Questions and Answers From September 2023
- Can you provide more detail around the site’s PCI requirements? This standard is typically used for sites that are processing credit card transactions, which does not appear to be part of the scope of this project.
We don’t have PCI requirements at this time. Our credit card transactions are processed on third party systems. We will update the RFP.
- We understand that the site will be transmitting appointment data via API to a third-party system. Apart from that, will the site need to transmit or store any patient data?
Occasionally, patients will use our Contact Us form to submit details about care that they’ve received.
- Can you provide more information about approximately how many WordPress blogs will need to be migrated into the new Drupal platform?
We would prefer an integration instead of a migration. Currently, our site imports blog posts from WordPress at scheduled intervals and creates nodes from them so that they can be associated with Drupal content using taxonomy.
- Can you provide more information about the level of integration required with Outlook and GroupWise?
If we post event details to the web site, we would like users to be able to click a button or link to add the event to their personal calendars.
- Can you provide more information about how much LOTE content the site will need to be able to deliver?
TBD. At minimum, the Patient and Families section of the website.
- Can you provide more information about what kind of content will need to be synched between the .org and .edu sites?
The provider bio data will need to be synced between sites. For example, this page on CooperHealth.edu displays a list of providers. The providers also exist on CooperHealth.org, primarily in the Find a Doctor section. We keep the data in sync so that we only have to make a change once.
- Are you open to a Q1 2024 start if the project will be completed prior to the end of 2024?
No. The project must start in at least a minimal way in 2023.
- Are there any specific deadlines (e.g., fiscal year, contract expirations) that might impact the timeline for this project?
Project must be contracted for and started in 2023. Completion is desired in 2024.
- Have you identified a target budget range for this project? If so, are you able to share it?
We are not able to share at this time.
- Who in the organization helped develop this RFP?
The AVP of Communications and Digital Strategy and the Lead Web Developer
- Have any firms assisted with the development of this RFP?
No
- Have any firms been invited to bid on this RFP? If so, how many?
We are soliciting bids from three firms in this round.
- Who are the people on your core team? What are their roles and responsibilities? What percentage of their time will be dedicated to this project? Is there a designated project champion and core team, and are they prepared to collaborate with us on a weekly basis?
AVP, Communications and Digital Strategy (project lead)
AVP, Marketing
Director, Digital Innovation, IT
Lead Web Developer
Art Director
Sr. Web/Multimedia Designer
Marketing Directors (2)
Marketing Managers (2)
Brand Manager
Communications Specialist
Involvement includes requirements definition, assistance with user research, reaction to comps, content migration (if necessary), QA. Percentage of time and involvement will vary by role. AVP of Communications and Lead Web Developer will be available to collaborate on a weekly basis.
- How many stakeholders are involved in your decision-making?
It depends on the decision. Most likely it will be between two and five.
- Is your team familiar with Agile methodologies, where work is conducted in sprints and tasks are refined and prioritized on an ongoing basis throughout the project?
Yes
Questions and Answers From November 2022
RFP Response Format
Are we able to provide accompanying documents and high-fidelity proposals that add more detail to what we are proposing?
Yes
Agency and Business Relationship
Per question 11 in Attachment A - Statement of Vendor Qualifications - do you have concerns regarding conflicts of interest if the agency works with other health care systems and/or clients that do business in your market? If yes, could you please confirm which Health Care systems and/or clients would be of concern for your team?
Other health systems in our primary service area are Penn, Jefferson, Virtua, Atlanticare, and Inspira
Who are the key decision makers? What role within the organization do they play?
SVP, Communications and Marketing
AVP, Communications and Digital Strategy
AVP, Marketing
Director, Digital Innovation, IT
Lead Web Developer
Who are the key client stakeholders for the project and how will they be involved in the effort?
AVP, Communications and Digital Strategy (project lead)
AVP, Marketing
Director, Digital Innovation, IT
Lead Web Developer
Art Director
Sr. Web/Multimedia Designer
Marketing Directors (2)
Marketing Managers (2)
Brand Manager
Communications Specialist
Involvement includes requirements definition, assistance with user research, reaction to comps, content migration (if necessary), QA
Can you provide any details on the stakeholder landscape that needs to be included in the project and how you envision the internal project team(s) in terms of size and composition?
The core internal team will be composed of 5-8 members of our web team, including our AVP of Communications and Digital Strategy, social media director, web developer, and web/multimedia designer. See more details in answers to the questions above.
What is the composition of the Cooper project team we’d be working with? Highly technical? Editorial? Design-focused?
Our team is very small, consisting of a single developer, a single web designer, an AVP with a hybrid communications/tech background, and a few more editorial/marketing focused staff outside of the core team.
With vendor selection not happening until Jan/Feb and then a contracting phase coming next, is Cooper flexible with that timeline knowing this project could very well extend into the 2023 calendar year?
We assume you mean 2024, and yes.
Can you kindly share the evaluation criteria parameters and the weightage against it.
These are currently under development and are not available at this time.
User Experience/Design
Do you expect to allocate a percentage of the budget towards usability testing and/or audience research?
Yes.
Do business users/content editors etc. have SSO with any other applications today and if so, through what system?
All of our employees use SSO for various applications. One example is our internal social media platform, Pulse Plus. We authenticate via ADFS.
What data points do you have that indicate performance issues for site search and Find a Doctor?
We do not have technical performance issues with site search or find a Dcotor. We just want to optimize the search function and relevancy of results.
Are site search options other than Google Site Search a possibility?
Yes. We’ve tried using Solr, but found that it couldn’t compete with how Google handles misspellings and synonyms. We’re open to exploring other options.
What tool(s) do you use to assess ADA compliance?
Site Improve: https://www.siteimprove.com
Do you have an existing design system in place that our teams would leverage?
We have existing brand standards. Agency would be expected to respect overall brand guidelines and produce a style guide for the websites.
Do you have a content strategy that spans CooperHealth.org and CooperHealth.edu today?
Content strategy is being maintained with assistance with our SEO agency. It is not part of the scope of this project, but we are open to suggestions.
Is your current site meeting HIPAA and PCI compliance standards?
Yes
What is the larger objective of this website redesign activity? Is it a scheduled design facelift that had to happen or are there some specific pain points related to design that cooper health wants to address?
It’s a little of both. Our design is dated, but there are also processes that have been unreliable. One example is the Cron job that pulls provider data from .org to .edu. Sometimes that process fails to run and it requires developer intervention to fix it. We also feel that our staging-to-production process can be improved.
What are the current significant challenges, pain points, or complaints you get or have about the website?
- Find a doctor search could be improved.
- Pathway to making appointments could be improved.
- Lack of design flexibility within templates.
- Amount of time and effort it takes to make what seem like simple design tweaks.
- Some of our automated processes fail to run.
- Inability to switch a page's content type without having to recreate the page.
- Inability to reuse an existing an image in the repository. Each image has to be uploaded new, making numerous duplicate images in repository.
- Some back-end content entry screens are clumsy and not intuitive, especially those governing the content shared between .org and .edu
- Our staging environment requires us to duplicate effort by recreating pages in production.
Have you conducted any recent user research or collected data through other means that would help inform this redesign?
This should be part of the discovery phase of this project. Our SEO agency also has data and recommendations that can help guide the process.
We observed both websites use the same visual theme/template. Have you gone through any formal branding exercise earlier or are we looking for the same branding yet different visual identities for both the websites in scope?
The visual identities of both sites should be similar so that experience across them is as seamless as possible.
Which healthcare or other generic websites do you look to for inspiration? Is there any direct competition or any other market leader who does it (offers a similar kind of services and medical help) perfectly in your eyes?
While there are elements that we like on other sites, there is not one "perfect" site. We are also looking to you to make best practice recommendations.
Are there any specific customer journeys that you have identified? We noticed that the digital front door for patients is one that is mentioned in the RFP, Are any other specific workflows/customer journeys that you want to edit/add to the current websites?
We would expect to develop this in the project's discovery phase.
We noticed that other websites like my.cooperhealth.org etc. are not in the scope of this redesign activity but at the same time we assume an online appointment form on the main website (cooperhealth.org) is. Please validate this assumption.
That assumption is correct.
No specific workflows or customer journeys are mentioned in the RFP about the cooperhealth.edu website. Is it correct to assume that no scope increase/cut-down is needed on this website?
We would expect customer journey to be defined as part of the project.
For the redesign activity, Do you currently have any in-house design stakeholders who we’ll be collaborating with? Who will be the decision makers and key stakeholders for design approvals specifically?
See stakeholders listed above under Agency section.
We noticed that the RFP identifies a few user personas as primary users of the websites in scope. Have you conducted any formal persona mapping exercises for Cooper health websites? If yes then can the output of that be shared? If not, then are we open to conducting relevant user research activities prior to starting the website redesign?
We expect user research and persona development to be part of the project.
We assume the brand logo is final and no changes in the Cooper health logo are required as part of this redesign activity. Please validate.
This assumption is correct. There will be no changes to the logo.
Will both sites continue to look similar with the same branding elements or does Cooper Health desire completely different experiences, layouts, etc between the two sites?
We are assuming that both site will look similar overall, but that specific elements/placements on page may be different.
Does Cooper have existing resources/artifacts for customer personas, research, etc that will be made available to the selected partner?
These are to be developed with the assistance of the selected vendor during the discovery phase of this project.
Are you wanting to implement direct scheduling for all providers or will you keep the current functionality with some having direct and others having appointment requests?
We’ll keep the current functionality, as some of our providers don’t offer direct scheduling and some only offer telehealth appointments.
How do you currently create content and deploy to the web today? Who is involved and how does it work?
Most of our content is created by the members of our communications and marketing team with the assistance of freelance writers and our SEO agency. There isn’t a formal process or workflow. On CooperHealth.edu, we provide edit access to some of our employees to modify their program’s pages.
Are you planning to create new content as part of this redesign effort? If so, are you expecting your chosen partner to handle content authorship?
Content creation is not in scope for this project. There may be consolidation and restructuring.
How will content be developed for the new site? Is an internal content audit/re-write intended to be part of Cooper’s efforts?
We are not planning any large-scale new content development or rewriting.
How large is Cooper Health’s IT department staff that works on the websites and is there a different team for each site?
There is no IT department involvement. Both sites and all blogs are maintained by one full-time web developer along with other members of our Communications and Marketing team, none of whom are devoted full time to the websites. See team list above under Stakeholders.
Is there any specific part of the UX that your users are especially dissatisfied with or you feel needs to be dramatically improved?
Search, navigation, and appointment process can use improvement.
Will your current site analytics data be available to the selected partner?
Yes
Are there specific features that are not currently on the website that you want to add? I.E: scheduling, wait times, content libraries, etc.
We’d like to add the ability to log into EPIC from a form on the home page. We may wish to add additional features.
Are there currently or do you plan to have any authenticated areas of the new website (for MyChart or otherwise)?
We do not currently plan to have any authenticated areas of the new site (aside from the admin area). We link to myChart currently, and will provide the ability to log into it from the desktop version of the site shortly. However, we won’t have to configure access permissions.
Are there specific goals you have with respect to personalization on the websites?
Not at this time, but we may in the future.
Hosting
Are the current websites already hosted on Acquia or is there a move to Acquia as part of this project?
Both cooperhealth.org and cooperhealth.edu are currently hosted on Acquia. Our blogs are hosted on GoDaddy, but they are not part of the scope of the project, and we do not anticipate moving them.
Is the web host - Acquia - remaining unchanged for the new site? If so, what Acquia services are utilized e.g. Personalization? Cloud Next infrastructure?
Our hosting will remain the same. We’re on Acquia Cloud - Plus. We’re not using any of Acquia’s add-on products at this time.
Technology
Can you provide a list of which third-party vendors the site will provide a “digital front door” to? E.g. MyChart
- myChart - Access to patient health records
- Clockwise - for digital check-in to our urgent care facilities
What automated deployment processes are in place? If none, are these in scope?
There are no automated deployment processes currently. We are open to suggestions.
Does the current Drupal architecture support multisite with shared components across sites?
Yes.
What is the scope for HIPAA and PCI compliance?
We don’t host any patient health information on our site. Our patient portal is hosted elsewhere and is not within the scope of this project.
What specific legal/privacy standards is Cooper required to adhere to?
HIPAA, HHS data tracking guidelines, GDPR
Is the DR solution in scope? If so, is a hot-hot setup desired? What are the relevant RTOs and RPOs?
We would welcome a recommendation, but set-up is not considered in scope at this time.
Can we get more information on encryption standards and requirements?
We’re using the standard TLS/SSL protocol.
What security and performance mechanisms are in scope e.g. WAF, CDN
We’d like to explore the possibility of using Acquia’s CDN.
Is ADFS authentication new i.e. not currently implemented?
Yes, ADFS is not currently implemented.
Please clarify which Drupal version Cooper Health expects their new website to be built in.
We're using Drupal 9.4.5. We expect the site to be built in the latest stable version of Drupal at the time the project commences.
How are the two websites (cooperhealth.org and cooperhealth.edu) linked? Are these multisite architecture? Can you share more information regarding content-sharing requirements between the two websites?
The sites aren’t linked at all right now. Even the user logins are separate. There is a Cron job that runs nightly that imports provider bio information into .EDU from .ORG. We’re interested in an improved, more seamless solution.
Since the appointment forms are being rebuilt in Drupal, do we have to migrate data related to previous appointments to Drupal, or will form submissions be linked to an external service? (4.2)
We won’t have to migrate any appointment data. All of the data is stored in an external system. The Drupal form will hook into that system via an API.
Will the schedule appointment forms need to send submissions to an external system or will the form data be stored directly in Drupal?
The form will send to an external system via API. No appointment information will be stored within Drupal.
Does content need to be presented in languages other than English? If so, which ones?
We would like the ability to present content in other languages without relying on an automated translation service. We would have to discuss which languages. Most likley Spanish, but there may be others.
Are you able to provide additional detail on desired functionality for language translation on the websites, and the languages you are looking to support at launch?
We’d like to hear any recommendations for how to deliver our content in multiple languages without having to create duplicate pages or rely on Google Translate. Spanish at launch if possible.
How are “Cooper blogs” being maintained? Are those drafted and published on a different platform?
Our blogs are hosted on a separate server and in WordPress. Our main website is importing the blog posts via RSS feeds.
Please help us categorize the "in scope" and "not in scope" for the redesign or redevelopment efforts.
- https://appointments.cooperhealth.org/*
- https://cmsru.rowan.edu/*
- https://blogs.cooperhealth.org/*
- https://events.cooperhealth.org/*
- https://request.cooperhealth.org/*
- https://cooperhospitalstore.klicorders.com/Secure/Home.aspx
- https://remote.cooperhealth.edu/vpn/index.html
- https://cmsru.rowan.edu/about/
- https://cooperhealth.enrollware.com/*
- https://clockwisemd.com/*
All of those domains are out of scope for the redesign except for appointments.cooperhealth.org. We require our appointment request form to be created within the CMS.
The site will pull content from blogs.cooperhealth.org and events.cooperhealth.org, but neither of those sites will be redesigned.
We would like to confirm if you are looking for a dark site or simply a banner alert (as an example) that can be made live/scheduled by the content managers in case of an emergency.
We would like an alert banner to appear at the top of our site in case of emergency. A dark site is not necessary.
On the current website, we have come across only one page (https://www.cooperhealth.org/contact-us) which has the provision of reviewing the content in other languages. versions. Do you have some other web pages as well or is this a general sitewide requirement?
Some of our blog posts exist in multiple languages but our main website does not offer multiple languages aside from a handful of pages. We’d like to hear any suggestions for how to deliver our content in other languages without having to create duplicate pages or rely on Google Translate.
Is the expectation here for developing a centralized content hub which will be responsible for pushing content to both www.cooperhealth.org & www.cooperhealth.edu. If yes, can you please help us with some page examples to better understand whether this feature is for static pages or dynamic pages or both.
Currently, we’re creating provider bio profiles on CooperHealth.org. We’re relying on a nightly scheduled task to import those bios into CooperHealth.edu. That process frequently fails. We’re looking for a more stable solution that would save us from having to create and maintain provider data in two places.
Do you have other subsidiary sites today or is this a new feature we expect to implement as part of this scope?
This would be a new feature, but these have not yet been defined.
Will there be one time bulk import of the Physician / Staff profiles or do you require a CRON job which will monitor and trigger updates on a regular and planned frequency?
There will need to be a CRON job plus a mechanism to alert us to changes so that we have a chance to accept the changes and immediately publish them or make corrections in the originating system (anticipated to be either symplr or CrednetialStream) before importing.
Do we expect the pages from current sites to be embedded on other sites as iframe or some other medium? Can you please help us with a use case example?
We need the ability to embed an iframe into our pages. An example is here: http://cooperhealth.org/services/urgent-care-center - the Reserve Your Spot section is an iframe that’s displayed seamlessly in the body of the page.
While we understand the technical requirement of Encryption, it will be helpful to know of a use case for this too. Any specific content type that may require this or is it for all of the pages?
This refers to making sure the site is secured properly using https and using a valid SSL certificate to verify our identity.
Regarding 4.3.1, Can more information be shared regarding branched multi-site architecture? Are you planning to develop an installation profile or starter kit and then use it to generate multiple websites?
We will have to discuss.
Regarding 4.3.2, what would be the nature and frequency of such imports? Is the approach of importing data finalized, or would it be re-evaluated based on the type of integration?
Our site imports data from our events management system and our WordPress blogs. The import runs approximately every 8-12 hours. We’d like the ability to manually run that process as well, in case we need something imported immediately.
Regarding 4.3.13, do you want to enable all multilingual features of Drupal or just need the ability to populate data in other languages?
We would have to investigate Drupal’s multilingual features before deciding.
What would be the code views in 4.4.1?
Code view refers to viewing/editing HTML source code.
4.4.15 Clarification: Does this require that the editing/admin interface be optimized for mobile? As in, the site can easily be updated via an editor using a mobile device?
Yes.
In 4.5.4, are we looking at some content sync features between stage and production? Are you up for suggestions when it comes to implementing workflows like these?
We welcome any suggestions regarding a proper staging environment. Right now, we have to build a page/section on staging and duplicate the effort on production.
4.6.1 Clarification: Is the intention of this question to require that the site has internal search functionality? Is Cooper open to recommendations for search functionality applications? Is there a need for an integrated cross-site search application?
Yes. We are open to suggestions. Cross-site search would be desirable.
Can more details be shared regarding the central content repository?
This requirement can be disregarded. Drupal is the central content repository.
Please provide an approximate number of service external users and internal users (your employees).
We have approximately 100 user accounts between both domains.
What are the minimum devices, variants, and browsers versions you need compatibility with, and do you have specific requirements for different viewports (mobile/tablet/desktop)?
We don’t have specific viewport requirements, as long as the site is fully functional and responsive. The site should run properly on Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, and Android and run on Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, and Samsung’s mobile browser.
While working on accessibility, will your visitors require special needs (i.e., screen reader ready, larger fonts, etc.)?
We’ll have to discuss offering larger fonts, but the site should be ADA compliant. Please see this page for requirements: https://www.siteimprove.com/glossary/ada-compliance/.
What level of integrations are in place for existing third-party integrations?
Most of our integrations are handled using Cron jobs to pull in content from external sources, including our events management system and our WordPress blogs.
Do you expect us to estimate the efforts to integrate the third party services like chatbot, symptom checker, etc.?
Not at this time. If decisions are made to use such services, we would discuss a scope change at that time.
How is content creation currently being organized? What is the working process?
Most of our content is created by the members of our four-person web team. There isn’t a formal process or workflow. On CooperHealth.edu, we provide edit access to some of our employees to modify their programs' pages.
Do you use specific SEO tooling? If so, what tooling?
We have an SEO agency to handle that aspect for the website.
Are there specific traffic/conversion goals for SEO?
There are SEO goals defined for several service lines. Our SEO agency handles content optimization and will share other optimization recommendations with the selected vendor.
Will the Epic integration listed in the RFP continue linking out to https://my.cooperhealth.org/MyChart/ page or will more robust integration and customization be requested?
We request the addition of a login form on our homepage that would allow the user to log into Epic/myCooper directly from the form, instead of linking to myCooper as we’re doing now. We are in the process of developing this integration now and anticipate that it will be live on the current site in February 2023.
How are you currently using your integration with Epic and are you looking to change the user experience?
See above. In addition to the login integration, we would like to integrate the appointment request process for a new patient who is currently does not have a myCooper (Epic) account.
On line item 4.7.16 you have “System processes (workflows) shall run as a defined username and associated role.” Can you please elaborate a bit more on what this is referring to?
We have automated tasks that import blog posts from WordPress and create nodes in Drupal. The creator of those nodes should be a dedicated system account in Drupal.
On line item 4.6.8 you have “The system shall have the ability to synchronize content between .org and .edu sites at scheduled times” - can you elaborate on the type and size of the content you’re referring to?
We’re displaying provider data on both .org and .edu. The content originates in .org, and we’re using a scheduled task to push that provider bio data to .edu so that we’re not manually maintaining duplicate information.
For publishing instant emergency content, does this information come from an external system (such as an alerting system that publishes CAP alerts) or should it come from within the CMS?
Right now, we add the alert manually via the CMS. It is possible that the emergency content may come from an external system in the future, but that would not be part of scope of this project.
On line item 4.5.6 Is this publishing to external site pages or pages within the CMS?
Only pages within the CMS.
On line item 4.6.1 - Are you referring to indexing the site in Google or using a Google search appliance to power search within the site?
We're referring to using Google Custom Search for our site search functionality.
4.8.4 Clarification: The Vendor shall provide a testing methodology that the Cooper team can use to test all implemented environments. Is this question referring to automated testing (Behat, Cypress, etc.), manual UAT testing, both?
Ideally both. Manual at minimum.
Implementation
Is your team familiar with Agile product development principles? Do you have a preference, Agile vs. Waterfall in terms of the delivery approach for either phase?
We are familiar with both, and we have no specific preference.
Do you have any prior experience working with remote offshore teams?
We have not previously partnered with an offshore team, but we accomplish much of our work with remote teams.
Can you specify whom you expect to be onsite or partially onsite? If you allow flexibility, we intend to propose an optimal distribution of onsite vs. nearshore/offshore.
We are flexible on this as long as it does not impede progress.
What is the ticketing system currently use?
We’re not currently using a ticketing system.
Which model of engagement is preferred: Fixed Price or Staff Augmentation?
Fixed price is preferred.
5. What is the current reporting structure? Do you use dashboards? If so, which tools?
We use a number of reporting mechanisms depending on the need. We do not have a central dashboard for all reporting.
Support & Maintenance
Can you please give more details on the scope of the Core systems to maintain?
How many tickets are currently handled - What are the current monthly hours for Support and Maintenance services (please share the high-level activities currently undertaken - e.g. is there an ad-hoc development included)?
Support consists of both maintenance and ad-hoc development.
Is the current Support and Maintenance 24*7 model, and how is the current incumbent providing the timezone support?
Our web host (Acquia) provides 24*7 support. Our development partner is not 24*7.
What SLA requirements would Cooper be looking at for post-launch support and maintenance?
If you have support/maintenance tiers, please describe them and provide costs.
Budget
Do you have anticipated levels of investment for this project that you’re able to share?
We have put a placeholder in our 2023 budget, but it is not final. We hope the proposals will allow us to adjust as needed.
What is the current spend on build and maintenance?
We would prefer not to reveal this at this time.