fees for one- years -worth of routine maintenance and technical support. Is this a flat monthly fee?
Hourly, and if so what are the rates? After-hours support? Do you have packages? What is included?]
Question Category - Ecommerce
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Are you looking for the new solution to replace your existing ecommerce solution or are you
looking for a solution that plays nicely with your existing ecommerce solution?
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Does this project include redoing the back-end system currently being used on
https://registration.aces.org/? Or are you requesting to keep the custom system you've built in
place, you just want to "re-skin" it? If a new system is being requested, are functional
requirements available for the new system?
Answer: The new site would need to support its own ecommerce solution or included fees for a partner
system. ACES needs an ecommerce solution that allows us to perform online registrations including fee
payments and reports.
Question Category - International
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I would like to confirm that Could we participate in the bid process and this RFP is open for
international vendors?
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Whether companies from Outside USA can apply for this? (like,from India or Canada)
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Whether we need to come over there for meetings?
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Can we perform the tasks (related to RFP) outside USA? (like, from India or Canada)
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Is the training required to be imparted in-person or can it be done through online meetings or
webex sessions?
Answer: ACES is seeking a strong partner. If your agency can provide this strong relationship remotely
and in person, including support, training and meetings during EST business hours, you are welcome to
submit a proposal.
Question Category - Submission
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Can we submit the proposals via email????
Answer: Yes, as specified in the RFP email submission is required. [p. 7 - Your PDF proposal must be
delivered electronically to ACES by 2:00 p.m., August, 31, 2016, EST. Proposals received after that time
will not be considered. The PDF must be delivered via email to [email protected] and must be less than
10MB in size. Formatting requirements include page size of 8.5” x 11”, font no smaller than 10 point
size, proposal length of 15 pages, and URLs as active links within the PDF.]
Question Category - CMS
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Do you have a preference for a certain CMS, as we are planning to use Drupal Content
Management System?
Answer: The CMS choice is at the discretion of the bidder.
Question Category - Traffic
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What traffic are you expecting on the website, this will help us to share the best hosting plan?
What kind of user base would be there for this application? (Numbers, locations, Hit-rate on site
etc) & what would be performance benchmarks/requirements, if any? Reporting /Analytics
Requirements:
Answer: Or public site receives between 12,000 – 15,000 views per month. Future usage including
internal communications is difficult to predict.
Question Category - Branding
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Do we need to adhere to the current design branding for the new website?
Answer: Rebranding and redesign is at the heart of our submission. [p. 3 - Design should be clean,
lighter, more visually pleasing and stimulating, and more inviting to navigate]
Question Category - ADA
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The RFP references "best practices to ensure that people with disabilities can use it." What
disabilities specifically does the new site need to support?
Answer: Support of larger text display, high contrast, etc. are examples of sports we are looking to
incorporate into our site.
Question Category - Content
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Can you provide an inventory of all content on the current site(s) and/or access the existing
CMS so we can see the inventory ourselves?
Answer: The public content is available at www.aces.org, the intranet content is private and not
available for inspection.
Question Category – Multilingual
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Is there a need for multilingual content/website? If yes, is it a valid assumption that the
translated content will be provided by the ACES?
Answer: There are a few translated sections and documents all of which will be provided by ACES.
Question Category –Hosting
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Please provide some insights on the current infrastructure that hosts the current website /
where the new website is required to be hosted?
Is it a valid assumption that the infrastructure set up and other system administration work
would be done by ACES?
Would you require SSL certificates for your website? If yes, would the vendor be responsible for
procuring them?
Would any of the data/content on the website be restricted by US Export Control requirements
(i.e. it can only be handled by US citizens)? If yes, please provide some details.
What would be the size of the current website (e.g. # of static/dynamic pages, # of custom/core
widgets/plugins, content types, users, roles, # of forms, etc.)
Is there a requirement for the website development/execution to happen on site / within the
US? Can we make use of our global development centers’ (e.g India) resources to reduce the
cost and pass the advantage to the college?
Answers: The current site is hosted by sosimplecms. Our current and future host should handle all
infrastructure set up. ACES can provide the certificate by the host would need to perform the
installation. All data should be housed in the US. The size of the future site would be based on the new
design.
Question Category –Reporting
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Are there any Report or Dashboard requirements in the new website, apart from Google
Analytics? Budget, Timelines and Project Management:
Answer: We have used Google Analytics in the past.
Question Category –Project Management
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Are there any specific tools for project management, defect management, and testing that you
already have, and would like the vendor to use while executing the project? E.g. HP Quality
Center, Bugzilla, JIRA, Asana, etc.
Answer: No specific requirements.