Crown Benefits Microsite
Prepared by Chris McMahon
Project Objective
The project objective is to design and develop a site for Crown employees and future employees to view their benefits options.
The more I get acclimated to the new design, the better I like it. It feels clean and airy, like it is breathing.
Paul Bernish
CCO
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
The site design will be clean, modern, and will follow the Crown Branding Guidelines
Since the majority of traffic these days comes via mobile devices, we will employ a Mobile First/Responsive design approach.
Every decision will be viewed through the lens of speed, ease of use, and whether is satisfies both the users' and the client's goals. This does not mean bandwidth-intensive elements such as video will be excluded, merely that it should be initiated by the user instead of foisted upon them.
The site layout will adapt to the user's device so that the site will be usable across a wide range of screen sizes such as desktops, tablets, and mobile phones.
Designing In-Browser
Instead of the traditional design process of creating static design mock-ups in a graphics program such as PhotoShop, I prefer to design within the web browser itself.
This allows for the client to view and interact with the site across multiple platforms (mobile, tablet, desktop, etc).
If the option of adding an alternative design exploration is chosen, the designer who works on that may not take the same approach.
Design Exploration
Finding the best design to meet the needs of the project.
- Site Header & Footer: I will begin with the header and footer of the site. These 2 elements will determine the global design elements found on most every page.
- Homepage: I will create the homepage based upon the decisions reached during the design of the header and footer. Up to 6 hours of revisions are included in this phase of the design.
Supporting Design Elements
These elements round out the site design, providing content specific templates.
- Primary Interior Templates: After the homepage is approved I will move on to the interior page templates, including one & two column templates, news/blog templates, and a contact form template. This phase of the design process includes up to 4 hours of revisions.
Chris helped us relaunch our website in 2011. He was so easy to work with, made great suggestions, and has been a HUGE asset since completing the project. He is a great resource when it comes to the tricky pieces of web design, a great trainer, and takes the time to break things down for a non-tech person. I really enjoy working with him.
Grace Mohr
Operations & Communications Director
Mackey Advisors
Content Management
The project will be using WordPress as the content management system. This will allow the client to easily make updates and additions to the site.
A WordPress theme will be custom built for this project. The theme will focus on design only. Functionality will be handled by plugins. This approach allows for the site's theme to be updated or changed without affecting the content and functionality of the site and also ensures that only elements needed for the site are included, avoiding all of the bloat that is common with pre-built themes.
This will lead to improved performance, ease of maintenance, and portability of content.
Up to 4 hours of training is included in this proposal.
SEO
Site Structure
The site will be built in a manner that follows best practices with regards to Google’s guidelines for search engine optimization. For example: proper use of headline structure, page titles, and alt text for images.
Site Map
A human accessible page containing a listing of all public facing pages will be included to help with wayfinding and search engine indexing. The site will also include an XML version of the sitemap, as many search engines also use that in their indexing efforts.
Redirects
If the project is a redesign of an existing website, redirects from current URLs to new URLs will be put in place to assure that no existing pages indexed by search engines return a 404 'Page Not Found' error. This will also help maintain any relevancy that search engines have assigned your current site.
Analytics
A Google Analytics account will be set-up (if one does not already exist) and integrated into the site to allow for search traffic analysis.
How Two Owners Got the Web Sites They Wanted
A New York Times piece on Mackey Advisor's experience building their website
Site Specifications
- Site will be HTML 5 compatible
- Site development will follow the concepts of progressive enhancement.
- The site will be compatible with the following browsers:
- Microsoft Windows
- Internet Explorer 10 and above
- Most Recent Version of Microsoft Edge
- Most Recent Version of Google Chrome
- Most Recent Version of Mozilla Firefox
- OS X:
- Most Recent Version of Safari
- Most Recent Version of Google Chrome
- Most Recent Version of Mozilla Firefox
- Mobile
- Most Recent Version of Chrome for Android
- Most Recent Version of Safari for iOS
- Microsoft Windows
Testing
The site will be built with modern browsers (latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, & IE) in mind and reasonable adjustments will be made to ensure functionality in older browsers once the site is complete.
If more than 2 hours is needed to make the site meet the client's specifications in browsers older than those listed above, that additional time will be billable. This is usually not necessary as old browsers represent less than 3% of US Market Share.
Content Population
Content will be provided as MS Word compatible files and populated by CRM
Chris has delivered every project on time and at budget. What I like most is his desire to make our projects better by offering suggestions and guidance.
Ed McMasters
Director of Marketing & Communications
Flottman Company, Inc.
Hosting
The site can be hosted on any host that provides PHP 7.1 or greater and MySQL 5.6 or Greater. Unix is preferred to Windows for the server’s operating system. I can provide recommendations for hosting and will evaluate any other providers the client may be considering. Up to 2 hours of hosting related consulting and configuration is included in this proposal.
Hosting is included (along with many other helpful tools) in all of the hosting & maintenance packages listed at the bottom of this proposal.
Email configuration (beyond the creation of MX records) is not included in this proposal. A third party email service provider can be recommended if needed.
Timing
Project timeline is 30 work days from signing of contract and receipt of deposit
A more detailed timeline, along with key deliverable dates, will be provided upon signed agreement and receipt of deposit.
…Impressive and very inspirational.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, after touring the exhibit ‘Invisible: Slavery Today’
Wed Design & Development
| Service | Cost |
|---|---|
| Site Design | $1,200 |
| Site Development | $2,400 |
| Content Population | $1,200 |
| Total | $4,900 |
Maintenance & Hosting Packages (Optional)
The packages below will help keep your website running smoothly, keep it patched for performance and security issues, and provide back-ups in case something were to break or be accidentally changed or deleted.
| Features | Entry | Standard | Plus | Pro | Realtime |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month to Month | $49 | $79 | $149 | $199 | $249 |
| Yearly | $499 | $799 | $1,499 | $1,999 | $2,499 |
| 2 Years | $899 | $1,499 | $2,699 | $3,599 | $4,499 |
| Free WordPress Optimized Hosting | |||||
| Included Storage | 2 GB | 5GB | 10GB | 20GB | 40Gb |
| Free SSL Certificate | |||||
| Free CDN | |||||
| Free Site MigrationFree Site MigrationWe will move your site from its existing hosting providers server to our own at no charge. | |||||
| Over $400 in Premium Plugins | |||||
| WordPress Core Updates | |||||
| WordPress Plugin Updates | |||||
| Update Rollbacks | |||||
| Security Scan | |||||
| Off-Site Backups | Monthly | Weekly | Daily | Every 4 hours | Real-Time |
| Email Forwarding | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Email Accounts | 0* | 0* | 0* | 0* | 0* |
| Database Optimization | |||||
| Page Speed Optimization | |||||
| Spam Prevention & Clean Up | |||||
| Uptime Monitoring | |||||
| 404 Monitoring | |||||
| Broken Link Monitoring | |||||
| E-Commerce Support | |||||
| Real-Time Order Backups | |||||
| Free Services per Month | 1/2 hour free, a yearly savings of $600 |
1 hour free, a yearly savings of $1200 |
2 hours free, a yearly savings of $1800 |
3 hours free, a yearly savings of $2400 |
4 hours free, a yearly savings of $3600 |
| Discount on Additional Services | 20% | 20% | 20% | 20% | 20% |
*Email is not included in any of the above plans. However, CRM will help configure up to 5 email addresses at a third party email service provider, such as hover.com (preferred), Microsoft 365, or Google Workspace. As of March 1st, 2023, cost of these services are between $20 -$72 per user (email address) per year.
Payment Schedule
- Payment is accepted online via all major credit cards and PayPal. Checks and bank transfers will also be accepted.
- A 50% deposit is required before the project can be scheduled and work begun.
- If development exceeds 30 days, an additional payment(s) of 25% of the remaining balance is due every 30 days.
- The remaining balance is due upon completion of the project. Payment must be made before the site is publicly accessible.
- Care & Maintenance Packages are paid in full annually or on a monthly schedule.
All original materials completed by CRM Holdings Limited including but not limited to graphics and test results will become the property of and be delivered to Client upon payment to CRM Holdings Limited of all outstanding charges. CRM Holdings Limited retains display rights in the work, i.e., for use in portfolios, exhibitions, and other self-promotion channels.
This project uses WordPress, which is licensed under GNU General Public License. Please be aware of the implications regarding copyright this may entail.
All out-of-pocket charges will be billed at cost; no mark up will be applied to out of pocket charges. Cost to license stock photography is not included in this budget and will be billed separately.
Alterations or modifications requested that are not detailed in the above proposal will be billed in addition to the above total estimated project budget. The client will approve any additions to the estimated total budget prior to the initiation of the requested modifications.
Client will be billed at the completion of each stage or as described in a payment schedule in this agreement.
Payment terms are 30 Days Net except for initial deposit and/or hardware items. A 2% finance charge or $25, whichever is greater, will be applied to invoices past due every 30 days. Once work has begun no refunds will be offered for completed work.
CRM Holdings Limited will provide a 90 day Break/Fix Guarantee (extended to lifetime for clients who are using one of the Maintenance & Hosting packages listed above) for the custom software provided. If during the first 90 days of implementation any software issues should arise that are the responsibilities of CRM Holdings Limited and reported within the guarantee time frame, CRM Holdings Limited will repair the problem free of charge. Issues beyond 90 days will be charged at CRM Holdings Limited’s normal hourly rate. This excludes issues with 3rd party plugins (but that rarely happens and are usually easy to fix).