Austin may tap California co. to redesign city Web site

http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/03/23/daily22.html?ana=e_du_pub#tp_newCommentAnchor

The Austin City Council is set to vote this week on awarding a contract to a California company to redesign the city’s Web site.

City staff is recommending Cignex Technologies Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. be awarded the contract valued at up to $704,088.

The city council authorized staff to begin the process of redesigning the Web site in November 2007. According to background documents from the city, 228 notices were sent out to prospective Web development companies and three proposals were received back, including the one from Cignex.

City Chief of Staff Anthony Snipes said the two other companies that submitted proposals were based in Austin. However, the proposals from those two firms were both over $1.3 million, and one of the companies was later deemed non-compliant.

The proposed contract calls for an analysis of the structure, content and usability of the current city of Austin site and development of a more user-friendly design. The contractor would also be responsible for moving existing content over to the new content management system and helping train city staff in the use of the system.

City staff on the Web site redesign project team say the current site, which uses a publishing system that is 12 years old, is outdated. They say the primary goals are to make it easier for city personnel to get content out on the Web and make it easier for the public to navigate.

“We want to make sure that this Web site allows us to be accessible and open, that people can navigate throughout it and get information that’s relative to them,” said Snipes. “We have a very tech-savvy citizenry who are demanding that.”

Snipes said while the city tries to contract with local companies whenever possible, it also has a responsibility to get the best deal for the money.

“In these economic times, to spend another $500,000 to $600,000 to go with a local company when we have a responder that addresses all of the specifications that we want and has a precedent for doing this for other entities, that would not be our recommendation for the best use of the city’s money,” Snipes said.

Other Web sites that use the type of content management system the city is looking to implement include those for the state of Hawaii, the city of Albuquerque and NASA.

The city council is expected to vote on the contract at its meeting on Thursday.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SXSW Interactive happened in Austin..... sigh..