Request for Proposals
Website Hosting
December 12, 2007
Request for Proposals
Abstract
The Clarke County School District will choose the vendor which in the opinion of the Clarke County School District is best able to provide the services required in this Request for Proposal. The Clarke County School District reserves the right to reject any or all proposals. Proposals submitted by the due date and time shall be the vendor’s best and final offer. All proposals and letters of submittal must be signed and dated prior to being submitted. Any unsigned proposal or submittal will be rejected. The chosen vendor must supply a certificate of insurance which includes general and vehicle liability and workers’ compensation insurance.
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Request for Proposals
Introduction
The Clarke County School District (CCSD) is seeking a vendor to provide website design, migration, and hosting services. Attention to detail in the migration, development, administration, support, compliance and security of the CCSD website are vital to us. Therefore, the chosen vendor will be required to include the district’s website project manager on all communications involved in this project. The project manager, as a representative of the district, will also be a majority stakeholder in the decision making process regarding the project.
E-Rate Information
This quotation is being solicited in conjunction with filing Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) forms 470 and 471 for E-Rate funding. The vendor should be registered with the SLD and should supply its SPIN number in the quotation. We will require the chosen vendor to sign and return a contract on February 5, 2008. The contract will be made contingent on federal E-Rate and local Board of Education funding approval. Approval may include only parts of the quoted project. Service may not begin before July 1, 2008 in accordance with the USAC’s E-Rate guidelines. This project is being submitted for funding through the Universal Service Administration Company (USAC). CCSD reserves the right to accept or reject any or all responses and to waive any or all informalities and irregularities. In obtaining quotes, the district reserves the right to substitute services as it deems necessary as well as to alter final quantities.
Submission Deadlines
Vendors must submit their Service Provider Identification Number (SPIN) number for ERate funding with their quote. In addition, vendors must include a list of at least three K12 educational client references, preferably within the Southeast United States. Each reference should include: contact name, school district, city, state, phone, email and a brief project description. Quotes should be time-stamped by 3:00 PM Eastern on Monday, January 14, 2008 via email to: Paul Sims, simsp@clarke.k12.ga.us Assistant Superintendent, Technology Services A receipt confirmation will be given to applicants via email. Any questions should also be submitted to the district contact, listed above, via email. Site visits are not required, but can be arranged by contacting the district contact, listed above, via email. If there is any equipment or services that are not eligible for E-Rate funding, list the charges separately on the quote and clearly identify them as ineligible for E-Rate funding.
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Request for Proposals
Migration and Development
The website should continue to be accessible via our current domain name. In addition to all current site functionality, the accepted solution should provide tools to create and utilize: Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds Searchable document libraries Wikis and blogs Discussion boards Content authoring via WYSIWYG/rich-text editor Tools and storage for homework and assignment announcements Photo, multimedia/video libraries Online forms and surveys Student email and web pages Site maps
Administration and Support
In addition to the administrative and support tools available with our current provider, the accepted solution should include: Site-based template libraries SSL encryption for secure financial transactions Content monitoring and approval, including notification to website administrator via email if inappropriate text has been detected Site-based statistics and usage reports Free web-accessible training and user manuals for all user levels Maintenance and technical support for all user levels, via multiple methods such as web-based, email, and telephone support
Compliance and Security
The solution chosen should adhere to all current interoperability standards suggested by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). In addition, the site should provide: Active Directory integration for user access and rights management Lightweight Directory Access Protocol for user authentication Compatibility with popular software-based html editors such as Dreamweaver, FrontPage, Support for embedding and hosting multimedia such as Flash, QuickTime, Windows, etc. Compatibility with all mainstream Internet browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) Compliance with section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act Safeguards on our data according to the Children’s Internet Protection Act, and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act 4
Request for Proposals
Access and Organization
Each website should be accessible from an account-specific virtual directory (short name). The short names for user-level accounts should be the same as their username. The format for sites or group short names should be unlimited. See Table 1: User / Group Mrs. Johnson (johnsont) Alps Road Elementary School URL www.clarke.k12.ga.us/johnsont www.clarke.k12.ga.us/alp www.clarke.k12.ga.us/alpsroad www.clarke.k12.ga.us/hr www.clarke.k12.ga.us/jobs
Human Resources
Table 1: Examples of URLs that could exist per user, site, or group The publishing structure should hierarchical so that as user websites are created, they can be automatically organized and linked within that user’s group website. In addition, school sites are automatically linked and organized by school type (elementary, middle, and high) within the district’s website. The number of levels should not be limited unless requested by CCSD. See Figure 1: Co nti nu es.. E t . c .E t c .
School District Website Division Generic Site
Grade Level Departme nt Level 3
Teacher Level 4 Level 4
Figure 1: Sample layout of the first four levels of hierarchy
Service Details
We require a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that will guarantee 99.9% availability of the website. The SLA will outline compensation in the form of services or features for each month where the website is not accessible 99.9% of the time. If the services are no longer funded or the company becomes insolvent, all content and information stored on our site should be electronically delivered to the district in a usable format. 5
Request for Proposals Your quote submission must include a description of your data center’s redundancy and backup structures, monitoring tools, and other measures you will have in place to insure 99.9% availability. District level users should have 24/7 access to similar monitoring tools so that we can assess trends in usage or downtime. A timeline for migration of all of our current website content to your service must be included. A contingency plan should be included in case the original timeline is not met. The plan should outline compensation in the form of services or features that will be added to our agreement at no charge.
Current Infrastructure
The schools have a Cisco Layer 3 switched network. Depending on size, schools are connected to the district’s data center via 20MB or 100MB fiber link. School-based data closets are connected to the main distribution frame via 1GB fiber connections. Most schools are also equipped with wireless connectivity. Each teacher has a laptop computer with a minimum of: Windows XP, Internet Explorer 6, 3GHz Pentium 4 processor, and 512MB of RAM.
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Request for Proposals
Appendix A: Proposal Checklist
This checklist does not substitute for reading and responding to the information in the official proposal request. It is only meant to help organize the responses for comparisons between vendors. SPIN number: Reference 1: Contact Name City, State School District Phone Email Brief Project Description
Reference 2: Contact Name City, State School District Phone Email Brief Project Description
Reference 3: Contact Name City, State School District Phone Email Brief Project Description
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Request for Proposals Migration and Development Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds Searchable document libraries Wikis and blogs Discussion boards Content authoring via WYSIWYG/rich-text editor Tools and storage for homework and assignment announcements Photo, multimedia/video libraries Online forms and surveys Student email and web pages Site maps
Administration and Support Site-based template libraries SSL encryption for secure financial transactions Content monitoring and approval, including notification to website administrator via email if inappropriate text has been detected Site-based statistics and usage reports Free web-accessible training and user manuals for all user levels Maintenance and technical support for all user levels, via multiple methods such as web-based, email, and telephone support Compliance and Security Active Directory integration for user access and rights management Lightweight Directory Access Protocol for user authentication Compatibility with popular software-based html editors such as Dreamweaver, FrontPage, etc. Support for embedding and hosting multimedia such as Flash, QuickTime, Windows, etc. Compatibility with all mainstream Internet browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) Compliance with section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act Safeguards on our data according to the Children’s Internet Protection Act, and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
Access and Organization Account-specific virtual directories (short names) Short naming convention matches proposal description Publishing structure is hierarchical Automatically organized and linked within that user’s group website Sites are automatically linked and organized by school type The number of levels are not limited 8
Request for Proposals
Service Details
Service Level Agreement (SLA) that guarantees 99.9% availability of the website. The SLA outlines compensation in the form of services or features for each month where the website is not accessible 99.9% of the time. If the services are no longer funded or the company becomes insolvent, all content and information stored on our site can be electronically delivered to the district in a usable format.
Redundancy and Backup
Description of your data center’s redundancy and backup structures, monitoring tools, and other measures. District level users will have 24/7 access to monitoring tools so that we can assess trends in usage or downtime. A timeline for migration of all of our current website content to your service is included. A contingency plan is included in case the original timeline is not met. The plan outlines compensation in the form of services or features that will be added to our agreement at no charge.
E-Rate
Any equipment or services that are not eligible for E-Rate funding have been noted separately on the quote and clearly identified as ineligible for E-Rate funding.
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