The Art of the RFP
Yes, there’s also a good deal of
science behind the Request for
Proposal process, but the bottom
line is: When it comes to buying
technology, one artful document
can safeguard the process.
It’s Request for Proposal (RFP) season, so CA-based e-mail management and security vendor Mirapoint recently sponsored the Campus Technology-produced Webinar, “The Art of an RFP: An E-Mail and Messaging Security Case Study.” The Webinar was so successful—and the information presented
in it so universally valuable—that we’ve decided to publish highlighted segments of that presentation
here, for the benefit of our readers. Our thanks to Mirapoint for their work on this presentation, and to
Matt Villano, CT’s senior contributing editor, for his work as moderator of an outstanding panel discussion.
By this time of year, springtime rituals are blossoming like begonias,
and that’s true for higher education, too. Students move inexorably
toward the end of another year; professors get ready for summer session;
and in campus technology departments, CIOs and other decision-makers
furiously set their plans to purchase hardware and software for the fall semester. At most
schools, the annual purchasing routine revolves around official documents called RFPs.
These documents, which can be up to 200 pages long, serve as academic calls to arms;
ways for colleges and universities to notify vendors that they’re looking for new technology
solutions, and want solutions fast. Even for schools that have done it for years, the
process of writing an RFP is a daunting one—a rigmarole that requires time and
resources to complete. When handled correctly, however, the RFP process approximates
an art, and can yield huge benefits for everyone involved.
“We’ve used this process to buy just about every technology we have today,” says Roy
Teahen, director of Internet Applications and Systems at Baker College (MI). “When we
want to procure something new, an RFP is pretty much the only way to go.”
What Is an RFP, and Why Do You Need One?
No discussion of the RFP process can
begin without a brief explanation of
what, exactly, an RFP is. According to
Allen Eskelin, author of Technology
Acquisition: Buying the Future of Your
Business (Addison-Wesley, 2001), the
RFP is a tool that colleges and universities
can use to research and evaluate
vendors thoroughly. The document outlines
the specific functionality and technology
the buyer seeks, as well as the
potential for strategic partnerships and
the cost requirements for prospective
vendors. At the same time, the document
requests that vendor responses are
submitted in a predefined format.
"RFPs allow us to ‘cover our bases’
with the latest technologies—and help
us make sure we are including newer,
smaller vendors in the mix."
- Ellen Yu Borkowski, University of Maryland
Eskelin writes that because an RFP
requires so much input from each
responding vendor, the document both
directly and indirectly tells buyers a good
deal about the vendors who respond. If,
for instance, a vendor is meticulous and
thorough in responding to questions in an
RFP, it’s safe to assume that the vendor
will go to great lengths to win the
school’s business. If, on the other hand, a
vendor is not thorough at all, it can be a
sign to the buyer that the company has
other priorities, and d'esn’t value this
particular contract all that much.
“A sloppy RFP, chock-full of standard
literature, is a clear indicator
that the vendor didn’t feel your
business was worth a considerable
effort on its part,” writes
Eskelin. “An RFP tells you a lot
about the prospective vendors.”
Yet, there are a number of
other benefits to using an RFP for technology
purchases. For starters, because
all vendors receive the same document
with the same list of requirements, an
RFP offers a consistent platform for
researching prospective vendors. Next,
the document helps to solidify a commitment
and the expectations attached
to it, capturing in writing what a school
anticipates it will receive from a vendor,
and what a vendor promises to deliver.
In the event that a vendor misrepresents
its solution and a dispute arises, the RFP
serves as a legally binding document
that can be called upon in a court of law.