REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL WEBSITE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

Over 100 Years of Municipal Service

City of North Chicago

1850 Lewis Avenue, North Chicago, Illinois • 847-596-8600 • www.northchicago.org

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

WEBSITE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

Original proposals and with four copies will be submitted sealed via mail or courier to:

City of North Chicago

Website Design and Development

Attn: Gregory Jackson, Chief of Staff, Office of the Mayor

1850 Lewis Avenue

North Chicago, Illinois 60064

Inquiries regarding this RFP must be submitted via email to: [email protected].

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS: August 2, 2024, by Close of Business

(5 p.m. CST)

2 
 
Over 100 Years of Municipal Service 
City of North Chicago 
1850 Lewis Avenue, North Chicago, Illinois • 847-596-8600 • www.northchicago.org 
 
 
Contents 
PROJECT BACKGROUND .......................................................................................................... 3 
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS .......................................................................... 3 
PROJECT GOALS AND SCOPE ................................................................................................ 3 
Graphic Design ......................................................................................................................... 4 
Informational Design ................................................................................................................ 4 
Functionality .............................................................................................................................. 4 
Content Management .............................................................................................................. 6 
Hosting ....................................................................................................................................... 6 
Content Migration ..................................................................................................................... 6 
Training ...................................................................................................................................... 7 
TIMELINE ....................................................................................................................................... 7 
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ......................................................................................................... 7 
CONTRACT DURATION AND PRICE CHANGES .................................................................... 7 
ADDENDA ...................................................................................................................................... 7 
EXCEPTIONS ................................................................................................................................ 8 
CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION .................................................................................... 8 
INCURRING COSTS ..................................................................................................................... 8 
PROPOSAL CLARIFICATION QUESTIONS .............................................................................. 8 
EVALUATION CRITERIA .............................................................................................................. 8 
PROPOSAL ACCEPTANCE ........................................................................................................ 9 
PROPOSAL AWARD .................................................................................................................... 9 
CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS ..................................................................................................... 9 
CONTRACT DOCUMENTS ......................................................................................................... 9 
FEES AND COMPENSATION ................................................................................................... 10 
WARRANTY ................................................................................................................................. 10 
EXISTING SOFTWARE, HARDWARE, AND OPERATING ENVIRONMENT ........................ 10 
SECURITY ................................................................................................................................... 10 
INSTALLATION AND DELIVERY .............................................................................................. 10 
OWNER’S RESPONSIBILITY FOR DELIVERY AND INSTALLATION .................................. 10 

Over 100 Years of Municipal Service

City of North Chicago

1850 Lewis Avenue, North Chicago, Illinois • 847-596-8600 • www.northchicago.org

PROJECT BACKGROUND

The City of North Chicago, Illinois seeks proposals from qualified professionals and firms

to refresh and update its current website. The city is targeting the first quarter of 2025

for the new website launch.

For reference, the current website can be located at www.northchicago.org.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

1. The respondent’s proposal must include the following:

2. Cover memorandum.

3. Detailed profile of company including all relevant contact information. For sole

proprietors a resume/CV must be provided. Note: subcontracting any portion of

design or development for this engagement is prohibited.

4. Detailed summary of all costs/fees for design, development, deployment, and

ongoing maintenance.

5. Project timeline.

6. Narrative describing project management process.

7. Identification of key personnel responsible for leading and executing this project.

8. Like project references with at least three from municipal units of government.

Original proposals and with four copies will be submitted sealed via mail or courier to:

City of North Chicago

Website Design and Development

Attn: Gregory Jackson, Chief of Staff, Office of the Mayor

1850 Lewis Avenue

North Chicago, Illinois 60064

Inquiries regarding this RFP must be submitted via email to: [email protected].

PROJECT GOALS AND SCOPE

The City of North Chicago seeks the service of a qualified contractor with considerable

ability on the areas of web design, graphic design, content management, and project

management to redesign the city’s website. The city is seeking one firm for this project.

Over 100 Years of Municipal Service

City of North Chicago

1850 Lewis Avenue, North Chicago, Illinois • 847-596-8600 • www.northchicago.org

The following items are strong preferences, but not necessarily rigid requirements. If

expertise finds that here are more effective methods or tools to achieve the preferences,

you are strongly encouraged to offer those recommendations. In addition, if there is

additional functionality that is beneficial to the city and not included in this RFP, please

include both descriptions and costs.

Graphic Design

1. The website should have consistent design template(s) for all pages.

2. The site must comply with the current requirements of the ADA, with Section 508 of

the Rehabilitations Amendments Act of 1998, and with the Electronic and Information

Technology Standards adopted by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers

Compliance Board (reference 36 CFR Part 1194).

3. Design should provide sufficient contrast so that color-blind visitors can properly

interact with the site.

4. The website must be visually appealing to include a mix of text, photos, and

graphics.

5. Uncluttered appearance that does not overwhelm visitors.

6. Ability to secure pages or sections from public view, with access restricted by

password protection.

7. The website should not require any plug-ins to function.

8. Mobile browser capability and usability on a variety of mobile devices of various

screen sizes and resolutions.

Informational Design

1. The website should consist of an updated informational outline in keeping with

municipal website standards and/or best practices.

2. Suggested top-level navigation includes:

a. Residents

b. Visitors

c. About Us

d. Online Services

e. News

f. Calendar

Functionality

1. Calendar: Comprehensive and user-friendly. Include a calendar that is updated

internally. The calendar should be searchable by meeting or event. The calendar

Over 100 Years of Municipal Service

City of North Chicago

1850 Lewis Avenue, North Chicago, Illinois • 847-596-8600 • www.northchicago.org

should offer multiple views with the ability to filter by categories, including calendar

grid as well as chronological listing.

2. E-Mail Notifications (Mass Notification): Provide a user-friendly way for residents to

and geo-tracking.

3. Emergency Notification: Ability to display an emergency message on a scroll across

the website, NOAA integrations and IPAWS.

4. Form: Ability for staff to easily create and compile forms that can be submitted by

visitors to the site. A workflow function that directs inquiries to departments and

allows for tracking would be ideal.

5. Meeting and Agenda Management Solution: If available, provide cost and services

relative to agenda and meeting management solutions.

6. News Center: A simple administrative editor for adding news releases. Automatic

chronological indexing of existing and past release within and archive section.

7. Breaking News, Communications/Social Media Portal: Provide an interactive

interface for breaking news as well as discussion forums for the public to register

comments, complaints, and feedback. Provide a direct home-page interface to social

media channels for news.

8. Resident Feedback: The city is interested in soliciting feedback from residents and

utilizing the site as a tool for interaction. The site should provide an easily accessible,

mobile-friendly user interface for residents to report any non-emergency city issues,

ask questions, and find answers.

9. Search: Pages should be constructed for indexing by common methods with the

capability to designate certain pages to remain unindexed. Ability to search PDF

documents, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, in addition to standard HTML

or database searches. Ability to control the priority of pages/documents returned for

certain search phrases. Administrative report of the most frequently search terms

configurable by date range and number of terms.

10. Social Media Integration: To ensure that the city is communicating important

information to all audiences through current technologies, propose programming

services for social media that allows the city to automatically push updated content

to various outlets.

11. Efficient Navigability and Effective Searchability of Public Documents: Provide an

intuitive navigation structure and an easy-to-use portal for uploading and archiving

public documents with a database component for efficient searchability by the

public. The site must be able to provide “friendly” URLs through the Content

Management System.

12. Departmental Service Pages and Employee Directory: Provide a searchable

employee directory as well as easily navigable pages for departmental information,

including public safety, public works, human resources, careers, etc.

Over 100 Years of Municipal Service

City of North Chicago

1850 Lewis Avenue, North Chicago, Illinois • 847-596-8600 • www.northchicago.org

13. Available Properties and Business Databases: Provide an effective and efficient

searchable database for available properties (residential and commercial) and local

businesses.

14. Transparency/FOIA Tracking Module: If available, provide cost and services relative

to transparency/FOIA tracking services.

Content Management

The current city website is updated by a limited number of staff in decentralized

operating departments. It is likely that a limited number of staff will remain responsible

for future content updates. A content management system (CMS) should include:

1. Updating photos, videos, documents, creating hyperlinks, and entering text by non-

technical personnel.

2. Permit the use of custom code.

3. The ability for the website administrator(s) to approve content before being posted to

the website.

4. Schedule the launch and expiration of content.

5. Workflow features to set reminders to update content.

6. Language/Translation Services.

Respondents should indicate the type of software being used and list any additional

software that will be utilized to create the site. Respondents will also need to indicate

any software licenses or maintenance the city will need to purchase, if applicable.

Hosting

The website may be hosted in the cloud; however, the city requires service-level

guarantees important. Additional hosting services requested include:

1. Fixed IP address for the site.

2. SSL Certificate.

3. Unlimited or generous file storage.

4. Unlimited or generous bandwidth.

5. Significant reporting and metrics on a monthly or on-demand basis.

6. Automatically scalable.

Content Migration

Content from the existing site will need to be extracted and added to the new site.

Over 100 Years of Municipal Service

City of North Chicago

1850 Lewis Avenue, North Chicago, Illinois • 847-596-8600 • www.northchicago.org

Training

The selected company will be required to provide training to city staff on content

management, routine maintenance/troubleshooting, and adding audio/visual

components to the website.

TIMELINE

RFP Issued: July 1, 2024

Vendor Submissions Due: August 2, 2024, by Close of Business (5 p.m. CST)

Bid Opening: August 5, 2024 at 9:00 a.m.

Vendor Presentations (Required): August 16, 2024

Vendor Recommendation Chosen: August 23, 2024

Recommendation to Committee: September 3, 2024

Council Approval: September 16, 2024

Project Begins: September 30, 2024

Web Site Launch TBD

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Maintenance, system, and software support must be provided as a part of the contract

and must be included as one of the items in the cost summary. All items submitted in

the proposal must be fully supported by the manufacturer/vendor. The selected vendor

will be required to assume all responsibility for the delivery, installation, and testing of all

software and support systems offered in their proposal, whether the vendor is the

producer or manufacturer.

CONTRACT DURATION AND PRICE CHANGES

The City of North Chicago is seeking a multi-year agreement with all conversion,

application, hosting, and maintenance services as part of the costs proposed. At no point

will pricing be allowed to rise above the stated contract. Devices and additional services

may be added during this time.

ADDENDA

Addenda are any graphic or written instruments issued by the City of North Chicago

prior to the date for receipt of proposals that modify or interpret this document by

additions, deletions, clarifications, or corrections.

Over 100 Years of Municipal Service

City of North Chicago

1850 Lewis Avenue, North Chicago, Illinois • 847-596-8600 • www.northchicago.org

EXCEPTIONS

Exceptions to any part of the requirements stated in this request must be clearly

identified as exceptions in the submitted proposal.

CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION

Any submitted information considered trade secret or confidential to the proposer or

rendered via a non- disclosure agreement with the City must be so labeled and

enclosed separately. The proposer, the City of North Chicago, and their agents will hold

the submitted proposal and any related materials in confidence if so requested by the

proposer. Throughout the evaluation process, any information therein will not be made

available to any other party unless precluded by Illinois State Code. No debriefings or

scoring sheets will be released before the final recommendation. However, after the

award, all contents of the selected proposal will be considered public information. All

proposal material supplied, including supporting material and information disclosed

during the proposal evaluation process, will become the property of the City of North

Chicago, and will be retained for internal use. The City of North Chicago reserves the

right to retain all proposals submitted and to use any ideas in a proposal regardless of

whether that proposal is selected. Submission of a proposal indicates acceptance by the

proposer of the conditions contained in this request for proposal, unless clearly and

specifically noted in the proposal submitted and confirmed in the contract between the

City of North Chicago and the vendor selected.

INCURRING COSTS

The City of North Chicago is not liable for any costs incurred by replying to this RFP.

PROPOSAL CLARIFICATION QUESTIONS

After reviewing all proposals received in response to this RFP, the City of North Chicago

may develop a list of clarification questions to be addressed by the Vendor. The City of

North Chicago will send these questions to the Vendor for clarification, and vendors

should address these questions in their presentations.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

This RFP is not meant to favor any vendor. Instead, it is designed to meet the needs of

the City of North Chicago. The City of North Chicago will weigh the proposals based on

the proposer’s references, qualifications, and support as well as technical merit and

cost. The award will not be made on price alone.

Over 100 Years of Municipal Service

City of North Chicago

1850 Lewis Avenue, North Chicago, Illinois • 847-596-8600 • www.northchicago.org

A “short list” of vendors meeting the desired criteria will be compiled. Vendors making

the “short-list” will be asked to come on-site or virtually to provide a presentation of their

solution.

In awarding the Contract, the City will take into consideration the proposer's skill,

facilities, capacity, experience, responsibility, previous work record, financial standing,

the necessity of prompt and efficient completion of work described in the proposal

documents, or other factors the City of North Chicago considers relevant. The inability

of the proposer to meet these conditions may be cause for rejection of the proposal.

The city is seeking a solution that best addresses the needs outlined in this RFP.

Vendors may respond “a’ la carte’” to items identified in this proposal. Vendors may

partner to achieve the total solution requested and such partnerships and

subcontracting relationships should be clearly identified in the proposal response. One

vendor must be identified as the primary vendor for the portion of the proposal they are

responding to.

PROPOSAL ACCEPTANCE

The City of North Chicago reserves the right to accept or reject any or all proposals and

waive formalities or irregularities in the process. A proposal once submitted shall be

deemed final and binding on the proposer and shall constitute an option with the City of

North Chicago to enter into a contract upon the terms set forth in the proposal. All

proposal prices must be valid for 60 days from the proposal due date.

PROPOSAL AWARD

Unless otherwise indicated in the specification for a proposal, the City of North Chicago

reserves the right to award the proposal in whole or in part, by item, or by a group of

items where such action serves the best interests of the City of North Chicago.

CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS

The City of North Chicago reserves the right to negotiate a contract after the successful

proposer is selected. Selection will be based only on the proposal and subsequent

interviews, if any; therefore, proposals must be complete.

CONTRACT DOCUMENTS

The proposer’s response to this RFP, response to questions, and written addenda will

become part of the contractual documents upon signing of contract documents. The

order of precedence shall be signed contract, response to follow-up questions,

Over 100 Years of Municipal Service

City of North Chicago

1850 Lewis Avenue, North Chicago, Illinois • 847-596-8600 • www.northchicago.org

response to addenda, and response to the RFP. The most recently dated response to an

item will supersede other items referencing the same topic.

FEES AND COMPENSATION

Provide a proposed lump sum budget for the completion of the proposed scope of

services with cost breakdowns by scope element. Payment terms will be negotiated

through the contract process.

WARRANTY

Warranty on all systems proposed will begin after successful installation, NOT upon

delivery of the system.

EXISTING SOFTWARE, HARDWARE, AND OPERATING ENVIRONMENT

Applications that are included in the proposal must be demonstrated on a production

basis before acceptance of the proposed system takes place. No “beta” products shall

be proposed for this project. Included in the exceptions portion of the proposal are any

points where the proposed application packages DO NOT conform to the Functional

Requirements included in this RFP.

SECURITY

There must be a secure administrative function provided to maintain and monitor

security. Secure, administrative functionality must exist to maintain users and provide

access to users so that they only have access to those pages that they are given rights.

Administrators must have access to all areas of the website. Administrative functionality

should also include the ability to make modifications to the main page of the site.

INSTALLATION AND DELIVERY

Any materials/equipment shall be delivered to its proper location and installed by the

proposer. During the time between delivery and acceptance, the City of North Chicago

cannot be held liable for any damage or theft of any components. It will, therefore, be

the responsibility of the contractor to obtain insurance against loss, theft, and damage.

OWNER’S RESPONSIBILITY FOR DELIVERY AND INSTALLATION

Please identify the exact tasks that the City of North Chicago must perform and/or be

responsible for accomplishing the delivery and installation of the system if any. (Attach a

Over 100 Years of Municipal Service

City of North Chicago

1850 Lewis Avenue, North Chicago, Illinois • 847-596-8600 • www.northchicago.org

separate sheet labeled “Required Pre-Delivery and Installation Tasks” if needed.) This

may include, but not be limited to