RFP Requirements (graded)

Consider again the dream retirement home that you were building as
part of the Week 2 Disussion! "ssume that you are working on the
request for a proposal to be bid on by some loal general ontrators!
#sing the outline of the RFP setions disussed this week$ what are
some spei% questions or areas of detail that you would put in your
RFP& What are some ways that you'd tailor your RFP to make sure that
you knew if the loal general ontrator whom you hoose will meet all
of your suess riteria&
(ou would de%nitely want to know spei%ally what ser)ies will and
will not be pro)ided in this situation! * would want to ha)e a lear
understanding of what will be pro)ided and what the ost is so * an
see that di+erene between ontrators! * an then better e)aluate my
budget and whether * am on trak!
* would also like to know what the ontrators bakground is and what
their e,periene le)el is in building a house like mine! * would also like
to understand the talent le)el of the team that will be in)ol)ed in my
pro-et! What is their e,periene and trak reord! * think these things
would help you ahie)e suess in getting house done on time!
Some specifc questions that I would ask would be:
How long have you been in business?
What are some of your completed proects?
! list of references
!re you licensed" bonded and insured?
Have your worked with sustainable architecture
#o you use sub$contractors?
if so" what type of background do you conduct on them?
#o you meet all of the industry standards?
%hat is ust a very few of the questions that would be asked within the &'()
.i)en the ontent of an Request for /uali%ations (RF/'s) )ersus a
Request for Proposals (RFP)$ do you feel that RF/'s and RFP's should
both be a part of a prourement proess (e!g! issue an RF/$ reei)e
responses$ shortlist bidders$ and then issue an RFP to the short0listed
)endors) or is one of these (either the RF/ or the RFP alone) su1ient
for seleting a )endor&
I believe that both the &'* and &'( are needed to select a vendor especially
with a large proect that the selecting company might not know all the applicable
vendors who might be able to provide such services) %his gives some vendors
who might not be well known but are truly qualifed an opportunity to garner
some business) It also gives the procuring company an opportunity to get other
vendors into the mi+ so that they might be able to drive down the price during
the &'( process)
I feel that both &'*,s and &'(,s should be a part of procurement process) !
&equest for (roposal is a formal method of receiving detailed and competitive
proposals from di-erent suppliers and vendors for the contract) It has all the
required information needed to make an informed vendor selection or fnali.ing a
contract) ! &equest for *ualifcations /&'*0 usually refers to the pre$qualifcation
stage of the procurement process) 1nly those vendors who successfully respond
to the &'* and meet the qualifcation criteria will be included in the subsequent
&equest for (roposals /&'(0 solicitation process) It is normally used where there
are many potential suppliers and not enough information is known about them) It
is a structured process where a long list of potential suppliers can be reduced to
a short list of those qualifed vendors that are willing and able to fulfll the
contract,s requirements)
&'*,s main ob is to weed out all of the unqualifed vendors by not releasing the
entire scope of work) %his is especially important because sometimes vendors
will see the scope of services and will try to subcontract the work that they
cannot do because they see how large the proect and the proft they stand to
gain) I have seen on many occasions" vendors stretch the truth about the
services they can provide all because the of the proect si.e)
%he &'* can be used to discourage the untrustworthy vendors right o- the bat
without disclosing the entire package to them) 1nce they see that they cannot
handle the requested qualifcations they will not respond and thus will not
receive an &'( from the buyer)
2sing either the &'* or the &'( alone will depend on the scope and si.e" and
length of the proect) However" for long$term contracts" large scale proects" or
specialty services" it is most often wise to take the three$step process" where an
&'* is issued to pre$qualify bidders" then an &'( is issued to the pre$qualifed
bidders in order to identify a group of short$listed frms) %hen the short$listed
frms are interviewed in person in order to fnali.e the selections)
I would like to get additional information,s in the &'( which would include
information3s like:
$ 4ontractor,s fnancial data and prior e+perience" how many proects he has
done on schedule5time in the past" I would like to get the references about those
prior proects
$ What proect risks has he faced in the past proects" how he or his contract
company handled those risks and also about the best practices and standards
that is followed by him
$ I would like to get complete details about his proect team" their work5industry
e+perience" qualifcations and e+pertise level
$ &'( should also have questions related to their fnancial performance" status"
loans5liabilities outstanding" their past credit status and it would also be good to
include their supplier,s fnancial performance
$ 6endor,s ownership structure" their management control and change control
procedures" escalation organi.ation chart and key management personnel3s
"ll the requirements for pro-et ompletion are needed in the RFP in
order to ha)e a suessful pro-et! 2ut * think the most important ones
are the following3 2akground$ 4ope of 4er)ies$ 5anagement and
Control$ Priing$ 6ermination lause Contrat terms$ and 6erms and
Conditions! 4o$ pretty muh they all ha)e ma-or part in a pro-et!
When seleting a general ontrator$ -ust like any other purhase you
would want to do a little homework suh as how long they ha)e been in
business$ what type of pro-et they ha)e done$ list all the right
questions till you feel it's the one you want$ and asking abut the
referenes!
7ow do you go about deiding what is the proper bid duration for your
RFP& What fators might in8uene this deision&
%he bid duration for a &'( is going to be determined on how comple+ the proect
and the amount of information that is being requested) %he more information
needed or the more comple+ the proect $ the longer the duration should be to
return the &'()
%his should be included in the &'( /a deadline0) It should not be worded as
!S!(" otherwise sellers will become a bit rela+ and may cause a delay to your
proect which will be the fault of the buyer) %he proper date should depend on
the start date of the proect) I will say a minimum of 78 days should be a
reasonable deadline for sellers to respond) However" I will prefer to use on or
before the 78 days)
'actors such as time" urgency" weather" pricing" and the scope of work could
in9uence the decision on the bid duration)
(otential seller should not be given too long in preparing a &'() #epends on the
si.e of a proect" a rule of thumb is no longer than : weeks for bid submission) If
a vendor is capable of performing the required ob" he5she should be able to
making a well written proposal in : weeks to detail out the contracting ob) If
potential sellers are given too much time" they might reach out other parties to
make proposal look good) It is always a concern to a buyer what if the seller
cannot work out with his5her new partners and the contract ob is su-ered)


*n a ase that a property owner wants to hire a ontrator to remodel a
building$ what are the risks or the limitations assoiated with a %,ed
fee ontrat for this situation&
%he risk for the property owner is that the contractor may take shortcuts) %hese
shortcuts may not be found for a long time if ever) %hese shortcuts may be in the
form of poor workmanship or poor materials or possibly both) !nother risk for
the property owner is that the proect completion time may be delayed) %his
would happen if the property owner wants to change a design in the middle of
the proect) When that happens" the owner would not have the stand to defend
the penalty clause if that is written in the contract)
%he risks for the contractor are the cost of materials" labor issue" weather" etc)
!fter the contract is signed" if the material price is in9ated" the contractor would
have to eat up the cost increase) ;etween years <88< = <88>" the house
construction business was a boom) %here was a labor shortage during those
years for constructing houses) 1f course" if weather is not cooperating" the
proect would be delayed" also) Is there a way to possibly minimi.e these risks?
4ometimes things aren't always what they seem!!! 4ometimes a %rm
will issue an RFP with no intention of atually ha)ing a ontrator
omplete the work! *nstead the %rm used the RFP to )alidate their own
approah to ompleting the work or ome up with some ideas to
omplete the work! *f you are a potential seller$ how an you e+eti)ely
respond to an RFP without gi)ing away free onsulting& "re there
spei% questions that might be asked in an RFP that you would
hesitate to answer&
It would be good to know or fnd out as to how much do the frm know about
what they3re trying to achieve) !re they prescribing specifc implementations in
the &'( and How important is this proect to their overall success? !re they
committed to doing it" or are they ust going through the motions? Sometimes"
frms ask many detailed questions about specifc technologies" there3s a good
chance that they are naive to this new technology and trying to get more
informations from the vendor) !lso" they may put some budget5cost fgure in &'(
which may be way o- in the light of the scope of the work mentioned in the &'()
%hese are the signs that the frm is early in the cycle of proect evaluation and
study and they may be ust in the process of data collection or information
gathering) In such a situation " it is better to get in face to face with the
prospective client and ask pointed questions before one responds to the client)
In the business world" any thing could happen) ! frm may use an &'( to get
information with no intention of outsourcing the ob) When a seller is trying to
bid the ob" he5she should ask the frm if the proect is funded or budgeted frst)
!n honest solicitor should tell you whether it is in an early stage of proect
solicitation or it is fully budgeted) #epend on the answer" the seller can decide
whether he5she would write a full proposal or ust submit a draft look$liked
proposal) In the proposal" the seller should never give away the detailed
technology for review) 1n the other hand" he5she should illustrate e+amples of
successful stories that used similar technology or business model that completed
proects before)
assuming you were to hoose the path of issuing an RF/$ and then
pro)iding to potential )endors with an RFP$ what three things would
you request from prospeti)e )endors in the RF/& What 9 things would
you request from the short0listed )endors through the RFP&
'or the &'* and &'(" I would request from prospective vendors for the following
items)
'or the &'*:
;ackground information /number of years in business0
?ist of clients /current clients0
%he frm,s fnancial rating
Is the frm speciali.ed enough /for e+ample" a document imaging company) %hey
may do nothing but document imaging" but have they dealt with document
imaging for a health care company? %here is an enormous di-erence due to
HI(!! /health care privacy and security regulation0 that needs to be handled
very di-erently from a di-erent type of organi.ation0)
'or the &'(:
I would want to know e+actly how they plan to address the issue presented to
them) How many resources" what percent of resources time would be dedicated"
what will the fnal product look like" what length of time will they guarantee" will
they provide incentives for ongoing work)
&'*,s and &'(,s should both be a part of a procurement process) %he &'* let,s us
know if this vendor is even qualifed to bid on this proect) %he &'( let,s us know
how much compensation the qualifed vendor is looking to obtain for the
completion of the work) ;oth documents will give the client in depths look at the
vendors) %his ensures that the best choice is being made based on the
information given) %he more information you have readily available" it gives you
a better chance at making a solid decision) It is often di@cult to make a sound
decision when you don,t have all the information and unanswered questions
loom)
:ther than the things mentioned abo)e$ are there other items that you
think would be needed in an RF/ or RFP to best help you deide whih
)endor to hoose&
6he optimal outome from a well written RFP is to de)elop a short list
of potential sellers to e)aluate! :ne way the federal go)ernment
ad)ertises )arious RFPs is through the website3 fedbi;opps!go)! What
are some other tools and tehniques used in prourement management
to <get the word out< about your RFP&
1ther than the &'( formal process of issuance" the other ways that the
companies adopt to get the word out about the &'( to the vendors are:
$ &equest for *uotation /&'*0: ! legal document requesting pricing only" for a
specifed good or service)
$ &equest for *ualifcations /&'*0: ! legal document requesting the proposer to
document qualifcations to perform a specifc task) %his &'* is typically used to
generate a short list from which the owner will then solicit quotes leading to the
award of a contract) 2nlike the &equest for *uotation" no pricing is provided)
$ Invitation for ;id /I';0: ! request for pricing for a specifed good or service that
has been advertised in some manner /ie" web" newspaper" personal request0)
$ %rying to get the word out to di-erent vendors through e+isting contractors
&'( could be advertised as follows:
%o targeted companies on their web sites with needed skills
Word of mouth
(rofessional newspapers5web sites
;illboards/using &'*0
4areer ob sites
4ompany3s email
%raditional Aail5'a+
'rom time to time" you will see government posts an ad on the newspaper asking
for bids) Since Internet is so popular nowadays" most of the solicitations are
posted on the web) %6 news is another way for getting the words out)
Bovernment bids are sometimes a nightmare) Aost government bids require the
vendors to take full responsibility of the proect with no added cost to the buyer
or buyers) In a government bid" every word" sentence" and paragraph in the
contract has to be written carefully) !ny e+ceptions or clarifcations H!6C to be
specifed before the bid is submitted) Bovernment bids are very tedious but can
be very proftable if you are chosen as a designated vendor)
Please tell us more about go)ernment bid proess! Do researh on the
internet if you must!
do you feel that the adequate seletion of a ontrat struture$ based
on the irumstanes in plae at the time$ an help you limit your risk&
Selecting the type of contract structure is a very important factor) If you chose
the wrong contract" especially in a proect that is most likely have many changes
before it is all said and done" you could defnitely open your proect up to many
risks that can lead to failure or incompletion of a proect)
&esponding to a corporate request for proposal /&'(0 can be an e+tremely time$
consuming and an+iety$ridden process) %he typical &'( is a signifcantly verbose
document that looks more like a legal document than anything else" and has
some very specifc requirements) !s a responder to an &'(" you need to
understand what the &'( is all about) %oward the back of the &'(" you,ll typically
fnd a section called (roect #eliverables" or something to that e-ect" which
specifes what is e+pected of you) %hese two sections are the starting points to
understanding what the &'( is all about)
%he frst item on your timeline for the &'( response is a review of components
and an assessment of requirements) Dou should read the &'( and break out the
proect description and deliverables" and fnd various unclear items) ?ist the
components and requirements that you,ve found and start assembling content
for a response) #epending on your situation" this strategy can begin with
assembling an &'( response team and holding an initial kick$o- meeting) Dou can
delegate sta- with e+pertise or knowledge about a specifc component or
requirement to assemble content for that particular section)
In the process of assembling content for the written response" you or your sta-
should engage in a critical review of the components and requirements) ! good
review should cover the following questions:
#o the specifcations as requested by the &'( make sense?
Is the proect doable as specifed by the &'(?