Menges Group Website Development, Hosting, Support & Maintenance Proposal 
Updated: 10/7/2019

Overview

The Menges Group (MG) is seeking to engage Brandit, LLC (Brandit) to help the MG team create, launch and maintain a modern and easily-maintained WordPress-powered website that follows the MG’s branding and design guidelines, as well as the most modern design trends and multimedia design practices. This website will be built with a WordPress page builder and visual editor that can be easily edited and maintained MG’s internal team, and has built-in ADA compliance tools to ensure broad usability across all devices.

About Brandit

Brandit is a full-service website design & development company that specializes in building best-in-class websites using a validated WordPress platform built on scalable AWS hosting containers.

Our company started over 5 years ago after our founder struggled to get a basic website built. He found that in the world of website development, a large portion of service providers are building websites that are either built on proprietary platforms that lock clients’ into expensive hosting plans, or they are built with hard-coded templates making them extremely difficult to edit by your internal team without coding knowledge.

This motivated our team to create a WordPress platform that empowers internal teams to edit their website easily while leveraging a powerful cloud platform and WordPress framework. Our websites combine WordPress’ most widely used page-builder with a validated framework of plugins that are tailored to your business goals. This framework is easy-to-use, SEO optimized and capable of producing some of the most advanced design elements available on the web today. We also offer fully-managed hosting plans that run on dedicated AWS and Digital Ocean containers which are capable of scaling to millions of monthly users. You can also view our team resumes by clicking this dropbox link. 

Approach & Technical Response

Based on the initial discussions, we are proposing the following approach:

• The CMS used will be WordPress hosted on a cloud-based, managed hosting solution using an AWS or Digital Ocean backbone that can provide a secure development and hosting environment without using internal resources to manage hosting and security.
• The design will be based on branding guidelines and provided by MG that will be implemented throughout the website design. 
• Brandit will create and customize a child theme for the Divi framework to empower the MG team to update the website easily and support content publishing efforts with easy-to-use page layouts and designs that will be saved within the Divi layout library. 
• Site content will be migrated as needed. MG team will provide copy, images and video as needed. 
• Brandit will use built-in ADA compliance tools and develop and design the site based on ADA compliance standards. 
• Brandit will provide a complete user experience and usability audit that defines key user personas, and user actions in order to improve the overall user experience for the site redesign. 
• Brandit will create automatic backups that are taken in 3 hour intervals and are stored for 2 weeks for simple site recovery. 
• Brandit will determine and develop a framework of validated plugins based on MG’s needs that will be defined during discovery. 
• Brandit will configure industry standard, end-to-end SSL encryption and HTTPS redirection for the website to ensure secure payments for MG fare cards and other media. We provide free SSL encryption through Let’s Encrypt or we will install your own SSL certificate on the production server.
• E-Commerce functionality will be powered by WooCommerce. Credit card transactions will be powered by Stripe and PayPal. Credit card information is never stored or passed through MG’s cloud server to remain PCI compliant. 
• The WordPress theme will be modified to store various document formats such as Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and PDF. 
• Brandit will create a staging environment that includes seamless, single-click push/pull functionality that can be used for testing theme changes, major core WordPress updates, and new feature additions before pushing to production. 

Timing

The site should launch 90 days from the initial discovery meeting. Timing is subject to approvals and content being provided in a timely manner.

Statement of Work and Estimates

Price estimates are based on initial objectives and may change as mutually agreed upon tasks and objectives change. Cost estimates and payment schedules are provided in four milestones. 

Total Estimated Development Cost: $23,500
Total Estimated Hosting: $450 Setup + $200/month
Optional Yearly Content Development: $1500/year or we can provide estimates per project

Milestone 1 – Discovery, Wireframes, Content Strategy and Scope of Work
25% Deposit ($5,875) of Total Project Fee is Due to Start Work

Weeks 1-3
Brandit and the Company team will meet at least once and follow-up with phone and emails to iron out remaining details.

• Confirm site requirements for branding, design, sitemap and functionality. 
• Define plugins needed to execute on additional requirements (email signups, google analytics, ad promotion management, SEO, etc.). 
• Work closely with MG team to define key user groups that have the largest footprint on the website’s focus.
• Use these user personas in combination with our discovery discussion on key functionalities to develop wireframes for the following layouts:  Homepage, Offered Services Page, Staff page, Publications Page, 5 Slide Series, Presentations/Newsletters, & Podcast Library page. 
• Examine and list leading websites and companies in the space with a discussion of which aspects of these brands are most appealing and effective.
• Create a sitemap that consolidates existing navigation in order to improve usability and improve user experience.  
• Define content assets available and needed after migration. This includes defining which content moved over from the existing website needs additional formatting. 
• Define schedule and approval process.
• Define requirements and data to be included in custom post types for announcements, schedules, or other content-types if necessary. 
• Define form integration requirements for contact submissions. 
• Confirm hosting needs and setup development environment. Brandit provides a scalable WordPress-managed hosting environment that provide faster response times with improved security and stability. We handle configuration of all hosting, DNS and cloud servers as needed. 

Milestone 2 : Primary Design and Development Sprint 
We’ll begin work after 50% of the total project fee ($11,750) has been deposited.

Week 4-7 – Design

• We’ll work with the MG team to define the Divi child theme requirements for creating finalizes page layout designs in the page builder based on approved wireframes from Discovery in Milestone 1. 
• The Brandit team will place initial content on sample pages for review and revise based on feedback from the MG team.

• Brandit will create final graphics for primary pages layouts that were created as wireframes during Discovery. 

Weeks 5 – 8 Site Development, Internal Page Design, 3rd Party Integrations & Content Development

Customize and configure the theme, user experience and content organization based on the approved wireframes and designs. Mobile views of the website design will vary based on the screen size and platform. The site will not look exactly the same for all users, however it will be fully mobile responsive.

• Install and configure plug-ins to add functionality defined in discovery phase.
• Integrate social media and any other third-party services via plugins. 
• Set up and design trip planner widget using pre-approved branding and stye guide provided by MG.
• Integrate these any 3rd party apps/code/iframes that need to be placed on pages where necessary, these may include:
  • Downloadable documents library
  • Advanced Searching Addon
  • E-commerce functionality
• Create Divi design templates for  Homepage, Offered Services Page, Staff page, Publications Page, 5 Slide Series, Presentations/Newsletters, & Podcast Library page.  Others may need to be designed if determined during discovery. 

Milestone 3: Revisions, E-Commerce & API Integrations, Browser Testing
We’ll begin work after 75% of the total project fee ($17,625) has been deposited. 

Weeks 8 -12

• Create and test payment, account, cart, and checkout pages which will be powered by WooCommerce.  
• Integrate MG’s Stripe and Paypal accounts as primary payment methods.
• Complete 2 revision rounds based on the feedback from the MG team with up to 15 items each of 10 hours of total work. 
• Test site on the latest two versions of MSFT IE, Firefox, Safari. Test on most recent versions of Android and iOS.
• For the final DNS changes; we provide consultation or perform work as needed to get the DNS updated. We troubleshoot issues and make the transition as smooth as possible. 
• Content Delivery Network setup for increased security, performance, and speed. 
• Assist the MG team with adding and formatting content up to 8 hours of work..

Milestone 4: Website Launch, Google Analytics Configuration, Google Search Console Submission, Post-Launch Setup and Training
We’ll begin work after 100% of the total project fee ($23,500) has been deposited. 

Weeks 12 -14

• As needed, configure 301 redirects for up to 30 renamed or deleted Web pages.
• Train staff to manage site as needed in 1-3 training sessions via phone or Skype. We also will provide up to 5 videos for frequently performed actions to continually assist MG staff. 
• Configure Google Analytics/Google Webmaster accounts. Create basic reporting as defined in the discovery phase.
• Test CRM integration with lead generation forms if needed. 

Enterprise Website Hosting, Support & Maintenance

Total Cost for 6 Months: $4550

Brandit’s managed hosting solution uses a scalable fully-managed WordPress Cloud hosting infrastructure that is built on an AWS or Digital Ocean backbone and uses industry-standard optimization and security practices. 

Our all-in-one solution provides Cloud Hosting, WAF, Stage and Testing Environments, Code Optimization and Security enhancements and Monthly Support Plans that give you the peace of mind that your application is there for users when they visit.

Optional Hosting items may be added at anytime. WordPress Support plans may be cancelled or modified at anytime with 30 days notice.

Hosting & Security Setup One-time Fee: $450

MG Website Hosting & Security: $200/month

• Managed WordPress hosting optimized for speed and security
• Dedicated WordPress support team
• Fully redundant cloud hosting on AWS or Digital Ocean backbone
• Sites are hardened from malware attacks. Active malware scanning and code hardening with WAF powered by Sucuri. SSL certificate setup and support is included.
• Staging environments easily pull all existing code and settings from the production website in order to test feature, design and content updates, and then push these updates to production site. 
• Regular backups and our experts handle any recovery if needed.

Design and Build of 2 Pages Per Year: $1500

• Brandit will assist MG in the design and creation of  2 pages per year or at least 15hrs of additional work. Alternatively, we’d be happy to enter an hourly agreement or create estimates on a per project basis as the need arises. 

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