Information & Decision Support Center (IDSC) – Egypt © M. Khorshed Effective Request for Proposal...

Information & Decision Support Center (IDSC) – Egypt © M. Khorshed

Effective Request for Proposal for effective businesses


Agenda

Process of writing effective Rfp

Elements of well written Rfp

What effective Rfp has and has not Electronic Rfp , Advantages and disadvantages Example; RFP for Web Site Project

RFPs What , why and when


What is RFP ?

Definition:An RFP (Request for Proposal) is a document commonly written by an organization seeking bids from potential vendors. The RFP serves as a base line of project requirements on which competing vendors may price their services.


Why to use RFPs ?

Because many organizations may not have the specialized talents and capabilities to create some potential products, it may become necessary to request the assistance of an outside vendor or contractor.


RFP become a vehicle that allows both organizations and vendors to

establish a dialogue and to work from the same set of rules,

requirements, schedules, and information. The opportunity to have this

dialogue is an important element in the process, because RFP

requirements are often not clear and the vendors, as the experts are

allowed to question and interpret what is being requested.


The RFP process, provides greater flexibility for the organization and

competing contractors. Both sides have more freedom to propose

innovations or variations regarding service delivery, price, and

payment method. An RFP is the most appropriate contracting

mechanism, where service quality is usually critical, because the

scoring criteria for an RFP can place a greater emphasis on quality

than cost .

When to use RFPs ?


1. Multiple solutions are available that will fit the need.

2. Multiple suppliers can provide the same solution.

3. Buyers seek to determine the “best value” of suppliers’ solutions.

4. Products for the project cannot be clearly specified.

5. The project requires different skills, expertise, and technical capabilities from suppliers.

6. The problem requires suppliers to combine and subcontract products and services.

7. Final pricing is negotiated with the supplier.

When to use RFPs ?


What to do Pre-RFP

1. Gather Information About Vendors and Products (RFI)

Identify potential vendors + Contact them and request information about their

company and capabilities + examples of their work + references+ Information

about products.

2. Qualify Potential Vendors

Use gathered information to choose vendors who have the capability to

produce the materials you want and , include in your decision variables such as

geographical location, industry experience, reputation, size of staff, and

quality/level of work.


2- End users overview ( technical, mangers, clerks…)

1- Organizational Overview (founded in, Vision, area of business…)

3- Deliverables Overview (names and purpose of the products)

4- Required Proposal Format

4-1- Technical Proposal : Vendor should include time-lines, projected required personnel, and schedules for completing the project.

4-2- Time-Cost : Vendor must detail the time and costs that will be required to complete the project.




5. General and special condition : government conditions

6. Request for References : number of Clients with similar products

7. Submission Deadline : day , month , year

8. Submit Proposal To: name and address

9. For Additional Information or Clarification, Contact info: name,

email, phone

10. Evaluation and award basis : Lowest Bid

11. Award date: day, month, year.


1. Formally recognize a deficiency or need in current operations that could be resolved through the purchase of equipment or services

2. Develop and implement a plan for understanding the problem

3. Identify appropriate potential suppliers and solutions

4. Gain visibility for internal acceptance of the identified need and potential solutions

5. Establish the project budget

6. Develop a project schedule and organize project personnel

7. Evolve real requirements and ensure that they are clearly stated and measurable

8. Develop rigorous evaluation criteria, thus ensuring an objective evaluation

Process of writing good Rfp

A successful RFP process requires us to do the following:


1. Not enough time has been allocated for the RFP process

2. Requirements are overly restrictive and limit suppliers to predetermined solution

3. Requirements unfairly limit the range of suppliers who may participate

4. Requirements are either not clear or downright ambiguous

5. Project deadlines are too short to allow for reasonable project development by suppliers

6. The project team has not been fully educated about available technologies

7. A budget has not been established, or has been on unverified data and is not sufficient for the project

Process of writing good Rfp

A successful RFP process requires us NOT to do the following:


Proposal Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation criteriaPercentage

Vendor financial stabilityRequired

Pervious experience in same work20%

Staff Qualifications20%

Technical proposal 30%

Cost Proposal30%

Total100%


Writing and reviewing the RFP

1. Dedicate sufficient staff to prepare the RFP.2. Allow enough time for RFP preparing , reviewing and

approval.3. In critical cases, See (But Do not Copy) others experience, 4. Consider using a consultant to draft RFP5. Get input from partners, expertise's, potential contractors to

improve RFP


Managing Post RFP process

• Distribute the RFP to all interested parties; • Receive and respond to written questions about the RFP; • Conduct a pre-proposal conference for interested bidders; • Produce and distribute a transcript of the conference; • Distribute any amendments to the RFP resulting from bidders' inquiries; • Receive, review, and rank proposals; • Check bidders' references;

From the time the RFP is released until contract signing, org. must complete most, if not all, of the following tasks:


Managing Post RFP process

• Request written clarification of proposal information from some bidders;

• Request and review best-and-final offers from the top firms;

• Recommend a winner to the appropriate decision-making authority, complete with documentation for the recommendation;

• Negotiate amendments to the proposed contract with the designated winner;

• Notify other bidders of the impending decision;

• Respond to inquiries or protests from losing bidders;

• Participate in a public meeting in which the contract award is made.


Electronic Request for Proposal

Electronic Request for Proposal is enabling production, assembly, and actual electronic publishing of RFPs, accepting electronic proposals in response to the RFPs, and post-RFP electronic selection of proposal to be awarded a contract.

The benefits of being able to compare proposals which use a common format will make your job much easier when it comes to selecting a qualified vendor, by saving time, effort and having the best choice.


E-RfP…Do it Your self, Or out source it.

STEP 1; The information requester/buyer incorporates their own specific queries into ready

to go eRFP form, with customized welcome note and Co logo. STEP 2; The Companies you require info from, are directed to the unique URL of your

eRFP and complete/submit their responses. STEP 3; All the information submitted by the Companies is collated onto a single MS

Excel spreadsheet and sent to you for easy review.


Advantages of eRFPs

1. Predefined and Customizable RFPs

2. Reduce the time and cost.

3. Reduce administrative burdens.

4. Availability of complete audit trail.

5. Eliminate paper intensive processes.

6. Increase efficiency.

7. Instant on-line monitoring of the evaluation process

8. Availability of real-time reports


Disadvantages of eRFPs

1. Security…Is it safe enough!!?

2. Culture… Change management

3. Law… Is it compatible with our laws?

4. Technical… Do we need new infra-structure

5. Training…staff need training


TemplateSteps of RFP for Web Site Project


RFP for Web Site Project

1. Project Scope:- - A brief background of your company. - A brief description of this project. - Budget -it's helpful to include it in your RFP so that developers can tailor their solutions they propose to match your budget needs. Also, it will help save you the pain of exchanging a lot of ideas with developers who are out of your price range. - Time frame:- include any project deadlines you may have. crucial meetings, milestones, cut-off dates, etc. that the developer should be aware of. Be realistic with a time frame; for example, an average brochure-ware site can take anywhere from 6-8 weeks. However, depending on the project and its complexity, it's good to know ahead of time how flexible you are willing to be with the project's completion date


RFP for Web Site Project

2. Target audience- Demographics - who will be the main users of your site?

- Comfort level with technology - how technically savvy is your audience?

-Will they know how to deal with plug-ins, for example?

Audience base - how large do you expect your user base to be?

3. Technical infrastructure requirements

- Server hardware/software requirements = - are there specific server software,

operating system, application servers, database, etc. that need to be used?

- User requirements = are users on a particular type of browser? Will users have

high-speed connections, or will many be on modems?


4. Design requirements

- Are there color palette and font treatment requirements or preferences, if any?

- Do you have corporate identity guidelines from your company that must be

followed? If so, how will the developer be able to access these?

- How should the site "feel"? Include some adjectives to describe what your site

should communicate.

- Examples of sites you liked /disliked, and why. Will there be any animated

elements (i.e. Flash animations)?

- How many? How long should they be? How are they going to be used?


5. Functionality/programming requirements

- Will there be forms on the site? If so, how many? How should they be handled? (e.g. e-mailed to recipients, stored in a database, etc.)

- Will the site require tools to manage information (e.g. ability for staff to update press releases or quarterly reports)?

- Will there be any e-commerce on the site? If so, who will be entering data on products offered?

- How will transactions be managed?

- Are there any other interactive features the site should have? What are they, and how do you envision them to work?

- Will there be any animated elements (i.e. Flash animations)? How many? How long should they be? How are they going to be used?


6. Production/integration requirements

- Will there be downloadable documents on the site (e.g. MS Word documents,

PDFs, etc.)? How many?

- Will you have other non-HTML content, such as audio or video files?

7. Project Management

- Who will be the main point of contact on your staff?

- How will the tasks be divided between you and the developer in order to

complete the project?

- Are there any third parties (subcontractors, etc.) that will also be involved in

the project?


Case StudyBuilding and Hosting Egypt’s 27 Governorates Web Pages


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Information & Decision Support Center (IDSC) – Egypt © M. Khorshed Effective Request for Proposal...

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