From: Tim Shea, CVFiber Project Manager
Date: November 18, 2020
Re: Website Redesign

Central Vermont Fiber (CVFiber) wants to redesign its WordPress website currently found here: https://cvfiber.net/

If you would like to respond to this request, please prepare a proposal to accomplish the task that includes timeline, cost, and deliverables. The following RFP includes a background of our organization and describes the purpose of the redesign, its desired functionality, and specific requests relating to the proposal. We understand that details may be subject to change upon vendor recommendation and / or research of more optimal solutions. In your proposal, please feel free to suggest alternatives where noted.

We are asking for all correspondences for this request including questions and submittal of proposals be emailed to Tim Shea, CVFiber Project Manager at [email protected] or by phone at (802) 249-0404. The deadline for submitting requests for proposal is November 25th at 5:00 pm.

Table of Contents

  1. Project Overview and Goals
  2. Background
  3. User Types
  4. Proposed Sitemap
  5. Scope of Work
  6. Budget
  7. Project Timeline
  8. Criteria for Selection
  9. Specific Requests

Project Overview and Goals

CVFiber is looking to hire a contractor to redesign our website before December 30, 2020. The objective is to refresh the look and add functionality to our existing website. We would like a modern website which integrates our new logo and identity elements, has intuitive features for navigation and information for visitors, links to our demand aggregation software, and adds more information for those coming to the site.

Background

The Department of Public Service has provided COVID-19 Emergency Broadband funds to CVFiber for the purpose of providing households with information about the availability of broadband and identifying those households who have inadequate broadband. In our application, we added the website redesign as a customer engagement element to help promote our offerings.

CVFiber is a municipal organization called a Communications Union District (CUD) made up of twenty Central Vermont communities. We have a single goal: get fast, dependable, and affordable Internet to every Vermonter within our member towns.

User Types

We have two primary classifications of users:

People interested in buying CVFiber’s Internet service and looking for information on our progress. Once we launch the service (and/or pre-subscriptions), this will transition to actually wishing to purchase.

People looking for public body information.  As we are a public body, we are obligated to post records of meetings.  This includes general members of the public as well as journalists.

Site Requirements

We have an existing site with limited information and functionality. Our target customers (visitors) do not currently have high speed broadband and should be taken into account when improving services, subsequently take into account that display quality should be usable despite a slow internet connection. While we do not have a perceived sitemap, we will work with the selected contractor to develop the optimal sitemap for our needs. We would like to bring existing elements into the new look and we will remain with the current hosting solution.

The key requirements of the site are as follows:

  • Users can receive detailed information on our service offering
  • Users can enter flow to purchase service offering (actual purchasing done via COS)
  • Future-Users can pay bill and look up their account
  • Users can look up availability at their address Users can access interactive map
  • Users can donate to us (actual donation done via COS)
  • Users can register their email to receive on-going status updates (into COS)
  • Users can view information about our network build-out progress
  • Users can view information about the Governance body and Committees
  • Users can view meeting agendas and minutes
  • Users can view financial information

Scope of Work

CVFiber is looking for the following work to be proposed in this request:

  • Copywriting
  • Illustration
  • Information design
  • Visual design
  • Search engine optimization
  • Front-end coding (HTML/CSS, animations)
  • Back-end coding (CMS, 3rd party APIs)
  • Integration of demand aggregation site (COS Systems)
  • Mobile device optimization
  • Testing & quality assurance
  • Software training for new functionality (CVFiber will maintain ongoing updates)
  • Accessibility to conform to ADA

Budget

CVFiber has an estimated budget of $10,000 for this work. This is just a rough idea of the budget we have for this scope of work, but will be open to a discussion with the contractor selected on areas to streamline the money available.

Project Timeline

We need to have this work completed by December 30, 2020. We plan to issue a contract by December 2nd with work commencing soon after contract execution.

Criteria for Selection

We have the following criteria for selecting the best fit contractor for this scope of work. We will weigh the selection process with:

References: 15%
Examples of similar projects: 15%
Project timeline proposed: 40%
Project budget submitted for scope of work: 30%

Format & Proposal Details

Please include the following elements with your electronically submitted proposal: three references, links to previous website redesign work clients (minimum of two), your proposed timeline for project start and completion, major milestones for the design process, proposed budget as presented, and any suggested changes or enhancements to this request for CVFiber consideration.