A Considerate Procurement Process

Be upfront

Writing a winning proposal may cost hundreds to thousands of man hours. A responder must make the response decision based on the available information. As an author of a RFP you must never forget the quality of what you put in will reflect in what you get back. Being upfront, honest and as complete as possible in your request for proposal will spare responders who, having known the full details of your project, may have skipped a bid this time yet still be available for a response the next opportunity.

Single authorship

You expect RFP responses proposal to be well-written, concise, and contain a meaningful response to your issue. A clear articulation of the bidding opportunity will result in clearer and better responses. Many RFPs are the consensus of a group and at times the disjointed collection process is reflected in the final request for proposal: different voices, definitions and goals. Not only will this make the reading and comprehension of the issue difficult, but may result in a proposal responses reflecting that confusion. If your request for proposal has multiple authors it should still seem to come from a single voice.

Do not speculate

Asking for core portions of your project to be performed as part of the RFP response is asking your respondents to work on speculation. This is also known as "spec work" and is frowned upon by most industries. Requiring (or even broaching the suggestion of) spec work will work against your request for proposal as a deterrent: keeping quality companies from offering responses. Quality work is not free work, professionals are paid and the best among them paid more. A more considerate practice is to ask for examples of work. Be specific about the types of samples you would like and make them a response requirement.

Be sure you are ready for the project

A successful project will require complete organizational support. Projects that flounder and ultimately fail more often than not suffer from internal dissension. Having executive support behind a project will not help in the day-to-day development of a solution if the responsible parties at the organization display their lack of enthusiasm through a slow pace of activity poor (or no) communication, or even open hostility towards the project. The internal team must be ready to issue the request for proposal before they author it.

Know your own requirements

Effort, manifested in your request for proposals as greater detail to your requirements will be reflected in the RFP responses. Not only will your respondents provide a better return but you will limit the number of questions responsible responders will ask. You will eventually have to provide this level of detail, so provide it where it does the most good: in the RFP.

Include some budget information

Budget issuance is usually the portion of the request for proposals that makes the author most uncertain. Will issuing a budget embolden responders to charge more than they normally would? It may, on the other hand, it may reduce the number of responses through respondent self-selection which would eventually prove to be out of budget scope. In technical projects, especially, there are different levels of sophistication available to solve problems, budget is often the driver over which solution is the best match. If issuing a specific budget makes you uncomfortable, or the budget is simply unavailable, think about issuing a range or order-of-magnitude number. The general rule of request for proposals: The more information the better the responses.

Organize your communication

A fair and open process ensured equal access to all information related to the project for all potential respondents. Keeping your communications equal and open is a necessity. Using request for proposal distribution sites as well as joining RFP social networking groups will help distribute your RFP to more qualified bidders. Make a point to include contact information in the front of your request for proposal and encourage interested parties to contact you to stay informed on addendum or other changes.

Post procurement procedures

Once you have identified and notified your choice amongst your request for proposal respondents you still have a very important last task. Contact the other proposal authors and notify them that you have awarded the project. They may follow up with their own questions to help analyze their performance, however, you as the RFP issuer have no responsibility to answer those questions. The notification that the process is over and they were not the winner is the most basic of courtesies in the RFP process.

Be considerate!

Always keep in mind that your respondents are putting (often considerable) time and investment into winning your business. Exchange this time and effort with a responsibility on your part to run an equitable and considerate procurement process.