Current Request for Proposals

Laravel-Based Web Development Services

Release Date: Friday, December 13, 2024

Deadline: Wednesday, January 15, 2025, by 12:00 pm (noon) EDT

Overview

Who Are We?

OCALI, a project of the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio (ESCCO), is a recognized global leader in creating and connecting resources and relationships to ensure that people with disabilities have the opportunity to live their best lives for their whole lives. OCALI informs public policy and develops and deploys practices grounded in linking research to real life.

As a trusted source, OCALI enhances, develops, and promotes high-quality programs and services to effectively equip anyone who cares for, supports, educates, employs, or works with individuals with disabilities across the lifespan.

OCALI’s organizational structure includes ten Centers that collectively focus on local and statewide-capacity building while strengthening policies and resources that guide services and supports for people with disabilities, as well as for families, educators, service providers, and professionals.

Additionally, in its commitment to narrow the gap between state policy and its translation to “boots-on-the ground”, OCALI has an established Office of Policy and Stakeholder Engagement to keep OCALI informed and connected to the goals, priorities, and initiatives of state agencies, diligently working to align field practices to state policy.

OCALI hosts a highly-regarded annual conference of autism and disabilities leaders from across the nation and around the world. OCALICON provides a gathering of state and national leaders, educators, parents, service providers, self-advocates, scholars, and policy makers focused on common concerns and shared proven solutions addressing issues and challenges experienced by people with autism, sensory disabilities, and low-incidence disabilities across their lifespan.

Based on a respect for people with autism and low incidence disabilities and our belief in their right, need, and desire to achieve their full potential, OCALI inspires change and promotes access to improve their outcomes through leadership, training and professional development, technical assistance, collaboration, and technology.

As a political subdivision of Ohio, no services of the contractor or its subcontractors under the awarded Contract can be performed outside the United States.

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this Request for Proposal (RFP) is to obtain competitive proposals from companies qualified and interested in providing Laravel-based web development services.

Intellectual Property

The ESCCO on behalf of OCALI is the sole owner of all content and materials developed under this RFP. OCALI retains the distribution rights to any content or materials to exercise as it deems appropriate. Selected evaluators may not use, reuse, distribute, publish, or base derivative works upon such materials without the express, prior written consent of the ESCCO.

Request for Proposal

The ESCCO on behalf of OCALI seeks a proposal for web development services, specifically dedicated junior and/or senior Laravel programmers, to support a range of web-based applications. OCALI expects to partner with the selected vendor throughout the remainder of our fiscal year ending June 30, 2025 to prioritize and build features that meet both concrete project requirements and abstract system requirements as determined by the team.

Examples of projects may include:

Building features for our learning management system that:
- Gamify a learning journey, such as integrating badge rewards for achievements and completion of individual or grouped learning milestones.
- Customize possible next steps in a learning journey based on user activity and a user’s set goals.
- Enable team leaders to assign resources from a large set of options and track team member completion of those activities.
Establishing a method of delivering complex information to our users in a mobile-friendly way.
Enhancing data capture and reporting.
Facilitating a web security audit to inform on technology weaknesses.

Vendor must demonstrate strong skills in developing solutions to projects similar to the above examples from concept through launch.

We anticipate that once the winning proposal is selected, we will work with that vendor to discuss specifics and adjust based on the evaluation criteria. At that point, we are willing to work with budgets for whoever is awarded the agreement, with the final contract being built upon those discussions.

Requirements for Proposal Preparation

These services must fulfill the following:

Please submit the following as part of the OCALI proposal (organize and label sections accordingly). The submission will become the basis on which OCALI will judge the applicant’s ability to perform the services included in the RFP.

Technical Proposal:
1. Cover page, including company name, contact information, company biography and proposal summary signed by the respondent;
2. Narrative Plan: Communicates approach to delivering web development services, leveraging the Laravel framework, including: specific technologies and tools used to deliver services, proposed timeline for execution and support, commitment to understanding OCALI’s vision and providing services that align with our mission and core function, ability to work collaboratively with client teams and other vendors, method to project management, and commitment to knowledge transfer, sustainability of work developed, and building capacity of OCALI web team;
3. Organizational Capacity: Resumes and/or summary biographies of the likely project personnel with detailed description of their roles related to the work, along with description of Laravel expertise; description of any subcontractors and their work, including but not limited to resumes and/or summary biographies;
4. Work Samples: Links to recent web applications and/or code samples which demonstrate expertise building out solutions similar in scope to our needs as addressed in section “Request for Proposal” for which your organization was the primary developer and familiarity with the Laravel framework (e.g. open-source packages). Examples/case studies that showcase your organization’s success with helping clients to solve similar business problems. OCALI may request specific samples be presented live.

PLEASE NOTE:

Responses must follow the prescribed format or they shall be deemed non-responsive. Incomplete or late responses may be removed from consideration.
The cover page must be signed by the respondent.
Proposals should be prepared simply and economically, avoiding the use of elaborate promotional materials beyond those sufficient to provide complete presentation.
Any proprietary material submitted with the proposal that is considered confidential by the bidder must specifically be so identified, and the basis for such confidentiality must be specifically set forth in the proposal.
Submission of quote does not constitute any type of binding Agreement or Contract between ESCCO/OCALI and respondent.
ESCCO/OCALI assumes no responsibility for any cost incurred in developing a response to this RFP.
ESCCO/OCALI reserves the right to accept or reject responses to this RFP at its sole discretion.
ESCCO/OCALI’s decision is final with respect to the awarding of this Contract.

Proposal Submission

Email electronic copies of the proposal Nathan Ticknor, Nathan_Ticknor@ocali.org. Please label clearly in the subject line to clarify if it is a response to the RFP. The proposal must be received by Wednesday, January 15 by 12:00 pm (noon) EDT.

Questions about this RFP should be submitted in writing to Nathan_Ticknor@ocali.org by 12:00 pm EDT on Friday, January 3, 2025. Please use the subject line Web Services RFP.

RFP Process Schedule

Friday, December 13, 2025: Release of RFP

Friday, January 3, 2025: Final Date for Receipt of Questions by 12:00 pm (noon) EDT

Wednesday, January 8, 2025: Final Date for OCALI Responses to Questions

Wednesday, January 15, 2025: Proposals Due by 12:00 pm (noon) EDT

Friday, January 17, 2025: Notification of vendors selected for demos

January 27 – 30, 2025: Hold for optional demos

Friday, January 31, 2025: RFP Award Announced by 4:30 pm

Monday, March 3, 2025: Vendor ready to initiate work with OCALI pending receipt of executed contract and purchase order

Duties

Contractor shall hold himself/herself/itself available to render and shall render at the request of the ESCCO/OCALI, the services set forth in the scope of work above for the benefit of the ESCCO/OCALI. Contractor shall devote such time as may be reasonably required to perform Contractor’s duties under the contract. Contractor will maintain, for the duration of the Contract, any certificate or license required by law to perform the services required by this RFP.

Contractor shall perform all services with reasonable care, skill, and diligence as would normally be provided by an experienced consultant and in accordance with industry standards.

Other Requirements Include

Contractor must provide a W-9 with a valid EIN or be registered with the Ohio Secretary of State.

Contractor must complete the Standard Affirmation & Disclosure Form to abide with Executive Order 2011-12K affirming no services of the contractor or its subcontractors under this Contract will be performed outside the United States.

Contractor shall secure professional liability insurance and any other insurances required by law.

At the Contractor's sole cost, Contractor shall maintain a comprehensive knowledge regarding technologies required to meet the terms of the contract. Contractor shall, at all times during the term of this Contract and at Contractor’s own expense, comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws, rules and regulations, and shall maintain in force all licenses and permits required for performance under this Contract.

Contractor shall be responsible for the purchase and use of all equipment necessary to perform the Services, except that ESCCO/OCALI may elect to provide Contractor access to a computer and/or computer network in order to facilitate Contractor’s secure access to, and provision of, information related to the performance of Contractor’s duties and to facilitate communication with ESCCO/OCALI. Any access to or use of ESCCO/OCALI computers or computer networks shall be subject to all ESCCO/OCALI policies governing such use by ESCCO/OCALI employees.

Finding for Recovery

Contractor represents that he/she/it is not subject to any unresolved findings for recovery resulting from an audit conducted by the Auditor of State between January 1, 2001, and the present time. Contractor further represents that neither the Contractor nor any of its principal officers are listed in the Auditor of State’s database of persons’ subject to such findings.

Evaluation

Selection of Contractor will be based on the following criteria:

Name, position, and contact information for one primary contact.
Narrative response, as outlined in 1.B. above, describing how the Applicant would deliver its web development services.
Narrative response describing the Applicant’s competence to perform the required services as indicated by the education and experience of the Applicant’s personnel, especially the education and experience of the employee(s) who likely would be assigned to perform the services.
Ability in terms of workload and availability of qualified personnel to perform the required services competently.
Ability to partner with OCALI developers and product owners to scope project requirements, balance competing technical and project management demands, and deliver value to users.
Evidence of recent successful implementation of services similar to the scope of work outlined.
Evidence of recent web applications and/or code samples (e.g. open-source packages) for which your organization was the primary developer.
Evidence of contributions to field and commitment to knowledge transfer.
Overall cost of products/services.

Additional Considerations:

Prior work with OCALI or a similar organization.
Knowledge, application of, and commitment to advancing web accessibility practices.
Demonstrated experience building online learning management systems.
Knowledge of Ohio agencies, systems, initiatives, and/or policies impacting the population served by OCALI.

At its discretion, the ESCCO/OCALI is not required to select the Contractor that submits the lowest cost proposal for providing the services. Instead, the ESCCO/OCALI intends to select the Contractor submitting the proposal deemed by the ESCCO/OCALI to be in the ESCCO/OCALI’s best interest. In making its selection, the ESCCO/OCALI may consider any other information, including information not requested in this RFP or not included in the proposals received.

In the event the ESCCO/OCALI is unable to negotiate a satisfactory contract with the top ranked Contractor, the ESCCO/OCALI may terminate negotiations with that Contractor and enter into negotiations with the Contractor submitting the proposal ranked next best. This RFP is not and shall not be construed as an offer of a contract by the ESCCO/OCALI. Any contractual arrangement will be evidenced solely by a Contract authorized by the ESCCO/OCALI.

Notification

All applicants will receive notification of the awarded contract by Friday, January 31, 2025. Notification will be sent to the primary contact by email.

The ESCCO/OCALI reserves the right to reject any and all proposals where the contractor takes exception to the terms and conditions of the RFP or fails to meet the terms and conditions, including but not limited to, standards, specifications, and requirements as specified in the RFP.

The ESCCO/OCALI reserves the right to reject, in whole or in part, any and all proposals where the ESCCO/OCALI, taking into consideration factors including but not limited to, price and the results of the evaluation process, has determined that award of a contract would not be in the best interest of the ESCCO/OCALI or the state. Other factors may include:

Past performances as reflected by the evaluations of previous clients with respect to factors such as control of costs, quality of work, meeting of deadlines, and other similar factors;
The services offered are not in compliance with the requirements, specifications, and terms and conditions set forth in the RFP;
Pricing offered is considered to be excessive in comparison with existing market conditions or exceeds the available funds of the state; or
It is determined that award of a contract would not be in the best interests of the state.

The ESCCO/OCALI may award a contract in whole or in part to one or multiple contractors. Notice of any potential partial and/or multiple party award(s) shall be provided in the RFP.

Questions and Answers

The information below are responses from last year's RFP and some details may have changed.

Question: Could you let us know how many programmers you may require as we would allocate that many within our proposal for your consideration?

Answer: We prefer to work with a single team of no more than three programmers for the duration of the contract. Additionally, we prefer to work with a contractor that has a dedicated project manager assigned to this contract. The selected vendor will work alongside OCALI's web development team, which consists of one senior developer, two junior developers, and a project manager.

Question: Could you let us know what the budget is for this work?

Answer: The budget for this contract has been set in the range of $200K-$400K. We anticipate that once the winning proposal is selected that we will work with that vendor and discuss specifics. At that point, we are willing to work with budgets for whoever is awarded the agreement, based on the evaluation criteria. The final contract will be built upon those discussions.

Question: Could we request an extension to the submission deadline?

Answer: We are unable to extend the submission deadline.

Question: Could you let us know if you have a local preference or are you open to a Canadian agency that has done similar work with clients across North America?

Answer: As a political subdivision of the State of Ohio, we are subject to Executive Order 2019-12D which prohibits us from contracting with companies outside of the United States.

Question: Can you please confirm if any deviations are available to this clause, as most of our development team is located in India. Do you have a timeline for which we need to get our US team set up to service your requirements?

Answer: We must adhere entirely to Executive Order 2011-2012K. A US-based team would need to be available in order to begin this work, anticipated to begin after October 1, 2023.

Question: Where has OCALI succeeded or fallen short regarding your digital infrastructure and builds?

Answer: Will be shared with selected vendor.

Question: What are key attributes you’d like to see in your future development partner?

Answer: Will be shared with selected vendor.

Question: Do you have any KPIs to measure successful outcomes with your new development partner?

Answer: No.

Question: How many Laravel instances currently exist, what version is each and where are they hosted? We pulled the following from your website, let us know if we missed any! a. https://www.ocali.org/ b. OCALI Pass Portal? c. https://cycseminars.org/ d. https://literacyaccessforall.org/ e. https://cycsuite.org/ f. https://deafandblindoutreach.org/ g. https://autisminternetmodules.org/ h. https://atinternetmodules.org/ i. https://ataem.org/

Answer: The selected vendor will work on building features for an existing multi-tenant/site Laravel (version 9) application.

Question: Please share more information around OCALI Pass and OCALI ID. We assume they’re a user portal and a global SSO solution.

Is that the case?
Do the other sites pull data from them?
Does your ecosystem revolve around thgem or are they another part of your broader digital footprint?

Answer: The selected vendor will work on a multi-site Laravel application that uses our custom single sign-on authentication system (OCALI ID).

Question: Do you have any documentation that defines OCALI’s digital ecosystem, build processes and other pertinent technical requirements or best practices?

Answer: Will be shared with selected vendor.

Question: Are you able to provide a rolling tasklist, backlog of functional requests and enhancements that will help us better define scope?

Answer: Will be shared with selected vendor.

Question: Have you developed a tentative resource allocation model or an estimate of what the team size/makeup should be given the level of effort?

Answer: We prefer to work with a single team of no more than three programmers for the duration of the contract. The selected vendor will work alongside OCALI's web development team, which consists of one senior developer, two junior developers, and a project manager.

Question: Is this going to be a fixed fee arrangement or more of a retained/dedicated team model for ongoing and continuous support?

Question: Can you provide a TLDR on the digital properties that exist to date, do they integrate/overlap, who are the stakeholders, what are the shortcoming and what is your northstar?

Answer: The selected vendor will work on building features for an existing multi-tenant/site Laravel (version 9) application. The additional details will be shared with selected vendor.

Question: Can you provide a list of 3rd party integrations that have been incorporated into your web apps, also any custom integrations that we should be aware of?

Answer: Will be shared with selected vendor.

Question: Will an SLA be needed and what is the expected response and support time?

Answer: We do not manage our vendor partnerships through SLAs.

Question: How do you forecast peaks in demand, what are the normal lead times for requests and what has the organization been accustomed to in the past?

Answer: We expect to plan and work in close collaboration with the vendor to ensure realistic timelines are set and maintained and short-term and medium-term priorities are regularly evaluated and clearly defined.

Question: What internal systems do you use for project communication, bug tracking and general tasks?

Answer: We use Teamwork, Trello, Rollbar, and Slack.

Question: Can you share general project management, communications and production expectations?

Answer: We have project management tools and personnel to support our web development work; however, we prefer to work with a contractor that has a dedicated project manager assigned to this contract.

Question: Do you have any internal developers that would be working alongside our team?

Answer: The selected vendor will work alongside OCALI's web development team, which consists of one senior developer, two junior developers, and a project manager.

Question: Do all of the apps follow similar build processes?

Answer: Will be shared with selected vendor.

Question: What are you using for a code repository ie Git or BitBucket?

Answer: We use BitBucket for code repository hosting.

Question: Will this scope cover new builds, maintaining existing builds and/or enhancing existing builds?

Answer: All of the above.

Question: Are any creative services required or this strictly Laravel dev?

Answer: In past vendor engagements, we’ve found it helpful to have a UI/UX person available.

Question: Do you have any existing design system documentation that you’re able to share… style guide, brand guide, component breakdown, typography etc etc?

Answer: Will be shared with selected vendor.

Question: Do you have additional documentation on Accessibility requirements above and beyond what’s listed on the website?

Answer: We comply with the State of Ohio Administrative Policy for Web Accessibility No: IT-09, effective May 1, 2017.

Question: Are you using any tools for continuous monitoring?

Answer: We use Rollbar for error monitoring.

Question: Do you have an internal accessibility lead?

Answer: All of our team members are responsible for implementing accessibility standards.

Question: Are you using any 3rd party vendors for manual accessibility testing?

Answer: All of our team members are responsible for manual accessibility testing.

Question: Are there any other requirements that should be considered?

Answer: Will be shared with selected vendor.

Question: Are there any legal and compliance requirements that must be adhered to?

Answer: The final contract will include all legal and compliance requirements.

Question: Can you please share a projected annual spend, or a loose range to help us better understand and craft an efficient production/resource plan?

Question: How is this project being funded (grant, bond, state)?

Answer: This project is funded through a variety of contracts.

Question: Has the money been awarded/ready to go?

Answer: Yes.

Question: The RFP states "Responses must follow the prescribed format or they shall be deemed non-responsive. " Is the format simply referring to what content needs to be included in the proposal? Or are there certain font size, spacing, layout, etc. requirements that we have to meet.

Answer: The proposal must contain all elements listed in the RFP. There are no font, spacing, or layout requirements.

Question: How many web-based applications are we going to be working with?

Answer: The selected vendor will work on building features for an existing multi-tenant/site Laravel (version 9) application.

Question: How many resources (developers) are you anticipating on needing?

Question: For work samples: Do our examples/case studies replace the need for links to active development projects? Or is OCALI expecting us to provide both?

Answer: A large majority of our projects are proprietary to our clients and cannot be revealed to 3rd parties. We ask that vendors share code, case studies, and examples sites to whatever extent possible.

Question: Is there an existing application or is this a new project? What version?

Answer: The selected vendor will work on building features for an existing multi-tenant/site Laravel (version 9) application.

Question: It is mentioned that the developers can be junior and/or senior developers. Is this because of budgetary restraints? Do you have a ballpark budget range for this project? Is there a monthly burn rate that we need to abide by?

Question: Because Laravel is a full stack framework, what are the resource requirements? How many developers? Are you looking for full-stack or should there be dedicated front-end, back-end, etc...?

Question: Is the June 30, 2024 deadline a hard stop? After the project's completion, what are your expectations regarding maintenance, updates, and support?

Answer: Yes, the contract ends on June 20, 2024. We do not seek ongoing maintenance, updates, or support and expect the vendor to ensure knowledge transfer to our team.

Question: Are we working directly with OCALI? Or an agency on behalf of OCALI? Who will be involved in this project from the OCALI side? Are there any resources that will be provided for us to work with such as QA, UI/UX, PM, Etc...?

Answer: The selected vendor will work alongside OCALI's web development team, which consists of one senior developer, two junior developers, and a project manager.

Question: Do you have a preferred hosting environment or cloud provider?

Answer: Will be shared with selected vendor.

Question: Are there any critical deadlines or milestones we should be aware of?

Answer: Will be shared with selected vendor.

Question: So, can you please share your exact requirement, your required features, and functionality, so I can help you in the best way and provide you best proposal for this requirement?

Answer: The selected vendor will work on building features for an existing multi-tenant/site Laravel (version 9) application.

Question: Is this a team member that will augment an existing internal development team?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How many hours per week/month do you anticipate needing a Laravel developer?

Answer: We seek a dedicated team that can fulfill the requirements that we lay out with the selected vendor.

Question: Will your organization perform project management, quality assurance, DevOps, and any similar supportive roles, as needed?

Question: Do you expect any travel to occur to your offices in Ohio?

Answer: No.

Question: Will your team conduct any specific interviews with the proposed developer(s) who would work on your systems, and if so can you outline that process and timeline?

Answer: No.

Question: Other than Laravel, do we need to demonstrate familiarity with specific technologies, libraries, APIs, integrations, systems, or toolsets?

Answer: The selected vendor will work on building features for an existing multi-tenant/site Laravel (version 9) application. The application also uses Livewire/Alpine, Filament, and Bootstrap.

Question: Could you please provide more insight into the types of web applications OCALI is seeking to develop during the upcoming fiscal year?

Answer: The selected vendor will work on building features for an existing multi-tenant/site Laravel (version 9) application.

Question: How do you envision the collaboration process between our team and OCALI?

Answer: The selected vendor will work alongside OCALI's web development team, which consists of one senior developer, two junior developers, and a project manager.

Question: Are there specific accessibility standards or guidelines that we should prioritize in our development process?

Answer: We comply with the State of Ohio Administrative Policy for Web Accessibility No: IT-09, effective May 1, 2017.

Question: Is there a specific preference between dedicated junior and senior Laravel programmers for this project?

Answer: We prefer at least one senior developer be assigned to the project.

Question: Could you provide further details about the scope of work and the concrete and abstract system requirements you aim to fulfill?

Answer: Will be shared with selected vendor.