HomeMy WebLinkAbout2a. Website Proposal
Mount Prospect
Village of Mount Prospect
Mount Prospect, Illinois
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INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM
TO: VILLAGE MANAGER
FROM: PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER
DATE: APRIL 20,2009
SUBJECT: WEB SITE DESIGN AND CONTENT MANAGEMENT SERVICES
RECOMMENDATION
PURPOSE
To obtain the Village Board's approval to accept Vision Internet's "Best and Final Offer" for
Web Site Design and Content Management Services.
BACKGROUND
At the August 12, 2008, Committee of the Whole meeting, the Village Board approved
staff's recommendation to issue a request for proposal (RFP) for Web Site Design and
Content Management Services. In November, staff issued an RFP to ten companies; five
of which submitted proposals. The initial cost proposals were:
Initial Proposal Onqoinq OPTION: OPTION:
Web Site Redesiqn & Maintenance Experience Employee
Content Manaqement Mount Prospect Intranet
System
$23,250 $450/month $5,900 $500 + $100/month
$42,053 $775/month $5,000 $3,119
$32,915 TBD $8,700 $8,000
$56,370 None $15,000 $17,700
$42,190 $400/year $1 ,480 $17,500
Vendor
Civic Plus
EGov
Harmony Design
Vision Internet
WebLinx
An evaluation committee comprised of the Assistant Village Manager, IT Director, Public
Information Officer, and Administrative Analyst, evaluated and ranked each proposal
according to the scope of work, design, experience, references, project schedule and the
cost proposal (see Attachment B for Evaluation Form). Based on the evaluation, the
committee selected the top three proposers and conducted interviews and participated in
online demonstrations with them (Civic Plus, WebLinx and Vision Internet). After
deliberating on the merits of the proposals, the vendors' demonstrations, and interviews,
the committee unanimously decided to enter into negotiations with Vision Internet to obtain
a "Best and Final Offer." Vision Internet submitted a "Best and Final Offer" for $61,140,
which included both the Experience Mount Prospect web site and Employee Intranet site
options.
Web Site Design and Content Management Services Recommendation
April 20, 2009
Page 2
Experience Mount Prospect (www.experiencemountprospect.org) is the web site the
Village currently maintains that promotes shopping, dining and events in Mount Prospect. It
also has a companion monthly E-Newsletter with a list of over 1,000 subscribers.
The Employee I ntranet site is an internal web site for Village staff that is used as a primary
source of information on Human Resources related information concerning benefits,
policies and other employee resources.
DISCUSSION
Vision Internet (www.visioninternet.com) is a full-service vendor offering website consulting,
design, development, hosting, and maintenance services. The company, founded in 1995,
has extensive experience working with governments, having been awarded more than 200
government contracts and having received over 60 prestigious awards for their work.
Locally, they have worked with the Villages of Hoffman Estates and Lisle, and the City of
Crystal Lake, all of which provided extremely favorable reviews when contacted by staff.
Staff believes that Vision Internet has several important benefits that other vendors did not
offer:
1. There is no ongoing maintenance/hosting/licensing fee*;
2. Vision will provide the Village with the source code so it is not dependent on them or
any other company;
3. The Village will have the option of hosting in-house (preferred by IT - this option
was not available with all vendors); this option has significant cost savings on
average of approximately $200/month.
4. A one-year warranty is included.
* While there is no ongoing maintenance/hosting fee, Vision Internet
conducts major system upgrades every few years. These upgrades are
optional and can cost between $5,000 - $12,000. Many of the communities
who use Vision that we interviewed have never upgraded and remain fully
functional. This is only optional and will be evaluated at the time it is offered.
The evaluation team also highlighted the following features of Vision's proposal:
. The evaluation team felt that Vision's web designs are superior to the other vendors.
Their designs were attractive and user friendly. The various Vision sites that we
viewed had more of a unique quality than some of the other proposers whose sites
tended to look the same;
. The content management system is more sophisticated and easier to use; many
features were more automated than other systems;
. Multiple users (departments) have the ability to manage content on the site, but
changes do not go live until approved by Public Information Officer.
. The system contains content scheduling - the ability to add or remove programs
automatically as determined by date;
Web Site Design and Content Management Services Recommendation
April 20, 2009
Page 3
. Several intuitive features - events or items entered in one location can automatically
be linked to other pages. (e.g. system automatically pulls information from Calendar
and news pages to post on home page saving significant staff time);
. Form/Survey tool - feature that provides the ability to obtain feedback, analyze
results, and export data for further interpretation;
Overall, we felt that Vision's proposal and demonstration were the most professional and
that their services were superior to the other proposers.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the Village Board enter into a contract with Vision Internet for Web Site
Design and Content Management Services in an amount not to exceed $61,140. This cost
includes a redesign of the main Village web site, employee Intranet and Experience Mount
Prospect (shopping, dining and events) web site, as well as the deployment of a content
management system.
In 2008, the Board approved $26,150 for web site improvements based on a preliminary
estimate received from a vendor. $10,000 for the Experience Mount Prospect site will come
from the Economic Development fund, account number 0012103-540247. The balance of
$24,990 will come from account number 0012105-540110.
Maura EI Metennani
Public Information Officer