Assignment: Prepare a PowerPoint presentation What is the Request For Proposal (RFP)?- Assume that you are addressing a group of engineers and professionals who are technically competent but unfamili

Mind Your RFPs & Qs A Request for Proposals (RFP) can be a useful tool in the hiring of service providers. As with any tool, the results depend on how you use it. Let’s start with the purpose of an RFP, then its structure a nd content, a nd finally pr ocess. 1: Purpose Define the project Most projects that involve ser vice providers —such as pla nning consultants, web developers, graphic designers, or architects—have objectives subject to considerable complexities and nuances… or they should have, if the y are to ma ke the most of the investment of time and expense that goes into them. The funda mental task of a n RFP is to define the project you are planning to pursue. This is a cr ucial step, whether you intend to issue the RFP to multiple suppliers for competitive pr oposals, or are using it simply to specify your requirements to the one provider you’ve chosen to work with. To assure that the results will encompass all of your concerns and opportunities, the first and most important step in the RFP pr ocess is to articulate—and develop inter nal consensus around—the full requirements a nd objectives of the project. This first step ma y seem obvious, but for various reasons, it is often not fully developed. Defining objectives can require a good bit of self -educ ation about the full potential impa ct of, sa y, a new web presence or a new facility, so that you can be a knowledgeable and self -advocating client. (In some situations, when the sta kes are high, the knowledge gap is great, and you don’t have a senior staff me mber or trustee with the experience to guide the development of a n effective RFP, it is worth considering a consultant to advise you through crafting the RFP, and per haps the selection process as a whole. Some pr ospective clients will ask why they need to know the business of the consultant… isn’t that what they are hiring an expert for in the first place? Yes, but… the mor e you know about where you want to go and how you can get there, the better choice you are likely to ma ke in selecting a guide to ta ke you there.

In any case, the prospective service provider doesn’t start with a knowledge of your business, your values, your objectives. The most pr oductive relationship between provider and client is one based on each knowing their own business, and each being eager to learn mor e about what the other knows. A good designer, for exa mple, will usually be ready to guide you down a visually compelling path. The trick is to ma ke sure that the path offered is the one you want to be on ; one that lea ds to your strategic goals. For that, you need to establish the initial direction as fully as you can before hiring a guide. Get a sense of the approach If an RFP is issued to several candidates, one of the objectives will be to see how each one inter prets the ma terial pr ovided and approaches the project. Some responses ma y be boiler plate that doesn’t respond specifically to the needs a nd objectives the or ga nization has provided. Others ma y go off on a tangent or per haps misinterpret the RFP entirely. The best result is to get responses that give you new insights about what you are trying to accomplish, and/or how to go about it. Minimize the cost Often competitive RFPs are thought of as a way to get the best quality of services at the lowest possible cost.

This is more likely if the other major variables (scope of services, and deliverables) can be clearly defined.

Otherwise you’ll end up with responses b ased on differing assumptions and interpretations, and you will not be able to compare them effectively. You ma y end up with much less than you hoped for, with additional costs required to meet your needs.

The best course of action if you don’t have any se nse of what a project should cost, is to do enough research to give at least a range. Consulta nts will then be able to suggest a scope of wor k within that range or give extra options beyond it, or forego the opportunity to respond if the project is not wit hin a n appropriate range for them.

On the other hand, if a service provider knows that your budget is very limited, he or she may well offer —with or without an RFP process—a leaner set of services, perhaps with options for extra services that can be provided for an additional fee. In a ny case, in some kinds of wor k (architecture, for exa mple) professional fees are not the major portion of the budget, so a low fee is less important than the track recor d of the pr ovider in keeping the whole project within budget.

2: Structure & Content Structure The starting point for a good RFP can be a sa mple of one done for similar kinds of work, with emphasis on “starting point” and “similar”. Often an organization will use as a template an RFP for very different kinds of work, with requirements that are not ger ma ne to the project at hand. This diverts focus from your requirements and objectives, and gives a signal that you’re really not clear about what you’re doing, which can be off-putting to the best ser vice provider s you most want to attract—and it won’t get you what you need.

Some RFPs are structured with lots of detailed questions a nd requirements for for ma tting answers. Responses to these RFPs ma y tell you a lot about how well the proposer pays attention to appr opriate instr uctions and finesses others, but this appr oach also reduces the ability of responders to show how they structure their thinking. Since it takes extra effort to respond to this kind of RFP, and also sends a signal that you might be difficult to wor k with, the best providers, who can be most selective about their clients, ma y decline to respond. Content RFPs often omit infor mation (e.g. scope of ser vices, deliverables, time fra me, budget) that is central both to creating and evaluating resp onses. Usually this is done with the intention of having the service pr ovider reveal mor e about how she works or to get him to offer the lowest possible fee. While these intentions are understandable, and even sometimes effective, more often they can be im pediments to getting the best results, for several reasons: • If you define the work as clearly as possible, you assure that it will be focused on your needs a nd not the accumulated assumptions of the service provider about the needs of others. • The specifi cs of the project ma y affect the choice of service provider in wa ys you ma y not yet be aware of. In the case of website design, for example, your objectives for the site will affect your choice of a platfor m to build it on, which in turn will constrain the list of web developers to consider.

The more you know about and communicate your intentions, the more likely you will be to find the right match early on. • When multiple variables (scope of services, deliverables, time frame, budget) are left open, a resp onder has to incorporate guesswor k into the proposal. This is a problem for both sides: o Proposers will not be able to bring their best judgment to bear on the pr oject as you would like it done or can affor d to do it, so the responses ma y not be relevant t o your needs. o Different pr oposers will ma ke their own independent assumptions, which ma y or ma y not be explicit, so proposals ma y not be comparable, handica pping the selection pr ocess. o Putting a thoughtful proposal together can take a substa ntial amount of time and effort. Many good service pr oviders, who keep as busy as they wa nt to be with clients who come to them directly, don’t respond to open—or even limited-distribution—RFPs at all. Many more ignore RFPs that do not give sufficient guidance as to sc ope or budget. What to expect When you issue a n RFP to a nd get proposals from multiple pr ospects, you will likely see different levels of responsiveness—from cut and paste boilerplate to thoughtful consideration of the issues you face and how to appr oach them. This will offer you some insights into the way the proposers work, and the clarity and quality of thought and communication. If you ha ve fra med the pr oposal well, you ma y get to see thoughtful alter native approaches to the pr oject. 3: Process As noted above, the most important part of the RFP process is the work that goes into preparing to write the RFP. That’s when you articulate your needs, put them in context, resolve any inter nal differences of opinion, research comparable projects, and set a bud get.

At that point the focus shifts to sharing the RFP with one or more service providers. You ma y choose to wor k with a provider in whom you have confidence from previous experience. In this case the purpose of the RFP is to frame and describe the project . This ca n save time and money and enha nce the quality of the result, by briefing the ser vice pr ovider on your intentions and expectations before the beginning of the work. Or, you ma y use the RFP as a briefing tool with a few ser vice providers that ha ve been recommended to you.

If you decide to use it as part of a competitive process, however, it will be bearing more weight as a stand - alone source of infor mation. In this case the issues discussed in Purpose and Structure & Content take on greater importance, along with considerations of process. For a complex pr oject, an RFP is usually not the best initial communication with pr ospective ser vice pr oviders.

Developing a detailed proposal for a complex project requires significant investment by a service provider.

You ma y not attract the best of them by asking for a lot of wor k before you have ma de the effort to learn whether they are the match you’re likely to want. Y ou ma y be looking for a low bid, regardless of quality, or for a different approach from that taken by the pr ovider. A busy service provider will choose to respond to prospective clients who come to them with mor e intentionality.

You ma y wish to start with a Request for Qualifications (RFQ). This will bring you preliminary infor mation from service providers who may be interested in the project, and will give you enough infor ma tion to narrow the field down to a small number for further consideration. The best next step is often an interview. What you learn in an interview about a pproach, attitude, and personal chemistry will be another filter, giving you a second dimension of selectivity. If you interview three to five prospects and emer ge with one to three ca ndidates, you will be in a good position to ask your finalists for a detailed pr oposal, and to get their best effort in describing how they would configure the wor k, how long the project should take, the allocation of responsibilities, the delivera bles, and the costs.

If you decide to solicit competitive proposals —with or without these preliminaries—there are some rules of protocol that will produce better results: • Circulation: Publically funded projects typically must be advertised and open for an y provider to respond to. If that is not required of you, it can be much more effective to limit the distribution to a small number of providers that you have already identified as appr opriate matches. The research you do to find and refine your preferred list of providers will be good preparation for being an educated client. And the prospective pr oviders will focus more attention on an RFP that you’ve targeted closely. • Openness: Be as open as you can with infor mation and any needed clarification, both to attract the best pr oviders and to enable them to give you their best (and most comparable) pr oposals. Give at least a budget range and/or a very precise scope of ser vices ( many good providers simply don’t respond if they would ha ve to guess about the real ism of your budget expectations). Reveal the number of providers you are asking for proposals. Mention the a mount a nd kind of work you expect to be able to do in-house (by staff and/or volunteers). • Questions: Give a date until which you will accept clarif ication questions from prospective pr oviders, and note that you will share all questions and your answer s with all pr ospective proposers. A level playing field benefits all parties. • Contract: If you have a ny positions on critical contractual provisions, y ou ma y want to share them with prospective pr oposers to ma ke sure the ground rules are understood by all. And later you should make the RFP an addendum to the contract. Depending on the kind of ser vices at issue, there are ma ny variations a nd details that could be added to this over view. But an understanding of these basics will offer a much more pr omising start to the pr ocess of procuring process of procuring professional services.

http://synthesispartnership.com/critical10/ Request for Proposal sample outline Project Description • Narrative • Objectives • Requirements • Budget • Schedule Scope of Services • Responsibilities • Services Subm ission Requirements • General information • Proposal requirements • Deliverables • Business requirements Appendix • Proposed Contract • Related documents Submission Elements • Cover letter: Expression of interest and qualifications. • Record with wor k of similar type & scale ( ma naging project, budget, schedule). • Sensitivity to specific issues of particular concer n. • Examples of wor k • Other expertise • Staff to be assigned © Copyright 2015 Synthesis P artnership. All rights reserved. Complet e, fully attribut ed copies may be m ade and shared. Wednesday Webinars Free professional development webinars for trustees and staff of nonprofits since 2009, Wednesdays at 1:00 Eastern / 10:00 Pacific , courtesy of 4Good . For webinar schedule, d escriptions, registration links & the archive, go to Wednesday Webinars . And visit 4Good to: • “watch ” or “ follow” Synthesis Partnership or Sam Frank • “like ” Synthesis Partnership, Sam Frank , or a posting or webinar • “collect ” us as a resource to share our postings with others Virtual consulting We work with clients via Skype, document sharing, email and phone conference to enable them to leverage their efforts with ou r expertise. Call Sam Frank at 617 969 1881 or e-mail us to discuss the possibilities.