Website RFP- A New Project Proposal

The task of understanding and interpreting a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Tender (RFT) for the procurement of goods or services can be daunting for companies that have not had much exposure to this sort of procurement method.You may have read through hundreds of pieces of paper a few times and still be trying to work out what is being requested, and what you actually need to send back in your proposal or bid.The layout and language used in an RFP/ RFT document can often be confusing or ambiguous.It may be difficult for you to understand why certain documents are included and also difficult to even decipher the actual technical products or services being requested. So how do you go about understanding and interpreting a RFP/ RFT document for you to appropriately plan your bid or response?

Unfortunately, there is no standard formula for how a company issuing a RFP/ RFT constructs their document.However, we have outlined some general themes and features that should be present in any RFP/ RFT that you need to look for to help you assemble your response.We have also provided some of the reasons why these features are included and what they should mean to you as a responder.Given that the use of RFP’s and RFT’s are used in many domains, this article is equally applicable to a variety of industries such as information technology (IT), business products or services, or construction and engineering products and services.

A typical RFP/ RFT package could include the following components:

• Summary information that outlines the products or services being called for, and the general information such as closing dates and time, and place that the bid is to be lodged
• General Conditions of tender that detail the overarching conditions, such as:
• Tendering or bidding conditions - these are normally a stock-standard set of conditions imposed by the requesting organization that details the conditions to which you must comply in placing a bid.They can include the specified tender validity period, their right to negotiate, their right to accept or reject bids, the required tender format and the tender’s timings, ownership of the tender documents, just to name a few.
• Evaluation criteria - these are the areas that your response will be assessed against.There will be a list of technical areas and financial and pricing requirements.Generally, you will see criteria that loosely match against the response schedules.Unfortunately, you won’t be able to see what weightings these criteria are assigned in the overall evaluation.
• The “Brief” or Specifications that detail the scope of work required to be met in your submission.This could include:

• A description of the products or services required
• Business and Technical Requirements, or Systems Requirements Specifications, particularly if it is an IT project
• Analysis and design requirements
• Warranty requirements
• Operations and support requirements
• User training requirements
• Testing and implementation requirements
• Project timeline that indicates the required timing of the project, if you were successful
• Design or location drawings, if there is any physical construction or equipment required
• General or standard specifications that must be complied with, such as national or industry standards (e.g. building standards), or specifications that are always used by a company (e.g. Occupational Health and Safety, and Quality Systems specifications)

• Attachments or Appendices that may provide additional information but do not fit easily into the company’s standard terms or format of the tender documents
• Draft Contract or Agreement intended to be used should your proposal be selected
• Response Schedules that allow you to respond to the requirements of the tender.Typical response schedules could match either the terms stated in General Conditions of tender or the Specifications.You could expect to see Schedules such as:

• Solution description or a description of your proposal, which requires you to provide an overview of your services or products, and how you are going to implement or apply them to the project
• Staff and project team structure you intend to use during the engagement, and their background, skills and experience
• Past performance of your company in similar projects, along with references
• Specification Compliance Schedules for you to indicate how your products and services comply with the Specifications of the tender
• Response to the draft Contract terms, which should contain your comments or changes to the agreement for consideration
• Financial information regarding your company, which could include recent profit and loss statements
• Cost of your proposal, which will either be in lump sum or time and materials basis
• Alternatives offered, which allows you to detail any options you consider to be of better value, but may not meet all of the requirements

Described above are of some of the main features of a RFP/ RFT document, which can help you interpret what is required for a tender response.So before you start writing your next response, try to identify the location of this information in the RFP/ RFT document.This should allow you to understand the requirements, and effectively plan your approach to writing your bid or response.

Author: Samantha Yee

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Here’s the situation: a potential client asks you for a proposal for services or products in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Quote (RFQ), but where do you start?If you have never written a business proposal before, this can be a daunting task.However, by using a logical document format, you can develop a quality proposal that will maximise the chances of it being accepted.Then you’ll discover that you can repeat the same formula for any subsequent proposals.

This article recommends and details the minimum content areas that you should address in a business proposal.In this case, we assume that there is no formal document structure requested by your client - so it is for you to decide on the form of the proposal.

Your Aim

Before you start writing any proposal, you must consider your aim - to make a sale of your goods and or services.Two of the major issues considered by your client in deciding whether to accept your proposal are whether, in their opinion, you understand their business needs; and that you can deliver what you promise.You must continually refer to these two fundamental questions when you write your proposal.Referring back to these issues also helps you with developing the content of your proposal.

Proposal Contents

Any business proposal should contain the following areas:

• Scope of Work - this requires you to provide an overview of your services or products that will meet their business needs.The client’s needs are obtained from a Brief that may range from a formal written document through to a verbal conversation.You need to provide the client with the confidence that you understand their business needs and demonstrate how your products or services meet them.
• Project Approach - in this section, you need to provide some explanation about how you are going to approach the work.This builds more confidence for your client, as they read what you are doing (Scope of Work), along with evidence that you have actually thought about and planned the work.
• Past Experience - you should provide details of previous engagements in which you have delivered similar products or services.It is also helpful to include personal references, should the client wish to verify them.The purpose of this is to give the client some measure of how mature and experienced you are in delivering the services or products you are offering.
• Project Team - you should always detail the specific people you intend to use during the engagement, along with their background, skills and experience.It is also useful to include a resum or CV for each person.You should also mention who will be the main point of contact in your organisation for this project.
• Timeline and Milestones - this section should illustrate the tasks or products to be provided, each with a corresponding planned delivery date.For larger engagements, milestones can be used to serve as control checkpoints for the client or payment points for you (further discussed below).The timeline can be presented in tabular form, or if more complex, you can use a Gantt chart.
• Progress Reports and Meetings - to foster good communications and to maintain a healthy relationship with the client, you should suggest the forms and frequency of progress reports and meetings.Examples of this could include providing weekly email updates, formal written reports, or monthly face-to-face meetings.
• Resources and Materials Provided by the Client - if you need the client to provide you with any facilities or resources for your use or access, you need to state them here.Examples could be provision of a computer workstation or access to their computer systems whilst you are working on their site, or access to the client’s key staff at certain points of the engagement.
• Assumptions - if there are any other assumptions that you have made in preparing your proposal, you should include them here.The point of this is to minimise any misunderstandings you may have with the client after they give you the approval to proceed with the engagement. For example, you will not be happy if your client asks for a task that you assumed was outside the scope of the project, but never stated.
• Cost and Payment Schedule - the cost of your proposal can be expressed either in a lump sum or on a time and materials basis.You will need to provide visibility of your hourly rates if you are charging on a time and materials basis.If it is appropriate, or if the client desires, you can suggest to be paid according to certain project deliverables that are stated in the Timelines and Milestones section.In this case, you can align the relevant Milestones against appropriate payment amounts.If the engagement is on a time and materials basis, then you can align payments with deliverables or request that payments be made periodically such as fortnightly or monthly.
• Terms of Agreement - if you have any contract terms that you wish to apply to the agreement, they should be included here.These could include anything from ownership of IP through to payment terms.You can use the services of a lawyer to help you develop these terms if required.

The above areas are the recommended minimum contents of any business proposal in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Quote (RFQ).Used systematically, this can guide can help you to develop and refine the format of your proposals.It allows 1ff8 you to breakdown the task of proposal writing into relevant sections, allowing you to focus on the all-important technical content.

When writing a proposal, always remember that you are trying to provide a prospective client with the confidence that you know your products and services, and are experienced in delivering them. Writing your proposals using this format will help you to develop quality proposals and maximise the chances of them being accepted.

Author: Samantha Yee

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Blog for: Simso Tex: Sublimation & Printing. title: Business Proposal. Preview: Dear Sir. This is Suresh from Tirupur - India .We are glad to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves as a producer and exporter of Knitted T-shirts.

Technorati Tags: business proposal, proposal for services, request for proposal

If you have a Request for Proposal that has been issued from a potential or current client company or a government agency, then, first, you have a bid/no bid decision to make.

To make this decision you should carefully read the RFP in its entirety. If any information is unclear, usually, the RFP will give information on how to and with whom to communicate with. Guidelines are usually in place concerning people who can be contacted, and the methods of communications, frequently these days it is by email only and the questions and answers are sent to everyone who received the RFP.

After reading the RFP, put the information into four categories: 1.) Administrative/logistical/ contact information, 2.) Legal clauses and specifications that will govern the contract, 3.) Requirements for solution development, scope of work, technical expertise, etc., and 4.) Format guidelines.
Now, make a list of all the contradictions, missing elements, inexplicable jargon, and unclear statements that you need to raise questions about at a bidder’s conference or email to the contact person.

Once you have a thorough understanding of the RFP, you can determine the answers to the following questions:

• What is the real purpose of the RFP?
• What is the scope and magnitude of the requirements?
• What confidence do you have that you or your organization can fulfill all the requirements?

Determining the purpose of the buyer (such as, ‘Are they just trying to get information?’) and the strength of your competition might indicate that winning the contract would not be possible or not be in the best interest of your business. You want to focus any efforts as time consuming as writing a proposal only on the RFPs which present opportunities for quality contracts.

Outside the government, there is no standard for RFPs. They may be clearly understandable documents or poorly written and difficult to understand in terms of the actual requirements and scope.
For example, an RFP might go out for a one-hour training video. What are the real requirements you are being asked to fulfill? Do they want you to just film an existing training session as it is being presented, so all you are doing is shooting the film and doing a little editing? Do they want you to work on the development of the training, the scripting, filming high-quality with full crew, edit, add animations or interactive exercises, and do they want it connected to a Learning Management System?

You must make sure that you understand the true scope of the requirements before you make your decision to put in the effort of writing a proposal.

Start work on a requirements checklist at this time, and continue updating through the communications and bidders’ meeting. For now, this checklist will give you the scope and magnitude of the project. When your proposal is complete, the checklist can be used to verify that you have covered all the requirements and did not miss anything in calculating your costs.

Once you understand the scope and magnitude of the requirements, you may find that winning the contract might not be cost productive. Do you have the capabilities (staff, resources, and finances) to fulfill the requirements, or would you need to take into account sub-contractors, new equipment, additional inventory, or even a loan for upfront expenses? Would you need to form an alliance with a competitor or complimentary company to fulfill all the requirements.

If two or more companies or sub-contractors are involved, then the process of preparing the proposal becomes more complex; exactly what items of fulfillment each of the companies or sub-contractors will be responsible for must be addressed.

Making a chart of your analysis can help you make your bid/no bid decision. Look at the chart below: A ‘yes’ should be checked in a large percentage of the boxes.

At this point, you will have determined whether or not the purpose of the RFP is valid, know the scope and magnitude of what you would be bidding on, and have determined whether you could fulfill the requirements. Now you only have to answer one question: Is this job worth the time and effort required to write and excellent proposal?

By: Vickie Adair

ERP FUD - Just say NO to RFP’s | Clients First US | Texas (Arlington)

In other words, the only RFPs sellers will accept are ones you should not make. One of the ways to avoid the winner’s curse is to bid more conservatively when there are more bidders. Thomas Nagle and Reed Holden explain why in their seminal book, The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing: … It is important to have some contact with the economic buyer, that is, the person who can actually make the decision to hire you, rather than just the procurement department.

Wikis and RFPs « Vendorprisey

The only value of RFPs have are to cover the decision-makers butt in the case of disaster and line to pockets of the big SIs who get paid handsomely to drag the process along and have no incentive to make more efficient. … you’ve gotten your RFP together, can I recommend posting it to the RFP Database as a good place to garner competitive bids for your project? And if I’ve misconstrued your post and you’re looking for projects to bid on, it’s a great place for that too!

Advice You: Making The Bid No Bid Decision on RFP s

make. At this point you will have determined whether or not the purpose of the RFP is valid know the scope and magnitude of what you would be bidding on and have determined whether you could fulfill the requirements.

Technorati Tags: Making The Bid No Bid Decision on RFP's, request for proposal, request for proposal bid

A while back, a potential client provided me with some general details of the writing work he wanted me to do for his company. Then he asked me to send him a proposal.

Proposal?! I panicked as I tried to confirm with him what he meant by that since I had never done one before, at least not as a freelancer.

I must’ve not really wanted to pursue this opportunity since I didn’t bother to do research or follow up with the company after submitting a contract instead of a proposal. A little time passed, I came across an article on writing RFPs (Request for Proposal). Ding! The light bulb went on. This guy verbally gave me his RFP and wanted a written response.

When a company needs a project to be completed by a contractor or outside source, they write a RFP. This is a formal document describing the project, how the contract companies should respond, how the proposals will be reviewed, and contact information. Often, the company documents the submission guidelines to make it easier for them to compare responses. There are no specific standards or guidelines for creating the RFP, but government agencies usually strict standards they follow when conducting the proposal process.

Outside companies read the RFP and write a proposal (a bid) explaining how they can best provide and meet those needs. When writing the proposal, the company should closely follow the guidelines established in the RFP to avoid being removed from consideration for the potential project.

A typical proposal contains:

• Executive summary - summary of the entire proposal
• Statement of need - why project is necessary
• Project description - How project will be implemented and evaluated
• Organization information
• Project schedule
• Budget
• Conclusion

My situation was an informal version of all this. The client gave me a high level overview of what I might do for him. If I knew then what I know now, I would’ve written up a description of the client’s needs and how I would complete the work in meeting those needs.

Small businesses would likely do a proposal in between the one I got and the complex government required ones. Most small businesses will be prompted to write a proposal when approaching a client. The client may ask you to submit a proposal outlining what you can do for them. In this case, write a proposal including the elements of a typical proposal and keep it short and to the point especially if the client is not a large company.

There are examples of RFPs and responses peppered throughout the Web, but which one you can learn from depends on the type of work involved. A proposal can be two pages or as big as a book. Rely on your favorite search engine and do the research to create an unbeatable proposal.

Author: Meryl K. Evans

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