Mark Request for Proposal Template Made Easy

REQUEST FOR STATEMENTS OF ... - City Of Troutdale Form

hi guys mark here is Walter's world and today what we're talking about is requests for proposals basically these are solicitations that companies put out to suppliers in order to basically find out what people have on offer so for example if I'm looking to get a new computer system for my company I'll put out a request for a proposal to a bunch of different computer suppliers and I'll see who will give me the best deal who will give me what I want or see what they have to offer or let's say you're looking to build something okay we want to build a new school well you put out a request for proposal in order to find out what architects and builders would propose that you do how what would they charge how would they build it to give you all kinds of ideas what's great about these requests for proposals is once you put it out there when you do it the early part of your procurement process you put it out there and you can get all kinds of new ideas from lots of different sources ok so basically we do now is just give you guys the overall idea of what are the main parts of a request for proposal so that you know what you need to share and what your suppliers will be looking for in there so they know what to offer you so let's get started now if we look at a request for proposal what I'm gonna go what I'm gonna do is just kind of give you part by part and it will change depending on the thing the supplies you're looking for ok so but this is just kind of a rough idea what you're gonna have so the first part is the statement of purpose basically what it is is you stating the purpose and the terms of your products that you want the suppliers to give you just like an overall idea so if I'm looking to get a computer system I'd say we are looking for a computer system for a university of 30,000 students that will be backward compatible to Windows 7 and forward compatible to touchscreens with the ability to have Wi-Fi for students to get their data from personal computers to you know University computers okay that gives people a rough idea so RadioShack probably is going to come for this but IBM may say hey we do big Network solutions that would work and this helps you to kind of filter out some companies but also some suppliers it helps them filter out you know companies they can't really do the job for so that's the first thing statement of purpose the second thing you're gonna have is background information give information about what you do how you do business and things like that so people have an idea of who they're dealing with you know that's where you use your market segmentation who are your customers who are your clients what do they need so if I'm building a school well I say okay we're building a building okay roar I'll say we're building a school building okay we're building a school building so for a company like what does that mean from a builder oh I got chairs and desks and stuff like that no okay it's an elementary school okay so I need small destiny doors like this oh it's for a Montessori elementary school a Montessori there's no desk that the students are working on the ground and doing all kinds of stuff oh and then you give people a background what does Montessori mean what does your company stand for they get a background so they understand what they should be going for so if you're a very big into customer satisfaction you'd want to put background information about your company there so your suppliers know okay they like to make their company customers happy we got to do things to adjust for that the third part is scope of the work here's where you lay out exactly what you want them to do all the different parts out there and if you're working with a company that has a subcontractor you definitely want to lay out every single part because just because you talked to Bob the Builder doesn't mean that Frank the subcontractor was in on the conversation you put it all out there to eliminate any doubt so people know exactly what you want also what the responsibilities are how you want things set up all of these things go in there okay the fourth thing you're looking at is outcome and performance standards so basically you put in there what you expect their products to do how you're going to test that and how you're going to monitor it and what the action needs to do if things aren't working right so for example let's go to that computer system one okay let's say we have was okay it needs to have you know ninety percent of the time ninety-eight percent of the time it has to work so we can have two percent or less of downtime if there is a problem we want people on site within 12 hours to have it fixed we will be testing it and a 14 day period every you know six weeks these things you put them out there so then the company knows how often they're gonna get tested but also know it's how well do I need to do my job how much do I need to put into it because if you're saying 90 percent okay ninety percent of time uh-uh working okay I don't have to work as hard as getting that 98 percent so that'll go in there as well number five on here you mean to list the deliverables what are all the things you expect to receive and this can be you know do you want you know architectural plans the number of bricks that are becoming all these kind of things think of it when you get a package of Legos they have on their instructions that lists all the different blocks that it has there's 50 red to dot blocks and there's 29 red single blocks you write these things down and say hey we're gonna have us school with five rooms and and those rooms will have 16 windows and we will have this many desks you write it all out there so then when it comes time to do your little checklist because you will be doing some check listing did they do this check did they do this check and the thing is people need to know so you write it out there this is what needs to be delivered have it all down and have also have it by dates you should that kind of helps out these the the school the building needs to be delivered by June 1st the interior needs to be delivered by August 1st and so you kind of put those out there or if you're doing your new computer system ok new hardware needs to be here by January 1st so we can have it installed by February 1st when classes start ok these kind of things number 6 on here you have your terms and conditions basically this is your legal mumbo jumbo you want to have okay the project starts on you know September 1st and it ends on January 27th then our service contract begins on January 28th and goes until May 23rd you put these things down there so you know hey you're working for me until this day so then the company knows ok we need to have our job done by this date so we can plan our next projects because they're always looking for the next customers and you guys have to plan when your company can get working on stuff the seventh thing and the important thing for the suppliers you're looking at payment people actually you're looking at payment incentives and penalties how are you gonna pay people okay is it going to be in a monthly basis you're gonna have one big check how's it gonna do you're gonna do financing for it are you going to finance through them these kind of things when you look at incentives what are the incentives for them to get a better chap like say you build the building so well wins an award well what do we do for you - we put a plaque up for you do we pay you an extra $20,000 what goes on there and then you put in the penalties if you're not delivered by the 1st of January what happens we take 15% off or do you have to pay it or do you have to have someone come in and install it you lay these things out there so everyone knows what the carrots are and what the ruler is that's going to smack you things go back a thing you have on is contractual terms and conditions there's more legal and legal things on here you know I expect them to be iOS certified I expect you to follow OSHA standards for building things I expect it to you know not have pirated software that's the kind of stuff that goes in there the ninth thing is the requirements for proposal preparation this is so all the different suppliers they have an idea of what you're going to be looking for and then you can put it in a certain system so when you come to as a company when you're trying to compare between suppliers it's easier to compare apples and apples than apples and oranges so what you want to do is set up your requirements for proposal presentation in a way so everyone's presenting the same kind of facts so it makes it easy easier for you to compare because apples and apples is easy apples and oranges it's a lot more difficult so you want to make sure everyone has kind of the same kind of proposal coming to you so that's why you lay out the requirements how many pages what should be focused on what should be the topics these kind of things the ten thing on there I mean this goes for a while the ten thing on there is the evaluation and award process winner one of the things do when are you going to let people know if they're one of the final you know participants and when will you make the final decision this is important for them so the company knows when they have to get their stuff and buy and when they'll find out if they're gonna be spending the next six months building to school or if they need to look for something else number 11 is the process schedule which goes and gives you more more kind of the dates out there when do they need to turn in there when can you ask questions when you need to turn in your preliminary a you know idea of interest when do you turn in your official you know bid when do you when do we have our stuff I mean it's just more formalities and a lot of this stuff crosses over but you want to say look this is what's all here you got to have it all laid out so people know what you're doing and then the twelfth thing you have on there is contacts who are the people people need to talk to who am i sending this stuff to who do I contact if I have questions you know who are who are the people on the deciding committee because then I get to know what are they looking for what's going to be going on there and we can talk them so if I have a question you know if you're doing in elementary school does that mean 1st to 3rd or 1st to 6th I don't know what you mean sometimes it's simple questions like that that need to get asked to make a proposal better so make sure you have all those things in there so I hope that helps you give an idea of all the parts for a request for Proposal if you're a company looking to put one together a small business these things to really help with generating a lot more of ideas of what you can do but make sure you go through them and have it all laid out because if you don't you leave something out a company that wins the big and say hey you didn't tell me I had to do this of what I wanted to it wasn't in the request for proposals so make sure it's all in there if you want some more help with business and marketing or other kind of stuff check us out our website at wwlp.com we're also on twitter at Walters world and we're on Facebook so please find us wherever you want and thanks for watching bye