CoVest has created an informative whitepaper that supplies the reader with key steps in conducting a successful RFP as part of your supplier selection process. We preview one of the steps below.

Design the RFP Backwards

Having a solid understanding of what you want the RFP to accomplish makes it much easier to design the RFP. Moving backwards from your goal or vision, you can then ask yourself, what qualitative questions should be asked to reach that goal? What should the location matrix and the price bid sheet consist of to get me to that finish line?

The RFP should be a focused process to get the data needed, not a “boil the ocean” process asking a lot of questions and seeking data that will never be used in the decision process. One way to avoid stuffing the RFP with irrelevant information requests, is by designing the RFP backwards.

The first step in designing your RFP backwards is to envision the analyses, the supplier evaluation tools required. You should envision both the quantitative and qualitative data that will be needed to develop the supply strategy and select the supplier to support that strategy. This means you will literally mock up the tables, graphs and ratings that you will need to make decisions. By following this mock up process, you can more easily develop the RFP spread sheets to get supplier data and answers to questions needed to conduct the analysis.

The following exhibit illustrates this concept: