Transcript Winning in a converging world

Understanding the RFP
Instructor: Glenn Smith
Session Leader: Kimberly Rogers
September 10, 2001
PwC
Kimberly Rogers
Principle Consultant
Washington Consulting Practice
[email protected]
(703) 322-5113
PwC
Expected outcomes for today’s class
• Become familiar with key concepts associated with RFPs and
why organizations issue them
• Understand the importance of RFP analysis
• Discover what to look for when reviewing an RFP
• Highlight examples in the sample eArmyU RFP
• Discuss how to interpret what a client is really asking for and
prepare for proposal writing
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What is an RFP?
…and how is it similar to a vanity license plate?
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Requests for Proposals allow clients to
• State their needs and concerns that require solutions
• Standardize the format of prospective bidder responses
– Ease evaluation time and effort
– Facilitate “apples to apples” comparison
– Promote compliance to stated requirements
– Increase quality of proposals that are submitted
• Establish procurement expectations and schedules
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Procurement practices
• Vary with the type of customer, type of procurement, and the
program’s projected cost
• Are not rigidly fixed by law and continue to evolve as programs
grow and more bidders enter the marketplace
• Are increasingly moving away from sole-source contracting to
practices that maximize benefits resulting from competition
• Differ between private and public sector marketplaces
– Commercial RFPs are driven by good business sense
– Federal procurements must follow federal source selection
practices and regulations
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Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
• Is the primary regulation for use
by all Federal Executive
agencies in their acquisition of
supplies and services with
appropriated funds
• Became effective April 1, 1984
• Issued under joint authority of
Administrator of General
Services, Secretary of Defense,
Administrator for the NASA, and
Administrator for Federal
Procurement Policy, OMB
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Most important parts of an RFP
Instructions to
Offerors
RFP
RFP
RFP
RFP
Evaluation
Criteria
Deliverables
Attachments
(Additional
Information)
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Statement
Of Work
Contractual
Clauses
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Commonly used terms
• Statement of Work (SOW)
• Contract Line Item Number (CLIN)
• Key Personnel
• Contracting Officer (CO)
• Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR)
• Deliverable
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eArmyU RFP exercise:
Finding the key elements
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Recap: Why do buyers issue RFPs?
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Why analyze the RFP?
…and what-the-heck am I supposed to be looking for?
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As bidders, why it is important to fully
read and understand the RFP?
• Understand the needs before launching into problem solving
• Determine reasonableness of requirements
• Assess sufficiency of firm capabilities to meet requirements
• Assess risks to firm
• Assess costs (relative to potential gains) to create a proposal
• Identify conflicting, unclear, or missing information
• Identify whether strategic benefit to the firm exists
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Best-practice tips for reviewing RFPs
• Read the RFP quickly to gain overall appreciation of the scope
of work including technical and contractual requirements
• Especially note the table of contents and RFP organization
• Read RFP again, 3 or 4 times if necessary, with highlighter
• If information is not clearly organized, cut a copy of the
document apart and reassemble it in logical groups
– administrative info, proposal guidance, technical
requirements, contract requirements, evaluative info
• Determine if information is contradictory, prepare a list of issues,
and clarify them as much as you can
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What about those unclear requirements?
To ask or not to ask?
• Identify all issues on one list
• Mom was wrong, there are
stupid questions
• Don’t ask unless you are
willing to live with the answer
• Can you influence your
advantage by asking the
question?
• Will you tip your hand by
asking?
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As you read, you should be able to…
• Clearly understand the client requirements…ESSENTIAL
• Think about how your competitors will respond
– Do your capabilities or strengths make you unique?
• Identify implicit requirements as well as explicit ones
• Distinguish wants from needs
• Pick up on client hot buttons or biases
• Start to plan a logical structure for your proposal that is
compliant, responsive, and creates a compelling business case
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Analyze the RFP to
avoid risk of being:
• Non-responsive
• Non-responsible
• Non-profitable
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Checkpoint:
• Is it clear?
• Should you bid?
• Can you win?
• Ready to write?
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So this is easy, right?
…or complexities underlying the basics
that make things more interesting
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eArmyU SOW synopsis
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Example: eArmyU pricing tables
• Turn to Part III of the RFP; schedule for pricing starts on p 7
• III (a) – Contractor shall perform all tasks
• III (b) – Estimated Potential Online Enrollments
• III (c) - Enrollment History
• III (d) – Disciplines of Interest
• III (e) – Pending Legislation
• III (f) – Minimum Guaranteed Amount/Contract Maximum
• Etc.
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Example: eArmyU pricing tables cont.
• Turn to Part III of the RFP; schedule for pricing starts on p 7
• Explicit requirements of the instruction call for
– Estimated qty, unit hours, unit price, est. amt, est. net amt,
guaranteed min amt
• RFP encourages bidders to use as many subCLINs as
warranted
– For separate institutions offering services
– For separate rates for in-state and out-of-state tuition rates
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Hints about other things to look for
• Read carefully and identify potential risks
– Requirements are sometimes vague
• Understand how the performance-based aspect to the work is
defined
– How can you use that to your firm’s advantage?
• How are you going deal with lots of upfront capital before receiving
payment?
– Implementing and operating the portal
– You provide ISP, internet access, library, software, books,
tutors, travel, program management
– But students don’t pay until they take the course
• How can you discern the Army’s hot buttons?
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Things PwC fully didn’t anticipate…
• The integration aspects of this solution are colossal
• High visibility of program in Government, politics, and media
• Impact of vague requirements weren’t always clear until solution
design and prototyping got more detailed
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You are ready to get started. Questions?
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