Framework agreement for the period from 01.01.2027 to 30.06.2029 with the option to extend for another year with IT system contract for the city portal of Arnstadt

Description of Services

The contractor shall develop and implement a new, future-proof online presence for arnstadt.de. The focus should be on service orientation.

• The new website must be consistently geared towards the needs of citizens, i.e. presenting departments and areas of responsibility, information and official notices, digital options such as appointment booking and, in the future, application submissions, as well as further topics (council information system, citizen participation) to citizens in a clear, intuitive, and usable manner.
• Present administrative structures in an understandable way without making them the primary navigation.
• Consolidate content and reduce the number of subpages.
• Implemented to be accessible, responsive, and future-proof.
• Serve as a foundation for future digitization and AI applications.

Content Requirements

For the Citizens and Town Hall section, the following functions and content must be implemented in particular:

• Clear and well-structured presentation of the organization of departments and responsibilities: the citizen's concern must be front and center; the most important citizen services should be accessible directly from the homepage, including integrated form data and required information.
• Optional integration: ThAVEL (Thuringian Application Management System for Administrative Services) via interface with the Thuringia Responsibility Finder (Zuständigkeitsfinder Thüringen).
• Appointment booking capability is required in order to reduce waiting times for citizens.
• Integration of the existing appointment booking system.
• Clear presentation of official notices and information on city events in a "News" section (optionally including a "Breaking News" feature). Important: More extensive design options (better image embedding, scheduling function for posts, manual sorting of articles in the overview).
• Integration of the council information system.
• Reinstallation of the existing issue reporting tool (Mängelmelder).
• Accessibility interfaces: screen readers, read-aloud functions, high-contrast displays, Plain Language / sign language.
• Integration of any suitable translation tool.

Technical Requirements

A modern open-source content management system is required that allows intuitive operation without prior technical knowledge. The system should be flexibly expandable and customizable to project-specific requirements. Structured content management, clear permissions management, and a stable, low-maintenance architecture are prerequisites.

• The website must be accessible and visually appealing across all browsers and mobile devices.
• Please state whether custom coding implemented in the CMS remains accessible after the end of the service contract or whether it is tied to external platform dependencies. Recurring license or usage fees must be factored in.
• Maintenance, administration, and further development by the vendor must be ensured during the contract period.
• Expandability via plugins/modules.
• Audit-proof versioning of content / changes to content are saved traceably.

Functional Requirements

• High-performance, intelligent search function (semantic search, high result quality), AI-supported search.
• Integration of forms (contact, registration, etc.) for further processing.
• Events calendar (integration of the event calendar of the Bach City of Arnstadt).
• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): The website must be conceived and technically implemented in such a way that its content can be captured, understood, evaluated, and recognized as a relevant source of information as effectively as possible by AI-based search and answer engines. In particular, an appropriate technical structure, semantically clear content, structured data, as well as search-engine- and AI-friendly preparation of content must be taken into account.

Performance and Scalability

• Loading time: maximum of 2 seconds on a standard connection.
• Mobile optimization (Mobile First).
• …