Ohlone Community College District Seeks Digital Agency

The Ohlone Community College District (“Ohlone College”) serves the cities of Fremont, Newark and parts of Union City in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area and is seeking a new digital agency to create a website.  The Fremont Campus is located on Mission Boulevard south of Interstate 680 and the historic Mission San Jose on a 534-acre site.  The Ohlone College Newark Center for Health Sciences and Technology is located on Cherry Street in Newark, CA on an 81-acre site.

The Ohlone College is an accredited educational facility, accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (ACCJC).  The Ohlone College is also accredited by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services to enroll non-immigrant students.  The Ohlone College offers more than 180 degrees and certificates, including 49 associate degrees (AA or AS), 23 of which are Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADTs). Ohlone currently enrolls approximately 16,000 day and evening students each year at its Fremont campus, Newark Center and online.  The student body is highly diverse, reflecting the demography of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Each year, the California Community Colleges (CCC) Chancellor’s Office ranks California’s community colleges using a Scorecard that examines factors such as transfer rate, retention, associates degrees earned, and other factors. Outside organizations use this data to compare colleges and create rankings based on the findings.  BestColleges.org ranked Ohlone in the top ten among all 112* colleges state-wide, for our achievements in student success and transfer.

The Ohlone Community College District  is soliciting proposals from a digital agency for the design, development, and implementation of a new and modern looking website following the current brand of Ohlone College with a soft launch in January 2017, and transitioning to the new brand with a full launch of the new website by October 2017. The website will primarily be a marketing platform for all identified target groups (future students, current students, potential employees, current employees, business/industry/vendors, and the like) and, at the same time, provide relevant information.

STATEMENT OF WORK:

This Statement of Work is intended to outline the services, materials and special items required to design, develop, and implement the creative and technical aspects of the Ohlone College website.

1. Professional Services should include an evaluation of our current website including but not limited to the following:
   • Content inventory of the current Ohlone College website (www.ohlone.edu).
   • Inventory of custom applications on the website.

2. Technical Requirements and Specifications
   • Advise Ohlone College on the technical specifications needed to successfully run and maintain a website running on the Drupal web content management system (server specifications, operating system, hosted or on premise).
   • Set up the development and production environments and configure Drupal to implement the new website. The implementation must allow or provision for the management of multiple websites in the future. While this engagement will only involve www.ohlone.edu, the College will use the same platform to manage other websites such as faculty pages, the Ohlone College Foundation, Tri-Cities One Stop, and the Ohlone Bond program.
   • Implement the adopted architecture(s), template(s), responsive html, style sheets, and other formats in both development and production systems supporting responsive design (smart phones, tablets, and browsers).
   • Implement workflow specifications based on Ohlone College’s method of administering, managing, and maintaining content on the Drupal platform on both development and production environments to accommodate users, approvers, and administrators.
   • Support Ohlone College from development, soft launch in January 2017, and full launch in October 2017.

3. Functional Requirements and Specifications
   • Propose template wireframes and deliver/implement at least 12 approved template wireframes not including the main page and consider the design following the target audience the College listed in 3.4.3.
   • Integrate third-party applications, widgets, and the like into the website (e.g., language translators, calendars, search engine, and social media feeds).
   • Enforce compliance with ADA section 508c following WCAG 2.0 standards on all templates.
   • Improve site design and optimization through iteration based on user experience testing and feedback. The proposer is expected to assist in validating and facilitating the user experience testing.

4. Documentation and Training
   • Provide at least 3 on-site sessions for end user training. The room and other materials will be provided by Ohlone College.
   • Provide at least 2 on-site sessions for approvers. The room and other materials will be provided by Ohlone College.
   • Provide at least 2 on-site sessions for Drupal administrators. The room and other materials will be provided by Ohlone College.
   • Provide end user documentation on how to upload content, choose a template, embed photos and videos, social media feeds, and the like.
   • Deliver source code and assist Ohlone College with migrating content. Provide technical documentation pertaining to server settings, Drupal settings, and other related materials useful for administrators.

Proposal due by October 31st, 2016 to:

Ohlone College

43600 Mission Blvd

Fremont, CA 94539