SPECIFICATION OF

REQUIREMENTS FOR

A REDESIGN &

RELAUNCH OF THE

HERITAGE PORTAL

WEBSITE.

Issued By:

The Heritage Council of Ireland – An Chomairle Oidhreachta.

Church Lane Kilkenny Ireland

Issued on: Monday, 07th May 2012

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TENDER CONTENTS

1. BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................................... 2

2. PROJECT OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................................. 2

2.1. OVERHAUL DESIGN & FUNCTIONALITY OF SITE ................................................................................. 3

2.2. INCREASE USER FRIENDLINESS .......................................................................................................... 3

2.3. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION ........................................................................................................ 3

2.4. MOVE FROM EDITOR-DRIVEN TO USER-DRIVEN CONTENT CREATION ............................................. 3

2.5. HOSTING SOLUTIONS ......................................................................................................................... 4

3. VISION FOR THE HERITAGE PORTAL SITE .................................................................................................. 4

4. COSTING .................................................................................................................................................... 4

5. TIMESCALE ................................................................................................................................................ 4

6. TENDER ASSESSMENT CRITERIA ................................................................................................................ 4

7. SUBMISSION OF TENDER .......................................................................................................................... 5

8. QUERIES .................................................................................................................................................... 5

9. ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS ........................................................................................................................ 5

10. NOTICE TO TENDERERS ........................................................................................................................... 6

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1. BACKGROUND

As part of its involvement in the European Joint Programme Initiative on Cultural Heritage and Global Change (JPICH)1, The Heritage Council of Ireland has recently taken over management of the Heritage Portal website (www.heritageportal.eu).

The Heritage Portal was created as part of a previous European project, called NET-Heritage (www.netheritage.eu) and aims to provide an online forum for the dissemination and exchange of news, opportunities, information, research findings and questions/answers among the cultural heritage research community in Europe.

The NET-Heritage project concluded in late 2011 and after a period of negotiation regarding the future of the Heritage Portal website, it was agreed that this should be taken under the remit of the newly-launched JPICH initiative. The Heritage Council of Ireland is Ireland’s representative on the JPICH and is responsible for Communications and Dissemination issues relating to the initiative, as such the Heritage Portal falls within The Heritage Council of Ireland’s work package.

The Heritage Portal site has therefore been transferred from the management of the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK (who were responsible for its development under the NET-Heritage project) to The Heritage Council of Ireland.

The Heritage Council of Ireland has reviewed the site and found that a thorough re-design, re-organisation, re-branding and re-launch are necessary in order for the site to fulfill its aims and intended purpose, and to meet the expanded needs of the JPICH relative to NET-Heritage.

Tender submissions are therefore sought from specialised web development and web design firms in order to carry out this work.

2. PROJECT OVERVIEW

Proposals are required for a strategy to:

Overhaul the design (appearance) and functionality of the site

Increase "user-friendliness"

Improve SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Facilitate move from editor-driven to user-driven content creation

Provide/advise on viable hosting solutions/server facilities for the site

1 The JPICH is an EU-level initiative aimed at fostering increased collaboration and coordination between all

European member states, and associated countries, in the area of Cultural Heritage research. Further details are

available via the programme’s website: www.jpi-culturalheritage.eu

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2.1. OVERHAUL DESIGN & FUNCTIONALITY OF SITE

The current design lacks visual appeal and the site functionality is not intuitive. An overly-‘busy’ home page and lack of clear branding contribute to a poor first impression for new visitors to the site. We require innovative proposals for:

- Increased design quality of the site (visual appeal)

- Simplified and rationalised information architecture

- Clear and persuasive branding

The site is built in Joomla!™ using the core Joomla CMS with a number of additional components (JomComment, JomSocial, JoomFish, JoomlaPack, Form2Content, Search, XMap) and plugin extensions (Azrul System Mambot for Joomla, JoomlaCloner, Fabrik Search Extension, Direct PHP, JomSocial for Fabrik Extension, Language Packs).

A full assessment of the current site components will be required, the versions updated where necessary, items discarded where no longer required, or added if newly required.

2.2. INCREASE USER FRIENDLINESS

Feedback from target users has been that the site is not user friendly. This lack will be partly addressed through 2.1 above (simplified and rationalised information architecture, clear and persuasive branding) as well as 2.3 and 2.4 below. Additional items to consider more specifically may include:

- Increased interoperability with social networks.

- RSS Feeds.

- Increased ease-of-use for the social tools and user login areas of the site.

- Optimisation for mobile media (smartphones, tablets).

2.3. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION

The current site is not well optimised for search. We will require:

- A full assessment of the site from a search perspective.

- A comprehensive SEO strategy, tailored to the site.

2.4. MOVE FROM EDITOR-DRIVEN TO USER-DRIVEN CONTENT CREATION

For the site to be sustainable in the long term it needs to become user-driven, with visitors signing up to become active contributors and generating content for the site themselves. A comprehensive

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strategy – including aspects of the re-design, re-branding, information architecture, increased user-friendliness and SEO – will be required in order that the site does everything possible to facilitate this shift.

2.5. HOSTING SOLUTIONS

The site is currently hosted by Clook Internet Ltd. in the UK. We require advice on the advisability of moving to an Irish hosting provider (and costings for same) as well as the provision of ongoing technical maintenance and a technical help-desk function.

3. VISION FOR THE HERITAGE PORTAL SITE

The Heritage Portal aims to become a single point of contact for heritage professionals, researchers,

organizations and enthusiasts across Europe. Content should be generated spontaneously by the site’s

users, with The Heritage Council retaining an editorial function only.

4. COSTING

While The Heritage Council is not obliged to accept the lowest bid or any bid in this process, the need to deliver value for money in an era of dramatically reduced public expenditure should be borne in mind by all tenderers.

Itemised costs relating to all elements of the proposal should be included, with any ‘optional extras’ clearly highlighted as such.

5. TIMESCALE

A timescale of approximately 3 months from the awarding of the contract is envisaged. An exact deadline will be set in consultation with the successful tenderer and included in the project contract.

An outline and breakdown of the timeline to implement a re-designed and re-branded website should be included in any submission. On-going consultation should be included in the process.

6. TENDER ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

All tenders will be assessed on their response to the brief outlined in 2. above. The Heritage Council of

Ireland are seeking innovative design solutions, which will facilitate the Heritage Portal site in achieving

the vision summarized under 3. above. In addition, the following assessment criteria will be applied to

all submissions:

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Criteria Scoring

Understanding of the brief 10

Skills and experience of project team 20

Design Solution 40

Total Cost and Value for Money 30

Total 100

7. SUBMISSION OF TENDER

All tenders are to be submitted via the Postbox function on the e-tenders website. Documents are to be

submitted in PDF format. Closing date for receipt of tenders is 5pm on Friday 18th May 2012.

Tenders submitted by any other means – including email, fax or post – will not be accepted.

8. QUERIES

All queries are to be submitted via the Questions and Answers area on the e-tenders website. The

closing date for receipt of queries is 4pm on Thursday 17th May 2012.

Queries submitted by any other means – including email, fax, post or phone – will not be accepted.

9. ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS

In order to provide a fuller picture to tenderers of the needs and vision of The Heritage Council of

Ireland for the Heritage Portal site, two additional documents have been included with this

Specification.

1. An informal questionnaire, providing a series of questions and answers relating to the mission of

and the target audience for the Heritage Portal site. Tenderers should note that this document

was produced as the result of an informal ‘brainstorming’ session and is provided here for your

information only. It should not be considered in any way fixed or binding.

2. The most recent Google Analytics report for the Heritage Portal site.

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10. NOTICE TO TENDERERS

The Heritage Council of Ireland is inviting tenders from interested parties who wish to forward proposals relating to the Heritage Portal website and online needs as outlined above. The Heritage Council of Ireland reserves the right to update or alter any information contained in the document at anytime.

It will be a condition for the award of the contract that the successful tenderer must be able to produce a Tax Clearance Certificate within seven working days of being requested. Where a Tax Clearance Certificate expires within the course of the contract, the Heritage Council reserves the right to seek a renewed certificate. All payments under the contract will be conditional on the contractors being in possession of a valid certificate at all times.

Under the Finance Act 1987, withholding tax must be deducted from payments for professional services. This tax, which is at a rate of 20%, will be deducted from payments made to the consultants in respect of work carried out and will be remitted to the Irish tax authorities. This tax is refundable on application to Revenue, Claims Branch, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2.

It will also be a condition of the awarded contract that CVs be submitted along with evidence of previous commissions.

Please note: The Heritage Council of Ireland will remain the sole owner of all end products e.g. domain name, brand, creative concepts, ideas, and any other related items or documents, irrespective of whether or not the contract is terminated prior to its completion.

Please note: all substitutions or deviations from the tender brief must be agreed with The Heritage Council of Ireland.

The Heritage Council of Ireland retains the right to withhold payment where a contractor has failed to meet his contractual obligations in relation to the delivery of service to an acceptable level of quality.

The Heritage Council of Ireland reserves the right to go to tender again, or to terminate the contract at any stage, on payment of reasonable and agreed costs accrued to the date of termination.

The Heritage Council of Ireland requires that all information pursuant to this invitation to tender will be treated in strict confidence. Under no circumstances may information be disclosed to other parties without the express permission of The Heritage Council of Ireland.

Any conflicts of interest involving a contractor must be fully disclosed to The Heritage Council of Ireland.

All tenders are to be submitted using the Postbox function on the e-tenders website. All documents should be submitted in PDF format. All tenders should arrive no later than 5.00pm on Friday, 18th May 2012.

It is the responsibility of those submitting tenders to ensure the tender has been received on time. Submissions may not be made by fax, email or by post. Late tenders will not be accepted.

All tenderers are asked to note that The Heritage Council of Ireland is subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

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Each candidate, by submitting its tender, acknowledges and agrees to be bound by the provisions of this document.

The Heritage Council of Ireland is not obliged to accept the lowest or any bid.

The Heritage Council of Ireland

An Chomhairle Oidhreachta

07th May 2012