The City of Crystal Lake is seeking a qualified vendor to redesign, implement, and support a modern municipal website that enhances public access to information, improves staff workflows, and meets accessibility, security, and usability standards. The selected vendor shall provide a comprehensive solution that includes a redesigned website, a flexible content management system (CMS), data migration, training, and ongoing support.
The redesigned website must support a consistent look and feel across all pages and departments, streamline content publishing, and enable staff at all levels of technical ability to manage their assigned content.
The City seeks a modern, cloud-based digital experience platform that consolidates website content, workflows, engagement tools, communications, and analytics into a secure, scalable solution designed specifically for municipal government use. The solution should improve usability and accessibility for residents, enable online self-service, increase transparency and engagement, and provide actionable insights to continuously improve City services and communications.
8. The Crystal Lake Plan Overview
8.1 Core Scope of Work (Required)
A. Website Redesign and User Experience
The vendor shall:
o Conduct discovery, including stakeholder interviews, workflow assessments, and analysis of user behavior.
o Develop an intuitive, user-focused website structure with improved navigation, search functionality, and mobile responsiveness.
o Provide a modern, professional design that reflects the identity of the City of Crystal Lake.
o Ensure a consistent visual style across all pages, templates, and modules.
B. Content Management System (CMS)
A. A new CMS platform must:
o Allow non-technical staff to add, edit, publish, and manage content easily.
o Support customizable permissions that delegate editing and publishing authority to specific departments or roles.
o Offer streamlined content creation workflows with pre-built templates and standardized layouts.
o Support version control, audit trails, and approval workflows.
o Include integrated governance tools to maintain quality, accuracy, and consistency across departments.
o Support structured content types, reusable components, and “create once, publish anywhere” content patterns.
o Include predictive site search capable of supporting synonyms and plain-language mapping to municipal terminology, with the ability to promote top resident tasks.
o Provide role-based publishing, versioning, approval workflows, and decentralized authoring controls across departments.
o Support WCAG-compliant page components and templates with accessibility prompts embedded into authoring workflows.
C. Accessibility and Compliance
The Redesign website must:
o Meet or exceed WCAG 2.2 AA requirements and comply with ADA Title II web accessibility requirements by April 2027.
o Include automated accessibility scanning tools for ongoing compliance monitoring.
o Provide accessible templates, forms, and document-handling workflows.
o Ensure compatibility with screen readers, keyboard navigation, and mobile accessibility standards.
D. Content Migration
The vender shall:
o Inventory current website content and develop a migration plan.
o Migrate existing content, documents, images, and media.
o Assist with content cleanup, restructuring, and templating.
o Provide recommendations for ROT (redundant, outdated, trivial) content.
E. Training and Documentation
The vender shall provide:
o Administrator and editor training, with the option for the City to record training sessions for future use.
o Documentation for CMS usage, workflows, best practices, and accessibility requirements.
o Ongoing customer support and troubleshooting resources.
F. Hosting, Security and Maintenance
The solution must include:
o Cloud-based hosting with uptime guarantees.
o Regular security updates and patches.
o SSL certificates, multi-factor authentication for administrative access, and data protection measures.
o Standard business-hours support with emergency support options.
9. Alternates
1.1 Optional Add-On Modules and Enhancements (Requested but Not Required)
Vendors may optionally propose additional modules, services, or integrations. These may be evaluated separately and may or may not be selected. Examples include:
A. AI-Enhanced Citizen Engagement Tools
o Virtual assistants or chatbots for common resident questions.
o Automated content suggestions, FAQs, or routing tools.
B. Forms and Workflow Management
o Online form builders with workflow routing, e-signatures, and submission tracking.
o Automation of workflows such as FOIAs, permits, or service requests.
o No-code or low-code online form builder supporting conditional logic, calculations, file uploads, e-signatures, address validation, payments, save-and-return functionality, and multilingual labels.
o Workflow automation to route submissions, trigger notifications, and integrate with back-office systems using APIs or webhooks.
o Form analytics including submission volume, completion rates, abandonment rates, and time-to-complete metrics.
o Centralized form library management and reuse across departments.
C. Email Subscription and Notification Tools
o Subscription-based updates for residents.
o Integration with email and text communication systems.
o Integrated outbound communications capabilities supporting email and SMS messaging at minimum, with optional mobile push notifications.
o Audience segmentation, message templates, scheduling, and deliverability reporting.
o Opt-in/opt-out management and consent tracking.
o Ability to trigger communications based on form submissions, workflows, or website activity via APIs.
D. Agenda, Meeting, and Document Management
o Tools for publishing agendas, minutes, and meeting packets.
o Public meeting calendar integration.
E. Community Engagement and Feedback Portals
o Surveys, polls, dashboards, and non-emergency inquiry tools.
o Tools to support public engagement initiatives such as surveys, polls, feedback forms, and engagement projects.
o Ability to publish project updates and timelines with interactive features allowing residents to follow progress.
o Resident satisfaction measurement tools and sentiment reporting dashboards to evaluate engagement and trust over time.
F. Advanced Search, Analytics, and Reporting
o Search tools optimized for municipal content.
o Analytics dashboards, heatmaps, and engagement reports.
o Analytics dashboards covering website traffic, top tasks and search terms, service usage, engagement metrics, and resident satisfaction indicators.
o Ability to export analytics and raw data through secure APIs or scheduled reports.
o Built-in recommendations or insights to improve website content, services, and engagement outcomes over time.
G. Additional Accessibility and Compliance Enhancements
o Advanced accessibility monitoring.
o Automated remediation tools.
o Document accessibility services such as PDF remediation and alt-text management.
The City reserves the right to select any, all, or none of the alternates proposed. Award will be based on base fees, selected alternates, and the evaluation criteria stated in Section 4.3.
1.2 Optional Add-On: Economic Development Website Redesign (Separate Project)
In addition to the core scope defined in this RFP, the City invites vendors to submit an optional add-on proposal for the redesign, implementation, and support of the City’s standalone economic development website, currently located at:
• https://www.clearlycrystallake.com/
This optional project is considered separate and distinct from the redesign of the primary City website(https://www.crystallake.org/) and may be awarded independently, concurrently, or not at all, at the City’s discretion.
A. Purpose and Goals
The goal of this add-on is to modernize the City’s economic development website to better promote Crystal Lake as an attractive destination for business investment, expansion, workforce development, and commercial opportunities. The redesigned site should feature a distinct look and feel appropriate for an economic development–focused audience while maintaining compatibility and brand alignment with the City’s identity.
B. Scope of Work
The optional economic development website redesign scope may include, but is not limited to:
1. Discovery and Strategy
• Assessment of the current Clearly Crystal Lake site structure, content, and analytics.
• Stakeholder meetings with Economic Development staff and community partners.
• Recommendations for improved site architecture, branding concepts, and content strategy targeted toward site selectors, developers, brokers, and businesses.
2. Website Redesign and Content Development
• Creation of a modern, visually distinct design tailored for economic development messaging and branding.
• Development of improved navigation tailored to business recruitment, workforce resources, demographics, development opportunities, and available sites.
• Integration of high-impact visuals, marketing assets, and economic development storytelling.
3. CMS Configuration and Content Migration
• Implementation of a CMS platform that allows Economic Development staff to update content independently.
• Migration of relevant existing content and documents from the current site.
• Recommendations for content modernization, consolidation, and new content creation where appropriate.
4. Data, Mapping, and Interactive Features (Optional Enhancements)
Vendors may propose optional tools or integrations such as:
• Available sites and buildings listings
• Interactive maps
• Demographic dashboards
• Business climate and workforce analytics
• Success stories, case studies, or video features These enhancements may be priced separately.
5. Hosting, Security, Accessibility, and Compliance
• Cloud-based hosting with uptime and performance guarantees.
• ADA/WCAG 2.2 AA compliance for all templates and content.
• Security, SSL, and ongoing platform maintenance consistent with public-sector best practices.
6. Training and Ongoing Support
• Training for Economic Development staff on CMS usage, publishing workflows, and content best practices.
• Documentation and post-launch support.
Due Date: January 29, 2026 at 10:00 a.m.
Contact: nhammonds@crystallake.org
