Question

(1)   What are some pitfalls in writing an RFP? What information should be provided as part of an RFP for EHR implementations? Present different pieces of data/information that vendors need to include in the RFPs.

(2)   If you are evaluating vendors’ RFPs, what process will you use to evaluate vendor proposals? Should information provided by vendors be accepted at face value? Why or why not?

(3)   What are some of the key criteria in selecting an RFP?

(4)   What is a vendor comparison map? How does it help with ranking the RFPs?

Answer 1

(1)  

A RFP ( Request for proposal) is a document which solicits vendor bids for a product or service. The pitfalls in writing a RFP are

a) Making the document complicated.

The vendors would not understand Overcomplicated and lengthy RFP's. The main business problem would not be clearly understood because of lot of unnecessary background information.

b) Disorganized RFP

Vendors will find it difficult to follow a RFP which is disorganized. The information solicited by the vendor should be readily available in the document

c) Not understanding the requirement

The organization should do a analysis and understand what kind of product or service would solves it problems. Unless this analysis is done the RFP would be just a document citing the wishes of the company, without asking for any meaningful solutions.

The following information should be provided by the vendor as part of an RFP for EHR( Electronic health information) implementation.

a) Security and encryption methodologies.

This information which states how the vital data of the organization will be handled and whether it is hack proof or not.

b) ETL ( Extract-transform-load) process.

This states how data will be extracted from various touch points , transformed into a uniform format and uploaded into the system for documentation and analysis purpose.

c) Implementation and training programme.

This would state how the vendor will help the organization in adapting and continuing the new EHR system.

The information that a vendor should include in RFP are

a) Technical information

All the relevant information related to the technical expertise of the vendor. I:e machinery, human resource, patent etc.

b) Financial information

The financial information should contain the quote proposed by the vendor for the solicited product or service.

2)

Evaluating the vendor RFPs is the   best way to determine what product or service is best suited. The following process will be used to evaluate the vendor proposals

a) The first step is to evaluate whether the RFP submitted is in compliance with the basic requirements. The basic requirements may be completion time, technical compliance, non compliance with payment terms and penalties, customer references etc

b) The second step is to evaluate based on the cost i:e whether the vendor is willing to supply on the cost asked by the company. And also on the credit arrangements required by the company

c) Thirdly the criteria which is important for the company should be noted down and a weighted average should be done. Vendors with the highest weighted average should be considered.

The information provided by the Vendor should not be taken in the face value. The reasons are that fudged documents by the vendor can prove to be costly. Wrong information on key attributes like financial and technical competence ,would hinder the project implementation and timeline for the organization. An independent third party valuation has to be done via national registries of vendors or different entity which does the same.

3) The key criteria in selecting a RFP are,

a) Technical information

The technical competency of the vendor is a important factor to judge a RFP. Whether the vendor is technically competent to provide the service and product sought needs to be determined

b) product information such as availability of stock.

c)Estimated completion time.

d) Financial information of the vendor i:e whether the vendor can deliver without going bankrupt.

e) Customer references, which can be used to cross check the reliability of the vendor.

4)

A vendor comparison map is a document which lists the most important attributes ( which the company thinks is), of all the vendors. The most common attributes being Year of establishment, number of employees, products and services rendered, number of offices, number of manufacturing facilities, contact details, key market etc.

The year of establishment gives tells how old and experienced the vendor is. A old and experienced vendor would be more reliable ,since they are established players in the market.

The number of employees will give a estimate on how quickly a product or service will be delivered. More the number of employees means the delivery timeline will be met soon.

Number of manufacturing facilities will also determine how soon the deliveries will be made.

The products and services rendered by the vendor will help the organization determine whether it's requirement will align with the vendors expertise.