Technology products and service RFP’s require people from PreSales, Technology teams and product teams to collaborate with one another and work on the response. They are often supported by the finance team of the unit to sign-off after checking the margins and any other financial risks involved. When I look at a typical technology RFP response, the sections are Proposed solution, Technology Platform and Architecture, Hardware and Software Requirements, Business Requirements, Implementation methodology etc. As is evident all these sections cannot be done by a single team or the person leading the response.
The key steps that one needs to follow in a Federal RFP response are listed below:
1. Check the submission details
The key submission details needs to be checked. In some large RFP’s there are requirements of turnover, asset etc. which I assume will be taken care by the sales team. The next sets of submission details are the mandatory requirements such as reference submission, insurance coverage, any licenses requirement etc. All these details should be noted and put in the tracker so that they are not missed. The set of requirements are lesser for private companies but more for the Government institutions. The other checklist is the submission documents checklist that will include the technical proposal, financial proposal, signed appendices and any other. Once all these elements are checked and recorded, it is time to form the team and move ahead with the actual proposal work.
2. Notify the response teams
The response teams need to be setup according to the requirements outlined in the RFP response. The role of each member of the team should be well defined and each task shall be tracked for the deadlines. The typical team should consist of a PreSales Lead who should be driving the overall program. The other members of the team are the technical project manager who will be driving the solution, a product specialist who will respond to the product fitment if it is an off-the-shelf product deployment, an infrastructure specialist to define the system configurations based upon system load, user numbers etc. There will also be a unit finance person who will give a go-ahead on the pricing. In case of large deals the final review and go-ahead is given by the unit head who is responsible for the project.
A large RFP response takes more than a month to complete and the timelines are set in a way so that vendors can give a comprehensive response. The team should be finalized within a week of the receipt of the RFP to ensure the best response.
3. The response structure
The response structure of a typical RFP is proposed solution, technology platform and architecture, hardware and software requirements, business requirements mapping, future strategy, implementation methodology and timelines, training, risks and mitigation, testing methodologies, support and AMC, Governance, Change Management, Quality assurances, assumptions, vendor details etc.
As is seen that there are multiple sections in a RFP and not all may need to be covered. Depending upon the RFP requirement some or all of these sections may need to be included in the document. Also the structure that is mentioned may or may not be in that order. However, it needs to be mentioned that the RFP structure should be in a coherent flow so that the evaluator has all the information available easily.
4. The technical response
The technical response is mostly drafted by the project manager of the relevant team. The project Manager takes a call on the solution based upon the requirements in the RFP document. The section will show the solution diagram that depicts the solution components, the integrations, the network architecture, security measure and describes the tools and technologies that are used in developing the solution.
The technical response will also give a detailed outline of the solution explaining the components and all other element of the solution.
5. The financial response
The financial response can be derived in 2 different ways depending upon whether the solution is developed from scratch or is an off the shelf product. If it is developed from scratch then the effort is determined and then the hourly rate is applied to the total effort to get the cost. The hourly rates vary for different category of resources that need to be deployed for completing the work.
Apart from the deployment efforts vendors also quote a cost for the support that they will provide for the solution. In most cases, a year of warranty is provided along with the deployment costs and anything beyond 1 year is on a chargeable basis.
If the solution to be deployed is an off-the-shelf solution, then there are 3 components that are added to the pricing. The first component is the license cost if it is an in-house deployment on the company’s server. If it is on a cloud model then the costing is charged on a per user basis. The second component that is charged is for the configuration costs and the final component is the customization costs. Configuration means that the existing feature of the solution can be modified to map a business requirement and requires a minimal effort. Customization means that the functionality needs to be developed on the solution and requires a greater effort.
Therefore, as is evident from the article above that there are multiple components to a RFP. There needs to be a cohesive effort to bring all these elements in one place to create a winning response. We are working with different companies across segments to help them respond to their RFP’s effectively thereby increasing their chances of winning manifold. If you are looking for a professionally written RFP response services drop in a line at info@intelligentq.co.in
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