Provision of Technical Services for Website Redesign and Implementation

Agency:	Gwinnett County
State:	Georgia
Type of Government:	State & Local
Category:	R - Professional, Administrative and Management Support Services
Posted:	Feb 2, 2024
Due:	Mar 1, 2024
Solicitation No:	RP007-24 INV
Publication URL:	To access bid details, please log in.

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February 2, 2024

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

RP007-24

The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners is soliciting competitive sealed proposals from qualified

service providers for the Provision of Technical Services for Website Redesign and Implementation for the

Department of Communications.

Proposals must be returned in a sealed container marked on the outside with the Request for Proposal

number and Company Name. Proposals will be received until 2:50 P.M. local time on March 1, 2024 at the

Gwinnett County Financial Services - Purchasing Division – 2nd Floor, 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville,

Georgia 30046. Any proposal received after this date and time will not be accepted. Proposals will be

publicly opened and only names of submitting service providers will be read at 3:00 P.M. A list of service

providers submitting proposals will be available the following business day on our website

www.gwinnettcounty.com.

A Webex pre-proposal conference is scheduled for 10:00 A.M. local time on February 15, 2024. To access,

dial 1-408-418-9388 and enter conference ID 23487260243##. All qualified service providers are urged to

attend. Questions regarding proposals should be directed to Dana Garland, Purchasing Associate III at

dana.garland@gwinnettcounty.com no later than at 3:00 P.M. on February 19, 2024. Proposals are legal

and binding upon the bidder when submitted. One unbound single-sided original, five (5) exact copies, and

one electronic copy on a flash drive should be submitted.

The successful service provider will be required to meet insurance requirements. The Insurance Company

should be authorized to do business in Georgia by the Georgia Insurance Department and must have an

A.M. Best rating of A-5 or higher.

Gwinnett County does not discriminate on the basis of disability in the admission or access to its programs

or activities. Any requests for reasonable accommodations required by individuals to fully participate in

any open meeting, program or activity of Gwinnett County Government should be directed to the ADA

Coordinator at the Gwinnett County Justice and Administration Center, 770-822-8165.

The written proposal documents supersede any verbal or written prior communications between the

parties.

Selection criteria are outlined in the request for proposal documents. Gwinnett County reserves the right

to reject any or all proposals to waive technicalities, and to make an award deemed in its best interest.

Award notification will be posted after award on the County website, www.gwinnettcounty.com and

services providers submitting a proposal will be notified via email.

We look forward to your proposal and appreciate your interest in Gwinnett County.

Dana Garland, CPPB, FOII, NIGP-CPP

Purchasing Associate III

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1. OBJECTIVE

Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners (the County) seeks proposals from qualified service

providers for website modernization. This includes website visual redesign, implementing Liferay

DXP Content Management System, and migrating existing content and applications from a

current Java-based CMS running on Liferay portal to a new Liferay DXP portal platform with built-

in CMS.

The website modernization aims to enhance user experience, requiring the selected provider to

deliver a comprehensive solution for convenient constituent access and interaction with the

County government.

2. BACKGROUND

2.1 Description of Gwinnett County

Gwinnett County is a suburban county located approximately 30 miles northeast of Atlanta,

Georgia, with an estimated population of one million residents. The governing authority consists

of a five-person Board of Commissioners, including a full-time chairperson elected at large and

four Commissioners elected on a district basis. The County operates under the County

Administrator form of management and has 14 administrative departments. The County

Administrator reports directly to the Board, oversees the activities of the 14 appointed County

department directors, and acts as a liaison for the Board with other elected officials.

In addition to the administrative departments, the County includes agencies and offices headed

by elected officials and judicially appointed officials. The elected officials include the Chief

Magistrate, Clerk of Court, District Attorney, Probate Court Judge, Sheriff, Solicitor, State Court

Judges, Superior Court Judges, and Tax Commissioner. The judicially appointed department

heads include Juvenile Court Judges, Recorder's Court Judges, and Court Administrator.

The County provides a wide array of services to its customers, including planning and

development; water, sewer, and stormwater; solid waste collection; road construction and

maintenance; transit; parks and recreation; courts; and police, fire, and emergency services.

3. CURRENT WEBSITE OVERVIEW

The County’s website currently runs on the Liferay DXP portal platform using a custom Java-

based Content Management System. The website comprises approximately 5,000 pages,

including HTML pages, PDFs, web forms, and more than 70 custom interactive web applications

developed using Liferay APIs and Java J2EE Technologies. The large scale and complexity of the

current website structure makes it difficult to navigate through the site and find content. It is not

fully optimized or responsive for mobile and the content architecture lacks continuity, which

creates a fragmented and confusing user experience.

4. PROPOSED SOLUTION

The County seeks to revamp its website to better serve residents as the primary hub for County

services. The focus is on easy service-centric navigation and an updated information architecture,

user experience, and content strategy. The goal is to create an innovative, user-friendly, and

service-centric website, driving increased engagement and collaboration on all devices used to

access the website. The modernization effort prioritizes meeting industry standards, optimizing

performance, and implementing best practices for effective support, management, redesign, and

reconstruction.

The website is the external communication platform for the County, composed of multiple

departments and agencies delivering services to customers and businesses. An optimal end-

solution will establish a future state of the County’s website that provides more consistent,

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reliable, and informed experiences that promote the County Brand and Standard.

In addition, the service provider shall discuss its approach to the following:

• Plan for the website’s visual design

• Development of wireframes for the home page, site templates, and page layouts on

desktop and mobile devices

• Design Components/Pattern Library for custom web applications and the County’s third-

party websites

• Plan for development and implementation of Liferay CMS and migrate existing content to

Liferay CMS

• Proposed project timeline, including a phased approach and milestones while identifying

risks and obstacles

• Strategies, tools, and safeguards for ensuring project success

• Hardware and software considerations

• Customer SSO using Central Authentication System

• Training

• Additional factors for the County's consideration

5. WEBSITE DISCOVERY AND REDESIGN

5.1 Discovery Phase

The discovery phase has been completed. A data-driven approach was used to gain an

understanding of the County website user personas. A data-driven approach was employed to

comprehend the user personas of the County website. During the highly collaborative discovery

phase, analysis focused on the geographic locations of website users, the services sought,

success points, areas of frustration, and overall sentiments regarding interactions. The

information that was gathered will be available for the selected service provider to review and

integrate into the proposed redesign of the website.

5.2 Interim Phase

The County is in the process of completing the Interim Phase to promote services, create new

information architecture, and clean up content. The selected service provider is expected to

incorporate the Interim Phase into the new website.

5.3 Key Deliverables - Information Architecture, Wireframes, Visual Design and Templates

Information Architecture Implementation

Incorporate the new information architecture from the Interim Phase into the new website

structure.

• Continue and complete the information architecture strategy and implementation

to modernize the County website.

Wireframes

Create wireframes – visual blueprints of the information architecture – to show the

direction of the overall layout. These must be built to be mobile responsive from the start

and use accurate content from GwinnettCounty.com to ensure that what seems good in

theory also works with real-world content needs. This will be used to better simulate the

user experience, to test and adjust, preparing us for a smoother transition to visual design.

• Create wireframes and interactive prototypes to visualize the user experience and

gather stakeholder feedback.

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• The wireframes consider equity of access for users with low bandwidth and older

devices, faster connections, and newer devices.

• The wireframes are designed to be responsive and mobile-first web layouts that

ensure optimal user experience across different devices and screen sizes.

• Implement a new secondary navigation experience and strategy.

Visual Design and Branding

Create design concepts for the content pages, custom web applications, online forms, and

the County’s third-party websites. Designs will be reviewed and tested for usability and

navigation efficacy, with adjustments made as needed.

a. Design and develop responsive web layouts that are accessible to all users.

• Ensure optimal user experience across different devices and screen sizes.

• Ensure accessibility compliance by adhering to Web Content Accessibility

Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA for color contrast, font sizes, and alternative text.

• Define a consistent visual design language, including color schemes,

typography, and iconography.

• Create custom graphics, illustrations, and icons within the County’s brand to

enhance the website’s visual appeal. These elements must be produced under

the direction of the County’s Branding and Design Division.

• Create and provide a set of design elements that can be applied to third-party

websites to create a sense of connection and affiliation with the County. Third-

party websites include but are not limited to Zoning, Inspections, and

Permitting (ZIP) Portal, Parks Registration & Reserve, Register Your Alarm,

County Employment Neogov website, etc.

• Create templates for top-level sites, department sites, press release sites,

custom web application sites, etc.

• Create page layouts for the home page, top-level hub pages, secondary-level

pages, search pages, custom web applications, and a trusted source of

information.

Site Templates and Page Layouts

a. Identify and design site templates, page types, and layouts.

• Site templates and page layouts should be optimized to load quickly across all

devices and speeds.

• Examples of the expected responsive page templates:

o Homepage

o Top level pages (e.g., hub pages, Departments, Services, About)

o Latest News, All Stories, and News Releases

o Regular content page (with top navigation, left navigation, content area,

and footer)

o Wide layout (without left navigation, only top navigation, footer, and

content area)

o Search page

o Contact Us page

o Sample data form (need one template that covers most of the common

form elements)

o Page with left navigation content (under left navigation area)

o Department landing pages

o Table view template sample (need one template)

o TV Gwinnett page

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o Personalized dashboard for logged-in users with profile information

o Branding elements for third-party websites

b. The service provider will provide governance for templates and layouts to help ensure

consistency.

c. The service provider will look to the Branding and Design Division for guidance and

direction on all design elements and layouts.

d. The service provider will include the Branding and Design Division point of contact on

all communications regarding design and will provide regular updates on design

concepts and layouts for review and approval to ensure alignment with the County’s

visual brand. The service provider should state the frequency and process for

providing updates on branding adherence. These updates should include but are not

limited to the following deliverables:

• Artboards

• Wireframes

• Snippets

• Templates

• Interactive prototype

• Other branding elements and layouts as needed

Design Components/Pattern Library

The service provider will create an accessible style guide and best practices, including

website modernization elements and third-party website branding elements, to give the

County a more detailed, granular representation of the website created in reusable front-

end code and snippets.

The service provider will create an optional components/pattern library that would help

further consolidate website standards and extend them to third-party municipal software

systems. All graphics and style elements must be within the County’s brand and approved

by the Communications Department.

Any style guide and best practices documents must be created under the direction of the

Branding and Design Division and added to the County’s existing Extended Brand and

Usage Guide. For consistency, it must be designed in a way that coordinates with the

existing sections. All web templates and elements must be placed in a web-specific Brand

Box, similar to the Brand Box that holds the County graphic design templates.

Clickable Design Prototype

Provide an interactive prototype of the approved design direction for feedback.

Deliverables include HTML files of approved design along with related files like CSS,

JavaScript, Images, etc.

6. CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (CMS) IMPLEMENTATION AND BUILD NEW WEBSITE

6.1 Liferay DXP CMS

• Configure Liferay DXP inbuilt CMS to meet the County's specific requirements and

design from the website design phase.

• Develop custom templates, modules, and plugins to extend the functionality of the

CMS as per design HTML templates.

• Develop Liferay portal theme based on the new visual design styles and implement for

new website.

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Provision of Technical Services for Website Redesign and Implementation

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