ITsourcing

RFI Section 2.0 - Example

The following is the second section of a example RFI:

2.0 Project Introduction 

This document is a Request For Information (RFI) regarding vendor capabilities in several aspects of IT Outsourcing in Country.  The Bank is seeking a supplier of these services over a 3-plus year period, subject to negotiation.

This introductory section describes the background to the RFI, The Bank's objective for outsourcing, and a general description of the services The Bank is seeking from a vendor.

2.1 Background The Bank is a Country Retail Bank with significant Private Banking, Corporate Banking, International Banking, Investment and Treasury services, offered in several countries.  The Bank is developing an extensive branch network within the Country, with more than 300 Automated Teller Machines and a Debit Card product, via the Maestro/ Cirrus branding. The Bank provides services for retail customers in more than 300 branches within the Country.
 
2.2 Outsourcing Objectives
The Bank’s primary objectives in pursuing this outsourcing are as follows:
• Have access to vendor’s broad range of personnel resources for rapid ‘time to market’
• Utilise vendor's local presence to ensure timely support of hardware and software problems as well as limited training needs
• Minimise the costs associated with the IT services described in this document
• Capitalise on vendor's experience with these IT services to continually improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these IT services

2.3 IT Service OverviewThe Bank, in general, is seeking vendor assistance in:
• Data Centre Operations across two sites, with full resilience. This will entail IBM etc. etc.
• Integrated Help Desk to provide business applications support as well as technical support
• Desktop PC, Servers, LAN  including Asset Acquisition and Management for distributed processes
• Network Operations, WAN Branch network. City based network control centre with fibre optic links to the data centres
• Application Support and Maintenance, mainly etc. etc, including any new development required.

The Bank has an ongoing Systems Integration project to implement a package based Retail Banking Application within Country, and to integrate this with existing applications, e.g. General Ledger.

RFI Section 1 - Example

The following is the first section of an example RFI.

 

1.0  Confidential Information

The information contained in this Request for Information (RFI) is confidential and proprietary to The Bank.  In accepting this RFI, vendors agree to the following conditions, under USA law:

1. Each party recognises and agrees that the Confidential Information has been compiled, created and maintained by special effort and expense of the other party.

2. Each party recognises and agrees that disclosing or disseminating Confidential Information to a third party will have a materially adverse effect on the other party and agrees not to disclose or disseminate the Confidential Information to any third party.  Except as necessary to perform its obligations hereunder, each party shall not use, reproduce or draw upon the Confidential Information or circulate it within its own organisation.

3.  Each party shall provide notice to the other party of any demand made upon it under lawful process to disclose or provide the other party's Confidential Information.  Such party agrees to co-operate with the other party if it elects to seek reasonable protective arrangements or oppose such disclosure, at the expense of the party that is seeking the protective arrangements or opposing the disclosure. 
 
4.  Any Confidential Information disclosed pursuant to such lawful process shall continue to be Confidential Information, the access to such Confidential Information shall be limited to those persons (i) only with a need to review such information for the purposes for which the disclosure was required, and (ii) who agree in writing to keep the Confidential Information confidential.

RFI Document Notes

Let’s take the headings from the RFI blog and expand on what each section should contain.

1.Confidentiality – As you are going to send the RFI out to many companies or even publish it in the OJ (the EU Official Journal) there is an argument that nothing confidential should be in the RFI document. If it needs to contain confidential information then get the vendors to sign your organisation’s standard confidentiality agreement before you send them the RFI. When working for USA based companies, I have used some standard confidentiality text in the RFI. I suspect that it does not work in European law.
2.1 Background – explain that the document is an RFI and give the basic steps that you intend to take regarding the issue of the RFP.
2.2 Objectives – give the vendors a clue about your organisation and why it wants to carry out the procurement e.g. lower cost, business benefit.
2.3 IT Services Overview – a high level description of the services required. Also cover the technologies involved. Remember that this is only the RFI and not the RFP; the level of detail required is modest.
3.1 Point of Contact – how the vendors can contact your organisation. Also, can they ask questions, if so how?
3.2 Submission of Response – when (time and date), how (email and Word document) and to whom responses are to be sent (if different from 3.1). I would allow two weeks from issue of RFI to close date for responses provided the RFI is going to a known contact point in each vendor. Beware: in a large organisation identifying the right person who is responsible for a given sector, in a given country and for a given service can be more difficult than you might believe. The words ‘but I am trying buy something’ has often gone through my head.
4. Response Format – all the text of this section should be linked to the AHP marking spreadsheet criteria to ensure the vendors provide relevant answers. Ask for the information outlined below with the specified page limits:
4.1 Primary Contact – a single point of contact, address, email, fax, mobile phone and landline phone numbers. (1/4 page)
4.2 General Business Background information – a description of the business, its size, top level financial information and USP. (1/2 page)
4.3 Description of client base for similar services – up to five clients to whom they have provided the requested services. (1/2 page)
4.4 Experience with the technologies – a description where they have used the technologies of the service. (1 page)
4.5 Experience with the Business Sector – up to five clients in the business sector. (1 page)
4.6 Geographic Coverage – offices in the country and in the region (no agents). (1/2 page)
4.7 Client References – list three clients who could potentially be approached who are in the business sector and in the country. (1/2 page)
4.8 Potential for Value Added Services – what additional services could the vendor offer that have synergy with the requested services. (1/2 page)
4.9 Other relevant experience – what other relevant experience does the vendor have. (1/2 page)
4.10 Potential and preferred contract structures – appropriate contract models that the vendor feels is appropriate for the service delivery. (1/2 page)
5. Conclusion – Advise that information provided outside of the above format will be discarded and feedback will be provided to the vendors who submit a response.

You should be able to keep the RFI document down to four pages. You only need to provide enough information so that the vendors can see ‘that’s for us’ and create their 4/5 page response.

Ian Richmond

Email: ‘About’ and ‘Email Me’

RFI Marking Spreadsheet

Following on from my last blog – what does the marking spreadsheet for the RFI process look like? I could claim that I use the Sattay Analytic Hierarchy Process, wikipedia/AHP , this would partly be true. If there is a decision to be made then AHP provides a sound basis to achieve that aim. However, as you see, AHP uses pairwise comparison as its techniques for ‘scoring’ the alternatives. I have not had to resort to use pairwise comparison. I think it is great but the mathematical calculations used to turn the comparisons into scores are obscure. The stakeholders cannot see how their input generates the decision.

I stick with the AHP decomposition although, for an RFI process, I only use a single level. I then create quantitative criteria for each of the leaves of the tree. I define what scores 0, 5 and 10 say and leave it to the stakeholders to interpolate scores.

The weighting for each element of the tree I do in a workshop with the stakeholders. It is expedient to equally weight the elements and then let the workshop move particular weights up or down by consensus. I draft the criteria and again let the workshop refine them by consensus. At the end of the workshop you have your agreed marking spreadsheet.

For the RFI process the AHP decomposition is, or becomes the response format in the RFI document. A spreadsheet to match the RFI headings in my last blog is attached Download RFIv01 .

The RFI is then issued and the responses collated. The stakeholders are given sets of the RFI responses and asked to mark them against the criteria. A ‘short list’ workshop can be held, their scores entered into the spreadsheet directly in the meeting and the results discussed and agreed. It works well as the stakeholders see the decisions unfold in the meetings.

Ian Richmond

email: 'About' and 'Email Me' link

Request For Information - RFI

A number of times I have been asked to help with an RFP. During the kick-off meeting I ask 'What about the RFI?' The reply is often 'We do not have time for an RFI'. I then end up with a discussion pointing out that preceding an RFP with an RFI saves time and effort.

An RFI is quick to create and issue; it can be done in parallel with the RFP processes. The benefits of doing an RFI process are as follows:

• It generates a shortlist for the RFP stage which keeps to a sensible numberthe RFP responses to be evaluated.

• The shortlist members know they are on a shortlist and have a greater incentive to respond to the RFP.

• The RFI can be sent to a wide and inclusive list of potential vendors.

The last point enables inclusion of organisations such as: favourite vendors of various stakeholders, companies owned by relations of the Board (I am being serious), existing suppliers etc. and therefore no one can raise the issue of being excluded.

The RFI process follows the same principles of the RFP stage. The major headings of an RFI are:

1 Confidentiality Statement (if appropriate)
2 Procurement Introduction
    2.1 Background
    2.2 Objectives
    2.3 IT Service Overview
3 Instructions to Vendors
    3.1 Point of Contact 
    3.2 Submission of Responses
4 Response Format
    4.1 Primary contact (1/4) page
    4.2 General business background information (1/2 page)
    4.3 Description of client base for similar services (1/2 page)
    4.4 Experience with the technologies (1 page)
    4.5 Experience with the Business Sector (1 page)
    4.6 Geographic coverage (1/2 page)
    4.7 Client references (1/2 page)
    4.8 Potential for Value Added Services (1/2 page)
    4.9 Other relevant experience (1/2 page)
    4.10 Potential and preferred contract structures (1/2 page)
5. Conclusion

The structure of an RFI document is in two parts. Firstly, a set of paragraphs providing the background information to the vendors.  This also explains that material attached by the vendor to their formal response will be ignored. The aim is to force the vendors to think about their reply and not throw the kitchen sink into their responses. The second part defines the response format (and size) required from the vendors.

The best way to avoid the kitchen sink is to set a page size limit for each section. I have suggested some suitable sizes in the above list; these are not to exceed sizes and Section 3.2 explicitly states this point. The aim is to get five to six pages of very well structured response.

The response part has associated with it a client internal document that quantifies the marking schedule for the RFI responses; a marking spreadsheet. The response format material for the RFI and it's associated marking spreadsheet are developed together and jointly agreed by the stakeholders of the client organisation. By having the response format defined and backed by a marking spreadsheet makes evaluating the vendors responses to the RFI very simple.

Ian Richmond

email: 'About' and 'Email Me' link.