Question

1. What sections does the Request for Proposal have? How are they different from the one discussed in the knowledge/background section?
2. What specifically is the agency asking for in terms of supplier responses (proposal)?
3. Identify and provide a detailed description of the proposal’s evaluation criteria (e.g. categories, weights). Are there relevant weights for the criteria included in the RFP?
4. Analyze the weighted evaluation criteria. Prepare a full justification/defense of its use. Alternatively, explain how it should be changed with a detailed rationale.

Answer 1

• The concept focused on goals, potential user characteristics, and priorities.
• The scope of the project.
• Mockups - a visual representation of app functionalities on every possible screen.
• Timeframe. Is there any deadline set for the product’s launch?
• Budget.
• The description of the current state of the project and the plan.

• If you're in the services or consulting business, you know all about RFPs: Requests for Proposal are how many professional agencies win new work. NMC receives a lot of them from organizations around the world wanting either to upgrade their existing web presence or start from scratch with a new one. Some of them are clear, detailed, and provide the right kind of information to help us quickly write a great proposal. Others, not so much! Writing them can be daunting since you probably don't spend all day making websites and apps, but with the right guidance you can draw up one that's useful and concise.

  An RFP is the face of your company to potential collaborators so it’s important to compose them well. Good ones lead to good proposals, good proposals lead to better working relationships, which leads to better better projects and outcomes. So what should you include if you want to write a good one? What details do vendors need to know about your project to bid accurately? What questions should you be asking them to assess their fitness and capability? There's no need to become an expert in web design to write an RFP if it can establish clear goals, provide the right details, and solicit useful information from vendors.

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  The Elements of RFP Style

  Sending out an RFP is a pretty standard operating procedure: potential clients determine a rough scope of the job to be done, assess the timeline and budget available, then reach out to vendors asking them to propose a solution (and themselves) as the best fit. They’re usually followed by a question-and-answer period and the more useful details you can include up front, the less back and forth there'll be with the vendors later.

  To help you write yours, we compiled a handy list of key points. The steps below are straightforward and should be enjoyable to think through; after all, the end product is that you get to describe all the ways someone can help make your life easier with an awesome website.

  Of course, not every one of these items in this list needs to presented in this order, or grouped together this way, or at all. It does represent the most important things vendors care about and we grouped them together in the way that makes the most sense to us. If you want to keep it simple, you can just use each of the headings below as a different section in your document. Or just download our example web design RFP word document template, also available as iWork Pages.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Brief Project Overview
• Your Organization’s Background
• Project Goals & Target Audience & Goal Conversions
• Sitemap and Information Architecture
• Scope of Work and Deliverables
• Timeline
• Technical Requirements
• Principal Point of Contact
• Budget: Assets ("Parts") & Service ("Labor")
• Ongoing Support / Retainer
• Analytics
• Web Hosting
• Web Design Examples for Websites RFP
• Criteria for Selection
• Format & Proposal Timeline Brief Project Overview

• Introduce your organization and the purpose of the RFP. State not only what you want the service provider to do but also why: what is the central “pain point” your organization has? If it’s a website redesign, what about the current one isn’t working for your purposes? This is high level, so be brief. The details will come below and a birds-eye view is fine.

• Why It’s Important: Rather than describing a solution, try articulating the problem as best you can. There may be all kinds of solutions available that will meet your needs better than what you have in mind and web professionals can suggest solutions you may not have thought of yet. By focusing more on the job to be done, it encourages the responder to think outside the box.

  2. Your Organization’s Background

  “By describing your values, you’re more likely to find an organization that’s a good value fit both for your goals and processes.”

  Describe your organization, what it does, and what you do. There’s a good chance we’ve never heard of you and may not be able to figure that out by visiting your existing web site (which may be why you need a new website). Additionally, tell us a little about your values. What makes you unique? Why does what you do matter?

  Why It's Important: By describing your values, you’re more likely to find an organization that’s a good value fit both for your goals and processes. Firms may have a specialty in a certain area of web design (e.g, lead generation, B2B, etc.), and by knowing if you fit into one of their niches, they can make better recommendations.

  For example, one of our specialties is nonprofit website design. If we know up front you're a nonprofit, we can make specific recommendations from our team members that have a lot of experience and familiarity with how nonprofits succeed on the web. However, if you're looking for a law firm website design, we'd make very different recommendations, since they not only cater to different audiences but often involve different technologies. Project Goals & Target Audience & Goal Conversions

  In addition to determining project goals, you’ll want to think about who your website is meant to serve. Which target audiences will be most reliant on your organization’s new website? Are some audiences higher priority than others? It can help to rank the groups in order of importance. For a nonprofit, a list of target audiences could look like this:

• Prospective program participants
• Prospective donors
• Corporate partners
• Event attendees
• Volunteers
• Potential hires
• Press & media

• To take the next step, pair each target audience with a goal conversion – i.e. the action that you want them to take. Conversions are a great way to measure site visitor engagement, and they’re important to consider because the goals differ for each type of site visitor. For example, you may want a prospective program participant to sign up for an event series, while you’d want a potential hire to submit a job application. In the B2B space, sample goal conversions include encouraging consumers to reach out to your sales team, request a product demo, or place an order through your eCommerce platform.

• Project Details

  The second part of an RFP must provide details about the specific project or program. Provide specifics about the purpose and structure of the project as well as details regarding the team working on it, location, schedule and status. This information helps respondents understand the context of the project; they can then tailor their response to the needs of the requesting organization

• Depending on what background students come from and what experiences they have had, they may have poor or no prior knowledge of a topic, which can lead to difficulties in learning. However, we still need a foundation, or a couple of puzzle pieces, to get started. This is where background knowledge comes in handy.

• Before beginning any chapter or unit, it is essential to find out what your students know about the topic. What students know is difficult to predict without some sort of objective measure, especially considering the ranges of background knowledge in any one class. Following are several ways to assess individuals' background knowledge and get a feel for how much the class as a whole knows about the topic.

• A request for proposal is a project funding announcement posted by an organization for which companies place bids.

Request for proposal (RFP) is a business document that announces and provides details about a project, as well as solicits bids from contractors who will help complete the project. Most organizations prefer using RFPs, and, in many cases, governments only use requests for proposal.

It is similar to submitting a business proposal in that the goal is to convince the potential client that your company is the right one to solve their particular problem. An effective reply to an RFP requires precise wording and demonstrated knowledge and experience handling the subject at hand. Requests for proposals usually are evaluated by a group of directors or committee board members with sufficient expertise to quickly confirm or reject the credentials of the companies competing for the specific project. In answering an RFP, you want to focus on your understanding of the client's needs while highlighting your company's ability to meet those needs.

1. The RFP Should Make Introductions. The RFP should provide basic introductions to the bidder concerning the company (who is requesting the bid) and proposal scope.
2. The RFP Should Present the Need. The RFP should provide a brief project overview, stating the business case for the project and the need to be filled.
3. The RFP Should State Requirements. The RFP should state the service and technical requirements and specifications upon which the proposed solution must be based. Every requirements statement should include a "definitions" section to ensure that all parties share a common understanding of all business and technical needs.
4. The RFP Should Set Terms and Conditions. The RFP should state the expected terms and conditions for solutions acceptance, including delivery requirements, payment terms, and regulatory requirements.
5. The RFP Should Set Expectations. The RFP should describe the overall RFP bidding process, including response submission requirements, "winning" evaluation and selection criteria, process deadlines, and related technical procedures (response format, submission mechanisms and how to submit questions and feedback).

• Physical Requirements: To what degree does this proposal meet stated physical solution requirements (for hardware and/or software)?
• Service Requirements: To what degree does this proposal meet stated service requirements?
• Pricing: How does the proposed price compare to the (a) planned budget and to (b) other proposals?
• Delivery & Installation: To what degree does this proposal meet stated delivery and/or installation requirements?
• Warranties: To what degree does the proposal meet stated warranty requirements?
• Terms & Conditions: To what degree does the proposal meet stated contractual terms and conditions?
• Skills & Abilities: Does the bidder have the necessary skills and abilities to deliver this proposal?
• References: Does the bidder have a proven track record in this type of project?

RFP stands for request for proposal. An RFP is a document that lists out all the requirements and needs of a project. Companies create an RFP for upcoming projects, as a form of proposal to potential contractors and agencies. These contractors and agencies then bid to win the contract, based on the requirements of the RFP.

Costner had no idea what he was doing. His town thought he was crazy, and even his family started to question his judgment. But he formulated a plan for developing this field, followed through, and eventually reaped a great reward.

A request for proposal is like your company's own field of dreams. Your request for proposal is the field you build. Interested vendors are the historic players who come to check out what you created and then offer you something in return.

They are a mutually beneficial process. For the stakeholders, they create an atmosphere of competition where hopeful candidates can put their best feet forward in an attempt to win attractive opportunities. RFPs tell invited bidders, "Our door is open, come and make your best case."

For vendors, RFP's are a rare chance to look at clients and their project descriptions before any contracts are signed. This gives a vendor greater independence in choosing who to serve. Imagine discovering a client has no direction or professionalism BEFORE you've decided to work with them and being able to run full stop in the other direction.

Additionally, having expectations ironed out from the start will help your agency or organization determine if you're really a good fit. While getting paid is great, getting paid for a job your team delivered on perfectly is even better.

Rated-type criteria are used to assess non-price attributes using merit points. They are
normally used in an RFP process when attributes or differences in attributes among
different Bids/Proposals may not be quantifiable (or the evaluation criteria cannot be
expressed) in monetary terms or where a Borrower wishes to differentiate proposals
using merit points.
Rated criteria can be used:
a) in conjunction with pass/fail criteria in order to rank and initially select Applicants;
and
b) in the evaluation of proposals (and exceptionally of bids) to identify the most
advantageous proposal (bid).
When using rated criteria at the Proposal stage of an RFP, rated criteria are assessing te
extent to which the firm is able to meet and exceed the requirements to perform the
contract, rather than past performance.

Request for proposal (RFP) scoring isn’t high on most people’s list of favorite pastimes … but it’s far too important to ignore if you want to effectively evaluate vendors. To get RFP scoring right, you have to consider:

• What you want to score in your RFP responses (priorities and requirements)
• How you’re going to score the vendor requirements (type of scale, weight)
• Who is going to do the scoring (team and resources)

An RFP is:

• Full of specific questions.
• Based on detailed criteria.
• Should be used when you’re open to vendor’s suggestions.