How to Construct an Effective RFP:

An Industry-Standard Approach to the RFP Process

At Core Catalysts, we are regularly asked to assist department decision makers and procurement professionals with an RFP (meaning “request for proposal”) to support their purchasing decisions.

We provide management consulting for our nationwide list of clients in critical industries, including insurance, healthcare, financial services, and telecommunications. Throughout our daily conversations with business leaders, we’ve observed most organizations need a strategic RFP approach that cultivates exceptional talent and services from highly qualified candidates.

This article covers:

• The definition of an RFP and its key stages.
• How to refine your RFP for stronger results.
• A sample table of contents and structure for creating an RFP.
• Tables and matrices for communicating with a potential vendor and evaluation.

Defining the Request for Proposal

The purpose of an RFP is to communicate available funding for a project or program and to solicit bids for its implementation. This approach makes the process competitive and fair, and ultimately ensures receipt of a higher number of proposals. The organization that develops the RFP then evaluates the proposal submissions and determines the best candidates.

What Are the Key Stages of the RFP Process?

Each stage of the RFP process is an opportunity to encourage excellence from the bids you solicit. When an organization strives for strong communication and effort, they are far more likely to gather bids that meet their standards.

Core Catalysts has identified this structure to generate dynamic bids and exceptional results from prospective partners:

• Specification: The most critical stage in the process, specification involves identifying key objectives, explaining requirements and project scope, detailing how proposals will be evaluated, fielding questions, and ensuring contractual or legal considerations are clearly outlined.
• Proposal: The organization releasing the RFP should determine the best channels to make their request public, including materials to market the proposal (e.g., a press release posted to your website, social media, and third-party industry platforms that prospective partners use to find new projects). An organization may also consider hosting a webinar, posting FAQs, and providing other informative materials to answer questions throughout the process.
• Evaluation: During this stage, a committee from the organization meets to review the proposals. Subject-matter experts, those who will lead project implementation, and other important stakeholders who understand the project’s goals and scope are included in this process. The process is only as effective as the evaluation criteria you’ve established. Organizations usually refine their processes as they grow as an organization.
• Implementation: During this final stage, contracts are signed, a kickoff meeting occurs, and the project is underway. Regular updates are typically required on a strict deadline. Your team and the contracted vendor should stress transparency and communication throughout the implementation process. A testing or quality assurance period should precede any final steps to ensure that the deliverables are up to standard.

It is also critical to note that the RFP process is iterative; after project implementation, set aside time for evaluation of the entire process and make changes where applicable. When a new project or initiative arises, the previously discussed improvements should be implemented.

If you’d like further help constructing an RFP or need help managing the RFP process, contact our consulting management team.

Further Considerations: What Factors Might Companies Consider When Creating RFP Requirements or Questions?

There are many refinements you can make to your RFP to solicit the results you’re looking for. The recommendations we’ve listed below also make the process more equitable by prompting responses that can be measured without subjective bias.

1. Ask questions that allow you to objectively compare the responses. The question should be comparable through the defined decision criteria. For example, request metrics and a narrative that explains them (e.g., productivity, hours, costs, and more).
2. Choose open and closed-ended questions for appropriate situations. If the answer is truly a “yes/no” response, simplify the process by asking a closed-ended question. Answers that require open-ended responses should be vetted through your decision criteria to see if they can be evaluated appropriately. For all questions, you can test-run their clarity by having them answered by people who aren’t involved in developing the questions.
3. Discuss how questions should be phrased: Determine the technical complexity and industry expertise required to answer appropriately. Do the questions include esoteric terms that can only be answered by a few specialized people in your industry? If it is not required that the vendor has the same industry technical expertise in a subject, then questions should be reworded appropriately. Another way to support technical questions is to provide a term glossary.
4. Weigh the importance of responses: Develop a plan that allows you to objectively analyze vendor responses. Divide closed-ended questions and open-ended questions into sections. Have the business unit leaders apply weights to questions that most impact their lines of business. This exercise is for both open- and closed-ended questions. When scoring questions, you can consider the size, level of effort, duration, quality, likelihood of occurrence (e.g., minimum, probably, likely), and other factors for that particular category. See Table 3 below for example categories.

You can also consider the following rating system to determine weights:

1 – Not important

2 – Less important

3 – Neutral

4 – Important

5 – Very important

Scoring Rubric for Evaluating the Quality of Your RFP’s Responses

Before you meet as a committee to evaluate RFP submissions, creating an evaluative rubric for scoring answers allows you to ensure a far more objective and efficient process.

For closed-ended questions that require a yes or no answer to determine the vendor’s qualifications, apply the following score:

1 – Yes

0 – No

For open-ended questions, apply one of the following scores:

1 – Poor answer

2 – Fair answer

3 – Average answer

Example Forms and Matrices

Use or adapt the following resources to enhance the RFP process. These resources are courtesy of Core Catalysts, a Kansas City-based management consulting firm that works with nationwide clients across a range of critical industries.

Table of Contents

This table of contents provides a template for an RFP’s main structure, although revisions and additions can always be made based on your organization’s needs.

1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………….. P.1-#

1.1 Company Profile………………………………………………….x
1.1A Description…………………………………………………y
1.1B Products and services…………………………………..y
1.1C Location and geographic area……………………….y
1.1D Organizational chart and employee count……..y
1.2 Department Responsible for RFP…………………………..x
1.3 Background and Business Case……………………………..x
1.4 Current Applications and IT Infrastructure…………….x
1.5 Project Summary and Scope………………………………….x
1.6 Objective of RFP…………………………………………………..x

2. INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROPOSED VENDORS……………. P.2-#

2.1 Schedule of Major Events and Deadlines (see example in Table 1 below)…..x
2.2 Communication and Inquiries……………………………….x
2.3 Preparation Expenses (Responsibility of Vendor)……x
2.4 Preparation Instructions……………………………………….x

3. VENDOR GENERAL INFORMATION……………………………………………… P.3-#

3.1 Vendor Profile………………………………………………………x

4. FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS………………………… P.4-#

4.1 Detailed Description on Systems Needed…………………x
4.2 Current Statistics and Data…………………………………….x
4.2A 6-12-month volume, spend, count, usage of needed services or products…..y

5. TECHNICAL QUESTIONS TO BE COMPLETED BY VENDOR…..P.5-#

5.1 Closed-ended questions……………………………………………x
5.2 Open-ended questions……………………………………………..x

6. PRICING………………………………………………….. P.6-#

6.1 Pricing schedule instructions…………………………………….x

7. CUSTOMER CONTACTS………………………………….. P.7-#

7.1 Vendor Communications Table (see example in Table 2)…..x

8. APPENDICES……………………………………………. P.8-#

8.1 Appendix A. Term Glossary……………………………………….x
8.2 Appendix B. Suggested Contractual Terms and Agreement…..x

Table I: Vendor Communications

Note: Specify a time zone either under each date in the table, or if the time is the same for all deadlines, indicate the time (also referred to as a timetable or calendar of events) and time zone above the table. For example: “All submissions no later than 11:59 pm Central Time Zone on date specified.”

Table II: Example Vendor Communications Table

(Note: If submitting with a partnered organization, please add communication information for the partner as well)

Table III: Example Vendor Evaluation Matrix

Categories	Weight	Final Score	Initial Score	Final Score	Initial Score	Final Score	Initial Score
Firm	5%	0.2	4	0.25	5	0.2	4
People	10%	0.3	3	0.3	3	0.4	4
Philosophy	5%	0.1		0.15	3	0.15	3
Process	10%	0.5	5	0.3	3	0.3	3
Portfolio	5%	0.2	4	0.2	4	0.25	5
Fees	15%	0.6	4	0.6	4	0.75	5
Performance	30%	0.9	3	1.5	5	1.5	5
Systems	20%	0.6	3	0.8	4	0.8	4
Other	0%	0	0	0	0	0	0
Weighted Total	100%	3.4		4.1		4.35

About Core Catalysts

Core Catalysts is a management consulting firm based in Kansas City. A results-oriented team, we benefit clients across the U.S. in many industries, including healthcare, insurance, financial services, and telecommunications. Core Catalysts provides services such as process improvement, product and service commercialization, revenue enhancement, financial modeling, program and project management, software selection, enterprise risk management, and business performance improvement.

Key Contacts

Jim Wadella
Managing Member
Jim.Wadella@corecatalysts.com

Matt Craig
Senior Director
Matt.Craig@corecatalysts.com

Jeffrey Kupper
Senior Director
Jeffrey.Kupper@corecatalysts.com

Disclaimer

This resource is for informational purposes only. Core Catalysts, LLC does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information, and the information does not constitute accounting, financial, investment, tax, legal, or other professional advice, nor are we suggesting the information replace such professional advice. Before making an important business decision, please consult a qualified professional.

Works Cited

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Core Catalysts, LLC. miscellaneous proprietary documentation and methodologies. Retrieved 6 July 2016.

Heeringen, Harold van. “Request for Proposal (RFP) Management – Ask the right questions and choose wisely.” LinkedIn SlideShare, June 2010.

Huening, Nathan. “How to Write a Great Website RFP – with a little guidance, you’ll be writing them like a pro.” New Media Campaigns, 16 Dec. 2014.

Investopedia.com. “Request for Proposal – RFP.” Investopedia, 10 Jan. 2011. Retrieved 6 July 2016 from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/request-for-proposal.asp

Kutcher, David. “How to write Requests for Proposals (RFP) for best results.” Confluent Forms LLC., 19 June 2009. Retrieved 6 July 2016 from http://www.confluentforms.com/2009/06/6-steps-to-writing-better-request-for.html

Mike97. “Corporate Email Archive Solution – Sample Request for Proposal.” LinkedIn SlideShare, 1 Jan. 2009.

“Request for proposal.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Oct. 2016. Retrieved 6 July 2016 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_proposal

Rouse, Margaret. “What is a request for proposal (RFP)? – definition from WhatIs.com.” Contributors: John Moore. SearchITChannel, Apr. 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2016 from http://searchitchannel.techtarget.com/definition/request-for-proposal

TechSoup. “RFP Library – Tips and sample RFPs for your nonprofit, charity, or library.” TechSoup, 2 Feb. 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2016 from http://www.techsoup.org/support/articles-and-how-tos/rfp-library