Forth Valley and Lomond LEADER

Archive Tenders

Tender: Website Brief

Date: 14th May 2008

Client: Forth Valley and Lomond Leader

Quote required:  6th June 2008 via email to sara@fvl.org.uk

Interviews with shortleeted companies: Wednesday 18th June, Stirling

Introduction

Forth Valley and Lomond Leader Action Group (LAG) is responsible for allocating and monitoring Leader funds in our area. The LAG requires a website to act as a portal to provide information about the Leader Programme and to act as a communication hub for the LAG members.

Project Objectives

The main objective of the development is to create a web portal to

 

Role of the Website in the Project

The website will be the ownership of the LAG and will act as a clearing house for all LAG business.

Beyond being the main marketing tool for LAG  projects, the web ‘Hub’ will play a vital role in storing information and providing a secure communications platform for the LAG members. 

A challenging function o f the site will be to report on the effectiveness of the LAG schemes funded. Options on how to do this form part of this brief and specific measures are described later on.

LAG Public Areas

 

Secure Areas Member only Access

Accessed via individual passwords, the members of the LAG can communicate securely with each other through a post board system. 

 

Member Forum

Members will have an individual password to access a member only area and be able to post questions to other members.

 

Knowledge Hub

A database of useful documents, past applications and articles that are easily downloadable.

 

Diary of Events

A calendar of upcoming LAG events and meetings for members.

 

Member Profiles

Brief descriptions and photos of our members.

Local Agency Support

Overviews of each agency operating in support of the LAG.

Funding Applications

Each application will have its own folder to contain all relevant application details.  Application Form, Technical Review, Scoring Sheets, etc.

Project Reports

 

Needs of the Site Technically

The site needs to be easily administered online by the Manager and Development Officer to keep it fresh and relevant; therefore it is essential to have fixed templates for each web page, including embedded fonts, clearly defined sections and be easy to change text, paste in documents and pictures without harming the look of the page. A proven web-based Content Management System would ideally address this requirement.

The Content Management System should include the following functions:

 

The Content Management system should be locked down to a certain degree thus ensuring some key design features of the site cannot be changed e.g. corporate colours, logos, basic page structure etc

The site needs to be display independent, i.e. able to display on all recent hardware models of PC and Mac screens, without distorting the web pages.

The site needs to work across different programmes without distorting including Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.

The site needs to be accessed across different broadband capacities and even dial up in rural areas as there isn’t always broadband access.

Secure areas need to be private and safe; each member will need an individual password and log on.

Hosting:

Please provide a quote for the annual costs of hosting the site, including any maintenance costs or support provision.

Web Optimisation and reports

The site content must be optimised to ensure a high ranking in the major search engines for a set of keywords/phrases defined by LEADER.

Analysis of site traffic patterns over time is required. LEADER wish to identify how Site Visitors found the site, how long they stayed, what they looked at or downloaded, and how often they returned. Reports should include, referring sites, search engines, keywords, time on site and return frequency.

Look & Feel

The website will have two uses: to market the Leader Programme and to provide a communication hub for the members

For the Marketing pages we are looking for a bright, scenic design encompassing the natural beauty of the region with an emphasis on community activities and projects

For the Members Section:

Must be secure and easy to navigate.

The company highlights the following websites as examples of good design and / or functionality.

www.ruralmentoring.com

www.lochlomond-trossachs.org

www.ruralgateway.org.uk

Time Scales

The website should be built and opened in stages, with the public areas being prioritised for publication in the first stage (month 1- July) as this will be used to help promote the Leader Programme and provide an information point with the member section in month 2/3.

Service Scope

The project is for the design and development of the website, hosting, promotion, optimisation, web statistics and maintenance of the site for the period of the LAG.  Bidders are requested to clearly define what is included within their submission. 

Budget

We have a budget allocated for the project; however we are looking to the bidders for their views on cost, all aspect of cost need to be addressed to enable the site to operate effectively.

Response to Tender

As with all council sponsored projects there will be at least 3 companies approached for a quote on the job, each proposal will be considered according to the response provided answering the criteria listed above by the Project Manager and sponsors.

Each company is to provide a quote on the job and an overview of why the solution they propose will be the best route by email to sara@fvl.org.uk by 5pm on Friday, 6th June. On the strength of these responses interviews may be held with shortlisted candidates on the 18th June in Stirling. All companies will be notified of the outcome of their bid by the end of June.