I have previously advised that it is best to avoid Request-For-Proposals with checklists of requirements (e.g. “Do you support XYZ?) when selecting a new web platform. This advice remains solid, but unfortunately many buyers are unable to convince their procurement team to divert from their usual checklist-based process. Here some further assistance if you encounter this scenario:
- Talk to procurement about what their rules are. If they’re imposing a check-list, ask for it to be done it in 2 phases. Phase 1 should be pre-qualification which should include procurement restrictions like financial history; phase 2 is evaluation.
- Your check-list for pre-qualification shouldn’t involve any scoring. All your questions should have quantitative or yes / no answers: e.g. do you have LDAP integration, do you meet a specified development standard, how many people do you have working in my region, etc. One person can then evaluate these responses and tell vendors if they pass onto the next stage.
- The evaluation stage should ask more descriptive questions around tasks that represent different user groups: both editorial and technical. These should be demonstrated by the vendors who should also be told that they’re on a short list so that they put more effort into it. Give them enough time to do something good.
- If you’re going to use a scoring methodology (I usually recommend to avoid scoring), you need to weight the most frequent tasks more heavily. Give guidelines about scoring, e.g. we could do that without training / with half a day’s training / with a lot of documentation / will never learn. Beyond usability and price, which many will give high rating, I would also encourage you to give a high rating to intangibles, such as documentation, community, roadmap and implementation team.
- Avoid using terminology tied directly to your existing system or a specific vendor. Since most vendors know their competition pretty well, you can expect that they will quickly look for signs that the RFP is written with a specific vendor in mind. If that’s the case, don’t be surprised if you end up with very few good proposals.
To learn more about RFP’s, here’s some recommended reading:
- Five Tips to Getting a Good Response to a Content Management RFP by Deane Barker from Blend, a US web design firm
- Perils of Procurements by Jon Marks from LBi.
- Running an Efficient CMS Evaluation and Procurement Process: Hands-on Tips, Insider Knowledge and Advice a Slideshare presentation by Piero Tintori from Irish CMS vendor Terminalfour
- A one-sheet guide to picking a CMS by Philippe Parker, an independent London-based CMS guru
- Wikipedia: Request for proposal
Thank you very much to Jon Marks (@McBoof) and Philippe Parker (@proops) for valuable input.
Happy holidays!
