Halifax / Ottawa / Toronto / Edmonton / Victoria

Effective RFPs

An evaluation supplier’s perspective

Rob Assels (CE, CMRP)

• 20+ years experience on supplier side

– Federal

– Provincial

– Municipal

– NGO

• Vice President and Research Director for R.A. Malatest & Associates

– 250 proposals annually for the past 28 years

– 25-35% success rate

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Topics

• Purpose and structure of the RFP

• How the RFP is read

• Pricing

• Role of standing offers

• An exercise – how would you bid?

• Low budget RFPs

• Tips for effective RFPs

• Knowing your supplier

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Purpose and structure

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The Role of the RFP

1. To clearly identify what your needs are

2. To communicate the delivery timeframe

3. To obtain the best value

• Other – To delineate deliverables

– To establish the level of expertise

– To set communication/reporting protocols

– To set the tone of the relationship

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Necessary Details

• Tombstone info (submission requirements)

• Contractual info (invoicing, terms, etc.)

• Legal info (privacy and security

requirements)

• Evaluation criteria (Mandatory and

Rated)

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Nice to Have

• Standardized submissions (similar structure)

• Section weights for scoring

– With detailed descriptions this can provide valuable information to suppliers

• Pricing clarification (Ceiling or Range)

• Adequate time for Q&As and then to write submission

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Are Page Limits Nice to Have?

• They are for some

– The reader of the submissions

– Smaller or new firms (less experience)

• Best practices

– 10-25 pages

– Allow executive summary

– Allow resumes in appendix

8

Other Details for Apple-Apple

Comparisons

• Incentives

– The cost of recruitment goes down as the

value of the incentive goes up

• Translation

– Be precise: guides, survey, reports

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Typical RFP Requests

• Background

• Purpose

• Methodology

• Evaluation plan

• Project team

• Experience

• References

• Pricing

• Value added features

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How the RFP is read

What suppliers are looking for 11

First Things First

• Do we qualify?

– Review mandatory requirements

– Subject matter experts / partners

• Can we deliver in this timeframe?

– Availability of resources (writing and executing)

• Is it worth it?

– Value of the RFP

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Qualifying: Things to Consider

• The more specificity you demand

– The fewer responses you’ll receive

– Can hurt very competent smaller evaluation

firms

• Consider stating whether you encourage

collaborative bids or not

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Timeline: To Write the Proposal

• How long does writing a proposal take?

• Most allow 2 weeks from posting to deadline

• Most have a 1 week deadline for questions

• Most provide answers just before the

deadline

BUT

• What if Subject Matter Experts are needed?

• What if the Q&A is technical?

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Timelines: To Conduct the Evaluation

• Which of the following do you want

rushed?

– Design

– Data collection

– Analysis

– Report writing

Correct Answer: NONE

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Iron Triangle

• Relationship between scope of work,

timing, budget and overall quality

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What part of survey design take the most

time?

• Questionnaire design 2-5 days

• Client approval 5-10 days

• Programming 5 days

• Pre-testing (English) 1 day

• Revisions 1 day

• Translation 2 days

• Pre-testing (French) 1 day

• Launch

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Pricing

All things being equal

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Two Premises

1. All evaluators are responsible

2. They can design evaluations to meet any budget.

Larger budgets will have:

– More lines of evidence

– Larger sample sizes

– Additional quality control

– More analysis time

– Greater confidence in results

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Pricing ... What happens when you

• Set a ceiling

– Everyone bids near the ceiling

– Clear understanding of expected level of effort

• Set a range

– Bids scatter based on qualifications

– Introduces some ambiguity about level of

effort

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What about when there’s no hint?

• Introduces uncertainty

– Do they want a Lexus or a Yaris?

– I design the perfect Lexus – you want a Yaris

– I design the perfect Yaris – you want a Lexus

• We waste time writing the proposal

• You waste time reading them

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Lowest Price Wins

• Reasonable for prescriptive RFPs

• Increases the likelihood ...

– Bate and switch

– Corner cutting

– Quality control checks

• Would this approach work anywhere else?

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Language is Key

“A literature review”

(2-3 days)

OR

“A comprehensive cross-jurisdictional literature

review citing Canadian and International

sources”

(15-20 days) 23

Key Words and Terms ...

• That suggest a higher price

– Thorough

– Comprehensive

– Precise

– High level of confidence

– Rigourous

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Impact of Response Rates on Price

• Mean response rate in Canada: 17%

• 50% of population under 30 do not have a

land line

• Refusal rates have been rising for the past

two decades

• Response rates of >50% are VERY

expensive

– And sometimes not achievable

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n = 500

$10,000

+/- 4.38%

n = 300

$6,000

+/- 5.66%

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Impact of Sample Size on Price

• 10 minute survey • Completed by telephone • Random sample • General population

Prescriptive OR Flexible

• 10 minute phone

survey

• 20 in-depth interviews

• 2 focus groups

All suppliers should be

within 10-20% of the

same cost

• Mix of quantitative and

qualitative methods

Allows for creativity and

innovation. Wide ranging

financial bids

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Standing offers

What is their role?

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What are Standing Offers?

• Evaluation firms pre-qualify to be on a

reduced list of “vendors of record”

– They are not contracts

• Differ between jurisdictions

– Single focus ... Multipurpose

– Cattle call ... Exclusive (e.g., 1-3 VORs)

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Value

• Saves time and money for the client – Read all the detail once, not each time

– Reduces the number of qualified proposals to read

– Fixed prices and terms for the duration of the offer

– Faster contract initiation

• Saves time and money for the VOR – Nearly 50% of a proposal is repeated

• Company background / history

• Company experience

• Project team

• Credentials / accreditation

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Any Reason Not to have Them?

• Small number of RFPs

• Types of evaluations you require are

unique

– Already a limited number of firms

• Geography dictates the availability of

suppliers

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Questions so far?

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Tables are turned

How would you bid?

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PROJECT:

• 3 year gang prevention project in Moncton

• 3 full-time case managers

• Youth range from 12-21 years of age

• Partners include:

– Police services

– local school board

– youth groups

– addiction services

EVALUATION:

• Quasi-experimental

design

• Literature review

• Deliverables

– Evaluation Plan

– Data collection tools

– Two annual reports

– Final report

– Presentation

Abridged SOW for Outcome Evaluation

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What would you need to ask?

• Bilingualism requirements

• Privacy requirements

• Is a control group required

• Will incentives be used

• Do we need a subject matter expert

• What onsite research is required

• Expected number completing program

• Budget

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Due Date

• Steps involved – Obtaining the RFP (1 day)

– Assessing / Assigning (1 day)

– Reviewing / Researching / Ask questions (1 day)

– Obtaining any needed experts (2-3 days)

– Writing / Pricing (4 days)

– Incorporating answers to questions (1 day)

– Proofing / Revisions (1 day)

– Printing / Packaging / Submitting (1 day)

• 2 weeks?

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How would you get the best value?

• What if you had no hints

• What if you knew the ceiling was $200k

• What if you knew the range: $150k-$200k

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Low Budget Version

PROJECT:

• 3 year gang prevention project in Moncton

• 3 full-time case managers

• Youth range from 12-21 years of age

• Partners include:

– Police services

– local school board

– youth groups

– addiction services

EVALUATION:

• Quasi-experimental

design

• Literature review

• Deliverables

– Evaluation Plan

– Data collection tools

– Two annual reports

– Final report

– Presentation

SAME Project (Evaluation budget =

$50k)

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Proposal (reduced in scale)

• Baseline survey

• Post treatment survey

• 5 key informant interviews

• 1 focus group

• Interim report

• Final report

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Tips for More effective RFPs

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Build in Patience

• Allow time for a considered response

– On multidisciplinary evaluations, allow time to

find partners/subject matter experts

– Allow time after Q&As (more than 1-2 days)

– Consider 3 weeks a minimum

• Allow electronic submissions

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Build in Flexibility

• There are always unexpected challenges

and opportunities

• If resources are 100% committed, corners

must be cut to overcome challenges and

opportunities may not be realized

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Allow Your Organizational Culture to Show

• Use language to reflect how you like to do

business

• Do you want a participatory evaluation

– “Collaboration”

– “Active Committee”

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Pricing

• Set ceilings or ranges

– If that’s not possible, give significant clues

• If you do none of the above, you will waste

a lot of time and get no tangible benefit

Exception: Prescriptive data collection

projects

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Added Value

• Some direction is useful

– Design phase

– Data collection phase

– Analytic technique

– Post evaluation support

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Knowing your Suppliers

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Multiple Tenders

• All consultants bid on multiple projects at

the same time

– Need to win one

– Hope to win some

– Don’t expect to win them all

But sometimes they do ...

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How to Avoid Bate and Switch

• Focus on the project team not the

company

– Increasingly common to see experience

sections limited to the project team or project

lead

• Require the project lead to be at all face to

face meetings

• Base future references upon obtaining the

agreed upon team 49

Understand your Suppliers’ Needs

• Suppliers want to be awarded the tender

• If they win, they want ...

– To provide the best evaluation that time, budget and circumstances allow

– To obtain a reference for future submissions

• If they lose, they want ...

– To know how to improve their future submissions

– You need to be specific and be honest

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Healthy and Capable Supplier Base

• Clearly worded and well timed RFPs will

attract a large number of appropriate

submissions

• All but one evaluator will lose

• It is important that those who lose feel the

process was not only fair and transparent

but was not a waste of their time

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Halifax / Ottawa / Toronto / Edmonton / Victoria

Questions

Thank you If you have questions, please contact Rob Assels at: 877-782-4816 ext 702 or at r.assels@malatest.com