{"id":1228,"date":"2014-05-14T16:43:33","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T16:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techcafeteria.com\/new\/?p=1228"},"modified":"2014-10-27T11:56:11","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T11:56:11","slug":"working-with-proposal-requests-collaboratively","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcafeteria.com\/?p=1228","title":{"rendered":"Working With Proposal Requests Collaboratively"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay, I know that it’s a problem worthy of psychoanalysis that I’m so fascinated with the Request for Proposal (RFP) process<\/a>. But, hey, I do a lot of them. And they do say to write about what you know.<\/p>\n

The presentation that I gave<\/a> at NTEN’s conference<\/a> in March focused on the process of developing and managing RFPs. I made the case that you want to approach a vendor RFP very differently than you would a software\/system RFP. I pushed for less fixed bid proposals, because, in many cases, asking for a fixed bid is simply asking for a promise that will be hard to keep. ROI<\/a> involves far more than just the dollars spent on projects like CRM deployments and web site revamps.<\/p>\n

In the session, I learned that Requests for Information (RFIs), which are simpler for the vendors to respond to, can be a great tool for narrowing a field. \u00a0It’s important that clients are respectful of the fact that vendors don’t get paid to respond to proposals; they only get paid if they win the bid, and showing respect on both sides at the very glimmer of an engagement is a key step in developing a healthy relationship.<\/p>\n

Since the conference, I’ve gotten a bit more creative about the software that we use to manage the RFP process, and I wanted to give a shout-out to the tools that have made it all easier. \u00a0There are alternatives, of course, and I still use the Microsoft apps that these have replaced on a daily basis for other work that they’re great at. But the key here is that these apps live in the cloud and support collaboration in ways that make a tedious process much easier.<\/p>\n

Google Docs<\/a><\/strong> is replacing Microsoft Word<\/a> as my RFP platform software. The advantages over Word are that I can:<\/p>\n