ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

Apologies to Trevor, who became "Travis" in my previous response! Sorry about that.

$90K is not unheard of for a large site. Really, it depends on three things:

1) How much in-house manpower you have to help with content surveys, project management, and assistance with generating or moving content to the new site. If you need the design company to do everything, you're going to pay more.
2) How much actual design work you want done (is it a full rebranding or just a reworking?)
3) How much functionality you need and how far that's going to take you from a "stock"/off-the-shelf CMS. Custom functionality means $$$ (and probably more money down the road, if you ever need to do updates).

Erich's absolutely right about tons of research and lots of reference calls. One thing I would also suggest is avoiding custom content management systems if at all possible. Many web companies will try to sell you on their homegrown CMS because they can customize it to do whatever you want (so they say). The problem is, those systems never have the user base you would get with Drupal, ExpressionEngine, or even something like Sitecore. That means fewer developers who can knowledgeably work on your site, and guess what -- if that original company goes out of business or your relationship with them sours, you're in a really tough spot.

I think I've now strayed far beyond the scope of the original question, so I will be quiet!
Michelle



***********************************************************************
For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.

The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.

To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]