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Village of Roscommon

Michigan Website Upgrade


Proposal

To:
Lacey Wilkerson
Village of Roscommon, Michigan
assistant@roscommonvillage.com
(989) 275-5743

John McKown
President
Evo Studios, Inc.
jmckown@evogov.com
302.736.5515 x100

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Proposal for:

Village of Roscommon, Michig


Michigan
an
Website Re-Design, Development, Implementation, CMS, and
Hosting Services
Provided by:

Prepared For: Village of Roscommon, Michig


Michigan
an
Prepared By: John McKown, President

Proposal ID: 576666


Expires on: March 29, 2018

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Evo Studios, Inc.
PO Box 3614
Parker, Colorado 80134

January 02, 2018

Lacey Wilkerson
Village of Roscommon, Michigan
702 Lake Street
Roscommon, MI 48653
United States
http://www.roscommonvillage.com

Lacey,
Thank you for the opportunity to provide you with a quote for your City’s website project. After reviewing your
existing website, we are very confident that we can redevelop your website so that it performs beyond your
expectations, and that we can provide our services to you at a very fair price that you can afford.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions that you may have about this proposal, our software, or
services. We hope to work with you soon.

Sincerely,

John McKown
President of EvoGov
855-386-4681 x100
jmckown@evogov.com
www.evogov.com

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Introduction and Company Profile
Company Overview and Summary
Evo Studios, Inc. (EvoGov) specializes in building and hosting websites and software applications for local
government agencies, special districts, utility companies, non-profits, and other organizations. Our target
customer requires a website that is attractive, accessible on all devices, secure, easy to update, and that is
outfitted with applications to help their organization better serve their citizens and customers. Unlike our
competition, all our applications are included in our very competitive hosting fee. This saves our customers
thousands of dollars annually.

Company Profile
• Evo Studios, Inc. is a privately-held Colorado S Corporation.
• The name "EvoGov" is a formal DBA filed with the State of Colorado.
• Our Corporation information is online with the Secretary of State of Colorado, and can be seen here.
• Our Federal Tax ID Number is 47-4542647
• We are small, and have 10 employees that are all full-time, USA citizens. We sometimes utilize
contractors in the USA for non-critical roles. We no longer require a large networking staff since
upgrading our local datacenter to the Amazon AWS Cloud. We no longer require a huge staff due to
efficiencies we designed into our platform and procedures.
• Since launching our new cloud-based government CMS in 2013, we have launched 350 domains on our
platform.

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Company History
• Our company began as a regional Internet development company based in Delaware (named
Delaware.Net) and originally incorporated in 1997.
• From about 2000-2008, we operated a private datacenter in Delaware ,and we also built websites and
applications for many different industries, including; construction, engineering, retail, ecommerce, and
small businesses, and real estate.
• By 2010, we found that the web development and hosting industry began to hyper-specialize. Of all of
the markets that we served, the one that was the most rewarding and profitable for us was local
government and special districts. We also found that there was a huge demand in the marketplace that
was not being served well by other local government website companies.
• In 2012, we made website development for local governments, utility companies, special districts, and
associations our primary focus.
• 2012 EvoGov is Born - We created a new brand name and website for our services called "EvoGov",
which represents the fact that we build websites that actually evolve as they are hosted. Every site
receives code updates automatically every day.
• In 2013 we launched our 5th-Generation CMS. Evo Cloud (www.evo.cloud) is our class-leading cloud-
based platform for local government websites, that leapfrogs all other companies in our industry.
• In late 2013, our Amazon-based cloud platform allowed us to operate from anywhere. So we relocated
our operations away from Delaware and the Amazon platform enabled us to close our Delaware
datacenter. This greatly lowered our costs to run our company, allowing us to attract new talent and
focus on our software development efforts.
• in 2015 we formed a new Colorado corporation named Evo Studios, Inc. and we moved business
operations to Colorado permanently. Today, we serve local government customers from across the USA
and Canada for website development, website hosting, and online applications. More and more of these
agencies are leaving our competitors for us due to our more complete and affordable packages and
software platform.

More information on our company history can be found at:


• www.evogov.com/about
• www.evo.studio/about

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Skills and Services EvoGov Specializes In

Web Development Programming, Software, and Technical Services


• Mobile / Responsive Website • Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Infrastructure
Design • AWS S3 - Cloud Storage
• Intranets / Secure Portals • AWS Route 53 - Secure, Distributed DNS for Cloud
• Graphic Design apps
• Logo Design and Branding • AWS Certificate Manager - SSL Security
• Website Usability Best Practices • AWS Cloudfront Content Delivery Network (CDN)
• Project Management • AWS Elastic Beanstalk (Auto-Scaling Web Servers)
• ADA / WCAG 2.0 Compliance • Python Programming - Application Development
• Live Staff Training • PostgreSQL - Database Programming
• Google Analytics • ColdFusion - Migration to more modern technologies
• Form and PDF Automation • JSON API Development - Integration with your servers
• Data Import/Export • Mapping - GIS / ESRI / ARCGIS / OpenLayers / Google
• Consulting Maps
• Off-Site Data Backup

Contact Information
Mailing Address:
Evo Studios, Inc.
P.O. Box 3614
Parker, CO 80134
Contact Person:
John McKown
jmckown@evogov.com
855-386-4681, x100
fax: 302-536-5096
Websites:
• www.evogov.com - local government services and portfolio.
• www.evo.cloud - software platform website with details on our software and hosting.
• www.evo.studio - corporate website only.
• www.evo311.com - Our 311 / GIS platform launching in 2017.

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Company Mission Statement
Our mission is to become the preferred website and internet application vendor for local governments,
membership associations, and utility companies from across North America.
We will achieve this goal by providing the very best technology, support, and exceptional value to our
customers.
We greatly value our relationships with our employees, customers, and partners. For our company to thrive,
these relationships must also thrive.
We are proud to offer solutions that serve and empower very large groups of people. To us, this work is very
rewarding because it directly affects many people in positive ways.
Our business success and profitability are a direct result of the value we put on our relationships, performance
and ethics.

EvoGov Staff
We are a small company, employing just 10 staff members. This is by design, as we no longer need an in-
house networking team to manage a datacenter as we once did. When we operated our own datacenter in
Delaware (from 2001-2012), we had 20 staff members. Many of those staff members made up our network
operations and hosting support team. Our latest, proven website software now runs on the Amazon Web
Services (AWS) cloud platform and has zero downtime. This enables us to focus on building and testing our
software instead of managing computer servers. Our smaller size keeps costs low for our customers, and
allows us to move extremely quickly to service our customers and bring new solutions (like GIS and 311) to
market. In other words, bigger is not always better.
With our considerable experience in the competitive website industry (over 15 years), we we have found
it necessary to not publish our staff biographies and private staff information in our proposals for security
reasons. We are very careful about whom we hire, and we employ a solid team of professionals who have
successfully built very large government websites that are live today.
The President's bio and welcome message is located at www.evogov.com/about. Each project that we are
awarded is assigned a Project Manager, a Developer, and a Programmer. Our longevity and experience,
superior software and platform, portfolio of results, and customer testimonials prove that we have found the
right balance of staffing and technology to provide you with the best value possible.

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Your Current Situation
Current Situation: Built Using W
WordPress
ordPress
The Village of Roscommon, Michigan is would like to redevelop their website to make it more attractive, easier
to use and easier to manage using a purpose-built municipal Content Management System (CMS).
The Village of Roscommon, Michigan's current website was built using Wordpress, which is a popular open-
source blogging platform. The problem with using Wordpress to run a municipal website is that it requires
many third-party plugin applications from various developers to add functionality to the website. This makes
the website fragile, and can lead to the website being compromised.
Village of Roscommon, Michigan’s staff has done a great job of working with the WordPress for some time, but
they would like to have the website professionally designed and hosted on a more stable and robust platform
that will help them to better serve the community. A municipal CMS designed specifically for the needs of local
governments will make the website more useful and reliable. The Village of Roscommon, Michigan would also
benefit greatly by having this updated website hosted on a municipal CMS platform that allows more than one
department or user to manage their content in the website, without incurring additional web design fees.
A modern municipally-focused CMS will give the Village of Roscommon, Michigan much more application
functionality, such as; customer request tracking, a staff Intranet, online bill-pay functions, mapping,
calendaring, and much more. This professional, custom-designed website will improve the brand and image
of the city to reflect the unique heritage of the area, and will better serve the community and employees for
years to come.
Benefits of replacing WordPress with a new CMS:
• Group Level Security on Content - Something that Wordpress can't do is enable departments to
manage their own areas easily.
• Remove Plugins - What makes Wordpress insecure is the fact that you need many plugins from various
vendors to add functionality to your website. All of our features are included without the need for
plugins, making your website safer.
• No Control Panel Software Required - Wordpress requires use of control panel software to host it.
This is usually controlled by companies like Godaddy.
• Scalable Cloud Hosting - CPanel servers that host Wordpress at GoDaddy and other hosts are
typically not setup to scale as our cloud environment does. Control Panel software has limits for storage,
bandwidth, etc. Our system includes unlimited users and storage.
• Free SSL Encryption - Your website will get a free SSL certificate as long as we host your website.
• Easy To Create Sub-Sites - We can setup additional websites using your new design for about $10 per
month. You can use these to host websites for events for small associations and non-profit
organizations in your community.

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Current Website - roscommonvillage.com

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Current Situation - Design
We took some time to look at your website, and we have outlined some of the issues that we found and how
ew would correct them in this section below. This is all work that we would include as part of your project.

No Mobile Features
The current website is not mobile friendly, which means that it simply does not contain the necessary layouts
for the website to display well on mobile devices, tablets, and laptop/desktops at the same time. With close to
50% of website users now using mobile devices, this is a big usability challenge.
Solution: Make the website mobile/responsive
The new website will be built using the bootstrap framework (www.getbootstrap.com) which enables the
website to automatically sense the screen size of the visitor’s device, and change its layout based on that
size. In addition to the size and shape of the website changing using the new mobile framework, the
navigation systems will also automatically adjust for smart phones so that they can be navigated using a
finger instead of a mouse.
Responsive Web Design is the latest, best way to build websites, and it is the only way that we build
websites. You can learn more about Responsive Web Design here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Responsive_web_design

Main Menu System is Inadequate


The current website has a traditional column-flyout menu system at the top of the website, and another menu
that runs down the left side of the website. We would like to see the website have eight or so main selections
that are based on AUDIENCES using the site, with action buttons married to those link panels. Long columns
with flyouts have fallen out of fashion, because they are difficult to scan easily.
Solution: Implement a New Mega Menu System
Mega menus are a great solution to this problem. They are displayed with typically eight or fewer traditional
main links across the top of the website, under the logo header. When visitors mouse-over one of the eight
main link choices, a large link panel appears that is as wide as the entire website. Each "mega panel" has up
to five columns of links, with headings. These menus are attractive, and they eliminate the need for multi-level
flyouts. They also enable the content area to remain full-width. The menu below shows how multiple columns
can be displayed at once in a mega menu, with action buttons married to the bottom of each panel.

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Log
Logo/Branding
o/Branding Needs to Be Reworked
The current website has a seal at the top of the page that is blurry, and is not at a good resolution. This detracts
from the overall look and quality of your website, and the image that the website portrays of your City.
Solution: Remaster Logos and Update Branding
We would like to remaster your seal or create a logo for the top of the website that is more attractive, and that
boosts the brand of your City.

Home Page Layout and Slideshow is Dated


The current image slideshow that is on the home page is serving as eye candy more than for actions and
messages at the moment. Since mobile-friendly websites require sites download quickly, we would remove
this slideshow and replace it with a news area that has one image per news item. This will keep the site
informative and lively, without slowing the website down with an image carousel that provides little value to the
visitor.
Today, a more modern trend is to create what we call a “photo rich” design where photography is used in the
background area of the website. Most of our recent work uses this strategy, and creates a stunning website
that is very attractive.
Since websites now have to be mobile-friendly, it no longer makes sense to have a layout that is boxy with
content arranged in square table areas. With a mobile responsive website, the content areas float over the
new photo rich design. Those content areas can contain interactive elements such as news calendars action
button areas, etc. These floating content areas can then rearrange themselves based on the screen size of
the visitor.
This creates a beautiful website that is clean and easy to use. The overall design is much more flat, and does
not need to use as many gradients of the same color because the background photos add richness to the
design.
We do offer embeddable slideshows like the one on your current homepage, but we like to use these with
action buttons messages and to give visitors more interactivity. These embeddable slideshows can be placed
at the top of multiple departments and economic development areas and your website to make those areas
more interactive.

Lack of Photography
The existing website has a few small photos in the top header but generally it is lacking in quality photography.
Not having photos in the design of the site can cause the design to appear cold and flat.
Solution:
The current trend in website design is to use much larger higher resolution photography to create what we call
a “photo rich design”. Photography can add tremendous impact to the design as you will see in our sample
website projects. The biggest challenge however is in obtaining quality photography that can work with this
design strategy. Photos will need to be at least 2000 pixels in width to work in the new design.
The county will need to provide quality photography for the new website project in a timely manner (within 30
days). We will supply and online storage area to upload these photos to us, using Dropbox.com.
The seal image at the top of the website will also need to be provided in the original file format such as an
.EPS or .AI file.

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Website Needs New Action Buttons
The current website needs a new set of action buttons for bill-payment, and other actions without scrolling the
page. The new project should identify the main actions that need to appear on the home page, and perhaps
in the menus of the website.
Solution: Contextual Menu Buttons
We would like to marry the action buttons to the new Mega Menus that we would create for your website. This
will enable you to have many new action buttons on your website. A new, main action button menu bar should
also be added for global links like; "Pay a Bill", "Submit a Request", "GIS Maps", "Contact Us", and more.
Sample Action Buttons from the website we built for the City of Benton, Arkansas

Site Needs Social Media Integration


The current website does not interface well with social media accounts.
Solution: Embed Feeds into Website
We will work with your team to embed live social media feeds directly into your website.
Facebook pages can be used as a feed in a live stream within any page of your website.
Twitter can serve as a way to offer your end users a free mobile notification system, because when your
end users follow your Twitter account they can opt-in to get mobile notifications. This costs you nothing, and
provides you with a way to implement emergency broadcasts easily. Most organizations have multiple Twitter
accounts; one for general news posts, and another for emergency broadcasts.

Existing Site Issues: Search Needs Improving


After building many website search applications over the years ourselves, we have opted for a paid Google
search for our customers for the best possible search experience. We will pay Google annually to create a
custom search engine for your website, that uses Google's technology but that at the same time eliminates
advertisements in the search results. This Custom Google Search is in addition to the meeting/agenda search
system that we built which searches through all of your meetings, agendas, minutes, and meeting packet files.

ADA / WCAG 2.0 Not in Compliance for Visitors with Disabilities


The current websites do not have printer-friendly pages, text re-sizers, and other requirements to make them
compliant to the WCAG 2.0 specification, which replaces the website recommendations in the Americans
with Disability Act (ADA), which is considered the standard for usability testing for users that have eyesight
disabilities and other challenges. One of the site has Adobe Flash code in it, and that code should be removed
becuase it also breaks compliance.
Solution:

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Using our experience in building large websites that require WCAG compliance, we will use the W3c's
compliance guide to review your website to ensure that it meets the latest requirements. We will also include
accessibility training as part of the overall CMS training.

Staff Cannot Make Design Changes to The Website


The current CMS that the website is on does not provide access to the design files of the website. This causes
the following problems:
• Edits to the header and footer areas of the website have to be done by the current website vendor.
• New, custom layout templates for departments within the municipality cannot be created. This means
that all pages have to have the same layout, which is not flexible for the on-staff web developers.
• Applications cannot be placed within pages because there is no template access.
• There is no versioning available for template changes, since they are not accessible.
• The web development staff cannot add scripts to the website easily. This is a problem because it is
common to need to add analytics scripts and other scripts (like live chat) to websites from time to time.
In the current site, this would have to be performed by the existing vendor.
• CSS changes are not possible in the current CMS. CSS is how web developers change colors, fonts,
background images, and logos in the website. This makes it impossible to improve the look and feel of
the current website by your in-house developers.

Solution:
Our Evo Cloud website and application platform (www.evo.cloud) enables your in-house developer staff to
have complete access to all of the design file areas of your website. These areas also include automatic
versioning, so that if a mistake is made in the design, the templates can be rolled-back to a previous version
to keep your website design safe.
Your developers will have complete access to:
• Themes – You can create multiple themes for your website, which will “re-skin” the entire site. This
makes it possible to have seasonal design changes to the entire site.
• Page Layout Templates
• CSS Files – A built-in CSS editor makes it possible to change all of your CSS entries. This editor also
includes a LESS compiler and SASS compiler is coming soon. This makes it possible to change the
colors, backgrounds, buttons, and design of all page elements.
• Scripts – This gives your staff the ability to add scripts to your website. This is very important for adding
new functionality to your website. Before uploading a new script, check with us to see if we have it
already in our CDN, which will make your site faster.
• Evo Cloud CDN – We offer a Content Delivery Network (CDN) website for the most common scripts, like
the Bootstrap mobile scripts and accompanying CSS files. This CDN is located at https://cdn.evo.cloud,
and we can add new scripts to this easily. This makes it easier for use to have a centralized location for
the most common JavaScript and CSS libraries that most websites will need. The Bootstrap Responsive
Mobile scripts are a great example of this. This CDN website also has built-in GZip compression, which
speeds up all of your web pages.
• Sandboxes – We can create a clone of your website, which enables your developers to experiment with
design changes. Those can then be saved out as a new theme, and applied to the live website once they
are ready.

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Sitemap Missing
The current website is missing an an important file that is called a Sitemap.xml file. You can visit /sitemap.xml
at the end of your domain name and see that it is missing. One of the key elements needed for a good search
engine optimization strategy is to have an XML sitemap in your website, which Google will read to index your
website. Without this file, searches for content in your website are less accurate, and some content may be
missed by Google entirely. Since this file is missing, it is very likely that you do not have a Google Webmaster
Tools account setup for your city. This is necessary to monitor how Google sees your site, and what problems
may exist with the links and content in your website.
Solution:
Our CMS platform automatically generates this sitemap file, which helps your site get indexed more easily by
Google. We will also help you to setup Google Webmaster Tools, and review the overall SEO quality of your
website.

Current Situation - Applications


Meeting and Agenda Management Needs Updating
The current site has a calendar system that is somewhat difficult to use. The search is cumbersome and the
website doesn't offer a simple URL to get to the meeting calendar. The meeting and event calendar is also not
mobile friendly.
Solution: Dedicated Meeting/Agenda management system in our CMS
We offer a simple URL to get to the meeting calendar. For your website, this would be "/meetings". This new
meeting calendar will be mobile-friendly, and much easier to search. Our meeting calendar includes a minutes
and agendas search engine, which makes it possible to search within files that are attached to meetings.
Meetings and Agendas are shown in a slit, with their minutes, agendas, and packet files in a grid, making it
dead simple for citizens to get the agendas for upcoming meetings. All departments, committees, and groups
in your website can have their own meeting calendars, which show just their upcoming meetings.

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Meeting Calendar with File Columns:

Meeting Features Takeaways:


• Dedicated Meeting calendars for all departments, committees, and groups.
• Dedicated file fields for meetings (agendas, packets, minutes, audio, video).
• Search engine automatically reads and indexes PDFs, office documents, and more.
• Unlimited file uploads per meeting.
• Searchable archive of meetings.
• Import service is included in your project, so that we can bring your meeting archives into the system.
• Friendly URL of /meetings and /agendas is automatically generated.
• Each meeting calendar has its own unique URL, so you can link directly to a specific meeting calendar
easily.
• Date-range search is built-in.

Frequently Asked Questions (FA


(FAQ)
Q) Areas
The current website does not include a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) area which could be a great way
to consolidate common questions, answers, and service related content into an easy to search area of the
website. Our content management system includes an FAQ builder which makes managing these areas much
easier. You can also create multiple FAQ areas within the website, so it would be possible to use the FAQ
builder to create a menu of questions and answers for topics related to conservation.

Online Forms Lacking


The current website has a large number of PDF forms that visitors can download and then need to print with a
printer to complete. Online forms that don't require Acrobat to use them are better, and works better on mobile
devices. PDFs that are not fillable electronically on your website should be replaced.

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Form Takeaways:
• Online form builder is included, and is easy to use with drag-and-drop design.
• FOIA compliant archiving of form submissions (staff cannot delete submissions).
• File-Uploads stored in protected area for each form.
• Forms email information and attachments to multiple addresses.
• Form Builder creates a database for all form submissions automatically in real-time.
• Form data can be exported to excel by a date range per-form.
• Form-level permissions to protect data. Only the authorized staff members can see the data.
• Website forms can generate PDFs to automate your forms and licensing (additional fee for PDF template
design).

Job Posting Application Missing


The current website does not include an application for posting job openings, and managing the applicant
information.
Solution: The Evo Cloud CMS comes with an HR Job and Applicant Management System at no
additional Cost.
Here are some of the benefits:
1. Job Notifications - citizens/applicants can sign up for job posting notifications by department, using the
Citizen Portal.
2. Mobile Accessibility - PDF job applications do NOT work well on mobile phones. Your application form
will come with a built-in mobile view, so applicants can apply from their phones.
3. Stored Applicants - All applications are stored in a private database, which is connected to each form
separately. You can assign security to these forms so that only your HR department can view them.
4. Stored Resumes - All resumes that are uploaded using the application form are stored securely.
5. Onboarding - You can use your separate Staff-only secure Intranet site (included free) for onboarding
once someone is hired.

Website Needs Better Calendar/Event Management


Your current website could use better calendar and public event administration. Events, meetings, and public
calendars are some of the most popular areas of your website.
Solution: Multiple Interactive Calendars Per Department, Group, and for Public Events
We will integrate a formal calendar system for posting events, meetings, meeting files, and link the events to
the built-in mapping system. Visitors to the website also be able to subscribe to the calendar, so that they will
automatically have new events appear in their personal calendars as they are added to the website. With the
ability to add multiple calendars, it is also possible to have a calendar for each committee or group that are
part of the City.
Sample Public Event Calendar we built for the City of Placerville, California

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Website Needs Interactive Maps
The current website does not include interactive maps for economic development, parks and recreation,
municipal buildings, or other facilities. This makes it more difficult to learn about and find facilities. Economic
development is also impacted because properties cannot be easily marketed using maps.
Solution:
Our CMS includes interactive mapping features and dedicated facilities pages for displaying your facilities.
Here is a list of features that will be great for your new website:
• Google Maps integration is built-in with our CMS.
• Create layers in maps.
• Create pushpins on maps, which then link to Facilities Pages.
• Facilities pages include; photo galleries, directions, news, and events integration to each location.
• Draw boundaries on maps, outlining neighborhoods, parks, and other areas. (new for 2017).
• Draw lines on maps, and create custom maps for road construction and other uses (new for 2017).
• PostGIS geospatial database for storing map locations as native GIS data.
• Push-Pull from established GIS servers like ESRI (new for 2017).

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• Create multiple maps for economic development, with their own combinations of layers:
• business corridors
• business parks
• land for sale
• businesses for sale
• economic zones

Email Newsletters and Messaging Needs Improvement


No matter what your current newsletter solution is, we can either integrate outside vendors or you can use the
built-in newsletter system that comes with our CMS. We include the design of a newsletter template with each
project, and we can design additional templates for a small fee.

News and Event Areas Could be Displayed Better


Due to the multi-column layout of the home page of the website, the news and events areas don't have much
room to show content. The events area for the calendar is especially limited. One method to display this
content better is to have news and events in a combined area of your new site design using a switching panel.
Sample switcher that shows news and events in the same area on the page

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Emergency Alert System Missing
The current website has no easy way of implementing emergency alerts into the website.
Solution: Pre-Built Emergency Alert Systems
• Scrolling Alerts:
When the website is rebuilt, it should include a system for posting emergency alerts in real time. Our
approach to this would be to create a scrolling message ticker that can be activated across the website
with a single mouse click.
• Emergency Home Page Design
With our CMS, it is now possible to have more than one home page design, which enables you to have a
emergency home page design that is pre-built and easily deployed in case of an emergency. The
emergency home page can include important safety information that is pre-programmed and ready to go.
This could include slideshows and other important announcements that are normally hidden.
• Email Messaging Templates
It is possible to create templates for email messages, including emergency alerts.

Existing Site Issues: Newsletter Signup Form Missing


Village of Roscommon, Michigan currently uses Constant Contact for email newsletters, however, there does
not appear to be a sign-up form on the website for visitors to sign up to receive the newsletters. As a solution,
we would integrate the Constant Contact newsletter sign-up widget into the new website. This will make it
easier to get more subscribers to your newsletters.

No Content Versioning
The current website CMS does not offer versioning of content. This makes it too easy to accidentally overwrite
content or delete content from the website. Most applications in the Evo Cloud platform include versioning.
Design files and templates are also versioned, making it safer to update the website without fear. We will also
provide a sandbox website (at no charge) to assist you in modifying your design without working on the live
website files if you wish.

Current Situation - Hosting and Security


SSL Security Missing
Most websites do not have SSL security by default. In other words, when you visit the website your domain
name starts with “http”. You can usually tell if a website is secure by the address starting with “https:” and a
padlock appearing next to the site address at the top of the site.
Sites that are encrypted use SSL security certificates to encrypt content from the website visitor’s computer to
the server that is hosting the website. This prevents third parties from snooping on the data going back and
forth.
In the past, SSL was really only used for ecommerce websites, banking websites, and sensitive online forms.
With recent concern over online surveillance, it is becoming more commonplace to add SSL encryption to ALL
websites, especially government websites. Google has even stated that they will rank websites hire that use
SSL by default.
Currently, your website does not use SSL security by default.
Solution:

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We will create SSL certificates and host them for ALL of your domain names that you host with us. This
includes sub-domains and additional domain names that you might point to your website. We will install
Amazon SSL certificates that use 2048 bit encryption, which is a very high level of encryption. This will make
your website safer to use, and will help you to rank higher in Google for economic development benefits.

Analytics (Traffic Reports) Missing


The current website is missing a solid traffic reporting and website health monitoring system.
Solution:
We will assist you to setup Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, and other services to help you monitor
your website traffic, outdated content, and overall website health.

Site Speed is Slow


The website is currently hosted at a traditional server hosting company which is not using a Content Delivery
Network (CDN) to deliver static content. This can make the website perform at different speeds, depending on
where your website visitors are located. While not a major issue, this does have an effect on your website’s
speed, which then again impacts search engine ranking.
Solution:
We will setup an Amazon CloudFront CDN distribution for your website. This places your images, scripts,
pages, and PDF files in multiple datacenters around the world, which speeds up your website. This works
hand in hand with the SSL security.

Single Domain Name Only Limits Hosting V


Value
alue
The current CMS does not support multiple websites and domains within the same software deployment.
The Evo Cloud platform, by contrast, supports multiple domains, and multiple websites as well. We can help
you to combine multiple websites, or cut your hosting expenses dramatically.
Here are some examples of how you can take advantage of this feature:
• Create a Sub-Domain for a Department
Create a domain like police.cityofchesapeake.net and have that forward to the /police section of your
website. We call this a "forwarded sub-domain", because it automatically forwards to a section of the
master website.
• Create a Sticky Domain for a Department
Using the same Police Department example, you could create yourpolicedepartment.com, and have that
be a "sticky" domain that loads content from the /police section of your website. To the end user, they are
looking at a standalone website. In reality, it is a section of your CMS that has its own design templates
(look and feel), and its own domain name and menus.
• Create a Secondary Website as a Staff Intranet
You can create staff.yourdomain.com and require a login to browse the public side of the website. This
creates a secured staff website (remember, SSL is free with us), and you can use that as your staff
website. there is NO CHARGE for this website.
• Ideas for Sub-Domains and Sticky Domains:
• A Library website
• Websites for City committees
• Sites for small local non-profits

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• Economic development website portal
• Parks and recreation website
• Tourism / attractions microsite

Multiple Websites for Small Org


Organizations
anizations Could Help Outreach
Our Evo Cloud platform makes it possible to host multiple websites and domain names into in one system.
This means that we can take several smaller sites that the county manages and post them together within one
website system. This will save money with hosting, site management, and support.
Additional City and Town Websites within [ClientCompany}
Once the new website is completed, it will be possible to clone the design of the site to create additional
smaller sites for separate local area organizations in and around Village of Roscommon, Michigan.
Using a common design team and platform for websites, it would be easy for us to create additional sites to
help out other organizations in your area. This could help with goals like economic development, outreach and
communication with citizens in customers and employers within the City.
By working with our company, each of those small organizations could have a website up and working in a
matter of days or weeks, and for a very small fee. We are very interested in helping small nonprofits, cities,
towns, and other organizations within your City who may not be able to afford to build a new website on their
own. This will create a lot of positive energy around your [MuniType, and the benefits that you provide to the
surrounding communities.

Project Plan and Methodology


Philosophy
Web technology is constantly evolving, and so to the techniques for building websites. Today’s techniques
for website development are very different than they were even four years ago. Since we began in 1997, our
process for planning, building, and maintaining large websites has constantly improved as we adhere to the
latest standards and use the latest technologies.

Process
The experiences we have in building hundreds of high-performance websites have taught us a lot of lessons.
Every project has challenges that must be overcome, but challenges and delays can be minimized with a
formal project lifecycle plan, which you can see below.

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Project Portal
Evogov employs a web-based project management and time tracking system that was built by our company,
and that we sell commercially. If awarded your project, your website committee members will each get a login
to the system. Once you log into the system, your team would have access to all notes, files, time entries, and
files that are associated with your project. The system makes it easy to send us large files to be used in your
project, without the need to send them as email attachments. This is one of the ways that we keep projects
moving along quickly.

Development Methodology – Stages of Development


To ensure that the new website is everything that the municipality needs it to be, we must look at WHY the
current website is unattractive and not performing well. From our experience, we know why. Many design
firms tend to create boxes on a screen, and fill them with content. This is how the current website was built.
The result is a website that is made up of boxes, within boxes, within boxes, without regard to the overall
interface design and usability for citizens. Our solution to this and other design problems is straightforward
and proven. It is listed below.
1. Interviews – From the first kickoff meeting, interviews with the website stakeholders must take place to
firm up the requirements, goals, and necessary content.
2. Research – The project cannot be built in a vacuum, so research must be performed to look at other
municipal websites to make sure that important website features and strategies are not overlooked.
Reports will be done against other websites to see how they are performing in terms of traffic and search
engines.
3. Wire framing - Requirements are then prepared into a concept map (see below) to incorporate the site’s
structure, navigation menus, necessary content, audiences, and goals. Much like building a house, this
map will serve as the blueprint that is necessary before construction will begin. The great thing about
this approach is that it makes it easier to develop navigation systems that will make all content easy to
reach in the website(s).
4. Rough Drafts – Rough sketches showing sample layouts of the website are created from the initial
meetings, concept maps, research notes, and the supplied content. These sketches help to formulate a
game plan for the design layout of the required prototypes. Working on paper and marker boards allows
our team to work together to review the direction of the designs before work is done in Photoshop and
Illustrator.
5. Prototyping – This is where the rubber meets the road for the design of the website. Drafts are used as
inspiration for design prototypes, which are designed in Photoshop and Illustrator. Instead of working in
code, designs are built with the interface in mind first.

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Designing Y
Your
our Site – Wireframe Planning
Wireframes are used to plan the navigations menus and how users will easily click through the website to get
where they need to go. Wireframes are necessary for site planning before graphics can be finalized. Creating
these navigation wireframes takes a significant amount of time, and can only be created after we are awarded
a project. The example below is a portion of a wireframe from a recent project.

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Responsive Website Design for Mobile and Tablets

All websites projects we build are now developed upon the most popular responsive framework named
"bootstrap" (www.getbootstrap.com) and are fully responsive. What "responsive" means is that the full version
of your site is available on any tablet or mobile device, regardless of the screen size and only one site is used,
rather than different sites for each kind of device.
You will automatically receive a single, fully-responsive site that presents all the content of your website on
any platform or device. The responsive format is recommended by Google as the preferred solution and is
completely seamless for the end-user.

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EvoGov Designs and References
Online Portfolios
• See our design portfolio online at www.evogov.com/work
• Browse our turn-key layouts online at www.evogov.com/themes.

City of Ketchikan, Alaska

Contact Work Performed


Randy Cooper • Complete site overhaul
Senior Programmer/Analyst • Bid System
City of Ketchikan, Alaska • Photo-rich design
Office: 907-228-5615 • Mega menu navigation system
Email: randyc@city.ketchikan.ak.us • CMS and application integration
Site: http://www.ktn-ak.us • Mobile/responsive framework
• Live training

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Union County, Ohio - http://www.co.union.oh.us/

Contact Work Performed


Wade Branstiter • Complete site overhaul
E-Mail: wbranstiter@co.union.oh.us • Photo-rich design
Phone: (937) 645-3054 • Mega menu navigation system
http://www.co.union.oh.us/ • CMS and application integration
• Mobile/responsive framework
• Live training of over 40 users.

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City of Sandy, Oreg
Oregon
on

The City of Sandy, Oregon Work Performed


39250 Pioneer Blvd. • Custom, photo-rich responsive design
Sandy, OR 97055 • Full screen slideshow
503-668-5533 • Responsive, mobile-friendly bootstrap framework
• Complete site overhaul
Website: http://www.ci.sandy.or.us
• Intranet and content management system
• Staff training

Photo-rich design with minimalistic expandable navigation

Alternating background images

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Expanded navigation menu system with live content in the menus

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Interactive Google Maps for Parks Department

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City of Ocean City, NJ

The City of Ocean City New Jersey Work Performed


861 Asbury Avenue • Complete site overhaul
Ocean City, New Jersey 08226 • Intranet and Content
Max Hurst Management System
IT Department • Off-site backup for financial
Email: mhurst@ocnj.us system
Phone: (609) 525-9440 • Email hosting
Website: www.ocnj.us • On-site training

Updated responsive design - launching April 2015

Mega-menu navigation system with integrated action buttons and news areas

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Township of Nutley, New Jersey

Township of Nutley, New Jersey Work Performed


Contact: • Complete site overhaul
Jason Kirk • Intranet and Content
jkirk@nutleynj.org Management System
(973) 284-4951 x2113 • Off-site backup for financial
system
Preview URL: • Email hosting
http://nutley.staging.evogov.com • On-site training

Approved Concept for New Website (April 2015)

View showing mega menu system

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1. Project Scope of W
Work
ork
1.0 Scope of W
Work
ork
The Development Services to be performed by the Developer on this project are limited to the scope of work
set forth in paragraphs 1.1, 1.2 ,1.3 and 1.4. Additions and changes to the scope of the project made by the
Client will be billed as hourly work separate from this project. Developer will alert client when any work will
result in an additional charge before the work is performed, and a change order will need to be signed for the
additional work. Unless otherwise stated in the narrative of this proposal, all items requested and specified in
the RFP should be considered part of this scope of work and therefore feature-complete for the purposes of
comparison, and the capability of delivering a complete solution as requested.

1.1 Build and Implement a New Website Design


Conduct Kickoff Meetings with Client's Departments
Vendor will conduct kickoff meetings with the Client's departments as necessary. Each kickoff meeting will
be one (1) hour in length, and will be held as a teleconference with Internet screen sharing. Live in-person

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meetings are available for the Client from the Vendor, but those travel meetings are quoted outside of this
proposal's scope of services.
Project Guides
Vendor will provide online project guides for the project. These will include, but are not limited to, the following
project guides:
• Contacting EvoGov
• Uploading Your Files to EvoGov
• Flow Charting & Prototyping Resources
• Kickoff Meeting Agenda and Topics
• Design Choices and Themes
• Department Pages (Dynamic Options)
• Jobs and HR Considerations
• Parks Departments (for local municipalities and counties)
• FAQ & "How Do I" Ideas and Examples
• Photo Specifications
• Optional Applications
• Forms (web, database, PDF, wizard forms)
• Maps & GIS Features
• Content Checklist for Departments
• Spreadsheets Needed from IT/HR
• Staff Training Guides
• ADA Compliance Topics
• Hosting Services & Design Refresh Options

Develop structural wireframe flow charts


A flow chart will be developed to help plan the organization, navigation system, and content of the website.
The wireframe will serve as a guide to assist with planning and organizing development of the design template.
Develop interactive navigation megamenus
Developer will consult with Village of Roscommon, Michigan to organize the navigation systems of the web
site and to develop a site structure for organizing the site data. This organization step will be done to improve
the usability of the web site for site visitors. Website content (provided by the Client) will then be integrated
into the new design of the web site when the site structure is complete.
Design custom graphic interfaces for the website
A website design prototype of the home page and one interior page will be created by the Developer and will
be submitted for approval by the Client. The design concepts will initially be a flat image representing the new
look of the website home page and interior pages. Developer provides up to three revisions to the initial design
concept. Once the design has been approved, this design will be coded into the working web site. Developer
will strive to use the latest web standards (such as CSS3 and HTML5), to build the web site.
Create contact lists, email forms, staff directories
Developer will integrate a directory for the website listing points of contacts in their organization. Visitors will
be able to send email from the contact lists to The Client’s staff. Staff list spreadsheets will be imported, and
dynamic department pages will be generated.
Migrate existing client content
Any written material, such as the store/history of the company, brochures, or other content which is provided
by The Client will be useful for site visitors will be implemented into the website. Where necessary, Developer
will recreate the graphics and data so that it is optimized for the web site and search engines. Content provided
to The Developer should be digital (Word Documents, PDFs, etc.), and not hand-written or printed. The Client
can add additional content to the website at any time on their own using the new Content Management System
(CMS).

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Mobile-Friendly Website
As part of this project, Developer will build responsive, mobile-friendly versions of the website using CSS
templates for smartphones and tablets. This is not the same as an iOS (iPhone) or Android application,
which would be distributed through the Apple App or Google Play Stores. By using mobile web standards,
your website will work well on Android, iOS, and other smartphone browsers without the need to download
and install separate applications. On few occasions, it is possible that certain types of interactive and
graphic content, such as slideshows may be used on the desktop version, but not on the mobile site. This is
purely due to their impact on the user experience and download speed limitations of mobile devices. Other
than these limited instances, you can rest assured that any visitor to the site using any kind of device will still
have the full set of options, features and content that are available. This is a distinct advantage to the
majority of our competitors who are not utilizing responsive frameworks. The applications and mobile sites
they create to "work around" using responsive design subsequently strips the site down to a bare minimum of
functionality, then adding buttons which simply open up their non-mobile web site links in the device's
browser. Another advantage you will gain from a responsive site is that managing the mobile-specific website
content items or the various app store platform's applications, reviews, approvals and updates is eliminated.

Live Video Streaming and Video Integration


Developer will integrate a live video player from TikiLive.com, Ustream.tv, or other similar service that is
obtained separately by City. This will enable live video streaming of meetings onto the website.
Recorded Video and Audio Players
The EvoGov CMS comes with video and audio players built-in. Video files and audio files can be uploaded
easily into the Media Library, then you can drag the media player into any page. There is also a dedicated
YouTube button in our CMS Editor, which allows you to paste the URL of the video instead of requiring an
embed code.
Interactive Photo Slideshows
Developer will create an animated slideshow that will be used in the design of the home page for added
interactivity. The slideshow does not rely on Adobe Flash, which will allow the website to be viewed on Apple
devices such as an iPhone and the iPad. The slideshows are controlled from within the CMS system, so that
the Client may add new photos to the slide show and adjust the timing of the show. It is possible to have
multiple slideshows in the website, and Developer will work with the client to add them where necessary.

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1.2 Integrate the EvoCloud Content Management System
Developer will install the EvoGov CMS to enable management of the website’s content. This system includes
the ability to add pages, edit pages, upload images, upload files, and edit the website’s navigation systems. An
administration panel allows the Client’s management staff to assign permissions to staff members for editing
the site.
CMS FEATURE LIST

Security
• SSL Encryption Included Free
• 2048-bit encryption SSL certificates from Amazon Web Services for all domains.
• Sale encryption level as online banking websites.
• No need to purchase SSL certificates every year.
• User Security
• Multi-Level Security Model
• Applications, Groups, Departments, Roles, and Admin levels of access to permits users to edit only
what they are supposed to.
• User Groups and Draft-only options for control of who can post content.
• Non-Destructive Deletions
• Data deleted in the system by users isn’t physically deleted ever.
• Administrators can reactivate deleted pages and data.
• Ensures FOIA compliance.

Domains and Multiple Sites


Have multiple domain names? You can use them all with us easily.
The incredible flexibility that we give you with domain names, sub-sites, micro sites, SSL, and secure staff
websites is unmatched.
Here is what you can do with EvoCloud:
• Sub-Domains
• Example - Create Sub-Domains for departments; police.yourcity.com , library.yourcity.com , etc.
Point those sub-domains at pages in your site.
• Domain Redirects
• Example yourcitypolice.com points to the /police homepage in your website.
• Sticky Domains - NEW AND GREAT!
• These are a bit harder to explain, but they are the greatest thing to happen to domains in a CMS!
• Creates multiple websites with their own domains within one main website.
• Merge multiple websites together into one platform, with multiple domain name and multiple designs,
all in one platform.
• Using the police department example from the two previous domain examples, here is what you can
do:
• yourcitypolice.com is pointed at yourcity.com in our admin.
• The redirect is set to be "Sticky" in our admin. Sticky domains are a special type of redirect.
• The target is chosen for this new Sticky domain, in this case it is the /police page in the CMS,
which would be the police department home page.
• The police department home page uses a custom design template.
• The police home page and interior pages have their own custom design.
• The police templates use their own menus, thus "trapping" the visitor in the police section of the
city's website.

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• To the end user, the yourcitypolice.com website is its own standalone website.
• NO ADDITIONAL HOSTING FEES.
• Staff Intranet
• Included FREE with hosting of your City website.
• Complete Second Secure Website for your Staff
• 2048-bit SSL security certificate for free.
• Full CMS features.
• LDAP Login capability - use your Windows login to gain access.

Web Page Builder / Editor


• Add unlimited pages to your website.
• Visual editor - No need to know HTML
• Drag and drop media management
• Unlimited Page Layouts
• Widget Manager for Drag-and-drop applications into pages
• Friendly URLs everywhere
• Multiple URLs per page - useful for tracking promotions, handling misspellings.
• Paste content from Microsoft Word.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) features.
• EVERY save is version controlled - system creates backups of every save to every page!
• Permissions down to the page level.
• HTML Code access to all pages for HTML experts.
• Delayed Publishing
• Page Expiration
• Layout Template Chooser - One-click template change per page and application

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Evo Cloud Page Editor

Widgets - Drag and Drop Applications into Y


Your
our Website
• Add applications to pages with zero programming experience
• Add a custom Google Map to a page, showing layers and location points
• Add a Map Location to a Page.
• Add a Map Layer to a Page.
• Staff Directory List
• File Lists (great for displaying synchronized file archives)
• Slideshows
• Video Player with playlist
• Audio Player with playlist
• News Box
• Calendars

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Menu for drag-and-drop applications

Media Library
File Manager for your Website
• Unlimited Files and Folders
• Multi-File Drag and Drop
• Real-time Image Editor
• Resize (percentage or pixel sizes)
• Crop
• Flip
• Restore (restores original file)
• Drag and Drop PDFs and any other file type
• Friendly Names on all files for file lists in pages
• Replace a file and all links in your website change automatically.
• Searchable PDFs and Office Documents
• Live previews

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Carousel Slideshow Manager
• Drag photos into media library
• Custom sizes for slideshows
• Embed slideshows into any page
• Show or hide slideshow controls
• Responsive / Mobile slideshows
• Add titles and sub-titles to slides
• Add action buttons to slides
• Position action buttons in custom locations per slide
• Works with custom templates to add custom slideshows to department pages.

Social Media Integration


• Push to Social buttons on all content.
• Live Twitter Feed Embed
• Live Facebook Feed Embed

Videos
• Built-In Video Player with Playlists
• YouTube Embed feature in any content (Pages, FAQs, More).
• YouTube Channel Embed
• Video Live Meeting Streaming

Menus - Navig
Navigation
ation Menus and Meg
Mega
a Menus
Manage links and navigation areas across your website easily.
• Mega Menu Builder (large Multi-Column Menus)
• Action Button Options for Mega Menus
• Side Menu Builder for Pages
• Custom Menus per section or department
• Action Button menus using Glyph Icons from our built-in Content Delivery Network (CDN) for code

Mega Menu with multiple columns and native action buttons on each panel

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Action bar menu using glyph icons - over 5000 icons provided in our system

Calendars / Events / Meeting


Meetingss & Agendas
The calendar system in EvoCloud is robust.
• Unlimited calendars in your website.
• Setup calendars for groups, departments, committees, and boards with their own permissions.
• Clone events for up to a year with easy recurring event interface.
• Events are rich and allow multimedia - add images, file links, hyperlinks, videos, and more to your
events.
• Special /Agendas and /Meetings interface built-on to show upcoming meetings with file attachments.
• Embed calendars anywhere in the site.
• List, Day, Week, Month, and Year views.
• Push-To-Home-Page feature for important events.
• Community Calendars enable event suggestions - Community groups can suggest events for your
calendar that you can approve.
• ICal subscriptions - get notifications when new events are added to a calendar.
• RSS Feed Generator for calendars.

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Dedicated meetings page showing upcoming meetings and the agendas, packets, and other files.

News Posting
Postingss / News Sliders
• Unlimited separate news areas
• Unlimited news postings
• Security on each news area
• Push-To-Home-Page option for important news.
• Multiple Display Options
• Show news items in a paginated list.
• Show news in a news slider box (great for home pages.
• Search engine for searching news.
• RSS Feed Generator for news areas

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Home page showing the News Slider in the bottom left.

Google Maps, Map Layers, and Map Locations (Facilities)


• Master Map - A Global map is automatically generated for your website at the "/maps" address, showing
all layers.
• Custom Maps - Generate custom maps with any combination of locations and layers you wish.
• Map Layers
• Create map layers for office buildings, parking lots, parks, historic locations, there is no limit to the
layers.
• Map Locations
• Moveable pin locations, for places that don't have a street address.
• Create individual Map Locations, creates a special landing page in the site for each Location.
• Photo Gallery on each Location.
• News items tied to that location are show.
• Events tied to that location are shown.
• Ability to link to a location, or embed it into a page.

Department Pages / Custom Page Layouts


• Create your own custom departmental home page and content page (interior page) layouts by
department
• Create custom landing pages for departments, groups, committees, events, promotions, and more.
• Custom layouts and department pages can have their own domain names (no extra charge).
• Complete code access and versioning of updates right in the admin.
• Custom CSS, colors, fonts, scripts, and more right in the admin.
• Security per template.

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HR Job Posting Manager
• Create Job Postings by Department
• Interfaces with the User Portal so that your customers can sign up for job posting alerts.
• Allows applications to apply online
• Uploaded resumes are stored.
• Database created of all applicants for each job.
• Export database to Excel in the admin.
• Automatic emails to multiple staff.

Emergency Alerts and Notifications


• Create scrolling alerts that appear across the top of your home page, an interior page, or across your
entire site.
• Create pre-made mass emails for emergencies.
• Create emergency home page designs that can be deployed in seconds.
• Create pop-up messages for alerts.
• Create slideshows that can be shown or hidden if there is an emergency.
• Create an emergency menu system that has links to important public safety information.
• Communications Officer Interface coming in 2017 for sending mass text messages.

Analytics / Traffic Reports / Live Chat / Language Translation


• Traffic reports from Google Analytics and Clicky.com built in easily.
• Language Translation for many languages using Google Translate.
• Live chat options are available.

Customer (Citizen) Portal


All sites come with a Customer Portal, where your customer can create an account, log in, and sign up for
services.
• Create an account
• Subscribe to Email Newsletter Topics
• Subscribe to Job Postings by Department
• Subscribe to Bid Notifications by Bid Category
• Submit Bids to the Bid System
• Update contact profile
• Manage RSS feeds

Bid System (NEW!)


• Create Bid Categories
• Create Bid Postings
• Track views on bids
• Turn on/off signup to view bids
• Track bid downloads
• Accept bids online securely
• Prevents staff from viewing bids early.
• All changes and additional files added to bids are mass e-mailed to all parties automatically
• Bid list is displayed in the website automatically

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Mass Email Newsletter System
Newsletter system comes built-into the platform
• Create and manage email newsletter topics.
• Opt-Out system
• Reports show how many people open the emails, without the need for a read receipt.
• Delivery of mass emails is billed separately at a rate of $1 per 1000 emails sent.

Features in Development
• 311 System
• GIS Mapping
• Meeting Streaming / Recording
• Role-Based Systems

1.3 Integrate EvoGov Modules


Bid/Project Manager Module
The Project Management Module is included at no charge with the Help Desk Module. Like the Help Desk
Module, this system enables you to create custom forms in your website for users to submit bids or projects
through your website. You can opt-in members to a project (both staff members and outside members) to gain
access to the project. You can upload files to the project, track time, add links, tasks, notes, and mass email
all the project members from this module. Like the help desk, there are reports built into the system to track
projects. This module may be used to track any kind of project through your website.
Features:
• Included free for municipalities with CMS hosting.
• Online Project Form Design.
• Custom fields in the form designer.
• Unlimited project, with automatic routing.
• Email Alerts for new projects.
• Third-party access to projects through customer portal with permission levels
• Reports
• Citizen Portal enables customers to see their projects.

1.4 Deliverables
Subject to timely payment, the deliverables described hereafter (the "Deliverables") will be provided to Client in
final form upon completion of the tasks described in this Statement of Work. Preliminary or draft versions of these
Deliverables will be made available to Client for review during the Project.

The deliverables will include:

• Images (.jpg, .gif, .png files).


• Graphic source files (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.).
• Database backup file, containing page content.
• Backup of images used in the website.
• CD ROM sent postal mail including content listed above.

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2. Site Review, Maintenance and Training
2.1 Website Management Training
Training to manage the website using all the included applications and systems is included free of charge. This
training is limited to six (6) total hours of live, personal web training over the web. Live web training requires a
phone, computer, and broadband Internet connection.

2.2 In-Person Live Training Option


In-person training at your office is available for a fee to cover our travel expenses. Some municipalities have
special training requirements, and we are happy to quote a training session at your facilities.

2.3 Website Maintenance


EvoGov provides limited maintenance to your new website free of charge for thirty (30) days after your new
website launches. The free changes to your website must not increase the scope of the original project.
Additions to your web site, which are outside the scope of this contract, will be billed at the current hourly rate
for a Delaware.Net web designer. As of the writing of this contract the current Delaware.Net hourly rate for web
design work is $85 per hour. These changes will be rounded to the nearest half-hour. Any changes will be made
in an expedient manner. All hourly rates are subject to change without notice.

3. Service Fees (Hosting)


3.1 Monthly Service Fee
Hosting for the website and applications is provided at a flat fee of $75 per month. We offer an annual discount
if you pre-pay for a year of service. The annual service fee would be $750 if you chose this option.
The service fee includes these software features and services;
• One website hosted on the Evo Cloud website management system (www.evo.cloud).
• EvoBids Bid Management system.
• HR Job Posting system.
• Customer Portal
• Email Newsletter System
• Staff Intranet under a separate domain name (typically staff.yourdomain.com).
• Additional services included in this fee include; data backups, live telephone phone support, and version
upgrades to the on-demand applications.

3.2 Hosting Technical Specifications


The EvoGov CMS and its application modules are hosted at a world-class datacenter in Michigan at Liquid
Web. The system runs on a secure, private cloud infrastructure. Data files (uploads and images) are stored on
Amazon's Content Delivery Network for speed and redundancy. The database server that powers the website
applications runs on Microsoft SQL Server Datacenter Edition. The system has daily integrated data backups,
and is completely managed by our staff. You may take a virtual tour of the facility and read more at the Liquid
Web datacenter page.

3.3 Website Transferability


If you wish to change providers entirely and use another third-party hosting company, then all databases,
uploaded files, and design files will be provided to you at your request. The cost to provide this service would
be billed hourly, and should take more than 3 hours at our standard hourly rates for website design (currently
$85). At this point you would have the site content, without the CMS application to run the site. This content

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would then need to be rebuilt by you into an alternative CMS system, or static pages could be generated from the
backups. Migrations to another software platform is not guaranteed. This cost can’t be calculated easily, because
it is affected by the amount of content in the site, the host it is being moved to, the CMS system selected, and
many other factors. Graphic design and site layout files are provided as per section 5.0 below.

4. Project Timeline
Project Time Estimate
The total time to build this project is estimated to be four to six months. This depends on many factors, including;

• Migration speed of content from old website.


• Speed of submission of new page content.
• Use of a centralized file-sharing system (like dropbox.com).
• Speed in gathering and providing adequate, quality photography (your responsibility).
• Timely meeting scheduling.
• Timely training meetings with your departments.
• Speed of design approval responses.
• Your staff availability due to things like; availability to work on the website project due to other job priorities,
sick days, vacations, budget seasons and other special projects, elections, family emergencies, local
organization emergencies, and many other reasons.

Typical timeline:

• Stage 1: Design - Develop a successful design prototype: 14 days.


• Stage 2: Build - Install applications and CMS system: 30 days. Input client content: 30-90 days.
• Stage 3: Internal Testing – 7 days.
• Stage 4: Launch Prep and Testing – 7-14 days.
• Stage 5: Post-launch Follow-Up – Developer will meet with the Client by phone or in person at 30, 60, and
90 days after the launch of the website to ensure performance.
• Total estimated time to complete project: 17 weeks

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5. One-Time Project Price and Payment
5.1 One-Time Development Fees
Developer is being hired on a fixed-price basis to perform the Services and provide the Deliverables described
above. Any material change in the Services or Deliverables described above requires a written change order
signed by the parties to the Agreement. Such change order may include an adjustment to the price or delivery
dates. The first payment installment is required to begin work.

Website Development Fees:

• Total Project Cost: $6540

Payment Terms: 4 PAYMENTS (OVER $10K)

Four equal payments, will be invoiced at the following milestones.

• Initial Payment: $2180 - invoiced when work begins.


• Second Payment: $2180 - invoiced when the design prototype is approved by the Client.
• Progress Payment: $2180 - invoiced when the design is integrated into the CMS, and applications have
been setup. Typically, website content is halfway migrated into the site at this stage.
• Final Payment: $2180 - invoiced when scope of work in Exhibit A is complete, and training has been
provided. Please note that the new website will only made live on the Internet after final payment has been
received.

Payment Terms: 3 PAYMENTS (UNDER $10K)

Four equal payments, will be invoiced at the following milestones.

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• Initial Payment: $2180 - invoiced when work begins.
• Second Payment: $2180 - invoiced when the design prototype is approved by the Client.
• Final Payment: $2180 - invoiced when scope of work in Exhibit A is complete, and training has been
provided. Please note that the new website will only made live on the Internet after final payment has been
received.

5.2 Recurring Service Fees (Hosting)


Website Hosting Fee:

• EvoGov CMS Hosting Package - $75 per month, or $750 annually if pre-paid.
• Website Content Management System (CMS)
• Access to Messaging Module (Mass email newsletter system)
• Help Desk Module
• Customer Portal
• Staff Intranet
• Bid and Project Management Module
• Free phone support and application upgrades

Potential Additional Fees:


• Mass email delivery Fee: $1 per 1,000 emails sent.*

*The mass email delivery fee is charged only for broadcast newsletter emails that are sent from the newsletter
module. This fee is required because we must pay a third-party vendor (SendGrid.com) to deliver bulk email
messages quickly and reliably so that your messages are not blocked by email providers (like Gmail).

Competitive Adv
Advantages
antages
Why choose EvoGov?
We compete with many other municipal web development organizations from across the country for the
projects that we win. In fact, we compete with as many as 25 other firms from across the USA and Canada to
win a single project. Typically, when we make the final bid round, we find ourselves up against the same three
or four national municipal web companies time after time. We welcome the competition, and we are selected
over these other companies for many reasons. In the end, we think that you will find that we offer a better
website platform, a more open design framework, and a much better value.

How are we better?


Below are some of the many benefits of choosing EvoGov as your website partner that we hope you will consider
when you compare our proposal to our competitors:

• Our website platform is much more than a CMS


All major website vendors offer a Content Management System (CMS) that makes editing your website
easy. Ours goes further for you by providing you with drag and drop image and file uploads, and many
other easy to use features. The real star of the show is the applications that give your website
the functionality you desire, without raising your hosting or development costs. All of our applications are
included free with our hosting, and they are all easy for your staff to use. You don't need to chose
between a "Silver" and a "Gold" package like you will with other venders. ALL of our customers get ALL
of our applications. This makes our hosting plan the best value in the market.
• We include more applications for your project
Every project we build includes the following application suites at no extra cost;

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• Separate Secure Staff Portal Website (Intranet) is included free.
• Meeting calendar system with dedicated search and file areas for agendas, minutes, packets, audio,
and video files.
• Form System
• Form to email, form to PDF, form to database, excel exporter - all built-in!
• 311 Request Tracking System.
• GIS mapping system that may integrate with ESRI.
• Facility Mapping.
• Economic Development Mapping.
• Online Bid and RFP Management System.
• Portal for Citizens and Vendors.
• Mass email system.
• Emergency alert system.
• ADA/WCAG compliance checker is built into our system.
• We offer better website hosting that is more secure, flexible, and reliable - all at a lower cost
• 100% uptime guaranteed - We utilize world-class hosting and DNS service with a zero downtime
guarantee and a Service Level Agreement (SLA) to credit you in case of any downtime.
• Attack resistant - Our hosting is more reliable because it does not utilize static IPs for your website.
Our competitors do not offer this, and that is why their servers have been brought down by DDOS
attacks recently.
• Security everywhere - all domains (and sub-domains too) that we host are secured for you with SSL
security certificates at no charge.
• Faster pages and document downloads - We utilize a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for caching
all of your static website files. This greatly speeds up your website, is included free, and protects
your website against attacks.
• No storage limits - We have designed an auto-scaling storage system so that you no longer need to
worry about storage limits with your website.
• Better uptime with redundancy everywhere - our web servers utilize an auto-scaling infrastructure
that adds new servers in minutes as demand increases. The entire environment is cloned with a hot
backup that is ready to deploy at a moments notice.
• Turn-key and custom design options
• Over 20 turn-key design layouts to build your site quickly with complete customization.
• Bring Your Own Design (BYOD) - bring us your design requests from the website that you admire,
and we will custom-build your new website to your layout specifications.
• Complete design code access and freedom
• Please note - you do not need to know any programming or HTML code to use our CMS.
• We are the ONLY vendor that provides you complete design code access, right in the CMS admin.
This is much better than paying your web company their hourly rate to change a logo, font, color
value, image, button, background image, or make a new layout for a department page.
• Design versioning is built-in - All design code templates are versioned, so if you make a mistake you
can roll-back your changes.
• Drag and drop applications without programming knowledge - we are the only company that enables
you to drag and drop applications into your pages on your own.
• Free support and each of your departments can have their own custom design layout.
• We only offer flat-rate, honest hosting plans
• One fee for ALL applications.
• No "maintenance fees" or other surprise fees.
• No per-user fees.
• Multi-year pricing plans are available - just ask us.
• Expanded training and aftercare
• Multiple training meetings are included for each of your departments, so that you don't need to worry
about receiving enough training time.

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• We provide 90 days of free design and content support after your website launches to make
additions and changes. We want to help you launch your new website with confidence, and be there
if you need us.
• Better planning and training meetings
• Separate kickoff and project management meetings with your departments are included (if
necessary).
• Separate training meetings for each department included (if necessary).
• On-site training and kickoff meetings available for and additional fee.
• REAL mobile and tablet websites – when you look at the mobile sites offered by some of our
competitors, they are pared-down versions of websites, or separate applications that don’t show all your
content. Our mobile websites show the complete website, just reformatted for different screen sizes.
Your proposal includes a tablet and mobile version of the website and is fully responsive. Not all mobile
websites are created equal and managing several versions of the same site can be a costly challenge for
an organization.
• 19 years experience – We have been in business since 1997 building professional websites.

Agreements and Next Steps


We understand that we are competing with other vendors to win your business, and we hope that you
will chose us. If we are lucky enough to earn your business and your trust in us, then please note these
important next steps to begin your project, and what you can expect from us at the outset.
1. Execute Agreements - If the terms of this proposal are agreeable and we are selected as your Vendor,
we will then send you our Master Services Agreement (MSA), which includes a Statement of Work
(SOW), and two appendices for hosting information and information security. Those all need to be
printed, signed, and returned. Optionally, they can be approved online through our online proposal
system. We can send you hard copies pre-signed if you wish, once your legal council has approved our
agreements. Most attorneys have comments and changes to our agreements, and we will respond with
updated agreements to you as quickly as possible.
2. Execute the Initial Good Faith Payment - The first project invoice must be paid before work will begin.
If you are in a rush to get a temporary website live due to problems with your old website, we will do our
best to help you remedy your situation and deploy a temporary website. However, we still need to get
paid first. You may use our FedEx account or wire funds to us if necessary and we will cover those costs
for expediting.
3. Assign Main Point of Contact and Stakeholder Team Members
1. Authoritative Main Point of Contact - You will need to choose a team member from your staff who
has the authority to approve our work and payments to us. We will need to have that person's
contact information so that the project dates can be scheduled and move forward in a timely manner
to ensure that your project is successful. We need to be made aware of any vacations or staff
changes that occur during the project, which might impact our timelines. This person must be a full-
time employee and somewhat available to us and be able to collect content from departments if we
are not able to.
2. Stakeholder Team Members - A representative from each department in your organization that
wishes to gain access to the website platform to make changes, or that wishes to have input on the
new website design for their department should be included in the contact list that you send to us.
4. Schedule Kickoff Meeting(s) - We can meet with your main Point of Contact, or with your department
heads, or both. We recommend a planning meeting initially with your main contact, then secondary
meetings where content is reviewed with each major department. This ensures that all stakeholders
have a say in how the new website is built. While this takes a significant amount of your staff time and
our time for these meetings, it ends up saving project time later and your website project will be more
successful. After these meetings have been held, your staff will have a copy of their Stakeholder Guide

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that we produce for your project. This gives them the tools and information that they need to upload files
to us and see the development website.

Thank Y
You!
ou!
Thank you for allowing us to provide you with a quote for your project. Please contact us if you have any
questions about this proposal, our software solutions, features, or company.

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