Rocketry Planet

The Tripoli Rocketry Association ("TRA") is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and operation of nonprofessional high-power rocketry. TRA is interested in purchasing a professionally produced website, and is seeking to identify and select an individual or organization ("Vendor") to produce and offer maintenance in conjunction with the TRA IT committee.

• Written confirmation of Vendor’s intent to respond to this RFP is required by February 9,2009
• All proposals for consideration must be received no later than March 20, 2009
• Any proposal received at the designated location after the required time and date specified for receipt shall be considered late and non-responsive. Any late proposals shall not be evaluated nor further considered.
• Questions are to be directed to Bob Schoner ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) who will forward them to the BoD and the TRA IT Committee. Responses will be provided within 48 hours and emailed (BCC) to all bidders so everyone has access to the same information.

Award of the contract resulting from this RFP will be based upon the Vendor whose offer will be the most advantageous to TRA in terms of cost, functionality and other factors as specified elsewhere in this RFP.

TRA reserves the right to:

• Reject any or all offers and discontinue this RFP process without obligation or liability to any potential Vendor
• Accept other than the lowest priced offer
• Award a contract on the basis of initial offers received, without discussions or requests for best and final offers
• Award more than one contract

Vendor's proposal shall be submitted in several parts as set forth below. The Vendor will confine its submission to those matters sufficient to define its proposal, and to provide an adequate basis for evaluation by TRA of the Vendor’s proposal.

Vendor’s proposal in response to this RFP will be incorporated into the final agreement between TRA and the selected Vendor(s). The submitted proposals are suggested to include each of the following sections:

• Executive Summary
• Project Management Approach
• Deliverables
• Detailed and Itemized Pricing
• Appendices: References; Project Team Staffing; Company Overview

Any award to be made pursuant to this RFP will be based upon the proposal with appropriate consideration given to operational, technical, cost, and management requirements. Evaluation of offers will be based upon the Vendor’s responsiveness to the RFP and the total price quoted for all items covered by the RFP.

The final RFP will be submitted to the points of contact via email in Word 2003 format.

Additional files may be submitted to support specialized sections such as the story board in the form of JPG files or PDF’s where appropriate.

• Prototype screen-shots of the major pages in the refactored web-site.
• Storyboard scenarios showing the major navigational paths through the refactored website.

Note: Screen-shots and Storyboard deliverables should be generated using the current web site content.

The following elements will be the primary considerations in evaluating all submitted proposals and in the selection of a Vendor or Vendors.

• Technical Requirements
  
  
  • Browser support: Must support IE 6+, Opera 5, Firefox 3 and Safari
  • Site must run on IIS and SQL Server. IIS6+ and Microsoft .NET 3.0, MS SQL 2005 environment is 32bit.
  • Dynamic portions of site to be built using C# and/or VB.Net 2005
  • Site shall remain Windows based to fit with list services, web based email and potential Share Point for the BoD collaboration tools
  • Secured portions must integrate with existing member security, details of this will be provided to the successful vendor.
  • Any third party controls required to build/run the site must be approved by the TRA IT Committee. Items of importance will include supportability of any content management system (CMS) and demonstrated code samples of previous work and development methodology used should be detailed in the vendor response.
  • Site will be housed in the existing TRA web server. The site however should be structured to permit the external hosting of sub-sections such as archives or external video hosting services.
• General Requirements
  
  
  • Full source code to become property of Tripoli Rocketry Association and to be turned over before site will be installed on Tripoli servers.
  • Maintenance guide will be provided for post-delivery support by TRA IT members.
  • Tripoli owns all rights to source code and its use, with the exception of third party controls.
  • Perpetual licenses will be provided to TRA for all third-party controls used in the site.
  • Costs should include ALL required plug-in's or software modules. External software modules/tools should be itemized, so they maybe evaluated for security and strategic fit.
  • Site to be installed and maintained by Tripoli IT Committee
  • Site will be available to IT committee for review no later than July 1, 2009
  • Site will be available to go live no later than July 30, 2009
  • Proposal will include support for no less than 30 days for warranty and initial setup tweaks and support
  • Proposals will be reviewed by Tripoli IT Committee who will make recommendations to the BoD. The final decision regarding this RFP will be made by the Tripoli Board of Directors.

Desired features

• Ease of use
  
  
  1. Consistent, easy navigation
  2. Partitioned so that first impression is market oriented (selling Tripoli and HPR).
  3. Organization of member oriented materials easily available once you enter that area of the site.
  4. Site Search capability
  5. Usability consistent with best practices i.e site depth to be 3-4 clicks deep, dropdowns limited to <10 objects and listed in alphabetical order, etc. Deviations from these standards may be approved after consultation with the IT committee.
• New content
  
  
  1. Archives of Tripoli Reports
  2. Regulatory and Legal pages
  3. News and policy updates section
  4. Teaser articles, pictures and videos from Rockets Magazine
  5. Resource section for educational materials, member presentations, informational materials to print and distribute
  6. Standard site footer, incorporating terms of use and privacy links to the relevant sections within the site governing terms of use and privacy conditions
• Dynamic content
  
  
  1. Option to host Prefecture web pages for prefectures that don't have a web presence
  2. Launch calendar (member protected and updatable only by prefects and vice prefects)
  3. Committee pages for each standing and ad hoc committee, TMT, TAP, etc.
  4. New certifications, new members
  5. Vendor advertising
  6. Vendor Certification Query
• Security
  
  
  1. Member only (MVC protected) content area.
      
     • Member lists (searchable via zip codes, states, cert level)
     • Other content as deemed appropriate

Evaluation of proposals will be based on the following:

1. Completion of all required responses in the specified formats within specified time frame.
2. The extent to which Vendor’s proposed solution fulfills TRA’s stated requirements as set out in this RFP.
3. An assessment of the Vendor’s ability to deliver the indicated service in accordance with the specifications set out in this RFP.
4. The Vendor’s stability, experiences and record of past performance in delivering such services.
5. Availability of sufficient high quality Vendor personnel with the required skills and experience for the specific approach proposed.
6. Vendor’s acceptance of TRA’s contractual terms and conditions, if applicable.
7. Overall cost of Vendor’s proposal, including projected costs.
8. Overall improvements and suggested improvements, visual appeal, usability and maintainability.

TRA may, at its discretion and without explanation to the prospective Vendors, at any time choose to discontinue this RFP without obligation to such prospective Vendors.

Completed RFP’s should be submitted electronically in the formats previously specified to Pat Gordzelik ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) and Bob Schoner ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ).

Documents: Tripoli Rocketry Association Web Site RFP (64KB Adobe PDF)