HGACBuy Website Redesign

H-GAC is seeking a qualified Contractor to design, develop, and implement an updated version of the agency’s HGACBuy Cooperative Purchasing Program primary website, https://www.hgacbuy.org .

The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) is the region-wide voluntary association of 133 local governments and local elected officials in the 13-county Gulf Coast Planning region of Texas. Local elected officials organized H-GAC in 1966 after authorization by State enabling legislation. Its service area is 12,500 square miles and includes more than 7-million residents. H-GAC is governed by a 36-member Board of Directors composed of local elected officials, who serve on the governing bodies of member local governments. All H-GAC programs are carried out under the policy direction of its Board of Directors. H-GAC’s mission is to serve as the instrument of local government cooperation, promoting the region’s orderly development and the safety and welfare of its residents. H-GAC is the regional organization through which local governments consider issues and cooperate in solving area-wide problems. Agency programs emphasize local government concerns, such as transportation, air and water quality, criminal justice, demographic analysis, mapping programs, and intergovernmental purchasing. H-GAC also serves its citizens through workforce development programs, services to the aging and elderly, and small business finance programs.

H-GAC’s HGACBuy Cooperative Purchasing Program website https://www.hgacbuy.org , is a nationwide, government procurement service striving to make the governmental procurement process more efficient and is our primary outreach method to the public.

The current design of HGACBuy’s website is the result of a redesign project completed in 2014. There have been some modifications to the design over the years, but no major design work was completed. The 2014 redesign project introduced our website to the concepts of Responsive Design via the Bootstrap Framework and achieved our goal of implementing a clean, modern, and mobile-friendly design.

After monitoring and reviewing visitor feedback, H-GAC has identified specific areas of improvement that act as the main drivers behind the need to pursue this project. H-GAC would like to:

• Enhance the user experience with a more engaging, visually interesting website
• Make it simple for visitors to find what they are looking for.
• Make it easy for visitors to learn who HGACBuy is and educate users about the benefits of Nationwide Cooperative Purchasing Program.
• Continue to facilitate our programs’ work with various regional and national entities.
• Create Staff, Vendor/Supplier and Member portals to access relevant contracts, update data, etc.
• Integrate third party applications like Tableau and Salesforce CRM.
• Improve global site search features and add some.
• We are open to complete overhaul of the website to accommodate all the required features.