The City’s Committee on Information Technology (COIT) is seeking an experienced visual design agency with digital capability to transform three high-profile strategic documents into graphically distinct, beautiful, and polished electronic and print-ready booklets prior to publication and mass distribution.

Please send questions related to this RFP to Lily Liang (lily.liang@sfgov.org). Questions are due by 5:00 pm on Monday, November 12 and will be posted to this webpage along with COIT's responses no later than 5:00 pm on Tuesday, November 13.

The deadline for submission of proposals is 5:00 pm on Friday, November 16.

 

Questions and Responses

Q: We are interested in bidding on your Graphic Design Proposal. Will you please extend the due date by a few days to Wednesday, 11/21 to give us sufficient time for a thorough response after your Answers are released on Monday, 11/12?

R: Unfortunately, we are not able to extend the submission deadline at this time, as our own publication deadlines are fast-approaching and require project planning and design work to be performed as soon as possible. Since we are posting questions and responses on the COIT website in the order they are received, you are welcome to review what is posted between now and next week, and do not have to wait until all responses have been posted to begin your proposal. Finally, we understand and appreciate the willingness to refine your proposal before it is submitted, but would like to remind all prospective proposers that COIT does plan to participate in a project planning process with the winning proposer, which will ultimately fine-tune contract details and deliverables. Finally, COIT reserves the right to extend the proposal submission deadline if proposals received are insufficient.

Q: The RFP states that the deadline by which SFCOIT will respond to question is November 13th. That leaves vendors with 3 business days to review responses, and put together a proposal in order to meet the proposal deadline. Given that short timeline, will SF COIT consider extending the proposal deadline to at least December 7, so that vendors have sufficient time to put together thorough, high quality responses?

R: Unfortunately, we are not able to extend the submission deadline at this time, as our own publication deadlines are fast-approaching and require project planning and design work to be performed as soon as possible. Since we are posting questions and responses on the COIT website in the order they are received, you are welcome to review what is posted between now and next week, and do not have to wait until all responses have been posted to begin your proposal. Finally, we understand and appreciate the willingness to refine your proposal before it is submitted, but would like to remind all prospective proposers that COIT does plan to participate in a project planning process with the winning proposer, which will ultimately fine-tune contract details and deliverables. Finally, COIT reserves the right to extend the proposal submission deadline if proposals received are insufficient.

Q: What will be the composition of the implementation team on the SF COIT's side, beyond the specified Project Leads team? If possible, are titles/skills of the team members known? Tailoring our proposal specifically to correspond to SF COIT’s needs can be done more precisely if we have some idea of the human resources that we would be working with on the City side.

R: Project Leads will be responsible for the vast majority of project oversight and implementation. However, as with all of its public-facing projects, COIT will consult with the City's Digital Services team during the design process. No other staff aside from the Project Leads cited in the RFP have been formally assigned to these projects.

Q: Given the cited possible requirement of contractor offering “the ability to co-locate staff in COIT offices throughout the duration of the project ,” is there guidance on number of staff expected to be co-located at COIT offices?

R: We expect at least one staff member from the winning proposer's team to co-locate in COIT offices, ideally the principal graphic designer.

Q: Are there any internal or external constraints that are driving the timelines for each of the three projects (ICT Plan, Emerging Technology Findings Report, and Digital Equity Strategy plan)?

R: Yes, COIT has identified the following internal deadlines for submission of these reports (fully designed drafts) for stakeholder review prior to final adjustments, approval, and publication:
ICT Plan: February 21, 2019
Emerging Technology Findings Report: December 14, 2018
Digital Equity Strategic Plan: January 11, 2019
In addition, COIT is required to meet a City Administrative Code mandated deadline of March 1, 2019 for release of the ICT Plan to the Mayor, Board of Supervisors, and public.

Q: Does SFCOIT encourage or discourage applications from contractor teams composed of two design/development firms working in partnership?

R: COIT will evaluate all proposals based on the criteria identified in the RFP and award a contract accordingly.

Q: The RFP states that actual contract budget “may vary.” Has there been any sort of budget range already earmarked or forecasted for this project?

R: COIT has performed market research on design costs and similar projects across the City, and will finalize a not-to-exceed budget amount with the winning proposer prior to contract execution. That being said, the RFP does require proposers to provide detailed cost break-downs, including individual hourly rates, etc.

Q: Will each project have its own distinct look and feel or will they all align with each other?
As stated in the RFP Page 8: "Our desire is to align all visual patterns with the Digital Services Office and their work to redesign the City’s websites. The Digital Service Strategy is available at: http://digitalservices.sfgov.org/."

R: Each project has specific requirements (e.g. data visualizations that the other projects may not have), but in general we would like the three to have a similar look and feel. The Digital Services Office will consult on all projects if and when a winning proposer is identified.

Q: Will the City be responsible for proofreading and signing off on all content before the final product is delivered?

R: Yes.

Q: Will the City provide one consolidated document of feedback for each of the projects after each round of designs are presented or will the design firm need to manage all customer feedback from several different entities?

R: The winning proposer should be prepared to interact regularly with each Project Lead. Feedback from each of the Project Leads will be sent via e-mail and not necessarily in one consolidated document following each round of revisions.

Q: Will a table of contents for each project be provided at the start of the project to ensure an accurate timeframe can be given?

R: Yes, however, COIT reserves the right to modify it, along with any contents, after the initial consultation.

Q: The RFP mentions each report to vary from 10 to 200 pages. Is there any way to provide a smaller range of page estimations for each?

R: Until the drafts are finalized and all stakeholders have had a chance to weigh in, we can't be certain of each publication's length.

Q: Although each report is a separate project, should there be visual components that are shared among all three that are in accordance with the Digital Service Strategy and Accessibility Guidelines? Or, should each of them have their own unique visual language?

R: Each project has specific requirements (e.g. data visualizations that the other projects may not have), but in general we would like the three to have a similar look and feel, and all final designs must comply with the highest accessibility standards. The Digital Services Office will consult on all projects if and when a winning proposer is identified.

Q: How and when will content for the report be delivered to the project team? Will it be final-approved at delivery, or will there be on-going edits to the content?

R: There will be ongoing edits to the content, but to the extent possible, COIT will strive to identify specific design and review phases with the winning proposer during the project planning process.