The New York City School Construction Authority (“SCA”) has approximately 1300 staff, and 3,000 + external partners accessing our systems. The SCA is seeking a qualified developer/ designer (“Consultant”) to redesign the SCA’s existing Digital Experience Platform (https://www.nycsca.org). The Digital Experience Platform must be designed and organized in a manner that follows modern web standards in design, security, ADA WCAG 2.0 AA, and functionality with a focus on providing information and services to the SCA’s client users. The Digital Experience Platform must also have a user-friendly backend that can be easily operated by employees with non-technical backgrounds. The SCA aims to implement best practices and technologies, revise the information architecture, and improve content strategy and visual design.

This RFQEI seeks responses from consultants and associated products which would serve the needs of the SCA. We believe that there are many consultants that can satisfy our needs in regard to a platform. The ideal respondent has a proven track record on creating Business to Business and Government to Consultant websites.

The Consultant must have experience creating client-driven information architecture and graphic design that facilitates the SCA’s engagement with its audience. The SCA website should be designed to meet the needs of companies seeking to do business with the SCA, vendors currently engaged with SCA contracts, and the general public. The Consultant must provide all labor, equipment, and expertise to efficiently review, evaluate, and produce multiple website designs for evaluation. The Consultant must have experience designing and/or redesigning websites, with special consideration for Consultants who have done so for public organizations or construction related firms.

The SCA also requires self-service portals for external users such as design firms, contractors, and the general public. The Consultant will guide the SCA through a needs/requirements analysis to identify and evaluate all possible design options and elements. Functional elements of the Digital Experience Platform must include:

1. Promotion of communication tools such as web posts, event calendars, and links to SCA social media (Twitter, Instagram, YouTube etc...) through robust integration.

2. Analytics integration that provides information on traffic analysis reporting capabilities and available metrics for user/system response times such as number of visitors, page views, and frequently visited pages

3. Security features to prevent website hacking or defacement

4. Third party integration

Other features that the Digital Experience Platform may require are listed in the Appendix at the end of the document.

Below are examples of the types of interactions customers currently have with our website. It is not comprehensive, and Consultants should explain how they would expand upon the user stories below to ensure our website serves all of our potential customers.

1. A design consultant, Construction Company, or other vendor is interested in potentially working with the SCA. The website should explain how to work with us, how to get prequalified, how to bid on our work, and what the benefits are to working with us.

2. A vendor has been awarded a contract and wants to know about the specifications and requirements to working with us and how to get paid.

3. A member of the public or elected official is interested in finding out about the work going on in their school district.

4. A member of the public is interested in becoming an SCA employee.

5. A member of the Minority-Owned Business, Women-Owned Business, or Locally Based Enterprise community wants to find out the benefits of being certified by the SCA and what special programs we run for them. The SCA has a variety of bespoke systems and COTS applications that will need to integrate with this solution. MS Active Directory integration - is our user access management tool, Vendor Access System, and APIs.

Submission:  Please provide a written proposal with the following sections:

1. A letter of your interest in working with the School Construction Authority to provide a solution.

2. The firm’s contact information

3. Please fill out the embedded spreadsheet with your answers to the queries.

4. All services, functions, and features the firm offers related to website design/redesign.

5. The firm’s qualifications for the project including key personnel

6. A summary of firm’s recent experience with similar projects including timeline, payment method (hourly rates, lump sum, etc.) and total cost

7. Examples of existing designs/redesigns e.g., web links, before and after shots, etc.

8. If awarded, please explain how this project will be integrated into the firm’s present workload

9.  Describe a government client engagement if any

10. Describe your experience partnering with Minority owned, Women owned or local New York City enterprises to deliver your product or services.

11. Described how your product and services are licensed

The SCA is implementing a two-step procurement process. Our initial step is asking prospective consultants to demonstrate certain qualifications in response to this RFQEI. Thereafter the SCA will evaluate procurement methods available and move towards consultant selection. The SCA may choose to short list respondents to this RFQEI to provide a live demonstration of your solution. Although proposing firms need not be pre-qualified by the SCA at the time of bid, each firm must be pre-qualified prior to contract award.

Interested firms should respond via email submitting their qualifications and expression of interest.