HomeMy WebLinkAboutEXISOR_MAIN_RESPONSE_COLE
Website Redesign
City of Lake Elsinore, CA
April 29, 2022
1-800-922-9112
info@exisor.com 1
Table of Contents
Table of Contents ................................................................................................................... 1
Company Profile ..................................................................................................................... 4
Key Personnel and Operational Info ........................................................................................ 4
Dedicated Account Service ............................................................................................................... 4
Wayne Woodward, Partner and Chief Technical Officer ..................................................................................... 4
William Layo, Senior Consultant .......................................................................................................................... 4
Alison Fulton, Senior Web Developer .................................................................................................................. 5
Project Understanding and Approach ..................................................................................... 5
Our Approach ................................................................................................................................... 5
Inclusion for All .................................................................................................................................................... 6
Online Payments .................................................................................................................................................. 6
Content Planning and Gathering .......................................................................................................................... 6
What it takes to make web projects successful ................................................................................. 7
Key Infrastructure ................................................................................................................................................ 7
Software Stability and Freedom ........................................................................................................................... 7
Design Strategy .................................................................................................................................................... 7
Project Timeline ...................................................................................................................... 8
Training .................................................................................................................................. 8
References .............................................................................................................................. 8
Experience .............................................................................................................................. 9
City of Memphis Migration to WordPress (2020) - memphistn.gov ................................................... 9
Features of the New City of Memphis website .................................................................................................. 10
Training for the City of Memphis ....................................................................................................................... 10
Other Experience and Projects ....................................................................................................... 11
COVID-19 Hub (2020) - covid19.memphistn.gov ............................................................................................... 11
Memphis Police Recruiting (2020) – joinmpd.com ............................................................................................ 11
Memphis 3.0 Public Transit Plan (2018) - transitvision.memphistn.gov ............................................................ 11
Memphis Library Summer Reading Program (2020) - explore.memphistn.gov ................................................. 11
Reimaging Policing in Memphis (2020) - reimagine.memphistn.gov ................................................................. 11
Project Overton Park (2018) - pop.memphistn.gov ........................................................................................... 12
Memphis Fire’s EMS Healthcare Navigator (2019) - hcn.memphistn.gov ......................................................... 12
City of Memphis Safety Hub (2021) - safety.memphistn.gov ............................................................................ 12
Memphis Fire Recruiting (2020)- joinmemphisfire.com .................................................................................... 12
Public Service Campaign to Reduce Speeding (2021)- slowdownmemphis.com ............................................... 12
New Website Design (2021)- coinconnection.net .............................................................................................. 12
1-800-922-9112
info@exisor.com 2
April 29, 2022
City of Lake Elsinore
130 South Main Street
Lake Elsinore, California 92530
Dear Selection Committee:
I am pleased to provide this statement of qualifications to the City of Lake Elsinore for the
Website Redesign. Exisor agrees to the terms outlined in the RFP. We are an IT services
provider based in Memphis, Tennessee, with an in-house web designer and developer with
extensive experience with WordPress and local government communications. Our founders’
background is in IT management with comprehensive experience with local government; this
gives Exisor a complete understanding of the demands organizations like yours have for web
development and continued support for these types of projects.
Exisor, LLC is a national IT technology company focused on the success of our Local
Government, Commercial, and Educational customers. Our breadth of experience in these
sectors allows Exisor to bring together the best solutions implemented in the technology
industry to organizations like The City of Lake Elsinore. This experience enables all our
customers to achieve more with Exisor as a partner.
Exisor can bring a flexible partnership to the City of Lake Elsinore:
• Freedom for hosting – Exisor can host the website for you; you can select a different
hosting company or host it yourself. We will work with you if you would like to change it at
any time.
• You own your code and content – you can take your code with you. Some competitor
solutions do not allow the customer to transfer their code and data or to transfer it quickly.
• Security – continuous application review and compliance with best practices and City
IS/IT policies
• Isolated Server Design – Only one customer will be affected if a server issue does
occur, allowing for better communications and resolution.
• Dedicated Named Contact – Your named person is your developer, not a middleman
between you and the developer.
Exisor is excited to begin work with the City of Lake Elsinore and to begin immediately
addressing your challenges. Staffed with people that have decades of experience developing
websites and providing IT services to public organizations, we are excited to offer our best-in-
class & best-in-cost solution to you. We believe our solution provides the best mix of education
sector expertise, leading-edge technical design, and public sensitive pricing. The key to our
solution is after development, The City of Lake Elsinore owns the content and designs, and you
are not beholden to a company who can hold your website hostage in the event you wish to
change providers or platforms.
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Alison Fulton will be your primary person assigned to the City of Lake Elsinore. She has 15+
years’ experience in communications, web design (UX/UI), and WordPress. The last two and a
half were with the City of Memphis. She led their web team to migrate the primary City website
away from a failed proprietary hosted CMS solution and designed and built the City’s COVID-19
information and vaccine distribution website, among well over a dozen websites– all on the
open-source platform, WordPress!
Thank you for your consideration of our response, we look forward to potentially making an
online oral presentation of our solution to the City.
Sincerely,
William Layo
William Layo, Senior Consultant
8295 Tournament Dr, Ste 150
Memphis, TN 38125
800-922-9112 / info@exisor.com
1-800-922-9112
info@exisor.com 4
Company Profile
Exisor is a full-service technology company in Memphis dedicated to keeping your systems
running safely, smartly, and smoothly. Our reliable team consists of highly trained, certified
professionals with 20 years of experience in the public sector. Exisor was established in 2017
and has been providing web design, development, and hosting services since inception. We are
a new company but not new to performing the functions outlined in the scope of work for the
City of Lake Elsinore. Exisor is pleased to assign Alison Fulton, Senior Web Developer, to
The City of Lake Elsinore.
Key Personnel and Operational Info
Web Division – Organization Chart
(Resumé for each below attached separately)
Dedicated Account Service
Work with the same person from project
start to finish. Never get lost in a generic
support inbox or speaking to a revolving
door of help desk personnel through an
800 number. Exisor is not a faceless
organization!
Wayne Woodward, Partner and Chief
Technical Officer
Wayne drives Exisor’s innovation and has
25+ years’ experience working with IT
infrastructure architecture with both legacy and the latest technologies for customers. Wayne is
the Chief Architect of Exisor’s hosting solution that utilizes AWS’ premier distributed network.
Wayne has experience as the Chief Technology Architect for multiple metropolitan governments
across the nation. With this experience, he knows the challenges public organizations like the
City of Lake Elsinore experience implementing new solutions within the unique constraints (e.g.,
regulatory, legislative, etc.) in which you must conform.
William Layo, Senior Consultant
William has 20+ years working with the public sector and government contacts to improve
operations and services. He is a Strategic Planning and Operations expert with a gift for turning
around failing engagements and operations within larger companies through restructuring and
introducing efficacies as well as improving service and increasing profitability. William will be the
lead executive and project manager.
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Alison Fulton, Senior Web Developer
Alison is a seasoned web designer and developer with
a B.F.A from the International Academy of Design and
Technology (Tampa, FL). With 15+ years of designing and
developing user experiences online, Alison has spent the last two
and a half years working in-house at the City of Memphis to transform all of their
online communications with the public.
Project Understanding and Approach
The scope of work for the City of Lake Elsinore is in line with many other municipal websites
requirements. Exisor highly recommends the WordPress platform for the City of Lake Elsinore’s
website.
When Alison was with Memphis, she migrated their entire city website to the WordPress
platform. Because Memphis is now on WordPress, the repeat migrations from system to system
that took place every 3-8 years have ceased and they may source new design and theme work
for their WordPress website’s architecture while keeping– and owning– all the programming and
functionality.
Our Approach
We offer the solution of freedom and complete control over your website with the
highest level of support and service you could ask for. WordPress is highly
supported and is used across the world: over 40% of all websites online are
powered by it.
Exisor’s own Alison Fulton has 17 years of experience designing and
developing for the WordPress (WP) platform and has navigated around the WP
Core software with each update from the WP Core Team. Alison was also the Lead
Organizer for WordCamp Tampa, a WordPress-based Technology Conference in the Tampa
Bay, Florida area. Alison is a WordPress Core Community Member for the official open-source
WordPress Project at WordPress.org.
Most of the features asked for in the scope of work are included in WordPress out of the box.
The rest of the features may be achieved by add-ons or plugins to WordPress that may require
some customizations and configurations that we are capable of handling, and have already
done with previous projects (see Memphis case study).
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Inclusion for All
One in four people in the United States has a disability. While it is
common for many web vendors to select an off the shelf template from a
WordPress template store, we instead avoid code bloat and security holes
by crafting our websites and web pages from a simple maintained
codebase that are ADA-compliant and can be navigated by keyboard and
common screen readers. Assistive technology makes living life much
easier for people with disabilities. They rely on this tech to do things like order food, pay taxes,
apply for jobs and talk with loved ones. We believe in inclusion for all to enjoy access to content.
We follow accessibility guidelines from leaders in the industry, following WCAG
checklists and when possible, incorporating disabled people into our web
creation and testing process.
There are four types of disabilities that Exisor works with to create a streamlined
web experience for all: Vision, Mobility, Hearing, and Cognitive.
Websites and web apps can be designed to be consumed by a wide audience. This may mean
accommodating disabilities such as colorblindness, Dyslexia and Dyscalculia, seizure and
migraine triggers, and comprehension level and cognitive load.
Accessibility is important. Inclusion is essential!
Online Payments
Exisor may provide the forms necessary to collect secure online payments and ensure the
entire site is under SSL encryption as is standard with all our websites. Exisor expects The City
of Lake Elsinore to choose their desired Payment Gateway to integrate into the website. The
integration may be as simple as a link to a third-party website to collect payments, an
embedded iFrame widget, or a more integrated solution with website forms that use an API to
send the information to the gateway for payment to be processed securely.
Content Planning and Gathering
Exisor understands the challenges of gathering content for the website from department to
department, especially in larger municipalities. Exisor will work with each department head to
strategize what to place on the website for public consumption as well as guide the writing tone
and tense, so the copywriting sounds cohesive. We prefer final written content be delivered in a
Microsoft Word Document with limited formatting (no tables or colors).
Photography must be delivered in JPEG format at the highest quality available. Dimensions
exceeding 1,200 pixels wide are preferrable. Exisor will size down all images with advanced
compression technology to ensure that users on less than ideal internet speeds may access the
information in a timely manner.
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What it takes to make web projects successful
Exisor takes a three-pronged approach to website support: Key Infrastructure, Software
Stability and Freedom, and Design Strategy. Each are incredibly important to achieve the results
required for muncipalities.
Key Infrastructure
- 24/7/365 Availability monitoring and management
- AWS Redundant cloud server architecture
- AWS Shield DDoS Attack Protection
- AWS Route53 DNS Management with globally distributed
nameservers
- 90 Day Retention of Daily Backup Points
Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers superior security and speed over most web hosts on the
market. AWS offers cloud and hybrid IT architectures that extend your on-premises
infrastructure to the cloud. Rich controls, auditing, and broad security accreditations to enable
compliance with CJIS, HIPAA, and more.
Software Stability and Freedom
- WordPress (WP) CMS
- Preventative maintenance on Core WP and WP Plugins
o Staged major updates to WordPress prior to deploying into production
- You own the site, the code, the content
Design Strategy
- Public communications and design strategy
- Accessibility and mobile first philosophy
- Easy to follow navigational systems
- Easy to read typography systems
- Responsive Web Design is standard
- Major browser compatibility
We build web pages on the WordPress framework
that function and look beautiful on most devices and
screens used today. Our designs are truly inclusive
for all.
Color schemes and typography are chosen off existing branding and major layouts are sketched
and wireframed and sent to your team for approval before spending time in development. We
value your feedback and a partnership when communicating with the public.
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Project Timeline
Exisor’s web developer and designer is available to start your project upon commencement of
contract.
Generalized Timeline
Description Timeframe
Project Management & Evaluation 4 weeks
UX/UI Web Design 12 weeks
Development, UAT, Deployment 16 weeks
Training and Wrap-Up 3 weeks
Note: Web Design and Development tasks will overlap somewhat.
Training
Exisor will conduct training via Microsoft Teams to and be recorded for later reference. It is
recommended that training takes place in small groups rather than one or two large groups for
increased engagement of staff.
In addition to live video training, Exisor will provide written documentation and help videos to
use the system.
References
1. Jay Wilson at Coin Connection may be reached at 901-274-2200 or
jwilson@atmcentral.net. Exisor provides web design / development, Google marketing,
and web hosting services.
2. Allison Fouché at the City of Memphis may be reached at 901-636-6881 or
allison.fouche@memphistn.gov. Alison has provided web design services in the past
working directly with Ms. Fouché
3. Charles Elliot at LeMoyne-Owen College may be reached at 901-230-7218 or
Charles_elliott@loc.edu.
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“Alison is a very talented designer. Her work is exemplary, and
she understands what is needed to execute eye-catching and effective
web assets. It has been my pleasure working with her.”
–Allison J. Fouché, M.S., Deputy Communications Director @ The City of Memphis
Most of the previous websites below were completed and maintained by Alison Fulton during
her time producing web campaigns and applications for the City of Memphis, working closely
with the Office of Communications within the Mayor’s office. All websites were built on the
WordPress framework, either stand-alone or on a WordPress Multisite network and
authenticated user accounts with Active Directory (AD) via LDAP. They are all
responsive/mobile friendly and went through rigorous WCAG checks to maintain ADA
compliance and inclusion.
Allison Fouché, Deputy Director of Communications, is the reference for all City of Memphis
websites below and may be reached at 901-636-6881 or Allison.fouche@memphistn.gov.
We currently have no former clients.
Experience
City of Memphis Migration to WordPress (2020) - memphistn.gov
Alison led a team of two other developers to migrate the entire City of Memphis website from a
vendor’s proprietary cloud system over to WordPress. The pain points Memphis faced are
similar to what other municipalities across the country face: lack of freedom and control over
their websites, lack of response and support, and a lack of inclusion for people with disabilities.
Alison personally worked with several people with disabilities from the Clovernook Center for the
Blind & Visually Impaired in Memphis to ensure that the website was
completely accessible in all ways imaginable.
While migrating the City of Memphis’ website to WordPress hosted
on-premises, we did not expect the existing website vendor to be
uncooperative in exporting any data in a standard format (such as
XML). Initially, we assumed the City would receive a raw SQL table
export, but the City was not allowed access to their own website’s
data. To navigate around this, we had to rebuild the information architecture of all content,
documents, and related data. Each page was recreated manually, nearly 500 of them, as well
as organizing documents across departments dating back over 10 years. To add insult to injury,
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the vendor could not keep the website online and was not accessible to Memphians for
sometimes days at a time. This was unacceptable, so the City of Memphis kicked off the
migration project to officially bring the site back in-house and under the control and watchful eye
of City staff.
Features of the New City of Memphis website
Out of the box, WordPress covered many basics for Memphis such as scheduled publishing,
multiple page templates, forms, social media integration, content management with robust
visual editor, and audit logs of all edits and updates.
With the help of a few additional plug-ins, Memphis also has document repositories for City
Council (all agendas, minutes, and supporting docs), Finance (CAFR docs, etc), and many
other documents for the various divisions to easily post.
The RFP/RFQ area had special attention: a custom post type and various custom fields in
WordPress was created and a template page presented this information, shown by date the
RFP expired. City staff now can easily login and upload documents, set expiration dates, add
amendments, and not worry about taking documents down at date of expiration. WordPress
does it for them!
Training for the City of Memphis
Alison trained all City staff personally in small groups of 1-5 across 15 divisions. She has
previously given many talks and instructional presentation on how to publish in WordPress
whether you are a complete beginner, all the way to advanced topics on templating. She caters
her instruction depending on her students’ knowledge. For example, the staff in Memphis’
Animal Services had previous WordPress and marketing knowledge that allowed for more
advanced layout instruction in WordPress’ visual editor. But for staff inside the City Engineering
division, no one there had used WordPress prior and first needed instruction on the basics of
publishing.
In addition to training, Alison created a quick 2-page reference guide on all WordPress
resources both official and non-official for further reading and watching that covered the core of
WordPress, plugins used, and additional customizations within the theme such as custom fields.
The City of Memphis now enjoys the freedom that WordPress gives them to easily modify,
change, or remove content, or do anything to their website that they desire, most changes which
do not require any web development agency.
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Other Experience and Projects
COVID-19 Hub (2020) - covid19.memphistn.gov
Alison was responsible for the design, development, and
maintenance of the City of Memphis’ COVID-19 information
hub. The site was designed with an accessibility and mobile
first approach. Each page was tested with various screen
readers to ensure every Memphian had all information
available during the pandemic. When the State of TN stepped
into remove Shelby County from vaccine operations due to
mismanagement in early 2021 and instead assigned vaccine
distribution to the City of Memphis, Alison designed and
developed an easy-to-use interface to schedule a vaccine
appointment for the public at large. Several weeks after, the
City migrated to the State’s VRAES system for vaccine
appointments, but quickly abandoned it the next day after public outcry to return to Alison’s
interface in conjunction with Signup Genius for ease of use and simplicity.
Memphis Police Recruiting (2020) – joinmpd.com
This website was in desperate need of a re-design and refresh. Alison created the wireframe
and layout, collaborating with the City’s HR Division, Executive Communications Division, and
Police Department to create a hub for police recruits to gather information and learn about the
application process (which was handled via Oracle). The website was also migrated in-house to
the City’s data center and away from a popular commodities WordPress website host.
Memphis 3.0 Public Transit Plan (2018) - transitvision.memphistn.gov
The Mayor’s office needed a stand-alone website to communicate Memphis’ transit vision
outlined in its award-winning 3.0 plan. Alison created the exciting logo and graphics, inspired by
the transit maps created by a local consultant. The website was then created after approval of
the branding to easily communicate the plan to Memphians.
Memphis Library Summer Reading Program (2020) - explore.memphistn.gov
COVID-19 brought new challenges in the Summer of 2020 when attempting to roll out the
Library’s annual summer reading program. Branding was already created by a third-party while
Alison designed and developed the website and typography choices to successfully bring the
reading program fully digital by May.
Reimaging Policing in Memphis (2020) - reimagine.memphistn.gov
Summer of 2020 also brought protests across the nation after George Floyd’s death. People
took to the streets of Memphis to protest, pushing the Mayor of Memphis and the Director of
Police Services to act and change policies to stop and prevent a tragedy from happening again.
“Reimagine” was created in response to public outcry. Alison worked closely with the Mayor’s
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office and the Director of Police to communicate the policies being changed across the Division.
The website was created to be as simple and easy to use as possible.
Project Overton Park (2018) - pop.memphistn.gov
POP or Project Overton Park is a one-page website created to communicate the several public
forums being hosted on what the City should do with the land and buildings in Overton Park.
The branding was created by an outside agency and delivered to Alison to create a website and
theme based off the colors and typography chosen.
Memphis Fire’s EMS Healthcare Navigator (2019) - hcn.memphistn.gov
Division of Fire Services needed a website to communicate to the public and to providers about
the Healthcare Navigator program. HCN is operated out of the EMS department of Fire
Services. The Program Director commissioned branding and rack cards from an outside
agency. Alison took what was already designed and translated the message to web. During
COVID-19 vaccine operations, she created a simple application process for home vaccinations
that the HCN department handled.
City of Memphis Safety Hub (2021) - safety.memphistn.gov
Safety is not an option, safety is the way we live! This tagline is drilled throughout the website as
it is the official slogan of HR’s safety department that handles OSHA inspections and drug
testing. The Safety website is a hub of information on various events, vendors, policies, and
procedures, as well as past and archived safety events and conferences. Alison designed and
developed the website from existing branding and materials.
Memphis Fire Recruiting (2020)- joinmemphisfire.com
The official sister website for JoinMPD.com, Join Memphis Fire was an exact clone of the Police
Recruiting website with minor brand variations/differences as well as photography choices.
Public Service Campaign to Reduce Speeding (2021)- slowdownmemphis.com
April is speeding awareness month for the TN DOT. In a partnership between State, County,
and City law enforcement agencies, this website serves as a vehicle to communicate what the
local speeding ordinances are as well as the current crash and fatality data within Shelby
County. Alison designed and developed the website off an existing billboard design.
New Website Design (2021)- coinconnection.net
Coin Connection is a Bitcoin to Cash ATM service. Alison designed
the brand elements, color palette and website, then mapped out
each Bitcoin ATM using Google Maps API. The website is built on
WordPress and is completely editable by the Coin Connection staff,
including adding, removing, or editing Bitcoin locations. Jay Wilson
is the reference for Coin Connection and may be reached at 901-
274-2200 or jwilson@atmcentral.net.