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RFP 2008-02 — Questions and Answers
Q1. The RFP is requesting 1/3 upfront billing and 2/3 upon completion. My company does not require any upfront monies, but bills on 30 day cycles. Is this acceptable, with the first billing being done 30 days after the project kick-off and the last billing 30 days after launch?
A. The FCEDA is open to payment schedules other than the one discussed in section 9.3 of the Special Provisions document.
Q2. Can you provide us with some graphic examples of the "Power of Ideas" advertising campaign, also the communication strategy for this campaign?
A. The ads can be viewed at www.FairfaxCountyEDA.org/advertising.htm. The strategy can be summarized as promoting Fairfax County as a global business location with a great quality of life.
Q3. Do you want us to split the cost of the different tools we recommend you to use with the site?
A. Yes, we want a breakdown of the costs of each element you recommend, and we want you to rank the elements in terms of importance or priority.
Q4. How is the site managed?
A. Two staffers at FCEDA headquarters work on the content of the site, posting the information and maintaining it. The site is hosted by a Web hosting company located elsewhere that uses ColdFusion5.
Q5. Do you want to keep some tools that the actual site contains?
A. We believe we have a good and robust site, and we don’t believe the content of many pages needs to change. However, we want to enhance the functionality of the site and will look to the selected bidder to recommend the tools that we should use.
Q6. Is the Fairfax County EDA to moving to Web-based Content Management Solution as part of this proposal?
A. See section 5.6 of the Special Provisions document.
Q7. What is the estimated number of employees that will need training? Does the Fairfax County EDA view the training as an opportunity to “train the trainer” or do you want the vendor to train all employees of various levels on the product? (Would a translator be needed and additional training sessions for the satellite offices or does each of those offices have their own interpreter capabilities for phone training sessions if desired?)
A. Two staffers at FCEDA headquarters work on the Web site. If the successful bidder recommends and helps us implement a new content management system, these two employees will have to know how to use it. One employee deals mostly with content and the other handles design concerns and technical issues as well to some extent. These two employees will not need a translator, and no training is expected at our satellite offices.
Q8. Do you have a preference as to self-hosting or having us host the site?
A. We do not host the site now and do not intend to host the site. We will look to the successful bidder to make recommendations on where the upgraded site should be hosted.
Q9. My company would be happy to make recommendations based on this year’s budget for your website functionality, however are there capabilities/functionality requirements you'd like to see included in the bid, or in future phases?
A. See section 5 of the Special Provisions document for an explanation of how the FCEDA would like to upgrade the functionality of its Web site. Bidders are free to recommend other upgrades.
Q10. We are an out-of-state agency. In order to work with the FCEDA, do we need a Virginia State Registration Number, a Fairfax License Tax Number and a Certificate of Authority from Virginia State Corporation Commission to qualify?
A. Contact the Fairfax County Department of Taxation (www.fairfaxcounty.gov/DTA) to discuss county regulations affecting companies based outside of Fairfax County. Companies based outside of Virginia also are advised to check with the Virginia State Corporation Commission to see which business registration guidelines affect them. The Commission’s Web site is www.scc.virginia.gov.
Q11. What market share do you own in the industry?
A. See section 1 of the Special Provisions document for a brief explanation of Fairfax County’s emergence and dominance as a business location in the Washington, D.C., area.
Q12. What are your key products?
A. Visit www.FairfaxCountyEDA.org to understand more about Fairfax County and the work of the FCEDA.
Q13. List your audiences in order of importance and their needs for the site? (Include internal audiences.)
A. Audiences for the Web site are representatives of businesses considering expanding in or relocating to Fairfax County, media representatives looking for information about Fairfax County and/or the FCEDA, county residents and FCEDA staff.
Q14. What is your Unique Selling Proposition? What sets you apart from your competitors?
A. Visit www.FairfaxCountyEDA.org to understand more about Fairfax County and the work of the FCEDA.
Q15. What are your other current marketing efforts? Can you supply us with samples? Do you use an ad agency?
A. Ads in the current campaign can be viewed at www.FairfaxCountyEDA.org/advertising.htm. Yes, the FCEDA has an advertising firm on retainer.
Q16. Who are your competitors?
A. Visit www.FairfaxCountyEDA.org to understand more about Fairfax County and the work of the FCEDA.
Q17. What are your long-term goals?
A. The FCEDA promotes Fairfax County as a business location to create jobs that fill office space and build the commercial tax base. Visit www.FairfaxCountyEDA.org to understand more about Fairfax County and the work of the FCEDA.
Q18. What are your short-term goals?
A. The FCEDA promotes Fairfax County as a business location to create jobs that fill office space and build the commercial tax base. Visit www.FairfaxCountyEDA.org to understand more about Fairfax County and the work of the FCEDA.
Q19. We will be submitting 7 copies of the cost proposal that includes line item details that cover the entire request (both creative and business). Is that an acceptable form of submission?
A. Yes, this sounds acceptable. See section 10.6 of the Special Provisions document to understand the process if the FCEDA needs more information about a proposal.
Q20. When contacting the Fairfax bureau of taxation, it seems as though we are not required to obtain any specific licenses to do business in your county because we do not have a permanent facility.
A. Thank you for contacting the Fairfax County Department of Taxation to discuss county regulations affecting companies based outside of Fairfax County. Companies based outside of Virginia also are advised to check with the Virginia State Corporation Commission to see which business registration guidelines affect them. The Commission’s Web site is www.scc.virginia.gov.
Q21. What do you like about your current site?
A. See section 2.3 of the Special Provisions document.
Q22. What do you NOT like about your current site?
A. See sections 2.3, 3.1, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10 and 5.11 of the Special Provisions document.
Q23. What colors do you like/dislike?
A. As stated in section 5.5 of the Special Provisions document, submitting Web site designs is not a requirement to submit a bid. The successful bidder will present site design options for home page and secondary page layout/designs, and a discussion of colors can happen after the project gets underway.
Q24. Do you want your site to be more creative/unique or more mainstream?
A. A recent poll of FCEDA staffers found that most want the site to appear “businesslike,” “professional” and “energetic.” However, as stated in section 5.5 of the Special Provisions document, submitting Web site designs is not a requirement to submit a bid. The successful bidder will present site design options for home page and secondary page layout/designs after the project gets underway.
Q25. Do you like designs that are more a) marketing-oriented: not much scrolling, more billboard like; or b) information-oriented: more information heavy, scrolling possible.
A. The new site should more marketing focused, as stated in section 2.3 of the Special Provisions document. However, the existing site has a lot of good content that will remain in the new site.
Q26. Can you provide photos, logos, core colors?
A. As stated in section 5.5 of the Special Provisions document, submitting Web site designs is not a requirement to submit a bid. The successful bidder will present site design options for home page and secondary page layout/designs, and photos and logos will be available after the project gets underway.
Q27. Are you conducting or would you like to conduct e-commerce?
A. All FCEDA services are free and confidential, so e-commerce functionality is not part of this proposal. However, see sections 5.8 and 5.9 of the Special Provisions document to understand the FCEDA’s interest in online/e-mail marketing and “mini-sites.”
Q28. Do you have an outline of required site content?
A. As stated in section 5.6 of the Special Provisions document, “it is not anticipated that much existing content will need to be rewritten.” However, section 5.6 of the Special Provisions document notes that bidders must provide recommendations on integrating new site design and suggesting new navigation with much of the existing content.
Q29. Can you provide a site map of the current site, and an updated sitemap that includes any additions or deletions?
A. The current site map can be found at www.fairfaxcountyeda.org/site_map.htm.
Q30. While we are located in California, we have clients in 32 states. Do you have a preference for vendors working locally?
A. Procurement laws and regulations of the Commonwealth of Virginia do not allow for preferential treatment of in-state or in-county bidders.
Q31. Regarding the mini-sites mentioned on page 4 (of the Special Provisions document), you state that each could require its own language. Does the Fairfax County EDA already have a plan for providing multilingual content, or is it open to suggestions from vendors?
A. The FCEDA already has a few pages of Web content in German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. The FCEDA can make arrangements for translating more material, but we are open to suggestions from bidders.
Q32. What is the preferred server environment for the new website? Does the FCEDA plan on continuing to host the website on a server running ColdFusion5?
A. The FCEDA site is hosted by a Web hosting company located elsewhere that uses ColdFusion5. The FCEDA is open to suggestions from bidders on other server platforms and Web hosting options.
Q33. What platform does your site currently use? Open source? Microsoft? Other? What version are you running?
A. Our site is running on shared server running ColdFusion5 in a Windows environment. Most of the site is basic HTML 4.01 and some JavaScript, but a few pages are ColdFusion-based, integrated with Microsoft Access databases. A sub-site (www.creativeeconomies.org or www.fairfaxcountyeda.org/creative.asp) was developed using ASP.
Q34. Do you have any databases included with your site? If so, what database is being used? SQL Server? Oracle? Open source? Other? What version are you running?
A. We have three Microsoft Access databases on our Web site – for our press room, online calendar of events, and search engine.
Q35. Do you have a preferred scripting language? PHP? .NET? CFMX? Other? If not, are you open to any platform?
A. We have no preferred scripting language.
Q37. Where is the site currently being hosted? Will you retain that hosting environment? If so, what platforms is that environment capable of running?
A. Our Web site (www.fairfaxcountyeda.org) and associated host-header site (www.e-country.org) are hosted by a company in another location. We have been happy with this company, but will consider recommendations from the successful bidder to move to another host.
Q38. Do you have any reporting software in place for visitor tracking? If so, what package? Can you make the site traffic reports available to us?
A. Our hosting company includes Urchin tracking software as part of its services. The successful bidder will have access to traffic reports.
Q39. Does your site require any third party software integration?
A. No.
Q40. What databases can your host support?
A. Our Web host can support Microsoft Access, SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005, Oracle and MySQL.
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