Website Development Process
Executive Summary
While the web development portion of the project is the most extensive in terms of requirements, Zanlus is ready to exceed all of the technical requirements of the RFP using the Drupal Content Management System (CMS).
Drupal is a free, open-source CMS with a large user base and scope. Drupal has been leveraged to provide community web portals, corporate web sites, intranet applications, aficionado sites, e-commerce applications, resource directories, social networking sites, and personal and professional blogs. Its wide variety of features and add-ons make it both relatively simple for the beginning user as well as highly flexible for advanced users and system administrators. Unlike other popular CMS, Drupal provides clean HTML output, which makes it more accessible for the visually impaired and simplifies code validation.
The Drupal installation that we will create for Amasong will provide an image gallery, a robust events calendar, multimedia playback, aggregated news features, list-serve functionality, an e-commerce package, secure sites for choir and board members, and a file repository. The proposed budget includes a lightly customized theme selected from the Drupal themes website. Although we strongly recommend using a customized theme to achieve the maximum benefit from the branding process, we have modularized this cost in order to be clear about your options (for more information, see the Drupal Installation Information section).
Zanlus recommends hosting the site on our servers rather than using Prairienet. While we have a good working relationship with Prairienet, their storage limits will substantially increase the cost of their hosting services. In addition, they provide no reliable backup system, which is not acceptable for the enterprise-grade site that Amasong is putting in place.
In our proposal, we have attempted to modularize as many costs as possible in order to provide Amasong with the highest level of flexibility and cost control. We strongly encourage Amasong to consider investing in some level of documentation and in the ticket sales installation. However, we understand that these may be items which Amasong may decide not to purchase at this time. As an additional cost-saving tool, Zanlus will track all hours on the project. Net hours that have been over-budgeted will be reduced from the final cost of the project.
The cost for the basic installation to meet your needs is $6,939.00. The cost of the recommended installation, which includes custom theming, day-to-day administration documentation, and the ticket sales installation, is $9,855.00.