TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
FROM: Rick Otto, City Manager
1. Subject
title
Second Amendment to Master Subscription Agreement No. 6858 with Granicus LLC, a Minnesota Limited Liability Company, for website redesign, development, conversion, and implementation services.
body
2. Summary
The City is in need to redesign and update its website to adapt to customer needs and meet current technology trends. Staff is recommending the second amendment of the current Master Subscription Agreement with Granicus LLC to include the additional scope of work for a new city website.
3. Recommended Action
recommendation
1. Approve and adopt the Second Amendment to Master Subscription Agreement No. 6858 with Granicus LLC for website redesign, development, conversion, and implementation services and authorize the Mayor and the City Clerk to execute the amendment to agreement on behalf of the City; and
2. Authorize the appropriation of $109,000 from the Computer Replacement unreserved fund balance to expenditure account number 790.1601.56670.20274 Computer Replacement - Website Upgrade.
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4. Fiscal Impact
The total expenditure for this agreement in Fiscal Year 2020-2021 is $109,000 and will be funded in Website Upgrade (20274) through Computer Replacement (790).
5. Strategic Plan Goals
Goal 4: Provide outstanding public service
c: Enhance technology to improve public accessibility to information and services.
6. Discussion and Background
The City website is an essential and effective tool in communicating the City’s plans, policies, and procedures to the Orange community. With continued advancement of technology, it is imperative the City maintains a website that can meet consumer online needs as well as ensure flexible content management.
In 2016, the City entered into a four-year contract with CivicPlus, then the leader in producing and hosting websites throughout Orange County, to develop a new website, which had been in place since 2003. Due to the basic and outdated capabilities of the previous website, CivicPlus completely overhauled the City’s website.
During the past four years, staff had an opportunity to evaluate the current website and establish standards for future website upgrades. CivicPlus provided the City with an improved website; however, as technology and city needs evolved, the contract with CivicPlus did not allow much flexibility to enhance or modify the site. Therefore, as the end of the contract approached earlier this year, staff developed the following criteria to meet current and future website demand:
a) Ease of back-end management
b) User-friendly content management
c) Flexibility to make modifications (colors, photos, layout, style, etc.)
d) Ease of content migration
e) Compatibility with external platforms including social media and Laserfiche
f) Responsive customer service and technical support
Staff met with representatives from CivicPlus and Granicus LLC (Granicus), two of the leading website providers in Southern California and particularly in Orange County, to learn what both could offer. While CivicPlus has enhanced their product, certain key features are still lacking such as: 1) incompatibility with external platforms, 2) complicated back-end management, 3) lack of options for site modifications, 4) complex content management, and 5) lack of solutions for customer inquiries.
Granicus’ proposal met all of staff’s criteria and included additional options not available through CivicPlus including social media integration, alternatives for content modifications, integration of Laserfiche document retrieval, a user-friendly content platform, compatibility with external platforms (i.e. GIS and parking management), and temporary alternate homepages that will highlight special events or critical public information. In addition, the City currently contracts with Granicus for its streaming of public meetings and, most recently, a new voting system and an online agenda management system. Granicus is the website provider for local cities such as Laguna Beach and Costa Mesa who are all satisfied with their performance. After reviewing both vendors, Granicus has the capability to design, develop, convert, and implement a new website that covers all of the City’s current and future needs. The total project cost over five years is $200,125 broken down as follows:
|
|
Annual Licensing |
|
|
Implementation and Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
Total |
|
$108,824 |
$21,183 |
$22,242 |
$23,354 |
$24,522 |
$200,125 |
Future annual subscription costs will be included as part of the annual budget proposal. The Year One cost of $108,824 includes the first year’s annual licensing subscription of $5,174 and implementation costs which include:
ü Design and branding of the main website
ü Design and customization for department specific pages (i.e. Library)
ü Content development and migration
ü Training
ü Configuration and integration with external platforms (i.e. Laserfiche)
ü Accessibility training and initial structure
The project is estimated to be completed within 10-12 months. City staff representatives are currently assigned to manage their respective department’s pages and will be assisting with the transition to the new website. However, staff believes to consistently implement and manage the website effectively, a new web content specialist position will need to be created. We are working to identify position specifications and options and will return to City Council with a recommendation at a later date. Staff is recommending City Council approve the second amendment to the Master Subscription Agreement with Granicus LLC for the upgrade of the City’s website.
7. ATTACHMENTS
• Second Amendment to the Master Subscription Agreement with Granicus LLC with attached Granicus Proposal