About This Page -
In order to address the large number of requests for additional information, we have set up this Q&A section to address the more common questions. Any questions not answered below can be addressed to schofielda@city.laconia.nh.us, and questions and answers will be updated on this page as needed. This page was last updated on: 7/22/08
General Statement of Purpose -
The purpose of this RFP is simply to consolidate and beautify what has become a scattered, disorganized, and outdated web system. Along with the aging main City web site, several departments have developed their own web sites over the years and as a result the City lacks a centralized source of information that is both up to date and easily accessible. Ideally this project will combine the many different sites together into a single, attractive, organized site while allowing the different departments to individually integrate their own desired content.
Q & A -
Q: Where can I obtain a copy of the RFP?
A: A copy of the RFP can be downloaded here.
Q: What will be the structure/process for development from your (the City's) side? Will we be working with a large committee, one person, one person from each department?
A: We are looking for all design and site organization to be initiated by you, using the RFP and other city web sites in the area as a guideline, i.e. Manchester, Portsmouth, Nashua, etc. There is a small committee in place that is spearheading this initiative, and any general overall questions as well as final approval will come from them. You will also be working with one member from each department to determine initial content and develop a process for ongoing content management.
Q: Are you open to a new hosting solution or do you plan to host the site in-house with an internal IT department? If you plan to host it in-house, will your servers accommodate PHP4 and MySQL?
A: We currently have a web hosting contract with Site5 that continues through July 2009, so our web hosting is decided until that point. After that point, we are open to considering other options with the exception of the Library, which must continue to host its own database for online circulation information (http://www.youseemore.com/laconia/default.asp) but can be linked from the main site.
Q: Are the following websites to be included as part of this project: Police (laconiapd.org), Fire (laconiafire.com), Planning (cityonthelakes.org), Library (laconialibrary.org), Schools, Laconia Motorcycle Week, and Laconia Main Street?
A: School web sites, Motorcycle Week and Laconia Main Street will not be included. Cityonthelakes.org, laconiapd.org, laconialibrary.org, and laconiafire.com will ideally be integrated into the new site with the current URLs serving as redirects. The level of integration is going to be an ongoing issue as sites such as the Library’s use 3rd party software that will need to be linked outside of our main site, and obviously people will likely be attached to their current web site’s organization, but ideally this project will centralize these sites and combine them into a single easily navigate-able web structure.
Q: Regarding "Conversion of Content and Menuing System Re-Organization", before providing a quote, I'd need to know the current volume of content and more specifics as to the new desired structure of that content. Links to sites you want to have converted and/or number of printed pages or some other measure would at least help in determining how much material is to be converted. Also the current format of the information is also helpful (web pages, database, Word documents.)
A: Our current main web site (cityoflaconianh.org) is 275MB and contains 30 pages. We are also looking to incorporate the current web sites of: Fire Department (laconiafire.com), Library (laconialibrary.com), Planning Department (cityonthelakes.org), and the Police Department (laconiapd.org). The current content is mostly web pages and downloadable .PDF documents.
Q: You state that many departments would like to provide online payments. As an e-commerce solution for multiple departments with different systems and needs could be be quite complex - would you be open to a secure forms-based system? Or are immediate online transactions required?
A: At this time we are not looking to immediately implement this part of the project. Eventually we will need to integrate online and in-house credit/debit card payments into a useable system, but all we are looking to include in this RFP is the capability to eventually include this sort of solution in the future as we have no credit/debit card payment system in place at the present. Your input as to integration of a future online payment system would be appreciated.
Q: Interfaces with State software applications, such as auto registration, are normally just links back to the appropriate place on the State's website. Do you know of any current or proposed e-gov service that would entail more than just putting the link on Laconia's website?
A: No, we do not have any further goals with this RFP beyond redesigning our existing web site to be more usable and more attractive, but in the future we will be looking to integrate online payments and car registrations to the web site, so we will need to be able to add that functionality in the future.
Q: Do you have original copies of the graphics and pictures you want included in the new website?
A: Part of what we are looking for with the redesign is new graphics and new pictures in the direction of greater aesthetic appeal, but original copies of existing pictures can be located as needed.
Q: Do you have edit-able, electronic copies (in Word?) of the city ordinances, Safety Board Manual, Personnel Rules & Regulations, and Compensations & Classification Plan? Meeting Minutes? The city ordinances, for instance, look like they were scanned into PDF format. And reproducing the Personnel Rules from the HTM page is more difficult than working with the original Word document.
A: We should have editable copies of every document posted on the web, and if for some bizarre reason no copy can be found we can convert the .PDF documents into editable text if that is your preferred method. We cannot post editable copies online for the simple reason that people would edit them, which we obviously cannot allow.
Q: How many vendor license applications do you receive for Bike Week? How many other license applications in a year?
A: We issued around 250 licenses for Bike Week 2008 and have more than 350 from 2007 in total.