Request for Proposal

Required according to Policy 17 guidelines (see Policies and Guidelines on Procurement site)
Bill 122 Public Accountability Act (see Procurement website)

Contact Procurement & Contract Services (P&CS) to discuss what approach is most appropriate to be sure both functional and policy/ legislative demands are met
Identify the "evaluation team" in advance. Representatives of each appropriate area should be selected to represent their group’s interests
Using the template, determine the functional requirements, ensuring requirements are stated precisely and using terms such as "must" and "should"; avoid the use of vague terms such as "reasonable time", "quickly", "easily"; specify the form of response bidders are to submit
Determine the technical requirements and verify with App Admin group, DBA, Windows, Networking, Security, etc.
Determine and finalize the evaluation criteria
Forward to P&CS to formally draft the document
Bring P&CS and evaluation team together to review, and to lock down the evaluation criteria. (Note: The criterial cannot be altered once RFP is issued).
P&CS will formally issue the RFP, allow min 15 business days for responses
P&CS will circulate responses to evaluation committee

The RFP should be reviewed and approved by both the project’s Management/Steering Committee, and Procurement
Procurement will then assume ownership of the process and will post the RFP for responses. All responses will be collected by Procurement
An Evaluation Committee will be struck. It will be comprised of individuals responsible for evaluating responses according to the specified criteria in the RFP. Each member will be responsible for filling out a scoresheet, signing the scoresheet and returning it to Procurement.
Short list the vendors based on their evaluations. Procurement will contact these vendors and invite them for a demo
Compile and work with Procurement to clarify questions and check references. See sample reference questions (PDF).
Choose the vendor. Procurement will notify the selected bidder, and the ones who are not selected.

Consider Escrow agreement to ensure that the source code is available to the University if the vendor should become bankrupt, etc.
Ensure there is a clause indicating that the vendor can’t hire University project staff during or for a duration following the project, and vice versa
Ensure there are clauses for how the agreement can be terminated, if required
For consulting agreements, the University does not pay for services that have not been performed so ensure the payment schedule reflects this
Look at what was stated in the RFP and ensure it is included in the contract
If the vendor must spend time on site, reference to the University’s travel guidelines/policies should be included in the contract
Negotiation on any caps on fee increases at the expiration of the contract if there is potential renewal is recommended
If a hosted solution is within the contract, there should be a statement about vendor’s disaster recovery and business continuity plans in the case of a disaster or pandemic. Recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) should also be included
There should be wording for any conditions or warranties, if applicable, and what happens if not met
Wording concerning breach of contract should be included
Consider holding back a percentage of payment until project is closed or system is in production