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The Mayor and City Council shall discuss and possibly take action on approving a Cooperative Purchasing Agreement with Vision Technology Solutions not to exceed $50,000 in accordance with City of Maricopa, Purchasing Code, Article IV, Section #3-223, Cooperative Purchasing, utilizing the City of Tempe Contract IT10-121-01 for the redesign and maintenance of the City of Maricopa Website. Discussion and Action.
AGENDA ITEM DESCRIPTION
The City of Maricopa’s website has become outdated and is in need of a redesign. Previously the website was designed and maintained internally with only one staff member having the knowledge and skills to make significant design and development changes to the site. After talking with several cities about how their websites are being managed staff is recommending hiring a company that specializes in the design and maintenance of government websites.
A staff member will still need to be designated to oversee the overall site and make updates as needed. Contracting with a company for the website will allow any staff member the ability to call the selected company 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week for support as needs arise and give each department more ability to easily update their own content. Also, freeing up the person in the Multi-Media and Web Services Coordinator position to dedicate more time to the management of video production and graphic design. The selected company will also ensure site security, that the site is usable on all devices and work with staff to ensure it is as intuitive as possible for our residents.
Assistant to the City Manager, Jennifer Brown, and Chief Information Technology Officer, Cary Gielniak met with three different companies specializing in designing and maintaining government websites. We also spoke to several cities about the companies they use to design and maintain their sites. Through both methods Vision Technologies came across a great fit for the City of Maricopa looking at customer satisfaction, needs and costs. Vision has designed and maintains websites for Gilbert, Mesa, Tempe, Sedona, Buckeye, Queen Creek, Peoria, Goodyear, Yuma County and Avondale.
The City of Tempe has a contract that was competitively soliciited and awarded (#IT 10-121-01). This contract was awarded to Vision Technology Solutions effective January 28, 2011 has been extended through May 5, 2022. The City of Maricopa now has the opportunity to utilize their competitive contract for the redesign and maintenance of our website.
Vision begins the process of the redesign by analyzing how residents are using our site through surveys and website analytics data. They gather information internally from departments about what information each department would like to ensure is easily available to residents through the website.
Vision will take all of this information and create a layout and navigation structure that fits our community, is easy to use and is usable on all devices. They will also collaborate with City staff to ensure the site reflects City branding and visually accentuates the positive attributes of our community.
Vision will work with staff to train power users from each department to post to the website, make necessary changes and write effective content. Vision provides ongoing training opportunities and periodic analytics reports to show how our site is performing. They will host our site and ensure that the code is up to date to work across all browsers. The contract also includes annual credits to make additional site improvements as needed.
The entire redesign project is anticipated to take approximately six months. The redesign and maintenance will cost $48,430 for the first year. Ongoing maintenance for the following four years will cost: 2019 - $10,000, 2020 - $10,500, 2021 - $11,025, 2022 - $11,576. It fits within the amount budgeted for the project.
If approved we will begin the project as soon as the Multi-Media and Web Services Coordinator is hired and onboard.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends Council approve the contract with Vision Technology Solutions.