How do you evaluate responses to a RFP?

Answer 1

Writing A Good RFP ResponseAn RFP response usually comes in the form of a Scope of Work document, or a proposal based on the requirements of the RFP. A good RFP will outline how your response should be written, and let you know all the information you need to provide, and how to provide it. If the RFP is not well written, I suggest you request a call with the potential client, and be prepared to ask specific questions that are not addressed in the RFP.

Answer 2

An RFP is a Request For Proposal. This is a process whereby a buyer invites potential suppliers to respond by submitting a proposal describing their company and how they can fulfill the buyer's requirements. Once these proposals are submitted the buyer evaluates them in order to identify the best supplier. The methodology followed for evaluating RFP responses depends entirely on how the initial RFP was designed. RFPs can vary in sophistication from a simple statement: We at ABC Corp need a new ERP system. Please submit a proposal by 14th January.

to a carefully thought out set of questions and criteria that are designed to elicit responses which facilitate accurate evaluation and comparison: * 2.3.5 Does your system interface to XYZ acounting system?

* 2.3.6 Please list the application specific interfaces provided by your system.

* ... 4.2.3 List your three most recent customers to discontinue using your system, and their stated reason for doing do so

The first type of RFP will elicit very different proposals from different vendors, making it difficult to perform a side-by-side comparison. By contrast, the second type of RFP lends itself directly to an objective evaluation. In either case, the crucial thing is break down the evaluation into discrete criteria, and then award scores for each vendor against each criteria. The most common method of evaluation is what is sometimes referred to as "weighted attribute analysis". This involves assigning weights to each evaluation criteria or question. The weight reflects the importance of the question, and defines its contribution to the total score. When the vendors have submitted their responses, the answers are scored, and a weighted total score can be calculated. For a high value purchase new considerations arise when evaluating RFP responses. * More stakeholders. By definition, high value purchases affect more people, and these people will want to be involved in the evaluation process. * Transparency. Decision makers in high value RFP projects will often need to be able to justify their decisions, especially in government or in regulated industries. Stakeholder's opinions can be captured in an evaluation process by having vendor's responses scored by different people in parralell. These scores can then be averaged, or an agreed scores can be decided on based on discussion. As more people become involved in an RFP, it becomes more difficult to agree on priorities, and to reflect these in the weightings assigned to different RFP criteria. Such differing priorities can be accomodated by creating mutliple sets of weights for the evaluation criteria. For example, Bob from the Finance department might have different priorities to Alice in Operations. In this case, two weigthing sets could be created. Once the vendors responses have been evaluated, total scores can be calculated using both weighting sets, and the results compared. If the same vendor wins with both weighting sets, then Alice and Bob can agree on their choice. If different vendors win with different weighting sets Bob and Alice will need to drill down to those questions that provoked the difference. When a decision maker is accountable to shareholders, voters or colleagues, it is essential that a record is kept of which scores where awarded which responses, when and by whom. For simple, low value projects, it is perfectly efficient to conduct an RFP using spreadsheets, word documents and email. However, for more sophisticated projects such an approach can become very cumbersome and error prone. In such cases the use of RFP Management Software (e.g SupplierSelect - http://www.supplierselect.com ) reduces the amount of time spent on administering the process and allows evaluators to focus on the evaluation. Web based software is ideal in such circumstances since it allows all participants (vendors and evaluators) to collaborate online.