INVITATION TO TENDER FOR WEBSITE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

This document is a request to provide a proposal, cost estimate and timeline for the creation of a website for the Real Ideas Organisation.

Response required by end of business 5 September please.

Aim

The Real Ideas Organisation is looking to commission a website that supports, communicates and promotes the work undertaken by RiO and its various projects. The website needs to demonstrate RiO’s position as a pioneering social enterprise driving change through creativity, and help to build and maintain the greater RiO community.

RiOoperates a triple bottom line; everything we do generates income to reinvest in young people, achieves social goals and meets environmental needs.

RiO’s visual identity will be developed in tandem with the website build so interaction, communication and collaboration with the branding designers will be necessary as part of this project because the website will be a key tool in defining RiO’s identity.

We welcome joint website development and design consultancy applications. For a copy of the Tender for Design please contact

Introduction

The Real Ideas Organisation is a pioneering social enterprise working with young people and communities across the Southwest and beyond. Through ambitious projects, programmes and collaborations we offer young people the opportunity and support to make real things happen - using their own energy, initiative, creative ability and potential.

Registered as a Community Interest Company (CIC) in 2007, we are an ethically based organisation with a fresh perspective, built on solid foundations. Our directors and many of our lead developers gained extensive experience delivering Creative Partnerships in the Southwest since 2002 and we have many years of experience in leadership, education, youth work and creative practice.

The Real Ideas Organisation wants to see young people everywhere have the space, connections and ongoing support to fulfil their potential and experience the practical benefits of developing their own ideas.

Young people are at the forefront of what we do, actively involved in shaping RiO and all our programmes so that they really work. As such it is important that our website should consider young people and offer opportunity, scope and creative involvement in some way.

For more information about our current projects please look at our interim website

Audience

  • Exisiting and new RiO clients including charities, government bodies, local authorities, funding bodies and private sector businesses.
  • The extended network of people RiO works, and is involved, with from teachers to youth workers, media organisations to freelancers.
  • RiO staff; as a mobile organisation spread across the Southwest, the website must act as a mode of communicating, engaging and informing RiO staff of what their colleagues are working on and up to next.
  • Young people; although not necessarily a direct audience (many of the young people RiO works with are more closely aligned with their specific projects than with RiO itself) ; as the driving force behind the organisation the website needs to consider and cater for young people on some level.
  • Users who have no prior experience or understanding of RiO and what it does.

Challenges

One of the challenges for RiO is to address how the individual projects that make up the work undertaken by the organisation can retain their own sense of identity while still clearly sitting within the RiO portfolio, and to create a brand identity that lets this happen smoothly. This challenge needs to be considered and addressed in relation to the positioning and presentation of RiO projects on the RiO site.

Key Aspects

Aesthetics

  • The website must clearly present what RiO is and how it works (including RiO’s aims and strategies) in an interesting and engaging way.
  • The website must express RiO’s pioneering, dynamic and fresh approach to young people and change. It must demonstrate, not just through visuals, but across its structure, that RiO does things differently and that as an organisation we are all about Real Ideas.
  • The website needs to be contemporary but not fleeting. It needs to have longevity, be clear, simple and concise.
  • The website must be image rich, designed to fit with RiO’s visual identity and brand (communication and collaboration with design consultants in this aspect will be necessary).
  • The website must be designed with RiO’s ethos in mind – we operate a triple bottom line; everything we do generates income to reinvest in young people, achieves social goals and meets environmental needs.

Core Basics

  • The website must be built using a content managed system with secure admin control. We currently use Share Point to run a shared office facility online because of its business management capabilities so the website must use, or integrate with, this system effectively.
  • The content managed system must be simple to learn and easy to use. Uploading and updating will be the responsibility of RiO staff and contracted freelancers so the website interface must cater for this. It is important to make the website a truly valuable resource for RiO staff so that they are engaged and enthused about using it.
  • RiO’s work is completed through projects and programmes it delivers so they need prominence on the site.The website must consequently be a space for RiO’s projects to have online presence, demonstrate the successful activity that RiO is engaged in and funnel enquiries, business leads and traffic through to the relevant RiO person.
  • The website must be flexible, giving individual projects the scope to develop their own space and content and offer the option to be built on and developed at limited further cost
  • The website must reflect the diversity of projects and programmes that RiO offers.
  • The website must provide contact details for RiO staff and projects that either replicates or ideally links to our offline contacts database, built in Share Point. As a mobile organisation different people look after different regions, and hold different responsibilities. This needs to be clear so that it is easy for users and staff to find the right person they need to speak to.
  • The website must have a products and services section to drive new business and promote what RiO has to offer different customers.
  • The website must be search-led with information clearly accessible. It needs to be easy for users to navigate and find the information they are looking for.
  • The website must have a space through which RiO can communicate with regular news updates, bulletins and features. Some sort of newsletter or e-mag capable of capturing information about subscribers should be part of this element.
  • The website must have a FAQs section.
  • The website must have a document library with downloadable resources (that could potentially require paid subscription to).
  • The website must leave scope for additional pages and systems to be added i.e: an online shop facility, a press and media section.
  • The website must comply with all modern accessibility standards.

Dynamically managed content for RiO updates

  • News updates, project updates, profiles, case studies, photos, short videos, podcasts, reports

RiO deliverables

Written content, images, visual and audio content, links to feeds and pages, overall project management.

Supplier Deliverables

Site design and architecture, page layout, content management system for text, audio and visuals, newsletter facility

Budget

RiO has no set budget for this project but cannot pay a premium – to do so would be to divert resources from its work with children and young people - so is looking to create the site as cost effectively as possible and to consider spend with a view to the organisation’s core aims and principles as outlined in this document.

The project is designed to save on resourcing, as well as invite, encourage and showcase creativity. As such this will demonstrate the talents of the selected supplier to a wide audience, and provide an association with an ethical brand and company and fulfil aims in relation to corporate social responsibility.

Timings

All proposals to be submitted by 5 September

We will shortlist and respond to successful proposals by 22 September

Envisaged website go live: January

Application

Please provide the following information:

  • name, registered office address and legal status of the organisation submitting the application
  • details of the services that you are able to provide
  • details of how you would approach creating a website for RiO including an possible website structure and examples of the software and systems that could be included to deliver it (i.e: an apex scroll on the homepage to maximise and utlilise RiO’s visual library and convey the diversity of projects RiO offers)
  • a cost estimate and timeline for the work outlined
  • details of the staff proposed to complete the project and their specialisms
  • a brief indication of your knowledge and any experience you have on projects of this nature
  • examples of relevant material that you have produced for other clients

This application will indicate your suitability for the position and does not represent a final quote or proposal at this stage.

Please send applications to

Assessment

We are looking to commission a team that fully understands RiO, what we do and our approach so that as a result they can conceive and produce an exciting, innovative and effective website. Our assessment criteria will consequently be based on the following:

  • has the applicant fully understood the brief, what RiO as an organisation is about and what we are looking for in their suggestions for the delivery of design solutions?
  • has the applicant demonstrated an innovative approach to the development and design of the website and to the challenges presented by the RiO brief?
  • has the applicant considered the cost efficiency of their proposal and presented solutions that represent good value for money and wise use of funds, in light of RiO’s core values?
  • has the applicant demonstrated experience, knowledge and understanding of creating this sort of website and presented examples of relevant work undertaken in the past?
  • Has the applicant demonstrated an understanding of the role young people play in RiO as an organisation and reflected that in any elements of their proposal?

Queries

If you have any enquiries about tendering for RiO’s website development or would like to find out more about RiO as an organisation please do not hesitate to contact Clare Howdle on or 07966 152178

We welcome joint website development and design consultancy applications. For a copy of the Tender for Design Consultancy please contact