The case for RFIs
Getting to the right shortlist with an RFI
by Alan Pelz-Sharpe
15-Nov-2005
A regular part of my job over the past 10 years has involved working with Requests for Information (RFIs) and Requests for Proposals (RFPs), also called "tenders" in many parts of the world. I have written them, I have responded to them, and I have assessed and made decisions based on responses to them.
The whole process is probably one of the clumsiest and more ineffective that we undertake in business, but it is what it is, and in the absence of something better it's what we will have to use for the foreseeable future. So what follows are some tips to get more value from the process when you are looking to acquire a Web Content or Document Management System.
With most prospective technology buyers, great effort is normally expended on an RFP process at the cost of the RFI. In fact there often is no RFI. This is wrong thinking, for the purpose of an RFI is to gather information on which you can make better decisions, but it is also a key tool in eliminating at an early point those suppliers who cannot or should not be working with you.
Any subsequent RFP then becomes a key mechanism for a scoped and well-thought out project, and only involves vendors (both software and consultancy) that have been pre-qualified and can do the work that is being requested of them. A good RFI provides a pre-filter that determines such a short-list.
How Not to Build a Shortlist
For those of us who have worked as independent third parties in evaluating RFP responses, stories are legendary about completely incompatible vendors and suppliers somehow ending up on the same shortlist. Your shortlist should only contain those who can meet your needs -- and no one else.
Instead, what I often see is:
- One vendor who is extraordinarily pushy, and (though they should have been eliminated early on) either due to a generous use of expense lunches, or by simply being intimidating they have survived the initial cut.
- One vendor who is an incumbent supplier to the firm and is included for no other good reason than "we already work with them."
- One vendor who totally misunderstood the RFI, but due to impressively complex use of semi-English consulting-speak, remained on the list regardless.
- One vendor that everyone has heard of that gets onto every short list whether they should or not (you can guess but I shall not say).
- Microsoft – because they seem inexpensive.
This really isn’t the best way to draw up a short list – and what is most disturbing is the amount of money that has often been spent in coming up with such an inappropriate target set!
To help avoid this situation, issue RFIs and not just RFPs. But there is a right way to do RFIs. [Ed.: Bud Porter-Roth has offered some good advice about RFPs elsewhere in these pages.] Below are some practical tips from my own experience. It will make my life easier as a supplier, but more importantly, it will make your life easier too.
7 Steps to a Better RFI
- With the exception of simple upgrades, always do some internal scoping
and analysis work before deciding whether you need to buy more technology
at all. Over the past couple of years I have seen more and more RFIs
for software and integration work hitting my desk that provide a list of software
already in use, a list that is so comprehensive that it actually tells us:
you don’t need any more technology. You need to start making use of
what you have. Skip the mega-RFI and spend a little money on some advice to
help you make better use of what you have.
- If you do need new technology, be clear what kind you want.
I have lost count of the number of RFIs that use the terms Web Content Management
(WCM), Document Management, Enterprise Document Management, Enterprise Content
Management and Records Management interchangeably. And now increasingly people
are using the term ECM to mean almost anything that involves managing some
kind of unstructured data. This is a bad thing, so don’t do it, O.K.?
Be clear what you are looking for – if you have multiple web sites to
manage, you have a completely different need to be met than if you have a
lot of forms to process.
- The goals of the project should come first and foremost in any RFI
document. What are you hoping to achieve? State this honestly up-front
and invite vendors to respond creatively and cost effectively. Content Management
is as much about business processes and user acceptance as it is about speeds
and feeds. Allow potential suppliers to address both issues, and suggest viable
partnerships.
- Similarly, to the extent that there will always be consulting work involved
in any type of CM deployment (and in a big ECM deployment this will surely
be the bulk of the cost) consider sending the RFI to systems integrators
or other consultancies in addition to software vendors. You will
get different sorts of responses from services firms, and it may not help
you narrow your solutions short list, but you will learn from their suggestions
and it can help crystallize for your selection team whether the RFP should
ultimately go out to vendors or integrators.
- Never get an ECM or WCM vendor to help you draft an RFI!
This may sound like common sense, but I am amazed by the amount of RFIs going
out that have the clear mark of one particular vendor or another on it. If
this is the case you cannot expect rival vendors to make much effort in responding.
Remember vendors live in the Content Management world full time, while this
is (hopefully) a one-off deployment for you. Vendors can spot the influence
of a rival supplier a mile off.
- Make it clear up front that you will require references at an early
point, and that you will vigorously pursue them. When you do pursue
them, make sure that the vendor is not involved in any way on the call. If
at all possible, visit the references at their site, alone. Don't ask for
a lot of references, yet. This is an RFI, not an RFP.
- Consider buying vendor technology evaluations (CMS Watch and my old firm Ovum both provide high quality reports). There is simply no point spending $50K on doing this yourself when a few thousand can give you all the answers you are looking for. These kind of off the shelf reports can help you to eliminate certain vendors from the get go, for example those that are technically incompatible vendors. More importantly they can help you discover just how well developed, and broadly deployed a vendor's specific solutions are against a particular scenario (remember that vendors won’t likely exclude themselves!).
Finding the Right Fit
Of course, all these points are common sense, but common sense isn’t all that common, and the ease in which one can become enamored by technology should act as a caution. Most CM work depends on effective business processes and procedures; these needs are the priority and must be separated from the tool.
If you send out a vague and fuzzy RFI looking for ECM vendors to fix your website problems your chances of ultimate success diminish. Consider bringing in expert advice from an early point and focus your needs and requirements down at the beginning. The bottom line is that much of the CM technology out there is fairly mature and capable of doing a good job. Finding the right fit for you will be a mixture of price, performance, functionality, and usability. There are virtually no vendors that I would automatically exclude outright (note the word virtually). Finding the one that fits your needs the best should be your goal, and a good RFI should help you get there.