In August, 2015, Staff sent out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to firms interested in redesigning the Village’s existing website and adding a subsite for the Discover Arlington website.

The Village received 13 proposals that were reviewed in September, 2015 and the Village’s Website Team narrowed the proposals down to the top 6 firms.

Website Team:

·         Randy Recklaus, Village Manager

·         Diana Mikula, Assistant Village Manager

·         Robert Taraszka, IT Manager

·         Beverly Davis, IT Assistant

·         Chester Gorecki, Management Analyst

Top 6 Firms & Proposal Cost for 3 years

• Vision:                  $66,440.00
• CivicLive:              $69,550.00
• Americaneagle:      $86,850.00
• Revize:                 $93,215.00
• CivicPlus:             $94,793.75
• Intechnic:            $108,900.00

Selected Vendor

After interviewing and ranking the top 6 firms, as well as conducting reference checks, the Website Team unanimously chose CivicLive as the new vendor for the website redesign project. CivicLive has 14 years of experience in website development with municipalities and offers many innovative design tools that will be used in a redesign of our Village website. With CivicLive, the Village will have a website that is user-centric and user-friendly. The redesigned website will provide online solutions that will improve citizen engagement and will provide convenient services to create a true e-Government experience.

Some of CivicLive’s innovative tools include online forms, templates for e-newsletters, various survey, voting and polling tools, an e-alert system that can be tailored for a specific neighborhood, a Citizen Request System that includes tracking information for the citizen and Village staff, a Citizen Dashboard portal, a web app for handheld devices, a dynamic calendar system and a robust search engine tool.

The new website will be a responsive design, which means the website will have a consistent look and feel across all platforms – desktop computers, tablets and cell phones.

Costs

CivicLive’s total project cost is $69,500 over a 3-year period. $51,000 will be expended this year which is $24,000 under the budgeted amount of $75,000.

The three year website project cost includes design, development and implementation of a new website; free hosting and maintenance services for the first year; two years of hosting and maintenance, and a free redesign in the fourth year – whether the Village requests just a few upgrades to the site or a completely new look.

Project Timeline

The Website Team and CivicLive’s Project Team will have periodic interaction with the Village Board to ensure the Board is involved in building the vision of the website redesign and reviews plans for the site’s look and functionality.

The estimated duration of the project from the kick-off meeting to the website launch is approximately 3-4 months. Updates on progress of the redesign project will be provided to the Village Board on a regular basis.  

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Village Board authorize the Village Manager to execute a contract with CivicLive for the redesign of the Village’s website and creation of a “subsite” for Discover Arlington in an amount not to exceed $70,000, from the Village’s Technology Fund account # 625-0601-553.20-39.