Tuesday 22 January 2013

Request for Proposal - Website Redesign


Request for Proposal:  Website Redesign

Requested January 14, 2013
 Proposals Due: January 30th, 2013
  
Submit Proposals to:

Miriam Ticoll, Executive Director, HSICT, c/o Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto, 9 King’s College Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 1A5   miriam.ticoll@utoronto.ca


Table of Contents 

I.    About Us.................................................................................................................. 3

II.   Request for Proposal (RFP) Overview................................................................. 4

III.  Budget and Deliverables........................................................................................ 5

IV.  Notes........................................................................................................................ 6

V.   To the Extent Funds Allow.................................................................................... 6

VI.  Proposed Project Timeline and Milestones........................................................ 7


The Health Science Information Consortium of Toronto (the Consortium) is a collaborative non-profit organization whose members are libraries in hospitals, research institutes and public health departments in the Toronto area and beyond.   The Consortium facilitates access by health and allied health professions to evidence-based health information in a range of healthcare settings.

Established almost two decades ago, the Consortium now includes 37 member institutions within and beyond the GTA, and is the largest health consortium of its kind in Canada.  The University of Toronto Library is a founding member and an ongoing sponsor.

What We Do

The Consortium is engaged in a number of activities, all designed to achieve consistency of access to quality evidenced-based health information by health care providers in our member institutions.  We:

·         Negociate group licenses and subscriptions to premium electronic health information resources (databases, journals, ebooks, etc.) on behalf of our members to reduce overheads and save licensing costs;
  • Collaborate to provide instruction to health and allied health professionals on navigating new technologies and searching evidence-based health databases;
  • Facilitate sharing of information and  resources across 37 libraries;
  • Provide ongoing continuing education for health information professionals.
Our Members

The Consortium membership currently stands at 37 institutions, including the University of Toronto. Ten member libraries are located in teaching hospitals fully affiliated to the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine and 14 of our member libraries are in community affiliated hospitals; the remaining 12 members are a mix of community, research and public health libraries in and around the GTA.


This Request for Proposal (RFP) is intended to establish a relationship with a partner who can ensure that the Consortium website meets the needs of both members and the Consortium administration.  Current site is at: http://hsict.library.utoronto.ca/

A.   Overall Goals

The selected vendor will collaborate with the Consortium to:
·         Move the existing site from Plone to the Drupal platform hosted by the University of Toronto Libraries
·         Integrate the existing Directory database into the site
·         Enhance the members’ side of the site to improve functionality, accessibility and usability and to integrate administrative tools to streamline admin functions and reduce manual collection of information
·         Facilitate the collection and updating of data from our members - institutional/contact info, IP addresses, products subscribed to etc.
·         Add capacity to organize meetings/invite and track attendees
·         Add capacity for members to store, share and edit documents
·         Introduce the capacity to generate invoices

B.   Site Functionality

The selected vendor will collaborate with the Consortium to create a new Drupal-powered website for the Consortium with the following features:

1)    Directory of the 37 member libraries, including for each:
              i.        Contact information (address, phone, email, fax) for several service points within each library
             ii.        Key staff and their contact information
            iii.        List of all e-resources to which each institution subscribes, which can be queried and browsed by resource title, publisher or by institution.
            iv.        List of all print journals to which each institution subscribes, which can be queried and browsed by resource title, publisher or by institution. This list is maintained by batch data upload via a delimited text file

2)   Ability to manage information about Consortium e-resource subscriptions.
Currently, the Consortium office manages approximately 25 e-resource subscriptions for its 37 members, and must track information about current subscriptions and their status for each member(price of subscription, whether they are subscribing, cancelling or, considering, etc).  Desired functionality would include ability to generate summary reports by member, product, or subscription status.

3)    Ability to generate print and electronic invoices based on subscription information

4)    Simplified site maintenance which allows easy updating by non-technical staff and members.

C.     Site Technical Requirements

1)  The site must adhere to the WCAG 2.0 level AA standards (http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/) to meet AODA requirements (http://www.aoda.ca/)
2)  The site must be developed in the latest version of Drupal 7 using only contributed modules with no additional customized code to the core or modules
3)   Any contributed modules must be actively maintained and widely used
4)   The U of T Libraries run their Drupal sites on:
           Ubuntu server 12.04 LTS, 64 bit
           MySQL server 5.5
           PHP 5.3.10
           Apache 2.2.22
          The site, as delivered, must be fully tested and compatible with the above platform
5)   The site must be optimized for access by mobile devices; a responsive web design is preferred
6)   The site must incorporate Google Analytics

 
Budget
The Health Science Information Consortium of Toronto is a small non-profit with a lean budget; this website development project will be funded from our special projects fund.     In responding to this RFP we invite vendors to indicate their rates/charges for not-for profit organizations.

Project Deliverables include but are not limited to:  
·         Detailed production schedule with listed milestones
·         Clearly defined web redesign strategy
·         Method of communication for tracking project deliverables, status, and reporting bugs. 

Information Design and Site Architecture  
·         Analyze and recommend improvements as to how information is currently organized, updated, and maintained.
·         Develop a strategy for integrating key administrative functions 
·         Develop an strategy for improving functionality, usability and accessibility of site for members 

Graphic Design and Branding
·         Ensure a cohesive, extensible visual graphic design and identity system for the site
·         Create and deliver wireframe to detail all elements to be included on key pages, and site navigation.
·         Develop and deliver a comprehensive, usable, and forward-looking visual design

Project Management
·         Provide dedicated Project Manager to help lead requirements gathering activities and track project milestones and deliverables and be accessible to the Consortium working group
·         Provide robust Q/A protocols that will assure quality control over all deliverables, including code and print.   

Proposal evaluation
Proposals will be evaluated using the following criteria:
·         Experience on similar, small scale sites. The selected vendor will demonstrate past success in developing extensible design/identity systems and optimizing information design across a site. 
·         Strength of work plan. The selected vendor will submit a concise, articulated work plan that addresses the above scope and includes descriptions regarding account management, project management, and creative processes.
·         The selected vendor will possess outstanding credentials in the areas of visual design, information architecture and technical considerations. The selected vendor will also have a strong grounding in customer experience and delivering user-centric design.
·         Reasonable and realistic cost projections 
·         The selected vendor will submit a competitive Financial Proposal that is inline with the stated budget and appropriate for non-profit organizations.  The proposal should include itemized list costs for site architecture, redesign, software customization and systems testing, project management, etc.
·         Credentials of staff to be assigned to the project. The selected vendor will submit staff bios outlining the credentials and accomplishments of those staff who will manage and participate in this project
·         Ability to meet timing requirements to complete the project. The selected vendor will submit a high-level estimate of time-to-completion, from concept to successful delivery of all desired project deliverables.
·         Previous experience with public sector non-profits and organizations affiliated with the University of Toronto strongly desired. 

·         The Consortium will provide requirements, branding and style guide materials, editorial guidelines, and platform input.

·           Establish a secure staging site to house prototypes and conduct user testing


We are aiming for the launch of the new site in June 2013.

Key milestones:

Selection of Programming Partner (February 15 2013)
·         RFP request posted January 13 12,2013
·         Proposals due by 5PM (ET) on January 30th 2013
·         Proposal review and selection: clarification with design partners   
·         Review by website subcommittee and selection of recommended vendor
·         Present recommendation to Management Committee Approval (February 2012)  

Discovery period (February 15-26 2012)
  • Meetings to discuss requirements and architecture 
  • Design partner project management 
  • Design and branding materials 
Technical Plan Review /Start of Preliminary Development (March 2– March 15 2012)
  • Final review of Technical plan on March 4nd
  • Commencement of programming  March 6th
Alpha site (March 15-April 15)

Beta site (April 15 – May 15)

Launch:  June 1, 2013

Proposals (due January 25th) can be submitted to:
Miriam Ticoll, Executive Director, HSICT, c/o Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto, 9 King’s College Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 1A5   miriam.ticoll@utoronto.ca

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