recipe module childcareinfo rfp

Samantha Marshall

Minute Menu Systems, LLC

11/8/2012

Recipe Module Request for Proposal

1 Confidential/Proprietary Samantha Marshall ChildCareInfo.com

Summary ChildCareInfo.com, of Minute Menu Systems, LLC, is accepting proposals to design and develop a recipe

module for the already existing website (ChildCareInfo.com).

The existing recipe “page” is not dynamic and not maintained in a database format.

Proposal Guidelines and Requirements This is an open and competitive process.

Proposals received after December 1st are at risk of not being considered.

The proposal must be sent/signed by an authorized agent of the company submitting the

proposal.

If you wish to submit alternate solutions, please do so.

The price you quote should be inclusive. If your price excludes certain fees or charges, provide a

detailed list of excluded fees with a complete explanation of the nature of those fees.

Provisions of this RFP and the contents of the successful responses are considered available for

inclusion in final contractual obligations.

Contract Terms The Minute Menu Systems, LLC will negotiate contract terms upon selection. All contracts may be

subject to review by legal counsel, and a project will be awarded upon signing of an agreement or

contract, which outlines terms, scope, budget and other necessary items.

Purpose, Description and Objectives

Purpose ChildCareInfo.com is a website created in the Dot Net Nuke (DNN) framework. The majority of the

website is content creation and strict module “as-is” usage. ChildCareInfo.com would like a dynamic

recipe module that will work within the DNN framework. Upon completion, successful installation and a

3 month trial period of the module, ChildCareInfo.com/Minute Menu Systems will assume full

responsibility for module content maintenance and administration. All content, coding and graphics will

become the sole property of ChildCareInfo.com/Minute Menu Systems, LLC.

Description Create a dynamic recipe module that is easy to use. Must be a module designed within the dot net nuke

framework or 100% compatible. The recipe module will be dynamic and have an ever growing recipe

database. Each recipe will have its own URL so users can share, favorite, print per recipe, etc. Users will

have the ability to submit their own recipes for approval and display on ChildCareInfo.com.


To be effective, the recipe module must be:

1. Dynamic

2. User-Friendly, Easy and Intuitive

3. Visually pleasing

4. Safe and secure

5. Quick to load and operate

Objective Our primary objective with the recipe module is to provide a service to a niche child care community –

recipe module that caters to child serving adults (child care providers-family child care providers and

small centers- and parents) which also grows the ChildCareInfo.com community as a whole.

Our Vision 1. Provide a dynamic recipe solution for people caring for and serving food to children

2. Provide a solution to the endless search for healthy child friendly recipes and meal ideas

3. Provide a solution for an easy and effective place to maintain recipes, grocery lists and menus

4. Provide a solution for providers and families to find healthy recipes based upon USDA meal

requirement guidelines – as indicated

5. Help families and providers learn about My Plate components and how recipes may or may not

fulfill those components with the My Plate icon.

6. Maintain the first –ever, Kid Approved Database of recipes!

For more information on specific goals and user audience please see the project profile in Appendix A.

Budget Please provide several cost proposals to accomplish the scope outlined below. The budget must

encompass all design, production, and software acquisitions necessary for development and

maintenance of the web site.

Hosting will be addressed separately and costs for hosting are not included in the budget for this

project.

List pricing for:

Phase I: Discovery, Requirements Planning & Site Definition

Phase II: Site Development, Testing and Deployment

ChildCareInfo.com/Minute Menu has allocated $3,000 for this project (Phase I and II). However, we will

entertain responses for greater than $3,000 should they show an incremental project plan.

Adversely, the scope of the project is subject to refinement according to what can be done within

budgetary constraints as long as the initial development is done with room for enhancements based

on project profile desires.


Scope and Guidelines The scope of this project is to create a recipe module for ChildCareInfo.com’s website.

ChildCareInfo.com/Minute Menu will create and maintain the spreadsheet/database of recipes as well

as tagging the recipes as needed for the filtering and search parameters.

Developer(s) will handle all module planning, interface design and production. The module must include

a technology solution for recipe import and export.

Discovery

Confirm audiences, objectives, graphic look and feel, navigation, site marketing, technology issues

and assumptions, required functionality, phasing, and budgetary constraints, resulting in a creative

brief.

Design

Module information architecture, graphic look and feel, user navigation, recipe home page and main

navigation templates for each of the main navigation links.

Development Guidelines

The module designed by the successful candidate must meet the following criteria:

Create a dynamic recipe module that non-technical staff can administer as well as import

recipes to and from module

Visually Appealing

Module should match the look and feel of the ChildCareInfo.com skin

Ease of use to the end user: the filtering, searching, printing, sharing and adding to recipe box

will be intuitive, easy for the user to understand how to use w/out instruction

Recipe Module Functionality and Features:

o Recipe Submission: user will add recipe to own recipe box with an option to make it

public and share with the ChildCareInfo community

o Recipe Box: user will be able to add, remove, and reorganize recipes “added to” recipe

box. User will also be able to organize recipes added to recipe box in a folder. Recipe

box can/will also retain archived/saved Menus and Grocery Lists

o Menus created from recipes added to them, also can enter in meal name that is not a

recipe in the database. Daily, Weekly or Monthly option. Option to copy and paste or

repeat (creating cyclical menus).

o Grocery list created based on recipe(s) chosen or menu (also by day/week/month

chosen). Ability to add items to grocery list not on recipe ingredient list

o Dynamic My Plate Icon displaying what part of the My Plate components the recipe

meets. For example if the recipe fulfills the fruits and vegetables section then the fruits

and veggies side of the plate would be highlighted (they are all different colors in the

icons)

o CACFP Approved checkmark or icon for recipes that would meet federal CACFP

regulations


o Kid Approved checkmark or icon

o Filter by: Type of Meal (breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack), CACFP Approved, Kid Approved,

Kid Activities, Seasonal, My Plate Component, Ratings, Coupons/Deals, #of times added

to recipe box, Serving Sizes, Meals to Cook with the Kids

2nd degree filtering. Once one filter is chosen on the left menu there will be an

option to filter more specifically. For example : Breakfast is chosen then there

will be categories like: Pancakes/French Toast, Burritos, Smoothies, Omelets etc.

o Advanced Search

o Ratings

o Comments

o “Easy Meal Finder” (need to call it something else) I have this (or these) ingredient(s)

and want to make Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Snack – find relevant recipes.

o Ability to include coupons/promo codes/advertisements per recipe (per ingredient

would be ideal)

o Drag and Drop functionality whenever possible

o Credit provided to submission (either by user name of registered user, administrator, or

import.

For a visual and more specific description, please see the powerpoint that can be found here

recipe pages.pptx and if that doesn’t work you can download it from slideshare, here.

Registered users/display names and users are synced with overall ChildCareInfo.com website

Develop with option of monetizing based upon 1) promotions for particular recipes/ingredients,

2) Banner ads, and 3) upgrading “membership” or feature access based on payment to access

certain features.

Once the module has been completed, successful implementation and accepted by

ChildCareInfo.com/Minute Menu, the module design and all of its contents, software and

architecture become property of ChildCareInfo.com.

Proposal Requirements Assert specific functionality and timeline for budget stated in RFP.

Propose the costs for entire module functionality.

Propose working timeline

Explain process of development, testing and release

Please submit proposals to: [email protected] or [email protected]

http://childcareinfo.com/Portals/3/recipe%20pages.pptx

http://www.slideshare.net/sdaleiden/childcareinfocom-future-recipe-page-mock-ups

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Appendix A: General information/Project Profile for recipes on

ChildCareInfo.com

RECIPE PROJECT INFORMATION

1. Please give a brief description of the project goals:

Recipes to entire child care community through childcareinfo.com

Provide a "recipe database" that is easy for end user to navigate and successfully

find what they are looking for

Make it specific to our audience

o show kid friendly recipes,

o CACFP friendly (Federal Standards) – Show CACFP Approved icon

o Use My Plate

o Add to menu

o Nutritional Facts

o Categories/Filters by Meal Components that the recipe fulfills

o Show Serving Sizes – two main categories (more than 20, less than 20)

o Kid Approved Checks

o Opening for coupon functionality

Ability to turn functionality on and off based on membership or payment.

Cross-Platform/product functionality

Have one recipe platform across Minute Menu products

2. Please give a description of the overall project goals (overall organizational goals):

Provide a service to a niche child care community – recipe module that caters to

child serving adults (child care providers-family child care providers and small

centers- and parents)

Drive new and returning traffic to childcareinfo

Set up a potential channel for revenue via advertising or possibly charging for parts

of the modules features

Possible integration with company’s other products

3. What are your timeline requirements and why? (i.e., announcement to press)

Choose developer/vendor by December 1

Execute contract by December 15

Begin discussions and spec clarifications immediately

Begin development by January 7

Complete project by March 1, ready for big conference


WHO’S WHO

Product Manager ChildCareInfo: Samantha, [email protected], ext. 0218

PROJECT SPECIFIC INFORMATION

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

1. Dynamic: Search, favorite, submit and filter

2. Add to “Recipe Box”

3. Rate/Review

4. Grocery List

5. My Plate/Meal Pattern Requirements,

6. recipes indexed/tagged according to My Plate/Meal Pattern Requirements met, Center Recipes vs. FCCH

Recipes, Relevant themes, children's activities

7. child approved

METRICS FOR SUCCESS

The success of a Web site can be measured in many different ways. The following are a list of standard metrics.

Indicate the metrics most valuable to Minute Menu by ranking the items listed below from "1", most important, to

"6" least important in each category.

Include additional metrics that pertain directly to your organization or the goals of this site if there are established

objective measures or thresholds that will enable testing the metric. Delete categories that do not pertain to your

business and site goals.

RANKING METRICS

Rank: Objective Measure/Threshold:

Site Usage

# of impressions (hits) (page, section, or site) 1 These items are all important to sell

advertising, encourage people to

interact on the site, and obtain

additional content contributors

Length of user session 2 Important. we want users engaged

and finding the recipes and tools

useful


Number of repeat visitors to site 1 This is important. Recipes

submissions should increase

consistently. Users to return to find

more recipes and revisit the recipes

they saved in their recipe box.

Information or demographic data for on-line visitors 2 Important to gauge what the users

are utilizing. We can use this

information for marketing purposes,

sales of advertising purposes and as a

tool to consider when measuring

success in certain areas.

User response & Public Perception

User comments & testimonials within the product 2 Important. Want users commenting

on the recipes and therefore helping

create the child care community.

User comments & testimonials outside the product 3 Important for sharing throughout the

child care industry to get more users

entering the site for recipes and

seeing what else we have to offer

User Satisfaction (verification site visitors feel

comfortable on the web site and are gaining access to

required data and information in a timely fashion)

1 Extremely important

Positive comparisons with similar sites 1 Extremely important

Mention of site in mainstream press 5 This could be useful but not

important at the moment.

Mention of site in trade press 2 Useful. Anything Child Care.

Number of links to the site from other web sites 1 This should be high and is important.

If we could have a linking partnership

with some of these sites, that will be

very useful.

Search engine rankings 1 Extremely important for

childcareinfo.com and Minute

Menu. Recipes section provides the

rest of the website with added


visibility

Scalability 2 Recipe "database" need to know how

to maintain and tag recipes correctly

as we add them to the site and then

update accordingly if need be.

Improved Customer Service, outreach

Email from site 5 Using "add this" for sharing which

includes emails

Form Submissions 1 We want the community submitting

their own recipes!

Downloaded PDFs /materials 2 Important to have the ability to print

the recipes/menus/shopping lists in

some easy to print and read format

Amongst the categories of metrics chosen above, please rank each category in order of importance listed below

from "1", most important, to "5" least important:

Rank Metric Category Objective Measure/Threshold:

Site Performance 2

User response & Public Perception 1

Improved Customer Service, outreach 3

Business Development 5

Business/Site specific metrics 4

USERS

Provide some additional information about who you most want to target. Who these individuals are & what the

conditions are in which they are coming to your site.


A little bit on their demographic characteristics as well.

PRIMARY USER 1 – HOME/FAMILY CHILD CARE PROVIDER

Demographic Information

Age: 18-65 years old

Occupation: Family/Home Child Care Provider

Location (City/State/Country): National (USA)

Level of Experience with Technology:

Entrance to Recipe section:

Basic to Advanced

Kids Pro, Organic Web Search, Browsing/Searching ChildCareInfo.com,

Referrals from Associations, Sponsors and other partnerships

User Goals (Top 3): 1. Find new recipes that are healthy, the right serving size and the children

like

2. Find recipes that qualify for CACFP

3. Find recipes that go along with activities/themes or recipes in which the

kids are involved

User Primary Uses (Top 3): 1. Finding recipes to add to recipe box for later retrieval as well as adding

own recipes to recipe box and sharing with the larger community

2. Creating a grocery list and menu based on recipes in website and recipe

box

3. Filter quickly for new cacfp recipes directed toward family child care

providers/duration/components to fulfill partially done menu

User Profile/Persona (Optional): User is looking for new recipes to add to her collection. She gets tired of

the same old menus and meals. She also tries to get the kids involved.

May or may not be using CACFP but attempts to provide the children in

her care with the healthiest meals possible.

PRIMARY USER 2 – CHILD CARE CENTERS


Age: 18-65

Occupation: Small Center Director




Entrance to Recipe Section:

Basic to Advanced

CX, Organic Web Search, Browsing/Searching ChildCareInfo.com, Referral

User Goals (Top 3): 1. Center directors are going to use the recipe pages to find recipes for

their center cooks to use


3. Find recipes that go along with activities/themes or recipes in which

they can get the kids involved.

User Primary Uses (Top 3): 1. Sharing recipes with chefs or center teachers as it applies to them

2. Filter quickly for duration/yield/CACFP/Particular component needed

for a menu

3. Create a recipe box for all of the staff to refer to for menu creation or

curriculum themed food ideas

User Profile/Persona (Optional): This user is more than likely an all-in-one. Center Director, Manager, Chef,

Activity Director, curriculum planner and doer of all of these things. If the

director is looking for recipes they are looking to fulfill all of their roles

aspects, including how to get the children involved either in the cooking,

liking or theme centered food.

PRIMARY USERS 3– CENTER COOKS


Age:

Occupation:

18-65

Child Care Center Cook




Basic-Advanced

CX, Organic Web Search, Browsing/Searching ChildCareInfo.com, Referral

User Goals (Top 3): 1. Find new recipes that are healthy and the children like


3. Find recipes that fit the bill according to center director's requirements


User Primary Uses (Top 3): 1. Finding and adding recipes to recipe box for later retrieval

2. Filter quickly for duration/yield/CACFP/Particular component needed

for a menu

3. Addition to food purchasing list (easily added depending on Yield

needed or chosen)

User Profile/Persona (Optional): The center cook is most likely searching for recipes or browsing

dependent upon the director's needs. It could include what the director is

looking for as stated above. Could also just be a simple recipe search and

browse in order to make something that pertains to the children and

regulations (should they participate on USDA food nutrition programs)

PRIMARY USERS 4 – PARENTS (GUARDIANS)


Age: 18-65

Occupation: Varies

Location (City/State/Country): National



Basic to Advanced

Organic Search or Browsing/Searching ChildCareInfo.com, Referrals

User Goals (Top 3): 1. Find new recipes the kids will like

2. Need help with Picky Eaters, new ideas

3. Making a snack or goodie for a school class and needs ideas for healthy

recipes

User Primary Uses (Top 3): 1. Finding recipes to add to recipe box for later retrieval as well as adding


2. Creating a grocery list and menu based on recipes in website and recipe

box

3. Finding recipes to add to recipe box for later retrieval as well as adding


User Profile/Persona (Optional): Parents' need can range but will more typically be like how they use other

recipe sites. This would be more beneficial because these recipes will be

family friendly, AKA, Kid Friendly. Parents that want to teach their

children about nutrition and get ideas of how to do that and what types of


foods to make will be useful to them.

SECONDARY USERS 1 – GENERAL PUBLIC


Age: 18-80 years old

Occupation: Varies

Location (City/State/Country): National


Entrance to Recipe Section:

Low to Advanced

Organic Web Search, Browsing/Searching Childcareinfo.com

User Goals (Top 3): 1) Looking for recipes kids like

2) Need dinner/snack/lunch/breakfast ideas

3) Also add recipes to the site and their own recipe box

User Primary Uses (Top 3): 1)

2)

3)

User Profile/Persona (Optional): One way we can gain exposure to general users is using the google html to

get indexed in their recipe filter. This could expose the recipe section to a

wide range of users, not just people seeking out recipes for kids.

Audience (from

above)

List three most important information needs of this audience

with respect to the site

Rank audience in order of

importance

Prim 1-4 Filter, search and browse according to unique categories . ie.

meal components, CACFP require., meal pattern/my plate,

kid approved etc.

1

Prim 1-4 Must be able to save to recipe box 2

Prim 1-4 Get the recipes indexed in google's recipe filter section 3

USER SCENARIOS

Describe specific situations where a user would come to the site and what you might expect them to do while

there.


Scenario 1

Primary User 1 –

Home/Family child care

provider

Jennifer, a licensed child care provider and participant of CACFP wants to find some

new recipes for her child care. Jennifer is also a MM Kids Pro user. She clicks on the

link in Kids Pro for recipes because she is tired of the same old recipes she's been using

and is interested in not only finding something new but something that she can teach

the children in her care with. Jennifer enters the recipe home page and sees browse

categories for "CACFP Compliant" (by federal standards), Top Kid Approved, Meal

Component, Recipes with Activities, Main Ingredient, Family Child Care Recipes and

Center recipes. She finds a recipe she really likes and wants to save it to her recipe

box. When she does this she gets to title the new folder, Recipe Ideas for Fall Activities

and she begins adding recipes in her new folder within her recipe box. She saves

several recipes to this folder and then shares the list (folder) with a fellow child care

provider.

She returns the next month and chooses a couple of recipes to use this month. She

adds them to her shopping list and then adds the materials she needs for her activities

to the shopping list as well. She can save this shopping list for use next year and she

doesn't have to recreate it the next time she wants to do this recipe and activity.

Scenario 2

Primary User 2 –Center

Director/Cook

Sara a center director is looking for a new recipe with a 50 yield. She visits

childcareinfo.com's recipe page and clicks on the "center recipes" link. Sara now sees a

large list of recipes that she can use for her care. She actually needs a recipe that will

fulfill her menu for Wednesday. She is missing a grain component for her Dinner

menu. She clicks on the My Plate filter for Grains and Breads and finds a long list of

recipes that fulfill this requirement. She still needs to find a 25 yield and filters

accordingly.

After she finds what she is looking for she creates her shopping list and saves to the

recipe box.

Scenario 3 - Parent Lyndsey, the parent of a picky eater toddler and a 7 year old interested in trying new

foods is looking for some recipes that are child friendly. She searches for child friendly

recipes and finds ChildCareInfo.com and the “Top Kid Approved” filter bingo, she can

peruse and search recipes that have been tested with children and deemed a success

by the child care community.

She had read through the comments on the recipes and how much the children loved

eating certain ones, maybe even how the children helped prepare the meal.

Lyndsey decides to save 3 recipes to her recipe box in a folder “Try These.”

She returns to childcareinfo.com to create her menu for the week. She searches for

some new recipes and finds some and adds them to her menu for the week. She also

adds two of the recipes she added to her recipes box the last time she was on

childcareinfo.com. She then decides she wants to create a grocery list. Lyndsey

chooses the grocery list option from the menu she just created.


The grocery list appears with all of the needed ingredients parsed out into categories

that one would see in standard grocery store aisles. She needs to add milk and eggs to

the list as well and goes ahead and types those in.

Lyndsey then prints the grocery list, menu, and recipes she wants to try for the week

and saves the grocery list and menu in her recipe box folder.

END USER COMPUTER ENVIRONMENT

Please describe the minimum required for your target user, and typical expectations

1. Screen Resolution: 1024 X 768 (minimum)

2. Browsers and Platforms: Firefox, Sarfari, Chrome, IE

3. Connection Speed: 1 Mb / sec

4. Other Considerations: n/a

DESIGN

WEBSITE DESIGN PREFERENCES

Please provide a list of sites you use or like.

URL Site Features Why (like or dislike)

http://www.epicurious.com/ Recipes and Menus

section, Articles, Extensive

Community, Advanced

Search and Browse, LOTS

of browse sections.

shopping list, add notes

Love shopping list, like the simple and clean

layout of the recipes and the "at a glance" as

well as the tabs for reviews, photos, my notes

and find out more. Like the forks for ratings.

Overall website is a little busy with the ads etc.

http://allrecipes.com/ Recipes and menus, lots of

filtering and browsing

options as well as an

advanced search. Has a

MENU functionality. They

have a freemium model

where you can get a lot for

free but if you want to edit

recipes and save them or

use the menus and save

the integration with the menu planning,

shopping list and recipe is great and robust. I

think the shopping list names and ease of

creating and editing one is great and I like how

making the menu can change or add to a

shopping list as well. The recipe page itself is

pretty standard.

http://www.epicurious.com/

http://allrecipes.com/


you have to pay.

http://www.bettycrocker.com/r

ecipes

Easy Meal Finder is nice.

Looking for recipes with up

to three items you have

and the type of dish and

returns extensive search

results. After that you can

refine even more

extensively.

This site overall is user-friendly and easy to get

around. Really like the recipe box, the

shopping list and the box that follows the

recipe while scrolling down to add to recipe

box, sharing, printing etc.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/r

ecipes-and-cooking/index.html

Standard. Can also add

your personal recipe.. Also

has a quick recipe finder

based off of" I want to

make, with, duration and

where you want the recipe

from

Really like the look and feel of the recipe box. It

has the basic functionality but seems really

clean

http://www.tasteofhome.com/r

ecipes

Site is ok. Favorite is the

recipe box

This is an interesting format for the recipe box.

With the main recipes in your box and then the

tabbed options above it.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS / MARKETING CONSIDERATIONS

HOW DO YOU DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF FROM YOUR COMPETITORS? We can easily separate ourselves from government databases of recipes because these will be fun, easy

to use, easy to find and dynamic in many different ways.

We are separate from other recipe sites because of the child, child care, and cacfp focus.

PRODUCTION TECHNICAL / ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS

EXISTING SITES/PRODUCTS AND INTEGRATION

WHAT ASPECTS OF INTEGRATION ARE EXPECTED WITH THE RECIPE PLATFORM ON CCI AND KIDS PRO AND CX? Links from Pro and CX to recipe page.

Shopping list and menu integration.

Another possibility is integrating the accounting part with the shopping list....Instead of the duplicate

entry the users could port over the same list as expenses or deductions....

Are there any technical constraints or requirements in order to integrate with additional systems?

HOSTING

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes-and-cooking/index.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes-and-cooking/index.html

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes


DOES A HOSTING CONTRACT ALREADY EXIST, AND IF YES, WITH WHO?

Yes. Power DNN

ARE THERE ANY REASONS, TECHNICAL OR NOT, WHICH PROHIBIT CHANGING HOSTING PROVIDERS IN THE EVENT

THIS WERE TO BE NECESSARY IN ORDER TO SATISFY TECHNICAL NEEDS OF THE NEW SITE?

I don’t know at this time

ARE THERE ANY ADDITIONAL NOTES REGARDING HOSTING THE SECTION?

No

recipe module childcareinfo rfp

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