Request for Proposals
Town of Cary Web Content Management
System
Technology Services Department
March 5, 2008
Introduction: The Town of Cary is interested in
purchasing Web Content Management Software to assist in creating, maintaining
and managing its web site. The Town of Cary is a municipal government in the
state of North Carolina with a population of approximately 127,000. The Town
uses a wide variety of technologies and has staff who are well trained and
capable in web site creation and management.
Current Environment: The Town currently has a web site
located at www.townofcary.org which
has approximately 50,000 files on it. These files vary in length from one to
many pages per file. The site also has a variety of graphics on it including
archived video of board meetings.
The current site is hosted by two
third party hosting companies. The site runs under Apache Web Site Software and
a Linux Operating System. To comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act,
the site is primarily HTML. Some Adobe PDF files are on the site but are
alternate format copies of HTML pages.
The Content Management System will
be used by several departments with a projected number of fifty client users at
launch. More may be added in the future.
The Town of Cary s internal
technology environment is Microsoft Windows Server 2003 on servers and
Microsoft SQL 2000 or higher if an SQL environment is required. The software
(if installed internally) must be able to operate in a virtual server (VM Ware)
environment.
1. Software
Vendor Information
|
Item
Number
|
Description
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|
1.1
|
Company
Name
|
|
1.2
|
Sales
Contact Information
|
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1.3
|
Name and
Version of Content Management System Being Quoted
|
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1.4
|
How Long
has Product ( the current version) Been in Use by Customers
|
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1.5
|
Customer
Base (What is your local government installed base for the product and
version being quoted?)
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2. Software
Vendor References
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Item
Number
|
Description
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|
2.1
|
Reference
Name and Current Contact Information
|
|
2.2
|
Product
and Version of Application Used ( If different than product and version being
quoted).
|
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2.3
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Number of
Years in Use
|
|
2.4
|
How Many
Times Has Product Been Upgraded Since Installation?
|
|
2.5
|
Customer
Comments (optional)
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3. Content
Administration
|
Item
Number
|
Description
|
|
3.1
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The
software must have at least four levels of security and access. All of these
levels of access will be based on individual and unique user ID s. Global administration for technology staff,
intermediate administration for Public Information staff, user department
administration and user department general access. Global administration is
for software control and configuration. Intermediate administration is to
allow Public Information Staff to review department submissions, approve and
publish them to the web site. Department administration is for user
departments to assign approval access for department submitted content. User
department general access is for the general users in a department to submit
changes to the department administrator for department approval prior to
submission to the Public Information Office. Describe how your software does
this. How many levels are allowed?
|
|
3.2
|
Does the
software support group authorities? If so describe how this is implemented.
In addition are there limits on the number of groups and members in an
individual group. Can the same access be assigned to a group that can be
assigned to an individual user?
|
|
3.3
|
Formatting
privileges must also be able to be controlled independently of textual
content so layout properties such as banners, fonts, colors and other
properties can be locked to enforce standard design. How does your software
enable this control?
|
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3.4
|
The
software needs to have version control and document integrity protection so
that only one person at a time can be updating the same information. How does
your software enforce this control?
|
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3.5
|
Does the
software support a global image and file management system? If so describe
how the software supports this global system and what file types are
supported.
|
|
3.6
|
Does the
software include any reporting function? If so what reports are included and
will the software allow the creation of additional reports?
|
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3.7
|
Published
pages shall consist of clean code that conforms to current W3C standards,
including CSS and XHTML. Does your software produce published output that
conforms to these standards?
|
4. Content
Editing
|
Item
Number
|
Description
|
|
4.1
|
Describe
the software editor provided. Is it browser based or does it have its own
interface. Provide example copies if possible.
|
|
4.2
|
Software
must allow staff to make content changes directly on their pages without
knowing HTML. Describe how your software accomplishes this.
|
|
4.3
|
The
software must be easy to customize and allow the flexibility to create
templates for different page styles. Describe how your software accomplishes
this and show examples if desired.
|
|
4.4
|
The
software must be able to preserve the same marketable URL s currently on
the Town s web site and not require long URL s with added numbers and
characters. Please see the Town of Cary s current web site for examples.
State whether your software can support this or not.
|
|
4.5
|
The
software must be able to incorporate tables and graphics into page content.
Describe how your software supports graphics and tables.
|
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4.6
|
The
software must be able to import multi-page documents as a single document. Is
your software capable of this and if so is there a limit of the number of
pages in a single document?
|
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4.7
|
The
software must be able to support the creation and uploading of Adobe PDF
Documents. Describe how your software accomplishes this.
|
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4.8
|
Describe
how the software supports page preview. Does it support page preview in the
context of the entire site?
|
|
4.9
|
Does the
software support metadata tools? If so describe what features the tools
contain.
|
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4.10
|
Describe
the different browsers (Internet Explorer and Firefox) supported and which
versions of each are supported.
|
5. Content
Management
|
Item
Number
|
Description
|
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5.1
|
The
software must aid in accessibility based on the Americans with Disabilities
Act. This includes having the capability to create alternate text tags and a
text only site. Describe how your software supports accessibility. In
addition does it meet any national or industry standards for this
accessibility support?
|
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5.2
|
The
software must have the ability to associate an activate date and a deactivate
date. This function will allow the creation and loading of pages in advance
and the new page will be activated based on the activate date. In addition
the deactivate date would be used to take a page out of publication when the
date criteria is met. This feature must also include the ability to have an
email sent stating that a page is about to expire to multiple recipients. The
lead time for the email notification must be user definable. Describe how
your software meets this requirement and what dispositions are supported for
the deactivated pages.
|
|
5.3
|
The
software must support a revision history. This history will include, at a
minimum, when pages were last changed and by whom. In addition the software
must have the ability to notify (email) an individual of choice when a page
is revised. Describe how your software accomplishes this.
|
|
5.4
|
The
software must have the ability to restrict information that can be accessed
by searching, including archived information, so users are not pulling up old
or out of date information unless desired. Describe how your software does
this.
|
|
5.5
|
The
software must have the ability to find broken or invalid links and orphaned
pages and be able to generate a report of these items. The software must also
be able to generate an entire site map of all links and references. Describe
how these features are implemented and how they function.
|
|
5.6
|
The
software must have the ability to publish to either a Linux/Apache web
platform or a Microsoft Dot Net web platform.
|
|
5.7
|
Describe
the environment your software is required to operate in. To elaborate, can it
reside on an internal server in our network, or do you require that it be
hosted by your organization only, or can you support either environment?
|
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5.8
|
Describe
in detail how your software will take the existing Town of Cary Web Site
Content and import or convert it into a format that is compatible with your
Content Management System.
|
6.
Additional Features
|
Item
Number
|
Description
|
|
6.1
|
Does your
system have a calendar function included? If so describe how it functions and
the features it includes. Provide examples if possible.
|
|
6.2
|
Does your
software include a feature to create on-line surveys? If so explain how this
feature works. Does it store the response data in a database? If so explain
what types of databases are supported.
|
|
6.3
|
Does your
software include the ability to create and support an email subscription
service/push technology feature to enable web users to sign up for receiving
emails at a topic level? If so how does it function and will it support a
separate email interface (outbound only) through an administrator selected
firewall port?
|
|
6.4
|
Does your
software have a search function included? If so describe how it operates.
Will it also operate on the live site as well as the development site?
|
Additional
Notes:
Please provide the entire operating environment that your
software requires. Include any software licensing required for the client
systems, the server systems including both the development server and the live
server. In addition include any licensing required for database products (SQL)
and operating systems.
Please provide the total cost for
application software for all items defined in the paragraph immediately above.
Assume one development server, two live servers, and fifty client licenses for
pricing. Do not price hardware, operating systems or SQL database licensing.
In addition provide pricing for the
additional features described in section 6 if these items are not included in
the base price.
Acceptance
Or Rejection Of Proposals
The Town reserves the right to
reject any or all proposals, waive technicalities, and to be the sole judge of
suitability of the equipment or services for its intended use and further
specifically reserve the right to make the award in the best interests of the
Town. Unless otherwise specified by the Contractor, the Town reserves the right
to accept any item in the proposal.
Failure to respond to any
requirements outlined in this RFP, or failure to enclose copies of the required
documents, may disqualify the proposal.
The Town realizes that factors other
than price are important. As a result,
price may not be the sole factor upon which the Town s decision to award is
based. The Town will make the award
based upon the proposal which best meets its need.
Advertising
In submitting a proposal, Contractor
agrees not to use the results therefrom as a part of any commercial promotion
or advertising without prior written approval of the Town of Cary.
Hold
Harmless Agreement
The Contractor agree to indemnify
and hold the Town of Cary harmless from and against any and all claims, losses,
liabilities, costs, expenses, charges, and damages arising from, or relating
to, this agreement, including but not limited to attorney s fees, with respect
to any cause arising out of, resulting from, or in connection with (a) any
breach by the Contractor of any clause, condition or provision of this
Agreement; (b) any breach or violation by the Contractor of any applicable
criminal or civil law; or (c) any other cause resulting from any act or failure
to act by the Contractor in accordance with this Agreement. The Contractor
shall promptly assume the defense of any claim, suit or action within the scope
of this indemnification at its expense, upon being notified thereof.
