Sell2Wales Enquiries

We have received several enquiries into the open source nature of the content management system.

We specify that the CMS should be built using an open source script but does not necessarily need to be a fully customised version of e.g. Drupal.

The primary reason for which is so that the CMS will be fully compatible with most emerging technologies over the following four years. A secondary reason is so that the CMS is portable and can be worked on by another developer should the situation arise that we will require the services of a different company.

Question: I would like to know if there is the opportunity to meet to discuss the Tender document?

Re: Discussion of tender document

Answer: We will not be meeting with organisations to discuss the tender prior to the submission deadline. However, it is likely that we will want to meet and interview shortlisted organisations once the tenders have been marked (our provisional date for this is 23 July). Further clarification of the brief will be done, if required, with the appointed supplier at a project inception meeting.

Question: I note that section 3 of the ITT document specifies an open source content management system. Can you please confirm that this is a mandatory requirement of the Wales Co-operative Centre for this contract?

Re: Open source CMS

Answer: An open source content management system with no restrictions is a mandatory requirement of the contract. We believe this will be more flexible and compatible with any future technologies we decide to use within the website in the time frame of the contract. Additionally, in the event that it is necessary to change developers after the initial development stages of the website, we feel that an open source CMS will be more portable.

Question: A “Secure payment gateway” there is no mention of what the likely transaction, scale, frequency, product inventory and such, can this be clarified.

Re: Secure payment gateway

Answer: Currently we have a need for a payment gateway for booking training places and for events. There may be other uses for this within the period of the contract.

Question: A "forms manager", for what purpose is this needed, survey information?

Re: Forms manager

Answer: We require forms for booking training places, for contacting us, for enquiries about different subjects and for feedback – the exact nature of which will be confirmed after a developer has been appointed. We will most likely require forms for different purposes within the period of the contract.

Question: A “HTML email facility”, do we assume that this is the ability for the CMS to send HTML emails? Please define the functionality associated with this; Bulk emails, email lists and so on?

Re: HTML email facility

Answer:  We require the ability to send group emails to different user groups as specified on the database.

Question: Both a “Mobile friendly site” and a “WAP version” of the site, would you like the main site to be mobile friendly as well as a WAP version. It should be noted that WAP pages are rarely needed on modern phones

Re: Mobile friendly / WAP version

Answer: The main website must be mobile-friendly. We have requested a quote for a WAP site separately as we may need the mobile-specific functionality of a WAP site for future features we would like to run.

Question: A requirement to “communicate with current ‘Access’ database for client info via secure VPN” , could this be explained further? What data is going to be in the access database and how is it needed on the site? Would an option with the data being imported and managed through the CMS be considered?

Re: Communication with Access

Answer:  We have client and staff data stored on the Access database. We would like to import some of this data for use in member services on the website. We would also like to import data back to the Access database when e.g. a member logs in and changes their information on the website.

Question: A requirement to use SMS text services, it is unclear where and how this would be used, could this be clarified?

Re: SMS text services

Answer: If we use SMS text services we will require member information from the database to do so. The developer we engage is not expected to provide the SMS text service itself, unless this is something they already do as a company.

Question: There is a service “Range of fields, including the ability to trigger an email on some when filled in”, could this be clarified, is this related to the “forms manager”?

Re: Forms manager

Answer: All forms relate to the forms manager. There will be a very small number of tick boxes on forms which trigger an email to particular members of staff.

Question: Several places ask for the ability to edit CSS files, this is potentially harmful feature (data, accessibility, presentation standards) would you be willing to consider other ways to provide the ability to change the presentation layers and or page type layout? Do you have internal skills or is this going to be sourced as a service?

Re: CSS editing

Answer: We require the ability to edit the CSS, we will not accept other ways to change the presentation of the site. We will be carrying this out internally.

Question: There is a requirement for “ftp session control” but no requirement for FTP access, could the requirement for FTP access be clarified?

Re:  ftp session control

Answer: FTP access is required, with FTP session control.

Question: What functional aspect would be editable about the twitter and facebook links?

Re: Twitter and Facebook links

Answer: For ‘follow us’ type Twitter and Facebook links we require the ability to change the icon, URL and text.

Question: Would the Centre accept a new open source solution or are you looking for a more established open source CMS for this project?

Re: Open source CMS

Answer: We are looking for a CMS scripted in an open source script, be it a fully customised version of e.g. Drupal or an existing open source script CMS which can be tailored effectively to our requirements.

Question: Within your tender document you ask for Professional Indemnity of £5 million, is this figure a mandatory requirement. Our insurers provide cover to £2 million and would need to apply to the underwriters to increase the amount if necessary.

Re: Professional Indemnity

Answer: It will be a requirement of the successful bidder to hold Professional Indemnity insurance to a minimum sum of £5million. If a bidder currently holds Professional Indemnity insurance for an amount lower than this requirement, evidence can be presented that this level would be available to the bidder and could be secured immediately if and when required.

Question: Can you please provide web statistics for current usage across all websites, or at least number of users in an average day on each of the sites and an average number of pages visited. And an indication as to the expected growth of usage over time. We need this information to understand the expected load on the website so we can propose a cost effective and flexible hosting environment which matches the web sites requirements. If you have current bandwidth usage figures, this would also be of help.

Re: Gauging sever requirements

Answer: Current web stats show that we have approximately 200 visits per day viewing an average of 4 pages. We envisage this to at least triple as further promotion is carried out and as the new website gives us the scope to offer a lot more to visitors. There are occasional peaks to 500 visits per day as we run promotions, polls or events. This will also increase by at least three times, possibly more depending on the nature of the event. We do not currently have bandwidth usage figures.

Question: Can you outline the approximate number of existing video files across all of the websites, and the total file size so we can provide an accurate cost for hosting, we assume that streaming service / server is required. If streaming service / server is not required please let us know.

Re: Video file formats

Answer: Currently there are ten video files hosted on the server, totalling about 0.15GB. We will require a streaming server. However, we will prefer to show videos from YouTube and Vimeo via plug-ins on the new site. Our aim is not to have many large files stored on the server, but to use dynamic content from other sites.

We do, however, require a document repository which currently consists of 27mb of .pdf, .doc and .xls files and will increase in future.

Question: Can you please let us know the approximate number of users who would have access to this section of the website. Is it say 0 to 10, 20 to 50, 50 to 100, 100 to 250, 250 to 500, 500+

Re: In terms of the restricted access section for staff – staff biogs, full library etc

Answer: The number of staff who would have access to the restricted area of the website will be up to 60. The number of staff who will use this feature regularly will most likely be about 20.

Question: Can we assume that WAP 2.0 is to be supported (WAP 2.0 was introduced to replace WAP 1.0 in 2002), from our research the cheapest phones on the market typically have Opera Mini installed on them, and the vast majority of phones available have WAP 2.0-capable web browsers. We see that WAP1.0 which uses WML can be safely ignored these days.

Re: A WAP version of the site is required to carry limited static information

Answer: WAP 2.0 would be appropriate. The reason we are looking for a quote for a WAP site is if we decide to provide mobile-specific services or demonstrations in the future. This will not be a large site of many pages.

Question: Can you please give more of a description on this item, do you mean the ability to create forms which are emailed to a specified email address or do you mean that when a field is filled in an email is triggered?

Re: PAGE 4 ‘Range of fields, include the ability to trigger an email on some when filled in’

Answer: Both – for example, forms specific to booking training courses will need to be sent to a specific training inbox.

To quote an example of a field generating an email to a specific address; on registration a user would be able to tick a box that asks ‘please indicate if you would like to be contacted by an advisor’. This would generate an email to a specific inbox, containing the user’s information. This is on our wish-list and is not an essential item.

Question: As an English company operating in Wales we do not have a formally stated Welsh Language Policy. Will the absence of such a policy exclude us from consideration as a supplier for this tender?

Re: Welsh Language Policy

Answer: The absence of such a policy will not exclude companies from consideration as a supplier for this tender. However, companies are reminded that part of the Form of Tender (annexe 4) asks them to provide a summary of their Organisation’s experience of developing bilingual Welsh/English websites and that their answer will be taken into consideration when scoring tenders.

Question: Where will meetings in relation to the tender take place?

Re: Location

Answer: Most meetings are likely to be held in Cardiff or Swansea

Question: In relation to the above tender we would be grateful if you would inform us how many pages your current website has.

Re: Number of web pages

Answer: Our current site has upwards of 100 pages and we envisage the new site to reach 200 + pages.

Question: Question 3 relates specifically to bilingual English/Welsh on which we have no experience, however, we have worked on alternative bilingual website content which demonstrates bilingual experience.

Is this sufficient or will the specific English/Welsh requirement preclude us?

Re: English/Welsh requirement

Answer:  Please continue to answer Question three with your previous experience of bilingual websites. If you have had experience with other bilingual sites, it is important that you understand the different challenges a Welsh/English site may offer.

Question: Please can you indicate which payment mechanisms are preferred:

Do you have an internet merchant account with a bank (e.g. Barclays)?
If not would you consider this?
Or would you prefer to use a service such as Paypal?

Re: Payment mechanism

Answer: We do not currently have an internet merchant account and our current website is not able to take payments in any form. We would certainly consider setting up an internet merchant account with a bank and would need to weigh up all the options (including Paypal) before making a decision.

Question:

Re: Follow support over the three to four year period

Answer: We will require the development of new features to sit within the website and/or the incorporation of new technologies (for example HTML5 and CSS3) during years 2012-2014, within the budget provided for each financial year. Basic ongoing CMS support will also be required.

Question: This point seems to indicate that if a fixed price is quoted, then payment will not be made until the project is completed – does this mean that in the first year 2010/11 payment will not be made until after 23 December 2010. Alternatively, do you mean that as each element of the design and build is completed then payment will be made on stepped basis throughout the respective years?

Re: Terms and conditions point 5 – Price and payment

Answer: The project to build the website should be provided for a fixed price. When the Project has been completed, the website has gone live, and the Centre has confirmed in writing to the Contractor that it accepts that the Project has completed, the Contractor shall invoice the Centre for the charges that are then payable. It is therefore unlikely that payment will be made until after 23 December 2010.

Subsequently, basic on-going cms support may be provided on a monthly contract basis, or on a needs basis – payment would depend on the nature of the contract. Larger re-developments not included in this on-going support (but within the budget provided for each financial year) would be provided for a fixed price and would therefore be paid for on completion of the work.

Question: Within the draft terms and conditions you indicate that clause 5.2 and clause 5.3 apply – can you advise where they can be found as the tender document moves from clause 5.1.5 to 6?

Re: Terms and conditions point 5 – Price and payment

Answer: Clause 5.2 refers to the section ‘Where the Services are provided on a time basis’. Clause 5.3 refers to the section ‘Where the Services are provided for a fixed price’. Unfortunately the numbering of these sections has gone awry.

Question: With reference to the VPN – is this already in place or are you expecting the chosen contractor to supply this service?

With the Access database and the MySQL database – do you want the communication to be automated- i.e. updated once a day or updated ‘on-demand’ when a staff user and/or member logs in and changes information (real-time change)

Re: Communication via VPN

Answer: The VPN will be provided by the developer.

Ideally the database should be updated in real time but options would need to be discussed.

Question: Is the bid to be in the form of a completed Annexe 4 + other documents of evidence required + a brief covering letter? Or should we also send, in addition to those, a formal tender document (of which Annexe 4 would then mainly be a summary)?

Re: Format of Bid

Answer: The bid is to be in the form of a completed Annexe 4, policy documents requested, evidence or commitment to professional indemnity insurance to a minimum sum of £5million and a statement of turnover for the past 3 years (or for as many years of trading if the organisation is less than 3 years old). Please provide four paper copies of your submission.

Question: Should the proposed budget be net of VAT or inclusive of VAT?

Re: VAT

Answer: Net of VAT

Question: One of the three projects we wish to include in our response to Annexe 4 has a website that requires a secure login, which is not ideal as an online demonstration. We could, though, provide the main bulk of the website on a CD-Rom, together with our tender bid. Would this be permissible?

Re: Supporting evidence

Answer: Yes, we would accept a CD version of an example website, if we were also given the URL and able to see that the site is available online.

Question: Could more detail be provided on "Booking system for events/courses"? What does this entail?

Re: Booking system

Answer: The ability to book places on courses and to book a place/buy a ticket for events – including an online payment system.

The option to do this in real time so the number of available places is displayed would be preferred.

Question: Could more detail be provided on "Database search by categories and display results on site in text listings and on a map"? What exactly is being displayed on the map? Is this search pertinent to general content on the site or location-specific data which can be plotted on a map?

Re: Database search

Answer: The search in this case will be against organisations listed in the database, so it will be location-specific data shown on a map (i.e. by postcode).

Question: When the specification says "Mobile-friendly pages" is there further detail on what mobile platforms need to be supported? We ask because newer "smartphone" platforms will generally render pages meant for a computer pretty well.

Re: Mobile-friendly pages

Answer: In the requirement for the site to be ‘mobile-friendly’, we would like to site to be rendered well on the majority of modern phones.

However, the mobile-specific site (WAP) which we have asked to be quoted separately must be viewable by older mobile phones – we have asked for this site as there may be functions we require in the future which are specifically accessed by a mobile phone, not necessarily a smartphone (although some of these features may just use text). We run a digital inclusion project and as many forms of technology as possible must be catered for.

Question:  We know the ITT document has a built-in Annexe 4 asking for "Ability to Meet Requirements". Is the expectation that the tender submitted will ONLY involve filling out this form or are we allowed to submit a separate in-depth proposal attached to the ITT document?

Re:  Format of proposal submission

Answer:  The form of tender should be a completed annex 4 plus the necessary policy documents (please refer to previous answer to this query).