Jobs for the Future – Request for Proposal

Web Development Project: Green Pathways

1. SUMMARY

Jobs for the Future is accepting proposals to design and develop a new website for our Green Pathways project. This will be a concept to completion production. The purpose of this RFP is to provide a fair evaluation for all candidates and to provide the candidates with the evaluation criteria against which they will be judged. This is an open and competitive process.

2. BACKGROUND OF ORGANIZATION

JFF identifies, develops, and promotes education and workforce strategies that expand opportunity for youth and adults who are struggling to advance in America today. In more than 200 communities across 43 states, JFF improves the pathways leading from high school to college to family-sustaining careers.

Vision 2020 provides an introduction to JFF's goals and strategies:

3. WEB PROJECT PURPOSE, DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

Overall Drivers

We wish to develop a user-friendly site that can deliver large amounts of constantly changing information to our key audiences. In addition to designing a user-friendly site with an intuitive interface, we must also develop a web-based, database-driven administration tool that allows key management personnel to easily update content without directly accessing source code.

Jobs for the Future will maintain ultimate editorial control of content. Administration of web content will be based on roles to control access and work flow (e.g. author, reviewer/editor, publisher).

To be effective, our website must be:

  • Easy and intuitive
  • Visually pleasing
  • Informative
  • Safe and secure
  • Quick to load and operate
  • Objective

We wish this web project to tell our story through the use of compelling visuals, intuitive navigation, and concise messaging.

  • Make it easy: deliver intuitive navigation, strong graphical user interface, and easy-to-find content organization.
  • Make it compelling: Develop tools to deliver timely, relevant information.
  • Make it happen: Reinforce Jobs for the Future’s brand and market leadership and give the member incentive to take action.

Project Purpose

Jobs for the Future is looking for a web design and development firm to create a new website for our Green Pathways project. The website will be an information-rich site that provides resources for practitioners working in green industries and jobs, primarily designed for specific grant recipients, but open to and of value to a broad range of practitioners.

Project Description

The site will definitely include overview information, and core resources, and may include additional toolkits, and may also include a member’s only communications portal. Details:

About Us/Overview Info:

  • Overview of our work in this field
  • One page overviews of the three specific projects/initiatives
  • One page profiles of the five major local affiliate partners
  • One page profiles of 16 workforce partners

Resources:

  • Three 20 page papers (could just have a landing page and a PDF or could be converted to the web in a more interesting way)
  • 14 “briefs” (could just have a landing page and a PDF or could be converted to the web in a more interesting way, including links to additional resources for each brief topic, links to recorded webinars)
  • 4 “toolkits” (aggregations of resources – traditionally, these were just produced as 50-100 page printed booklets. We look to your guidance on how simple or complex to produce these as online brochures instead. We look for your advice on how interactive to make them. This content is the only content for the website that doesn’t actually exist yet, and if it will be all online, would benefit from instructional design guidance up front. You should bid the instructional design guidance and the actual toolkit development, as separate line items, and/or can choose to bid the project without the toolkit portion. Other recent toolkits produced by JFF include: datause.jff.org and hidalgo.jff.org. The proposed toolkits could look like these, or be much simpler, or entirely different – we’re looking for your creativity and advice here!

Members-Only Portal:

  • This is a potential module that should be priced separately. We are not sure of the demand and funding for this final module. This would be a pretty simple password protected members only communication portal, perhaps have some resources limited just for these people.

Audience

Practitioners in the field (e.g. local members of economic development councils, front line workforce trainers). A secondary audience is government officials, funders, and media looking to learn more about the overall work or one of the specific initiatives.

4. SCOPE & GUIDELINES

The execution of the web project must include discovery, design and development.

Discovery:

  • Confirm audiences, objectives, graphic look and feel, navigation, site marketing, technology issues and assumptions, required functionality, phasing, and budgetary constraints, resulting in a creative brief.

Design:

  • Plan website information architecture, graphic look and feel, user navigation, home page and main navigation templates for each of the main navigation links.

Development Guidelines:

The website designed by the successful candidate must meet the following criteria:

  • Visually Appealing – The site must have an attractive mix of text and graphics.
  • Consistent Design – Each section of the site should have a common look and feel. The use of photographs, fonts and layouts should be consistent throughout the site.
  • Easily Navigated – The site should be easy to navigate. Information should be grouped and presented in a logical manner and require no more than three levels of “drill down” for the user to find the desired information.
  • Easily Updated – Once the site has been completed and accepted by JFF, the content will be maintained in-house. Should utilize a Drupal WYSIWYG content management system that will permit non-technical staff to instantly update website content on specific pages.
  • Integrate our instance of the Google Search Appliance

Testing:

Testing of site on latest versions of Windows and Mac OSX to ensure website works as promised. Explain testing plan through development process (e.g., focus groups).

Delivery:

Delivery and uploading of site to client for hosting, to an outside third party, or hosting by consultant (to be determined).

5. TECHNOLOGY SPECIFICATIONS

In an effort to maintain consistency among all JFF web presences, flexibility for updates by any qualified programmer, and easy editing by nontechnical staff, JFF requires that all new websites are built using the Drupal Content Management System (Drupal CMS) and adhere to the following technical specifications:

  • Built in the most current version of Drupal (Acquia-maintained version of Drupal preferred)
  • Should contain various community modules distributed in Acquia Drupal (see Community Modules listed on their website)
  • Site should be built in the AMP stack (Apache, MySQL, PHP)
  • Flash/Flex support/integration
  • Drupal core must NOT be hacked/changed under ANY circumstances
  • Any file uploads must be stored on the server, not in the database
  • Should allow for document uploading (PDF, JPG, GIF, PNG, etc.)
  • Should allow for JFF to modify/add/remove various sub-menu options for navigation
  • Should be built as ADA compliant (Section 508)

JFF will manage all hosting of sites upon completion of the project.

6. STAFF RESOURCES AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project Management

An assigned project manager from your team will be made available to present information and coordinate with JFF staff, including a reasonable number of meetings/webinars to present design and development solutions. Use of Basecamp as a project management tool is preferred.

Address how will you manage this project. What is your process to include input and communicate with all program areas to gather all of the required information?

Staff

What type of team will be assigned to this project? What will each person’s role be? Please include a brief background summary for each key staff member assigned to this project.

A successful planning effort is driven by an interdisciplinary team of participants. The core team from both the web development firm and from JFF will be driven by two roles:

  • Project Lead: Responsible for sign-off on key decisions, providing project steering and maintaining relationships with outside stakeholders.
  • Project Manager: Responsible for keeping the project on schedule and within the budget. Maintains communication between other team members.

7. QUALIFICATIONS

  • Provide a company profile, length of time in business and core competencies.
  • Briefly describe your firm’s organizational capacity to produce our website (e.g. staff, equipment, software, physical space, office location).
  • Describe your experience in producing sites for non-profit and/or community-focused projects.
  • List the threewebsites (including URL) your firm has produced that best reflect your work and relevancy to this project. Briefly list the role your firm played in each project.
  • Provide current reference information for three former or current clients.

8. BUDGET

Please provide all cost proposals to accomplish the scope outlined in this RFP. The budget must encompass all design and production necessary for development and maintenance of the website.

Hosting will be addressed separately and costs for hosting are not included in the budget for this project.

Jobs for the Future has allocated approximately $25-45,000 for this total project, depending on inclusion and complexity of toolkits and the members only portal.

9. EVALUATION CRITERIA

The following criteria will form the basis upon which Jobs for the Future will evaluate proposals.

The mandatory criteria must be met and include:

  • Your proposal must be received no later than 12:00 p.m. EST Tuesday, September 6.
  • Your proposal must include a cost proposal as described above.
  • All costs associated with the delivery of the project should be presented in a flat rate, fee for service format.

Proposals that meet the mandatory requirements, as stated above, will be evaluated with the following criteria:

  • Suitability of the Proposal – the proposed solution meets the needs and criteria set forth in the RFP.
  • Expertise in recommending and communicating appropriate technical and aesthetic solutions as evidenced by the proposal and references.
  • Aesthetic Capabilities – Prior work demonstrates artistic and innovative, user-friendly interfaces that engage communities and viewers.
  • Candidate Experience – Candidate has successfully completed similar projects and has the qualifications necessary to undertake this project.
  • Value/Pricing Structure and Price Levels – The price is commensurate with the value offered by the proposer. As a non-profit institution, Jobs for the Future is able to accept pro bono service and recognize the provider to the full extent allowed by the Internal Revenue Service, including naming the proposer within the website and other collateral as a JFF supporter and partner.
  • Depth and Breadth of Staff – The candidate firm has appropriate staff to develop the site in the time frame needed.
  • Proposal Presentation – The information is presented in a clear, logical manner and is well organized.
  • Demonstrated commitment to high service.
  • Demonstrated project management skills, engaging al constituents and delivering on time and on budget.

10. TIMELINE

Proposals are due no later than 12:00 p.m. EST Tuesday, September 6.

Proposals will be evaluated immediately thereafter. During this time we may require interviews at our office with our evaluation team on or about Thursday, September 8. You will be notified if this is requested.

The name of the candidate firm who has been selected will be decided on or about Monday, September 12.

Beta site must be ready for internal review for Nov 14, 2011 and the project must be completed and delivered by December 14, 2011.

11. FORMAT FOR PROPOSALS

Email proposals to the attention of:

Jean Pierre LeGuillou

Jobs for the Future

88 Broad Street

Boston, MA 02110

Maximum proposal length including title page, cover letter, proposal, qualifications and budget should not exceed 35 pages.

Recommended Format:

Title Page:

  • Your company name, address, website address, telephone number, fax number, e-mail address and primary contact person.

Cover Letter:

  • Signed by the person or persons authorized to sign on behalf of the company (1-2 pages).

Proposal:

  • Discuss your proposed solution, including the features, benefits and uniqueness of your solution. You should also touch on your ability to deliver the project in the timeframe noted in (3-10 pages).

Qualifications:

  • Provide the information requested (10-20 pages – and/or appropriate web links).

Budget and Fees

12. CONTRACT TERMS

Jobs for the Future will negotiate contract terms upon selection. Once the website has been completed and accepted by JFF, the website design and all of its contents, software and architecture become property of JFF. All contracts are subject to review by JFF’s legal counsel, and a project will be awarded upon signing of an agreement or contract, which outlines terms, scope, budget and other necessary items.

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Last updated 8/18/2011