City of Willow Springs, Missouri
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
FOR WEBSITE REDESIGN AND CONTENT MANAGEMENT SERVICES
Notice is hereby given that the City of Willow Springs will receive proposals for the city’s website redesign with a hosted web content management solution. Proposals must be submitted to the Office of the City Clerk, at City of Willow Springs, PO Box 190, Willow Springs, MO 65793 by no later than May 29, 2026 at 4:30 PM.
1. DESCRIPTION, PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF WEBSITE
The City’s website is the first view residents, visitors and potential businesses may see of our City. The overall goal is to redesign the website to spread awareness of our city’s services, make it more appealing, interesting, interactive, and easier to use and extend city services online. City staff will have the ability to add documents such as images, agendas and minutes, update calendars, add announcements, place requests for proposals or bids, change photos, and other tasks. They should also be able create and modify online forms. The potential to accept credit card payments, for example, payments for accounts receivable, utility billing, etc. is desirable in the future only.
Our domain name is www.willowspringsmo.com. The new website will be hosted by the successful vender of this RFP. We do have intentions of converting our domain to a .gov in the future.
The total experience of the website plus integrated softwares or linked portal websites should allow citizens to accomplish anything they might need with the City and any of its departments without having to touch paper. We also want to minimize the amount of paperwork our staff must print, track and archive, by transitioning to online digital processes. We do need to continue to offer paper versions of processes for those citizens who prefer paper forms, and for the contingency of a total internet outage.
We also want to incorporate an employee-only portal or app to access important employee forms, information, and processes, which require a login request for approval by administration that can also be revoked upon the termination of an individual’s employment.
2. BACKGROUND
Our domain name is www.willowspringsmo.com, but the intention is to convert to a .gov domain in the future. The City’s domain is hosted at GoDaddy.
The City’s current website is hosted by CivicPlus. Our new website will need to provide the functionality of the following modules utilized or accessed through the City’s current website:
- Activities – allows you to keep track, organize, create, and configure your activities for events.
- Agenda Center – post and update agendas; post and update agendas
- Alert Center – graphically shows an important/emergency notification as a banner across the top of the home screen.
- Archive Center – stores any recurring dated documentation, such as agendas, budgets, newsletters, press released, etc.
- Bid Postings – post and organize bids by category, title, or closing date.
- Calendar – post meetings related to different boards, committees, etc. in one location but allow for residents to sort based on categories.
- CivicSend – send multi-channel communications of critical information quickly and efficiently
- Document Center – stores all one-time documents and images not archived.
- Facilities – a list of all facilities; ability to allow residents to make reservations for facilities through the website. However, we currently require all reservations to be made in-person at City Hall.
- FAQs – list of frequently asked questions for our website.
- Form Center / Forms – allow residents to fill out and digitally submit forms.
- Graphic Links – related to all buttons on the website.
- Info Advanced – ability to show important information on pages using widgets.
- Jobs – ability to post and have residents submit job applications through the website.
- Locations -
- My Account/My Dashboard – ability to integrate single sign-on with the website and customize the dashboard on the back end when logged into the website.
- News Flash – ability to post updates/information that are important for community needs or information about community requests; easy way to publish articles on the website.
- Notify Me – allow website users to sign up for notifications through the website on any topic or category they are interested.
- Pages – this module is needed on the back end, but is utilized when Live Edit is activated.
- Photo Gallery -
- Quick Links – provide links to important information, documents, or related websites easily through this function.
- Resource Directory – the “white pages” of the website – lists businesses, contact information, etc.
- Staff Directory – a list of all staff and contact information for those employed by the City.
2. AUDIENCE
a. Our main target audience is the residents, businesses, visitors, and interested web visitors outside our local geography.
b. The site will be accessible to the general public.
3. TOOLS AND FUNCTIONALITIES
Essential features are essential to our proposal. Non-essential features of the site are features that we would like but are not essential to submitted proposals.
Please include the following features into the website that we feel are important:
- Accessibility – fully complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, and WCAG standards. The City of Willow Springs aspires to achieve WCAG AA standards at minimum and AAA standards where possible, and will need coaching on policies and procedures to ensure all CMS users on City staff are not only capable of meeting these standards, but the design of the websites and CMS implementation are such that City staff will be limited to workflows which can only produce accessible content and web pages.
- Responsive Website Design – to allow SMART phone viewers to see our new website without having to zoom in on text or graphics. Text rendered mobile website is not acceptable.
- Word Like Editor (WYSIWYG): Accessible from any page by authorized content editors to make changes to page content. Website CSS styles enforce consistent look and feel throughout the site. Content from Word is supported and automatically cleaned up and converted to web site styles. Also supported are: links to new or existing pages, embedded images and rich media (e.g. You Tube, flicker, etc.) via an image manager and documents via the file manager; supports lists, tables, formatting (e.g. color, size, indentation, alignment), HTML Editor, multilevel undo/redo and has spell checker; available options can be set by role or user. A “history” button provides access to previously stored content and “save as draft” saves work if content editor does not compete update.
- Menu Manager: Allows content editors to add or edit site wide top navigation, department or section specific links (e.g. left or right navigation). Provides the ability to reorder menu items.
- Link Manager: Allows content editors to create links to new or existing pages; links are created first then content is added (called from menu manager or Word like editor). Automatically verifies link is valid. Links to new pages are not shown on live site until content is entered. External links automatically open in new page.
- Link Checker: When a new link is created, it checks if the link is valid or not; Reports also available broken links. The CMS managed pages automatically update links so this report focuses on external off site links.
- Image Manager: Allows content editors to upload images from computer or network folders; images are automatically resized and compressed
- File Manager: Allows content editors to upload and link to documents from either the Word-Like Editor or the menu manager. Links to documents automatically open in new window.
- Content Manager: Allows any piece of content to be used on any page
- Responsive Website Design so the website can rearrange itself to fit the size of any mobile or PC Tablet viewing screen without having to zoom in on the text or graphics. A text rendered mobile site is not acceptable.
- FAQ: Posts Frequently Asked Questions on the web site and displays the clicked Answer at the top of the page
- Document Management Center: Ability to create and archive various document categories. Enhanced searchable capabilities
- Survey Form: Allows a non-technical content editor to build any kind of survey form and output information in an email or Excel spreadsheet
- History: Archives all the changes to a web page and at any time a previous version can be restored
- Quick Links: Links to the most frequently accessed pages in the web site
- Link Checker: When a new link is created, the system checks if the link is valid or not
- Automated activation/expiration of content: A page or block of content can be marked with a date/time on when to publish and when to be removed from public viewing. The system will handle it automatically
- Events Calendar: Ability to create multiple web calendars in an easy to use interface to post events in any calendar
- Photo Gallery: Gives a content editor the ability to add or remove pictures to a photo slide show
- CMS must dynamically pre-assemble the web page upon content saving execution
- Site Search: Provides a custom search engine to perform a site search or integrate Google site search
- Audit Trail: Provides report on the content change activities of any webpage within the website.
- Dynamic Breadcrumbs: Shows the navigation trail of the current page
- Key word (meta tag) setting for each web page to increase web visitor attraction from search engines to specific pages
4. REPORTING NEEDS
Website statistical usage. Google Analytics or similar.
5. SITE SPECIFICATIONS
Design parameters are not specified and are to be used in accordance with your professional expertise in the field. It is our intention to review the proposals and determine the best overall fit for the City.
Factors to Consider:
1. Visual appeal
2. Ease of use
3. Ease of maintaining
4. Overall City Branding and layout
5. Technical support
6. Proposal detail
6. PROPOSAL SUBMISSION INFORMATION
Executive Summary
Technical Volume
a) Web development process: explain the process you will follow to build the Web site, including major milestones and evaluation.
b) Address usability standards and testing.
c) Address any important technology information and specifications used in your solution (languages, platform, etc.).
d) Organizational structure
Budget:
a) Break down cost by Design, Web Development, and Website Hosting.
b) Maintenance and support: ID any costs that should be assumed as part of the site and ongoing costs for maintenance and support we need in the future. We would like to minimize external maintenance costs.
c) License fees: ID the costs we will need to pay to develop or host the site. A hosted CMS is preferred.
d) Training - Our intention is for you to train two members of our staff– can be done via web conference.
e) Other charge areas: Please ID whether there will be other expenses, consulting fees, future work, etc. to complete this project.
Attachments:
a) Qualifications and Experience: minimum of 4 customer case histories with examples
b) Brief biographies of all who will work on project
c) Professional references – minimum of 4
7. COMPENSATION
The City requests a fixed fee or a not-to-exceed fee on each aspect of the program, subject to any conditions and exceptions agreed to by the parties.
8. TERMINATION OF AGREEMENT
The proposal should include a completion date for the completion of the redesign project, including any necessary training, as well as a period for which technical assistance will be provided.
9. EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS
Expertise of the firm shall be demonstrated by proof of past contract successes/qualifications in providing similar services as described in Section 8. The proposals will be evaluated on knowledge, experience and success of these similar services. Applicants should have at least 10 years of prior experience in website redesign and web content management software for government websites.
If applicable, the firm should provide a list of potential conflicts of interests due to personal interests or work done for others. Please explain and specify how these would be addressed.
Excellent oral and written communication skills are essential.
10. PROPOSAL SUBMISSION INFORMATION
Submission Date and Time:
May 29, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Submit to:
Office of City Clerk
City of Willow Springs
PO Box 190
Willow Springs, MO 65793
Email submissions are acceptable @ .
Clearly mark the submittal with the title of this RFP and the name of the responding firm. Only those RFP responses received prior to or on the submission date and time will be considered.
11. REJECTION OF PROPOSALS
The City reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, or to reject any proposal if the evidence submitted by, or investigation of such respondent fails to satisfy the City that such respondent is properly qualified to carry out the obligations of the RFP and to complete the work contemplated therein. The City reserves the right to waive any minor informality in the RFP.