RFP Templates

Often I'm asked for 'templates' for RFPs that I've done in past. It's somewhat flattering that people would like to copy my past work, but over the years I question people's reliance on 'templates'. Do they truly understand their requirements if they rely upon a template?

Yes, templates have their uses, especially for the legal jargon to protect your organization, but even then, if you don't understand what the legal jargon says, you are setting yourself up for trouble. An example is something as simple as the closing date and time - something that has a legal precedent that even one second late is NONCOMPLIANT. Yet some people think it's too strict and let things in (a legal nightmare waiting to happen!)

If you don't know what your needs are, how do you determine if a template will meet them? I have three examples here:

1) An organization copied a University Banking Services RFP - I came in 2+ years later when they wanted to do a new process. As always, I asked about what they needed, what works, what doesn't work, etc and they had TONS of complaints about issues with the contractor, manual processes they had to do internally to get what they needed, yet they were starting from that darn template yet again! Sad but true - they didn't even change the instances of 'University' in the document template to their organization 'type' when they posted it the first time!

2) An inexperienced procurement specialist copied one of my RFPs for a 'similar service' then when people questioned one item in the RFP she blamed it on me for having it in there from a previous process...I wasn't even involved in the process (the info came to me via the end-user). Obviously if you don't understand your requirements, you won't understand why something is in the document and that will not show well to the vendor community!! And in this case, 'similar services' may not be so similar!! That clause wasn't necessary for their RFP, but was important for the previous one.

3) A more experienced procurement specialist copied one of my RFPs for, yet again, a "similar service" and once I saw it, I called to let them know what should be 'changed'. I find every process is a learning opportunity - I never believe any processes are 'perfect' so we maintain a file of what worked/what didn't work and even ask vendors for their input into how they saw the process work/areas for improvement. This is then kept to improve the process for future...

So, if you ask me about a 'template', I'd say know what your requirements are first, and then I can help you with a list of requirements/questions to ask - not a template per se, but tried and true info-gathering methods :)

Cheers!