RFP, Resolutely Flawed Process! Save Money, Time, and Yourself!

ineffectual [in-i-fek-choo-uhl] 

A general or habitual lackof success in the carrying out of one's projects;

a. Insufficient to produce a desired effect.  

b. Useless; worthless; an RFP

As a professional for over 20 years in the IT industry, I can tell you with some certainty, that, although admirable in its own way, the RFP process is seriously flawed, a Resolutely Flawed Process (RFP). An exercise in futility if you will, or for lack of a better term, ineffectual.

We see roughly 20 requests for proposal (RFPs) a year from local, state, and federal governmental agencies, universities, associations, utilities, nonprofits and private businesses. Mainly so, for governmental agencies, rules and regulations require them to put large projects out on bid to avoid corruption and so taxpayers feel their money is being well spent. In addition, you will find many private organizations, many are nonprofits, want to show they are exacting fiduciary responsibility.

However, it is our position that unless you are legally bound to do so, it isn’t in your best interest at all.  Whaaaaaaaaaat?!  Let’s look at essence of the beast, shall we?

The RFP Process:

The steps of the RFP process can vary, but here are the major components in a nutshell…

1.      Establish the project's boundaries. 

2.      Identify key stakeholders and advisors. 

3.      Talk to stakeholders and define your project needs.

4.      Write the RFP

5.      Create a draft of your scoring criteria. 

6.      Circulate the RFP. 

7.       Review response

8.      Research the vendors' track records.

9.      Score the responses and select a vendor.

10.  Negotiate and sign a contract.

One reason that public sector, nonprofits, or cities often repeatedly go out on bid is to avoid offending members/sponsors, avoid being accused of favoritism. While diplomatic in nature, and certainly democratic, it’s an enormous time and resource burn and the result is really a crap-shoot when you come down to it. 

Many organizations choose to clean the process even further by hiring a third party RFP steward. However, this is a fundamental error, for it discounts the real experiences of those who are to benefit from this process, the end user.  Sure you get their input, but in a format that is not conducive to what their real feelings are.  Whenever you boil down anything to fundamentals, you sterilize the human factor from the process, basically your experience, instinct, expertise, and knowledge.  

The process goes against every major purchase decision you make.  For example, would you buy a car using the above process?  How many times did you like a car’s overall look, specifications, etc… but drove it and said, hmmmm, there is something I don’t like in the handling, the blind spot is huge, I can’t adjust the seats enough, or there is no way a car seat will fit back there.  I won’t even bother talking about a home or an apartment; we would be here all day.

A New Face Each Time

Another item is that it generally seeks out a new agency each time a project is needed to be done.  Typically one that has no experience with the way you do neither business, nor appreciation of what you are really trying to accomplish. 

Asking the Right Questions

In the movie, “I Robot” the detective was given a holographic program by Dr. Lanning that would  present the clues to his case, but it was programmed to only respond to the right questions, so the challenge was, to ask the right question.  This is what you’ve relegated the vendors out there to be, a holographic response unit.  So if you don’t ask the right questions, you get nothing.  RFPs notoriously do not ask the right questions.  Believe me RFP’s are an explosion of requirements and constraints, and not an expression of what you are trying to do.  A prime example is when an organization plans to upgrade or uproot a technology; they typically describe its replacement in terms of what they have and not in what they want.  Point being, is that the offerings of today, may in fact, be total departure from what you have in place and does the same job completely different and more efficient; however, since it doesn’t perform like the relic you have in place you may discount the value of the candidate.

Now for Those who receive RFPs:

I don’t know about your experiences, but the word on the street is “we don’t respond to RFPs, or we never see those produce any business”.  Typically an organization will between 25 and 50 hours drafting and submitting our response. If selected as a finalist, we put together a presentation and take multiple staff members to an interview. Investing something like $5,000 on the job before it is even awarded. Now, multiply this by 10 to 20 projects a year, and, well you do the math.

Given that agencies from all over the state and nation are competing, the odds your firm will be selected is remote. As a result, many top quality organizations, put in a no bid.  However, you’re stuck with the ones that did respond.  So you have to ask yourself, did you just short change your selection by placing this behemoth qualifying process in place. If you need help here, the answer is a resounding “YES”.  Many top organizations, service, product, or otherwise refuse to pursue this mechanism.

Here are just some of the reasons given by firms of why they don’t respond to RFPs:

• RFPs are appropriate for acquiring commodities only, not for services that depend upon effective professional relationships, such as consulting;
• Many RFPs are prescriptive,dictating a solution to be fulfilled rather than objectives to be achieved;
• RFPs sometimes have incorrect or weak objectives given what the organization is actually trying to achieve;
• RFPs encourage decisions based on price rather than fit, despite the best of intentions.
• RFP’s ask the wrong questions.Wrong questions get you inaccurate information that will lead to faulty decisions.
• RFP’s give you cut and paste answers. Most if not all stewardship firms simply cut and paste an answer into an RFP.
• Real thoughtful answers are impossible to give with RFP’s. The problem with most questions is that the truthful answer is, it depends.  Typically when someone asks us a question we ask back several more in an effort to truly understand the situation BEFORE we respond with an answer.
• RFP’s are the lazy way to go about picking a partner. While this might offend you and cause me to lose potential business it is the truth.  Why not take the time to pick up the telephone and actually talk to the firm?  In fifteen minutes of conversation you will learn more than reading fifteen pages of cut and paste notes. When you are attempting to raise sometimes millions of dollars, isn’t a bit of work important?  Don’t be lazy.  Spend the time to do it right!

So What’s a Better Approach?

You know as well as I, that if someone is offering a particular product, that most of the leading candidates, basically do the same thing, so what it comes down to is the human factor (see above), or what the RFP specifically, and purposely removes out, chemistry.  Now for those of you that require the boiled down approach or need to memorialize your effort for the sponsors/stock holders/voting public, consider instead sending out an RFQ — a request for qualifications. This process allows agencies to submit a summary of their interest in the project, their qualifications, and relevant samples of their work. These responses don’t take nearly as much time as a full proposal, and many parts of them can be recycled.

Review the RFQ responses, pick the ones that are most promising and get to know one another, ask pressing questions, pose ideas, and get your responses. You’ll learn more in one meeting than you would in a 9 month RFP process.  But, I believe you really already know this in the back of your mind...

After these sit-downs, personally call the agencies you think are the best fit and ask them if they’d be interested in giving you a formal quote. Don’t assume they will be. At this point, both parties need to have the option to politely decline — there just might not be any chemistry derived from your face to face interactions.

Basically, this process makes choosing your vendor more like dating and less like an RFP arranged marriage. This is a good thing, for I don’t have to tell you the statistics in marriage.

Source(s):

http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/techplan/page5507.cfm

So “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;”

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About Rick Ricker

And IT professional with over 20 years experience in Information Security, wireless broadband, network and Infrastructure design, development, and support.

For more information, contact Rick at (800) 333-8394 x 689