Agency –Bozeman, MT (https://www.bozeman.net/Home) 

Interviewee – Scott Mcmahon, IT Manager

Interview Date – 7/20/16

Outcome – Won

RSM - Redfern

Proposal Bid – $67,300

Proposal - originally dated February 2016

Background

• Current website is 5 years old, using Kentico CMS
• Self-hosted, old architecture, non-responsive
• Homepage is ok with recent changes, but content is horrendous and not engaging
• Developed an RFP and received 12 responses; 6 were thrown out on a technicality
• Remaining 6 were graded according to the selection criteria in the RFP
• Narrowed down to top 3 - CivicLive, CivicPlus and Vision
• Looked at a ton of sites for each vendor and checked references
• Each vendor got 90 minutes to present - CivicLive came in person, Vision and CivicPlus via web
• CivicPlus really bombed their presentation and approach to be consultative during presentation didn't work - and they didn't follow the hints or clues to show specific features
• Came down to CivicLive and Vision - "it was really close"
• Vision was the most expensive option, similar to CivicLive; CivicPlus was much cheaper

Why did we win?

• UX Process - Our UX process pushed us over the edge and they liked our CMS
• Search - another plus for us was that we can search their LaserFiche documents
• Content strategy - our approach to content was also important
• Vision Site Credits - Scott really liked the Vision Credits concept- instead of having to wait 4 or 5 years for a redesign, he could use them earlier to update or refresh their site
• Accessibility - accessibility will also be important, and they liked the accessibility controls built into visionCMS
• Mobile preview - Scott also liked our mobile preview for pages to show what how a page will appear in different devices

What could we improve?

• Determine level of accessibility upfront - going from A to AA cost an additional $13,000

Other points

• CivicLive has cool drag-n-drop/Visio-like workflow for forms (our counter is that this is a super user function usually - and is an area that is usually set up once)
• CivicLive showed their product roadmap and it appeared that they are coming out with new features that would have enabled Bozeman to drop other 3rd party tools (like Online City Hall)
• CivicLive was appealing because their subsites and advanced sites don't require a different fee to get a different menu structure or color scheme
• CivicLive presentation was very good (by Dmitri?)
• CMS - all of the different CMS's looked similar and were pretty close in functionality
• Designs - all vendors have similar designs, and not really a differentiator - big search and/or buttons, graphical backgrounds, etc.

Takeaways

• UX and content strategy approach resonates with prospects - upfront work for determining customer needs will give them a better website in the long run
• Accessibility - determine importance and what level of accessibility prospect wants upfront (A or AA) because the pricing can vary
• Hosting - need to make it clearer how our hosting/DR/DDoS varies from CivicLive (and from CivicPlus) - and why the extra money is worth; we were the highest monthly hosting fee too; Scott wasn't able to articulate why our hosting fee is higher
• Product roadmap - it appears that CivicLive is touting future functionality; we need to counter with what we've added to the CMS in last year and let prospects know what is coming from Vision