Packaging and Evaluating Proposal for Consulting …©2009 Deloitte LLP. All rights reserved....

©2009 Deloitte LLP. All rights reserved.

Packaging and Evaluating Proposal for Consulting

Assignments

Uzo Odunukwe

Deloitte 1


Issues to be considered today

Part I

•What is a proposal

•The need for proposal and how to get lead for proposals

• Putting it together – elements of a proposal

•Technical and Financial Proposals

•Types of Proposal

Part II

• How should we request for proposals (RFP)

•Objectives and benefits of RFP

• How are proposals evaluated

Deloitte 2


What is a Proposal

•A proposal is a sale presentation - to show you have the

competence and capability

• Helps demonstrate good understanding of client’s need

• Helps define the problem to be solved

• Describes the specific course of action required to solve

the problem

• Shows clearly that the proposed course of action is a

logical extension of the problem definition

Deloitte 3


The need for Proposal

•Without proposal you cannot get jobs

•It helps you to market yourself and the firm

•Where there is no personal presentation of proposals, it is the

proposal that wins for you.

•Where presentation is required - They expect you to deliver the

firm, and you need to be able to demonstrate in a clear and

compelling way how you can do that.

Deloitte 4


Getting Lead For Proposals

•From Government budgets – Gazettes

•Request For Proposals (RFPs)

- published in newspapers; journals and Company Websites

Key Issue – Clients want Proposals that have Content

Deloitte 5


Elements of a proposal – Technical bid

Content of the Technical Bid –

•The cover

•Table of Content

• Forwarding letter – should include your in-house contact person on

that proposal.

•The Executive summary –brief narrative as to why the proposal is

offered; your qualification to do it; high level value proposition is

articulated here.

•Brief about the consulting organisation , when established,

resources, services offered, geographical spread, technical knowhow,

your methodology and enabling tools, etc

Deloitte 6



•Scope of work

•A discussion of – your understanding of the scope of the project

• Include a clear and concise identification, understanding and

appraisal of client needs

• Include an analysis of need and a plan for approaching and

satisfying the need (phases)

Key issue – Scoping means to assess the depth of the work, know the reality of the

organisation, (size, skill sets available, owners, operational locations, etc). This

will enable you evaluate how big, whether you have the skills, etc).

Deloitte 7


Elements of a proposal – Technical bid cont’d

•Discussion of Approach – methodology

• Clear and specific description of the solution proposed

• How approach described will be implemented in a step

by step manner (stages)

• Schedule of deliverable and time lines to be met.

Deloitte 8



•Your service Team - Qualification of Consultant(s)

• Include description formal education and training of

Consultants

• Experience profile and credentials on similar projects

•Include the listing of other clients serviced

• Other relevant resources and information to aid client

confidence

Deloitte 9


Elements of a proposal – Financial bid

Issues to consider:

•Standard rates and fees. (breakdown of price, show category of

staff, hours, rate, amount, if required)

•The cost summary of doing project - total amount of the financial

proposal, including taxes

• Local expenses and general cost of living - Reimbursables,

Miscellaneous

Deloitte 10


Elements of a proposal – financial bid

Other Issues to consider in preparing financial bid

•The competitive situation

• The general economic situation

• Overhead and other burdens

• Project risks, duration e.t.c.

•Footnotes, explaining certain issues

• Consider how much profit to factor in.

Deloitte 11


Types of proposals

There are three types: namely –

Letter Form

This relates to small assignments, and the project owner knows you.

it describes what you are to do, in one or two pages.

Short Form

It is an abridged form of the long form proposal, not so technical,

but must show you have the competence and capability to handle the

assignment, indicating you time table, and estimated cost. Most

often the person knows you.

Long Form

This is for major assignments - competitive, big volume, and highly

technical, and requires expertise.

Deloitte 12


What is RFP

•It is undertaken at the early stage in a procurement

process -

issuing an invitation to suppliers, often through a

bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific

service or commodity.

Deloitte 13


Content of RFP

Specify the information you want to read in the proposal

And ask for the following –

• Evidence that consultant understands your requirements

• Information explaining consultant’s approach

• Specifics of proposed solution

Deloitte 14


Content of RFP cont’d

•Full details of the consultants qualification for the

work

• Specify your requirements concerning contract,

invoices

•Explain as accurately and adequately as you can

the end result or end products that you want

•Payments terms and other pertinent legal and

administrative details

Deloitte 15


RFP – Key objectives

•Obtain correct information to enable sound business decisions

•Decide correctly on strategic procurement

•Leverage the company's purchasing power to obtain a favourable

deal

•Enable a broader and creative range of solutions to be considered

Deloitte 16


RFP - Key benefits

•Informs suppliers that your company is looking to procure and

encourages them to make their best effort.

•Requires the company to specify what it proposes to purchase.

•Alerts suppliers that the selection process is competitive.

•Allows for wide distribution and response.

Deloitte 17


RFP - Key benefits

•Ensures that suppliers respond factually to the identified

requirements.

•By following a structured evaluation and selection procedure an

organization can demonstrate impartiality - a crucial factor in public

sector procurements.

•An RFP helps to guide the biding consultants to put forward a

•relevant, comparable and fairly standardized proposal.

•Supply information that helps Identify and describe the problem or

need that must be solved or satisfied

Deloitte 18


Effective Evaluation Procedure

Depending on the response rate – not all proposal should be

given equal attention. [Deadline elimination]

Adopt a phased screening approach

• First phase – quickly screen out the obviously unsuitable and

unacceptable responses

• Second phase – after first reading eliminate responses that

are not acceptable

• Third phase – study the few remaining responses and make

final selection of acceptable responses or those that can be

made so

• Fourth phase – conduct best-and-final interview and

negotiation and make final choice

Deloitte 19


Evaluating Proposals

•Evaluating a proposal – particularly for major assignments can be a

very tasking - hence a team or panel review is recommended.

•Typically there are three important areas of proposal evaluations

Soundness of proposed plan

oTechnical approach

oExecution Plan

oProject management

Deloitte 20


Evaluating Proposals

Important Areas in evaluation con’td

Qualification and capabilities for executing the plan

o Staffing adequacy and Qualifications

o Resource deployment

Their dependability as consultants

o References

o Experience statement

Deloitte 21


The matter of Cost – How much to pay?

No hard and fast rule – here are a few suggestions.

• Open negotiation with the lowest bidder among those whose

proposals are acceptable

• Request best-and-final financial bids of those whose proposals are

acceptable and negotiate with lowest bidder

• Request best-and-final financial bid from the consultant with the

best technical bid score or three best technical bid score

Deloitte 22


The matter of Cost – How much to pay?

•Assign weight to financial bids (inverse proportions) and add rating

to overall technical score. Select on cumulative ranking

• Make a simple subjective judgment on cost as a factor – as long as

cost does not exceed budget – select consultant with highest

technical score, if cost are within budget.

Deloitte 23

The end

It is well. Thank you.

Packaging and Evaluating Proposal for Consulting …©2009 Deloitte LLP. All rights reserved....

Documents

Transcript of Packaging and Evaluating Proposal for Consulting …©2009 Deloitte LLP. All rights reserved....