Designing tender documents is very challenging and causes stress and uncertainties for bidders. A lot of time is spent clarifying questions and poor quality submissions are inevitable. Artists are synonymous with vague statements and listeners interpret music and poetry in different ways, and life goes on. Garbage in garbage out is an IT-related statement relevant in defining situations when request for proposal (RFP) is poorly crafted.
Poorly designed RFPs are like asking silly questions, and you will certainly get silly answers. Preparing tender documents is a tedious process and perfection is hard to attain and the following tips could help.
Planning: Plan the structure of the tender well in advance before the actual writing of the RFP. The plan should address organisational objectives for such an activity. This includes identification of: Yourself: who you are and what you are generally planning to achieve.
Purpose: why the product or service is required. Supplier sought: how you going to decide the best offer.
Award of contract: The type of contract you intend to enter and the duration.
Statement of purpose: Purchases are undertaken to provide new solutions to an old problem or a new supplier is wanted for a current service. On the other hand, a tender may require a new system to support a new business line. The clearer the statement of purpose, the easier it is for prospective bidders to understand what is wanted. The more information you share with bidders the better the solutions they offer.
Appropriately introduce yourself: Tendering process costs money to prospective bidders and providing sufficient information about yourself assists respondents to make good judgment on whether to participate or not. Bidders are worried about whether the process of tendering can produce credible results given the costs associated with the process. Information about the organisation, industry, customers, source of funds and budget is not only important for completeness of the bids, but will assist prospective bidders to consider participation from all angles.
Tendering instructions: The requirement sounds obvious but often, there are missing elements in the instruction. Tendering instructions must clarify when, where and how and to whom the tender should be submitted. The instruction must provide participants with whom and when the clarifications should be sent to. In the event of a site visit being required, the bidders must be provided with complete details.
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Define the scope: Bidders must know what is required and the outcome of the tender. Details of deliverables, standards of performance and measures of compliance must be given in full detail. If the requirements are not clear, one has to redo the specifications to achieve a clear scope of work.
Documentation required: When specific documents are required to be submitted with the tender, such information must be clear. In the case that the documentation required is organisational specific, then provide samples. It is also important to state if the required documents are a compliance measure or just “nice to know”.
Contract terms and conditions: A draft contract should be part of the tender document and bidders must be requested to comment on the provisions. The document must include buyers, proposed terms and conditions, penalties and duration of the contract.
Define evaluation criteria: The criteria against which participants shall be evaluated must be known to all participants. In the private sector, the details are not necessary, what’s critical is the general criteria such as compliance to specifications, delivery period and commercial issues such as price and payment terms. In the public sector, such criteria will include specific details such as weights of each variable.
The above tips will assist in improving the quality of RFPs to ensure the right suppliers are attracted to participate.
Nyasha Chizu is a fellow of CIPS and the branch chairman for CIPS Zimbabwe writing in his personal capacity. Email: [email protected]
