RFP Issued For Website design, development and implementation

The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is a national advocacy organization that works to advance the collective aspirations of First Nations individuals and communities across Canada on matters of national or international nature and concern.  The AFN hosts two Assemblies a year where mandates and directives for the organization are established through resolutions directed and supported by the First Nations in Assembly (elected Chiefs or proxies from member First Nations).

In addition to the direction provided by Chiefs of each member First Nation, the AFN is guided by an Executive Committee consisting of an elected National Chief and Regional Chiefs from each province and territory. Representatives from five national councils (Knowledge Keepers, Youth, Veterans, 2SLGBTQQIA+ and Women) support and guide the decisions of the Executive Committee.

One of the AFN’s primary communication channels is its proprietary website, www.afn.ca. Beginning November 2021, the AFN began a website revitalization project with a goal to launch the new site in September 2022. The AFN is now approaching the content migration phase of its website revitalization and is seeking a contractor for project management and coordination.

BACKGROUND

The current AFN website was developed in 2017. The site, www.afn.ca, is based in WordPress. Very few functionality or feature updates have been made to the site in the last four years. With the 2021 launch of a new organizational structure and election of a new National Chief, the AFN is enhancing its digital presence to better serve its audiences and build internal capacity for maintenance.

The AFN’s website audiences include:

• First Nations leadership, members and individuals
• Chiefs and Technical Committees
• Governments and elected officials
• Advocacy and Lobbyist organizations
• Media

The new website will include improved functionality in the following areas:

• Search function all content, including documents and assets
• Increased reach across all targeted audiences
• Improved site architecture
• Additional feature items/initiatives and user interaction
• Uniform branding and seamless design
• Improved UX and accessibility standards
• Alignment with the AFN’s new organizational structure

The final site will also have an efficient and user-friendly content management system for ongoing maintenance.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this Request for Proposals (RFP) is to select a service provider with ahigh quality of expertise, professionalism, and integrity coordinating and project managing the content migration phase of the new AFN web site. The service provider is required to be detail and deadline oriented with strong coordinating and project management skills and processes to manage web content with various different AFN sector staff and team leads.

Web content migration will require:

• Develop and implement a coordination and tracking process to manage and triage content, including timelines
• Execution of a comprehensive Accessibility Migration (WCAG level AA compliancy audits and content tagging of over 3,000 resource docs/imagery). Will require extensive knowledge of CMS content-aware tagging as well as working knowledge of adapting accessibility guidelines to all forms of media managed throughout the AFN site (and Document Library) Acrobat PDF, Word, PPT, Video content, etc.
• Audit of existing information, documents, assets, photos, etc. currently published on afn.ca to be reviewed for relevancy and accessibility. Will require an extensive knowledge of web taxonomy, setting up and executing on complex information architectures/directories. Directly involved in the formation of sector/branch repositories based on agreed naming conventions and content-relevant search and impaired UX practices.
• Track existing information, documents, assets, photos, etc. will be used, whether it needs to be updated, and where it will live in the new content structure via a content matrix
• Identify content gaps in the existing website
• All materials to be created/revised in consultation with AFN Communications and the AFN sector and branch according to best practices for user-driven content
• New and revised materials to be reviewed through multiple stages of approval, with tracking of edits and final sign-off
• Creating appropriate metadata for content as needed, including alternate text descriptions and other accessibility features
• Mapping existing URLs to new URLs and indicating where redirects will be needed for materials / pages not being migrated to the new site in the content matrix
• Archival of materials that will not be migrated to the new website
• A fulsome and user-friendly system for disparate parties across multiple locations to collaborate on, and have access to, a shared repository of materials

Contract objectives are focused on providing the following elements, from initial meeting until site launch:

• Creation of a workplan and timeline that identifies roles and responsibilities for all content migration milestones
• Proposed system for file circulation among various parties, with an emphasis on quality and version control
• Project management services including meeting coordination, summary progress updates, records of all review and approvals including content matrix updates, and other best practices
• Coordination between AFN sectors and external website development vendor
• Identify translation needs to be completed through AFN’s in-house translation team
• Responsive reporting on progress delays, along with proposed contingencies and updated workplan

Deliverables

Submissions should detail the approach for each of the following deliverables:

• Kick-off meeting, workplan, timeline
• Project management approach, including any digital systems such as Basecamp, Asana, Monday, etc.
• Approach to reporting status updates and communicating with numerous parties under remote work conditions
• Approach to file management, with an emphasis on version control through multiple phases of review and approvals
• Web content management, including uploading copy and documents as needed in the website backend.
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PROPOSAL SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

All proposals shall be received by the AFN no later than 11:59 p.m. ET on July 26, 2022, or until filled.

All proposals will clearly identify the name of the proponent and state “Assembly of First Nations web content project management” in the email subject line.

Late submissions will not be accepted and will remain unopened without exception.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

All proposals shall include the following information:

1. An Executive Summary outlining the background information of the proponent’s company, including contents of the proposal and any specific exceptions to the requirements.
2. A proposal on how the Contractor will carry out the work, including a Project Description and Activities, Methodology, Statement of Work, Deliverables, and Rate.
3. Qualifications: provide a description of the proponent’s capabilities/experience working with First Nations, including:
   1. Project management and coordination for advocacy organizations and First Nations-led businesses or initiatives;
   2. Working as part of a team;
   3. Experience and knowledge in the best practices of project management, content management, and migration;
   4. Knowledge of First Nations perspectives; and
   5. Experience in website management would be an asset.
4. A statement and description of the physical and human resources required to complete the project including software and intellectual material;
5. Project Organization: Identify the composition of the proposed team, if any, including:
   1. Project team members;
   2. Description of the roles of the team members; and
   3. Level of experience of the team members working with First Nations.
6. Cost Breakdown: The proponent shall provide a detailed cost breakdown for the proposed services, showing the total cost for the performance of all services, expenses, materials, deliverables, and software/hardware costs (if applicable), to be used for completion of the project. Total cost shall be in Canadian dollars and include

RIGHTS OF THE AFN

The AFN reserves the right to:

1. reject any or all proposals received in response to this Request for Proposals;
2. enter into negotiation with one or more bidders on any or all aspects of their respective proposals;
3. accept any proposal in whole, or in part;
4. cancel and/or re-issue the modified version of a given RFP requirement at any time;
5. award one or more contracts;
6. verify all information provided with respect to a given RFP requirement, including the right to request a confirmation of the bidder’s legal status and signed documentation; and
7. award contracts without competition for follow-up work, if any, to the selected bidder for a given project

EVALUATION CRITERIA 

The AFN will select the Proponent(s) which, in the AFN’s sole discretion, best serves the needs of the organization. The following is a summary of the general considerations that will be used to determine the Proponent(s) that will be selected:

1. Technical experience as outlined in the RFP Project management expertise Digital content management 2. Creativity and innovation in proposed solutions Approach and best practices Tools and systems Workplan	35%   25%
3. Company evaluation: Necessary skills, team and experience Project management (scope of work, guidelines and timelines) Team members (expertise) Previous work experience (comparable websites, company reputation) First Nations experience Understands First Nations perspectives Understands intended audience outreach Experience working with other First Nations organizations First Nations owned (preferable but not necessary)	20%
4.      Proposed Budget:  Company proposes solutions that are consistent with outlined scope of work, timelines and proposed budget.	20%
Total	100%

The timetable is tentative only and may be changed by the AFN, in its sole discretion, at any time prior to the Proposal Submission Deadline.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

Price

Contractors must provide a firm fixed price, including administrative fees, travel, material costs, translation, printing of draft concepts and HST. The proposal must include hourly and daily rates and estimated time for each deliverable.

Confidentiality

Responses to this RFP will be considered as confidential information by the AFN and will be used solely for the purposes of selecting the successful bidder.

Clarification/Questions

All on-time proposals will be acknowledged.

Requests for clarification and/or questions regarding this RFP should be directed to:

Kelly Reid
Communications Officer
Assembly of First Nations
55 Metcalfe Street, Suite 1600 Ottawa, ON K1P 6L5
Telephone: 613-292-0857
Electronic Mail: kreid@afn.ca

Responses/Submission

Only those submissions that meet the deadline will be considered.
Responses to this RFP must be received by 11:59 p.m. EST on July 26, 2022, or until filled.
Responses may be sent by email to:
Kelly Reid
kreid@afn.ca