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Preparing a Request for Proposal3. Contents of the Sample RFPThe sample RFP that follows is broken down as follows:
The Cover Sheet identifies the company requesting the proposal, the location of PBX, and the date the proposal is expected. The name and address (including telephone number) of the person to whom the proposal should be sent is also included. This person is usually the one who can respond to questions on the RFP; however, if others have or share this responsibility, they should be identified as well. The Table of Contents is reasonably straightforward. Page numbers assist in locating specific sections. The Introduction and Overview identifies the customer, describes briefly the business, and indicates why a new system is desired. The required cutover date, particularly on a move to new quarters, goes here quite nicely. The overview describes the present system (if any), to show what has been available to the users to date, and then specifies briefly what additions and improvements the new system is expected to offer. Calling patterns are also described for both incoming and outgoing calls. Conditions describes the terms under which the procurement is being conducted. In particular, it contains disclaimers against the assumption that particular hardware is desired instead of function, and indicates that the customer has the right to select any system that meets his needs, or none at all if that is the way the ball bounces. Other rules for proposal submission are included, along with expected responsibilities of the selected vendor. Most of this material will be the basis of the contract to be signed when the system is selected; stating it now makes it clear what is wanted. But note: the vendor will wish to make the contract the sole legal document, not the proposal; the customer must make it quite clear that the RFP, proposal, and all related correspondence are part of the contract, and resist all efforts by the vendor to make the contract a stand-alone document. Schedules define fixed dates determined by the customer, but their principal purpose is to require the vendor to say when the switchroom must be ready, when his troops will have to swarm all over the working area stringing wire, when the customer will have to have his data base ready, etc. PERT charts or Gantt charts are often the easiest way to show such requirements, but absolute start times are hard to determine. It is usual to show such a chart as starting on the date the contract is signed, with future milestones relative to that. Customers have been known to delay formalizing the agreement. The customer must know when the cutoff dates occur for site preparation, data base preparation, etc. And only the vendor, with knowledge of the particular system, can specify these dates and other information needed for this particular installation. The “Conditions” section ends with the rules on pricing. The Detailed Specification includes size, growth, traffic, features required, features desired, wiring, administration, ARS, CDR, etc. Power and heat load on the air conditioning are also major factors. If one is to compare the PBXs offered by different vendors, and do it in a reasonable amount of time, limits have to be imposed on the creative freedom permitted proposal writers. Thus it is not unreasonable to define the proposal format and require that information be put in a given order. The further clarity imposed by the exhibits is for the benefit of the customer, but does not preclude the possibility of the vendor appending brochures, practices, system descriptions and the like. Finally, the exhibits are included explicitly. Because there will be some things that each PBX cannot do, all exceptions that do not fit the exhibit sheets should be referred to an Exception Exhibit, where they are identified, numbered, and made available for detailed explanation later. The following sample proposal is for illustration only; there is no reason to assume the particular features requested in this proposal are needed by everyone, or that other features not mentioned might not be more important in a different context. However, the sample should illustrate the general approach. The format of the requested proposal should be compared with the format of the RFP at the beginning of this section:
With this format, the customer can, by looking at the first few pages of the proposal, get a quick description of the system offered and a feel for its pricing. Further, the format makes it easy to find further details as needed. Items 1-4 are fairly well defined by the customer, but 6-10 give the vendor the opportunity to present information in his own way. This combination of rigidity and flexibility should serve the best interests of both parties. [ Top ] [ Next ] [ Table of Contents ] |
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