Hi Peter

Our company makes websites for museums and galleries and is working on two
HLF-funded projects at the moment. In both cases we were invited to tender
by curators that had seen, or knew of, our work. Even then, it was only
because we liked the projects and the people delivering them that we agreed
to tender at all.

The tendering process is fine if you want concrete poured or chairs
delivered or bags of rubbish collected: something where there is a single,
defined outcome that will be the same whoever delivers it, but I don't
think it is appropriate for websites because it is too expensive and too
prescriptive.

*It is too expensive* because firms that tender regularly need to include
the cost of the bids they fail to win into the bids they next make in order
to get their money back. If you do the maths it is not difficult to see
that perhaps a third to a half of your precious budget will be spent by the
agency on recouping the cost of failed bids rather than on making your
website. It may not be obvious, but it is inevitable.

*It is too prescriptive* because the website you spent time scoping and
specifying last year will not be the thing you actually need when it is
delivered next year. The technology that underpins the web, the nature of
smart-phones and tablets, the proliferation of social media channels and
the attitude and behaviour of your audience will all have changed in that
time.

Instead, I would encourage you to do more leg-work: find people that make
stuff you like, websites you would be proud to own, apps you find
particularly attractive and easy to use; ask curators you know, people
running similar projects and find out who impressed them.

Then draw up a shortlist and invite them for a chat and tour of the
collection. Try and whittle it down to just two or three firms that you
think you could work with then, if you must, invite them to tender, but
keep that process very simple.

You are looking for a firm that has technical competency, a good track
record, that really understands what you are trying to do and is flexible
enough to to deal with the inevitable changes.

Don't waste their time or their money, don't expect ideas for nothing and
don't demand designs and graphics without being prepared to pay for them.

Footnote. Our relationship with one long-standing client began with an
informal discussion and tour of their collection. This resulted in the
offer of a small budget to make a prototype website, which was tweaked
until it did all the things it needed to do. Once people were happy with
how this worked we were given a larger budget with which to make the
full-blown website. Most recently we have worked with them again as
partners in a project involving collections, research and crowdsourcing.
And so it goes on.

I hope this is helpful.

Cheers, Phil


On 1 September 2014 18:26, Martha Henson <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Gosh, I must admit, when I saw that figure and what they were asking for, I
> thought it seemed unrealistically low! For a new website, plus hardware,
> plus several other digital outputs from the sounds of it ("mobile app,
> games, podcasts, online exhibitions"). It is a piece of string question,
> for sure, I've done websites for pennies, but OTOH seen apps in this sector
> cost well over £100k (and reasonably so, given the amount of work and
> expertise involved). So you could easily spend the budget on just one of
> those outputs, depending on the requirements.
>
> Having been on the commissioning side and the agency side, I know where
> both are coming from, but feel a lot of the budgets I see in this sector
> are really far too low, when you look at how that breaks down for an
> agency. Lots of projects asking for complicated apps for £25k, brand new
> games for under £5k, that sort of thing. Especially when an agency is
> expected to absorb the cost of all the work they have to do on spec just to
> win a tender (and the ones they don't win). Have seen too many good
> talented agencies close or stop doing work for hire over the last couple of
> years, but I don't blame them. Working in the cultural sector frequently
> involves working on margins that are just too tight to be sustainable. I
> don't think this benefits anyone.
>
> I've been trying to get people to share their project budgets for a blog
> post for absolutely ages, because I think it's good to be open about this
> but also to help others understand what a reasonable cost is. Not had much
> joy though. Any agencies out there want to share their budget breakdowns,
> maybe blog about why things cost what they do? The expertise and training
> costs that must be absorbed, along with other overheads and all?
>
> Martha
> --
> Freelance digital producer and consultant
> www.marthahenson.com
> @marthasadie
>
>
> On 1 September 2014 11:06, Tony Crockford <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > On 1 Sep 2014, at 10:05, Ellis, Linda <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > >
> > > When I see things like this it makes me want to weep - is it really
> > necessary to spend  £135,250 to create a website, some digital products
> > (Including a project Mobile App) and associated hardware?  Do we as a
> > sector get conned into thinking we have to spend this sort of money or is
> > it a realistic figure?  I wish I knew!
> >
> > I could show you how to spend that kind of money, it’s not unrealistic if
> > you’ve not defined the scope tightly.
> >
> > I could also show you how to get the same or similar deliverables for a
> > lot less.
> >
> > A Ford Focus and a Bentley do the same job, but they don’t cost the same.
> >
> > I think it’s better to invest a small amount of money into a properly
> > defined technical and design brief, do a pragmatic feasibility study and
> > take a long hard look at the ROI.
> >
> > I suspect the problem is that it’s harder to get the small amounts of
> > funding to do the planning stage properly, so there’s a lot of ball park
> > estimating in project proposals.
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