Transcript The Vendors Speak - How NOT To Write Your RFP

MHE
The Vendors Speak:
How NOT to Write Your RFP
William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
MHE
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
MHE
About MHE
• MHE is the “print2image2Internet”
consulting firm
• MHE provides a wide range of analysis,
research, product management, and
electronic print software support services
• See http://www.mhe-consulting.com
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
MHE
About the Speaker
• William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin is a principal at
MHE
• Mr. McCalpin has held a number of technical
and management roles in the industry,
including VP of Product Marketing at Xenos
and General Manager of Xplor International
• Mr. McCalpin holds professional certifications
in electronic printing and imaging from AIIM,
CompTIA, and Xplor
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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Agenda
•
•
•
•
The RFP response process at the vendor
The cost of responding
What the RFP is trying to achieve
Things the RFP writer ought to do…and
ought NOT to do
• …and occasional samples from real RFPs
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Real RFP - #1
Question 10.1.2:
If the answer to Question
10.1.2 was "Yes",
please define the
roles/responsibilities
of all involved parties.
Uh, this IS question
10.1.2!
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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The RFP Response Process
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Tormenting the Vendor
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Tormenting the Vendor
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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Tormenting the Vendor
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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Tormenting the Vendor
• Indeed, for most vendors, going through the
RFP process is just like ‘jumping through
hoops’
• …and it’s less fun than the Vendor
Challenge Course…
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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The Vendor’s Process
• Small and even mid-sized companies may not
have a person dedicated to doing RFPs
• Usually, no one person at the Vendor can answer
all questions anyway
• One VP of Sales said, “We get various people
from different departments into one room – and
rip each other’s hair out.”
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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The Vendor’s Process
• Some vendors have the salespersons do the
response – bad
• Some vendors have a tech writer do the response –
bad
• Some vendors have a presales engineer do the
response – bad
• What you really want is a technical person who
has a business background, who really
understands the industry, who is articulate, and
who doesn’t have any current assignments – good
luck!
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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Real RFP - #2
Is your software fully “Year 2000”
compliant?” – asked in an RFI dated
December 5, 2006.
We don’t know, we’ve been afraid to run it
since then…
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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The Cost of Responding
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The Vendor’s Cost
• Over a 6-month period, for one vendor, I averaged
22.6 hours for each response
• Double that to account for the vendor’s
employees’ time – about 50 hours.
• If the vendor does 50 responses a year – that’s
2,500 hours! At $125/hour, this is over $300k per
year!
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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The Vendor’s Cost
• For this reason, vendors will do a great deal to
avoid doing RFPs
• You should use this fact to your benefit – convince
the vendor to give you something in return for
foregoing the RFP process
• But if you have to do the RFP, at least do it right!
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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Real RFP - #3
“Aside from the two corporate letter systems,
XYZ supports a number of desperate letter
processes utilizing SAS and Document
Science’s XICS for document
composition…”
Gee, I hope they meant “disparate”…
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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What the RFP is Trying to
Achieve
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RFP Goals
• The RFP is a formal process to solicit information
from vendors, typically to assess competing bids
• Goals:
– Product or service information related to your
application
– Vendor recommendation(s)
– Vendor suggested alternatives
– Comparable Pricing
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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RFP Goals
• “Product or service information related to your
application”…so don’t ask questions not related to
your application
• “Vendor recommendation(s)”…give the vendor a
chance to explain their solution – i.e., don’t just
ask Yes/No questions
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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RFP Goals
• “Vendor suggested alternatives”…always leave
yourself open to other alternatives that you hadn’t
considered
• “Comparable Pricing”… you want to compare
pricing between vendors…but vendors don’t
always price the way you think, so again, be
flexible
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Real RFP - #4
“Is it should be possible to extend tables
dynamically”
Sounds like the same guy who writes those
assembly instructions in Japan…
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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What the RFP Writer Should (and
Should NOT) Do!
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Provide a Copy of your RFP in Word
• Most RFP responses need a lot of content from the
RFP: questions, tables, etc.
• Giving the RFP on paper requires the vendor to
retype all that, introducing errors (even OCR does)
• A PDF file of scanned pages is NOT an
“electronic” copy!!!
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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DON’T USE EXCEL
• For any RFP that requires any sort of extensive text
answers, Excel has a flaw
• Any cell that has more than 1,024 characters loses the
ability to text wrap – the vendor has to hard code line
breaks
• The vendor has difficulties adding value, such
footnotes and other Word features
• Other services such as spellcheck are a problem
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Be Explicit About Who You Are
• …and what you want…
• Tell the vendor what business you are in
• Tell the vendor what application you want the
vendor to address
• Tell the vendor generally what you want to vendor
to bid on
• E.g., Licensed software versus outsourcing
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Put All Instructions in ONE Place
• Most RFPs have instructions on how to respond
(good)
• However, if these instructions are in multiple
places, the odds are good that they will conflict
• Make it hard for multiple authors to contradict
each other
• Oh, and tell the vendors if you want the response
on paper or electronic(!)
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Example
• (page 5) “The proposal must include all the
information defined below and be organized as
follows:”
– 11 sections with many questions follow
• (page 14) “The proposal must include all of the
information set forth in this section and be
organized as set forth in this section. ”
– A description of 8 sections follows, which irregularly
overlap the 11 sections above
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Don’t Give Impossible Instructions
• Have someone do a reality check on your
instructions
• Example: in Hawaii, overnight services don’t
deliver until 5:00 p.m. – why set a 10:30 a.m.
deadline?
• “How fast does your product run? Will it do our
nightly print volume within our processing
window?”
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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More Impossible Instructions
• “Bids must be submitted in duplicate, enclosed in
plain sealed envelopes and deposited in the
Cream Tenders Box, located in the Security
Lobby of the Ground Floor, Block A, (at an
address outside the country) no later than 2:00
p.m. on Wednesday May 2, 200X.”
PS, the delivery agent should be wearing sunglasses,
a trench coat, and have a rose in his lapel.
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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Discourteous Instructions
• Don’t release RFPs with very short deadlines
• Don’t tell the vendor to have their legal
department review in detail your standard contract
and conditions, noting all exceptions
• “Please send us copies of all your documentation”
– NO!
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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More Discourteous Instructions
• “Hard copy: 15 copies of the proposal and 2
CDs will be sent to the following mailing
addresses:”
• “An authorized executive of the vendor’s
firm must sign all proposals, responses and
quotations in blue ink.”
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Real RFP - #5
• From the Department of Redundancy
Department:
• “15.1 Please provide any additional information
that your Company believes would be relevant
to our decision. Please keep such additional
information concise.
• 15.2 Please attach any additional information
that your Company believes would be relevant
to our decision. Please keep such additional
information concise.”
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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Write the RFP in Standard English
• In this global age, you may be sending RFPs to
vendors who do not have English as their first
language
• Worse, you may send the RFP to the UK, where
“English” takes on a whole new meaning (and
vice versa)
• Have someone read the RFP with foreign vendors
in mind
• Example: “Please describe your turnover”
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Have a Tech Writer Review
• Spellcheck does not catch all spelling errors
• Word 2003 displays the revisions and comments
by default – Oops!
• Automatic numbering in Word is an accident
waiting to happen
• Example: One RFP had automatic numbering for
table entries – only they hard-coded some entries,
causing duplicates
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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Be Careful Cutting and Pasting
• Example: Entire worksheet of questions relating to
licensed software – for an RFP for outsourcing
• Example: “Vendor must provide adequate hand
washing stations for employees” – for an RFP for
outsourced bill printing
• Example: This is a grate weigh to propogate
speeling and grammer erors
• This is also how you insert contradictory
instructions to the vendors
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Bad Cut and Paste Example
• RFP: “Is your product a non-standard
solution that requires its own support
personnel to maintain the product? If yes,
please explain in the text field provided
below. ”
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Bad Cut and Paste Example
• Vendor question: “Please provide additional
information for what you are considering included
for the terms:
• ‘Your product’ (what functionality is
desired/required)
• ‘Non-standard solution’ (what would be
considered standard?)
• ‘Its own support personnel’
• ‘Maintain the product’ ”
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Bad Cut and Paste Example
• RFP issuer response: “We decline to further
define terms at this stage ”
• This RFP was for a service, not licensed
software!
• Because of cut-and-paste, the RFP admin
didn’t know what their own question meant!
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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“Ask a Stupid Question…”
• Example: “Have you ever been sued? Please
describe in detail.”
• Example: “Are there any known bugs in the
current version? What are they?” Uh, no, the
software is perfect?
• Example: “How long does it take to become a
proficient administrator/vendor coordinator?” Is
there any answer other than “no time at all”???
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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Real RFP - #6
“Does your product ask for a login and
assword?”
Yes, uh, No, oh, nevermind…
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Be Flexible in Your Questions
• While it is good to tell the vendor what you are
expecting in the RFP, be aware that the vendor
may have a totally different approach
• Example: It makes perfect sense to ask the vendor
to answer the questions as is, but also ask for
alternative solutions
• Especially when you are replacing existing
software products, don’t assume that the new
products will work exactly the same way
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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Never ask Yes/No Questions
Except…
• …when the answer can’t possibly be something
other than “Yes” or “No”
• Good Example: “Does your client software run on
Windows XP?”
• Bad Example: “Are your internal data objects
stored as XML?”
• Always add a “Comment” column to the table
with the “Yes” and “No” columns
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Summary-1
• Provide a copy of your RFP in Word to the
vendors
• DON’T USE EXCEL if you are expecting a
response with large amounts of text
• Be explicit about who you are and what you are
looking for
• Put all instructions on how to respond in ONE
place
• Don’t give instructions that are hard to obey
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
MHE
Summary-2
•
•
•
•
Write the RFP in standard, non-jargon English
Have a tech writer review it, but not write it
Don’t cut and paste anything you haven’t read
Ask only questions that are likely to get an
intelligent answer
• Be flexible in your questions
• Never ask Yes/No questions without the option to
comment
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
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Conclusions
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Real RFP - #7
“Do you provide support for all US states,
terrorities and possesion using…?”
Yikes, call Homeland Security! Or maybe an
exorcist!!!
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© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
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Conclusions
• The RFP process can be expensive and
painful for both company and vendors
• A good RFP greatly simplifies the
winnowing down of vendors
• A poor RFP causes more work for everyone
– including YOU.
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com
MHE
Contact Information
William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
MIT, LIT, CDIA, EDP
Principal
MHE
1400 Cheyenne Dr.
Richardson, Texas 75080-3921 USA
(972) 231-3660 (v) (972) 690-4521 (f)
[email protected]
www.mhe-consulting.com
MHE - the print2image2Internet consultants
© 2008 William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin
www.mhe-consulting.com