Alaska Railroad is seeking a contract to implement a new website utilizing a modern technology stack (in a hosted environment) and mobile-first design with improved navigation structure and booking tools. Primary objectives are to increase revenue, efficiency and customer satisfaction by improving access to information and enhancing functionality. By focusing on self-service and automation, ARRC will reduce the need for direct staff interaction, which only occurs during our business hours. While the site will have a consistent look and feel, there are two major design areas that must be developed and integrated into a finished product. They are the “passenger” and “non-passenger” related navigation, content and functionality. The ARRC team has initial concepts of the User Experience (UX)/User Interface (UI) design for passenger content and basic booking functionality. These artifacts shall be used to further develop the site, content, functionality and graphic design for the entire site. The redesign of our booking engine will require multiple phases. Vendors shall identify milestones to support the separate phases for booking Rail Only and Single Day Packages (referred to as Day Tours on our existing site). Later phases will roll out additional functionality including Multi-Day Packages. Sample websites having similar functionality are railbookers.com, tourradar.com and alaskatravel.com. Computing Environment The ARRC uses a third party, commercial off the shelf, internally hosted reservation system called “Rail Studio” provided and supported by the vendor Open Destinations LLC based in London, England. This system has an XML based API that supports our ability to offer rail bookings to direct consumers and Travel Trade Partners (that book our services and receive commission). It uses a Microsoft SQL Server database. Our current payment gateway integrated with Rail Studio and our website is CyberSource (using REST or SOAP APIs). ARRC maintains multiple non-production environments. 2. System/Solution • Select and implement a modern technical architecture/stack such as Angular, React, or alternative solution, as approved. • Select and implement a robust and easy to use Content Management System (headless or hybrid CMS) that supports the website generation and maintenance. CMS includes document repositories, WYSIWYG page editing as well as dynamic content to support product booking features. • Select options/provider(s) for hosted solution and implementation support for the new site. • Design, document and develop a new ARRC website with improved navigation, content and functionality. Detail the top-down navigation for www.alaskarailroad.com. Develop required templates in CMS
