State of Iowa Bid Opportunities
Bid Information
SOS2021_01
Design of new website
Request for Bids
Description
1. Introduction & Project Overview
The Office of the Iowa Secretary of State (IA SOS) issues this Request for Bid to solicit proposals from qualified
vendors for website redesign as described in this document.
The objective is to solicit user interface (UI) designs, and a website strategy. Iowa SOS invites interested parties
to submit responses regarding their products and service offerings. All information shall be submitted in the
format stipulated in this document.
2. Agency Overview
2.1 Iowa Secretary of State Description
The IA SOS serves two primary functions: business services and election administration.
Business Services supports Iowa businesses, including formation of entities, qualification of foreign entities,
lien filings, notary commissions and more. The web site supports online filing, search applications and static
content.
The IA SOS is the state commissioner of elections and assists Iowa’s 99 county auditors in the administration of
election laws and administrative rules. The web site supports various voter related searches and static
content.
The web site also supports simple web forms to request data, static content such as media releases, links to
other resources, a site search and multiple PDFs and other text files.
2.2 About Iowa SOS Website users
There are two primary, but distinctly different, audiences who use the Secretary of State's website.
? Business users: Business owners, law offices, banks, service companies and others who form businesses, file liens, renew notary commissions, search business databases and more.
? Voters: People who vote, need access to voting information or who search voting-related data.
3. Current Website Challenges
The Secretary of State is looking for a fresh, modern design that provides an enjoyable experience for all users,
with emphasis on the users noted in the previous section.
Today’s site has a “busy” design, outdated look/feel, lack of 508 compliance, confusing menus, poor search
capabilities, and our content owners are not able to easily update their data.
? Design is outdated (10 years old)
? Content is difficult to find
? Navigation is clunky and information scattered throughout
? Search capabilities are limited
? Lacks an attractive, engaging web site.
? Content owners are limited in their management of content Page 4 of 7
4. Future Website Objectives
It is the intent of this bid opportunity to find vendors who excel in graphic design, UX, and website strategy.
The next generation site will be a Drupal content management system, so experience with Drupal is preferred.
The IA SOS considers the following capabilities as in scope and foundational. However, respondents are not
limited to providing only information relative to these capabilities and should propose recommended additions
and/or alternatives where appropriate.
5. Project Scope
5.1 What’s in scope
? Graphic Design
? User interface / User Experience
? Website strategy
o SEO
o Planning (roadmap for adding value to SOS site)
? Digital Services (KB, chatbot, etc)
5.2 What’s not in scope
? Migration of current site
? Implementation of new site
? Support or hosting of new site
? eCommerce
6. Proposal Requirements
Prepare and submit narrative responses to address DESIGN & UX ANALYSIS.
# Category Response
1 Explain the capabilities that your organization can offer.
2 Provide samples of other websites designed by your
organization.
3 Describe your methodology for UX Development and
Analysis.
Page 5 of 7
Prepare and submit narrative responses to address WEB SITE STRATEGY.
# Category Response
1 Explain the capabilities that your organization can offer.
2 Provide samples of website strategy your organization
has provided.
3 Describe your methodology for measuring success of
web site strategies.
7. Instructions to Respondents
Vendors interested in responding to this bid may submit questions or requests for clarification. All questions or
requests must be submitted by e-mail to kyle.phillips@sos.iowa.gov and received NO LATER than 12 p.m. Central
Time, Thursday, April 15, 2021. The subject line should state: Questions for SOS Web Site Proposal.
Responses to vendor questions will be provided for all participants by Friday, April 16, 2021.
Responses to this RFP must be provided NO LATER THAN 3 p.m. Central Time, on Friday, April 23, 2021. Vendors
must email their written responses to kyle.phillips@sos.iowa.gov . The subject line should state: Response to
SOS Web Site Proposal
If unable to provide an email response, vendors may send or deliver their response to the location denoted
below. Such a response MUST be received at this location no later than the above stated date and time:
Attn: Kyle Phillips, Iowa Secretary of State Office
Lucas State Office Building – First Floor
312 E. 12th Street
Des Moines, Iowa 50319-0105
7.1 Copyrights
A vendor submitting a response to this bid agrees the state may copy the response contents for the purpose of
facilitating review or responding to public record requests. The vendor consents to such copying by submitting
a response and warrants that such copying will not violate the rights of any third party. The State will have the
right to use ideas or adaptations of ideas which are presented in the response.
7.2 Gratuities
The laws of Iowa provide that it is a felony to offer, promise, or give anything of value or benefit to a state
employee with the intent to influence that employee’s acts, opinion, judgment or exercise of discretion with
respect to that employee’s duties. Evidence of violation of this statute will be turned over to the proper
prosecuting attorney. Page 6 of 7
7.3 Costs to Vendors
The costs of preparation and delivery of the response are solely the responsibility of the vendor.
7.4 Response Property of the State
All responses become the property of the State of Iowa and shall not be returned to the vendor. At the conclusion
of the project, the content of the responses will be placed in the public domain and available to inspection by
interested parties. Do not include confidential or proprietary information as part of your submittal.
7.5 Public Records
All communications, questions, and responses are subject to Iowa’s open records law, Iowa Code ch. 22. Only
the types of information designated as “confidential” records under 22.7 are exempt. If you are submitting
information or materials that you believe may be confidential under the law, you must conspicuously mark the
information as such. We cannot guarantee information marked as such will actually be exempt.
The SOS has a duty to responsive to requests under the open records chapter. In the event that information
marked as “confidential” appears to be responsive to a records request, IA SOS will make a reasonable attempt
to contact you prior to any such release.
The discretion of whether an item marked “confidential” actually qualifies as such resides solely with SOS, as the
custodian of the record.
7.5 Source of Information Used in Addition to Responses
The State reserves the right to contact vendors as needed throughout the RFP process, including after the final
response deadline, for clarification of RFP content.
7.6 State’s Obligations
The issuance of this RFP does not obligate the State in any way to the project, or to accept and implement any
solution offered in any vendor response.
During the evaluation, IA SOS may request that you submit supplemental information. Any supplemental
information you provide must be in writing and may become part of this evaluation.
The highest graded vendors will be selected to present their proposal in person or by online meeting.
7.7 RFP Schedule
Date/Time Event
April 9, 2021 Vendor Questions Due
April 16, 2021 State Response to Vendor Questions
April 23, 2021 Vendor RFP Responses Due
Respondents may deliver their proposal in PDF format by emailing the point of contact in this document.
Responses must be limited to no more than 10 pages.
The RFP response should be organized as described in Section 8.
The budget for this project must not exceed $25,000. Proposals that exceed $25,000 will not be considered.
8. Format of Response
The Response must contain the information listed in this section. Respondents should describe how their
solution meets or exceeds the desired capabilities of this request for bid and should address the topics in the
sections below. Respondents are encouraged to include additional relevant information as appropriate.
The response must be organized as follows:
? Cover Page (title of the project, name and address of respondent, date of bid)
? Respondent Information
? Name and principal location and country of origin of your business.
? The type of business entity such as corporation or partnership.
? Any parent, subsidiary, and affiliate companies you feel may be relevant to the response.
? Name, address, telephone number and email address of the vendor representative to
contact regarding all matters concerning this RFP.
? Years of experience your business has in the field of Website Redesign.
? Staff expertise and years of experience.
? Executive Summary (written for executive management and shall briefly address the respondent’s approach to website redesign. This section shall be limited to 2-3 paragraphs).
? Overview
? The typical implementation approach for environments that are similar to SOS.
? An overall perspective of how the proposed solution would address the high-level
requirements described in this document.
? Any additional features or planned capabilities that may benefit IA SOS.
? Response and High Level Implementation Plan In this section, please respond to the specific requirements, including key milestones and deliverables and pricing. Please describe the typical timeframe of
similar size and scope.
Agency Information
635
Secretary Of State
321 E 12TH ST
Des Moines, IA 50319
Contact Information
Valid Dates
4/14/2021 1:47:00 PM
4/16/2021 2:00:00 PM
Documents/Attachments
Links
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