It is the University’s goal to establish a single contract to serve all the programs and buildings of the University. With this RFP, the University is taking a campus-wide approach to building a customized partnership with a major vendor to serve our university community. The University is seeking a professionally developed, virtual tour experience that includes a guide, and interactive capabilities that both inform the student and encourage them to get more information about Eastern Kentucky University. The tour must be shot on-site and include real footage as opposed to animated or digital footage. The ideal successful offeror would include synchronized audio tour guides and completion location-based multimedia panels (photos, videos, and 360 panoramas). Although Eastern Kentucky University has extended campuses in Corbin and Manchester, we would initially prioritize starting with our main campus in Richmond, Kentucky. The virtual tour would include an interactive tour with videos, pictures, and maps of our main University campus in Richmond, KY, which encompasses 80-85 buildings total, as well as the surrounding city of Richmond. The buildings included in this virtual tour are made up of main classrooms, dining facilities, our athletic complex and facilities, as well as several buildings that enhance the students’ experience such as the library, the student and recreation centers, and residence halls. The successful offeror would provide adequate technology to be embedded within Eastern Kentucky University’s website and operate seamlessly on mobile devices, social media, and other popular platforms as well as provide expert advice on maximizing the content and presentation. The successful offeror will also provide a seamless, user-friendly and timely content management and update process. Providing on-demand reporting analytics is critical so the University better understands the students and families we are reaching. This will allow the University to better respond to new and emerging markets. The successful offeror will be an established company with a specialty in higher education and will have experience and references with other public universities. The specifications the University requires for this RFP include the following (please acknowledge or discuss each bullet point within proposal): ● Ability to initially offer virtual tour for our main campus in Richmond, Kentucky ● Ability to incorporate additional campuses into the virtual tour in the future (EKU Extended Campuses) ● Ability to integrate and communicate with Slate, the University’s CRM solution. ● Ability to add multiple language options (e.g. Spanish, Chinese, Korean, German, Arabic, and closed caption) ● Ability to capture lead generation information ● Ability of end-user (i.e. prospective students and families) to choose the part of campus they want to virtually tour and be able to do a self-guided, self-paced tour of campus inperson ● The tour will be integrated on our website, via mobile devices, social media, and in collaboration with other partners ● Include downloadable application feature ● HTML5 technology or better in a responsive web design format ● Deliverable to include a combination of 360-degree tours, virtual-guided and interactive tours, videos, photos, and e-maps ● Virtual tour must use real footage (NOT animation or fully digitized video; digital enhancement can be considered) ● Drone service or footage is NOT something the University is interested in where we have these services in-house; however, Offeror can detail what they provide in this field and how the University will submit or upload their footage to Offeror’s solution. ● If applicable, any use of the EKU logo will need to adhere to Eastern Kentucky University’s most recent visual identity guide. EKU will provide access to approved logos, marks, colors, etc. There will be no deviations from approved branding. Final designs must be pre-approved by the University prior to going live. ● Professional consulting on ways to maximize the above deliverables ● Ability to connect to EKU Office of Admission and other university departments through embedded links within videos, tours, and photos ● Full implementation timeline to be under twelve (12) weeks from contract award date; ● Administration burden on EKU staff to be under 35 hours ● Provide on-demand reporting analytics that will give EKU insight on prospective students’ and families’ preferences and priorities, and areas in need of improvement ● Proactively provide free product upgrades and improvements as they become available ● Provide annual updates and be available for quarterly, semi-annual, and/or annual strategy discussions to ensure the University is maximizing the virtual tour experience and support is available ● Provide a dedicated Account Management Team ● Provide expert Marketing Collaboration to maximize results ● Provide EKU with full administration and content management capabilities and training ● Provide virtual hosting on the EKU website with 24-hour-response-time maintenance and support.
