How to Develop Your Request for Proposal
By Brandon Hall, Ph.D., and the staff of brandon-hall.com
Web site: www.brandon-hall.com E-mail: brandon@brandon-hall.com 690 W. Fremont Ave., Suite 10 Sunnyvale, CA 94087 Phone: (408) 736-2335
Table of Contents
Purpose of This Report Part 1 – RFP Basics What is a request for proposal (RFP)? Who should write the RFP? Is there a template or standard document I should use to create the RFP? What is a request for information (RFI)? Part 2 — Developing Your RFP THE XYZ COMPANY Part 3 — Case Studies Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center CMOOR Group v 1 2 4 6 9 3 4 37 38 40
Introduction
Purpose of This Report
Developing a request for proposal (RFP) might be the most important thing you can do when purchasing outside services. Some people, when they think of RFPs, picture lawyers and lawsuits. Others consider RFPs to be just another kind of insurance policy. It’s true that organizations use RFPs to protect themselves from bad deals, but there’s a much more important reason to develop an RFP process: It lets potential vendors know up front that your foremost concern is the level of customer service you receive. RFPs are a lot of work, but they’re worth it. If you’re planning on purchasing a learning management system (LMS) that you hope to use for five years, it makes sense to find the vendor whose product matches your needs as closely as possible. It’s certainly tempting to take shortcuts. Industry gossip, anecdotes and conversations over lunch might give you some ideas on where to start, but it’s unwise to risk thousands or even millions of dollars on the basis of a few personal stories. Buying an LMS is much different than using Consumer Reports to choose a lawnmower. You need to be know exactly which vendors meet your specifications, with no guesswork involved. In this report, we’ve provided an introduction to the ground rules of developing an RFP. While we specifically focus on an e-Learning topic—developing an RFP for a learning management system—much of the advice in this report applies to other types of purchases, too. Our goal is to help your organization implement a process for developing smart and thorough RFPs.