TENDERING process & how to write a REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)

1. Overview and Definition of Tendering: In this video, we're going to look at what tendering is, its advantages and disadvantages, prerequisites for tendering, documents used in invitation for tenders, pre qualification before tenders, selection criteria, post tendering negotiation and contract award. Obviously, those are many things to talk about. So let's just jump into it. Most of the time when you're talking to somebody and you ask them, what exactly is tendering. You're always going to give you an answer something along these lines. This is when you get a deal to supply things in a company or some government agency. Well, if they tell you that, that is not all tendering. That just means that they got the tender, they're talking about a person who gets a tender. Exactly is tendering? Well, you can look at it as the public release or public communication by an organization of the requirement of goods or services for a project in order to allow formal bids to be made. To supply these goods or services. We can simplify that. You can look at it from a rather simplistic point of view. In which case, tendering is the process by which an organization, in this case, the client organization or the employer invites contractors to place a bid for work on a construction project, supply of goods or even provision of services. What's happening here is that if a company has a problem, they publish invitation to tenders, the ITT. Suppliers, potential suppliers will see that and then they'll make the company offer. The company is simply saying that we have a problem of some sort, and we need you the supplier or the contractor to make us an offer regarding how you're going to fix that and how much it's going to cost us. We're going to talk about that. Now, let's continue. That is what tendering is. 2. Advantages and Disadvantages of tendering: What are the advantages and disadvantages of tendering? I kind of mentioned that invitation to tenders is just an organization's way of trying to get offers. This is not the only way to do it. There are a number of ways an organization can get offers from suppliers. But we're not talking about those other ways. But just so that you can mention them just so that you have an idea which other ways this could be. An organization can use things like request for pricing, request for quotation, basic inquiries, all of which are complex in their own way. But when dealing with high value or high risk patches in which transparency is key, then tendering becomes the most appropriate choice. Why is that the case? Well, the answer is simple because of the following advantages that tendering offers. Number one, transparency. See if you're working or the organization is one of those is one of those scenarios where transparency is key. Let's say it's a public organization, and you kind of want to prove to people that you want to show people for public relation purposes, that you are a transparent organization. Then it means that if you need something to be supplied and then, you know, you go through the tendering process, it means you didn't just ask your brother, your sister to supply those things. You actually requested suppliers. So that's one thing. That's one of the advantages of tendering. Transparency. Number two, an established, accepted, and generally understood process. Yeah, that's what tendering is. I just don't take up and say, Hey, we have a problem, we need to be fixed, let's fix it. You know, the organization will at some point, sit down and say, if you want to get things from the supplier, how do you make sure that the process works? What are some of the challenges that you might face and then they say, these are we're going to go about? We're going to put out invitation for tenders, they're going to get rid of the pre qualified the unqualified suppliers, dc pre qualification process, and then you're going to vet the suppliers, and then you're going to, you know, post tender negotiation, if need be, then you're going to I mean, the process is all laid out there. That is one of the advantages that tendering process offers as opposed to just saying, look, you deal in computers, you can't computer supply them, and then three weeks later, you realize that the guy is telling you, we cannot finance the computers. So why don't you pay a staff and then I mean it get rid of that kind of problem. Now, number three, it allows for an audit trail. I mean, the paperwork obviously makes it possible for you to look at the organization and answer the question, where did this money go? Or how did the suppliers get to be here? Or what to supply, how much did it cost? How did you know that a trail that can be used to audit the entire process. Next, it safeguards against verbal contracts. You see, there's an advantaged writing contracts. First of all, you have to understand one thing. A contract is going to be legit it's verbal or not. The problem is that verbal contracts are difficult to prove, and that in itself poses a number of problems. So if you're dealing with suppliers and the entire thing is based on a verbal contract, then you're going to have a hard time proving that the supplier actually supplied what you did not want or the supply, whatever the supplied is what you actually requested for. So to avoid that, the tendering process makes it easy because everything is written down, be it in actual paper or be it in electronic paper. The point is there is evidence that a transaction took place. Now, that is important because that helps you to understand rather to safeguard yourself against the risks associated with contracting verbally. Other disadvantage, the other advantage rather is it allows for easier way to compare offers. Next, both parties benefit from the process. I mean, I'm the supplier. You are the buying organization. You've told me what you want. I'm telling you what I'm offering. Based on the process, we gain because Um, I could negotiate and then later tell you that as much as you wanted this thing to be done this way, I have a better way of doing it through the proposal that I might present to you. Also, the buying organization kind of benefits because they don't have to, you know, it kind of helps them to just get offers from the best suppliers. So both parties tend to benefit from the process. Next, it is the easiest way to comply with the organizations. Procurement policies. That doesn't mean that everything is just good with the tendering process. It also has a number of disadvantages which you need to look at. The disadvantages of tendering process will include things like number one. It can be very bureaucratic. Number two, it may provide a barrier for small and medium enterprises because think about it, these are small companies. And you are looking at their financial records for the last I don't know, four years or something. The is a company that started last year. Yes, they can they they can, you know, they can solve your problem. They can supply whatever it is that you need. But because of their financial position orther because of their financial history, which is non existent since they started last year, they get disqualified. So that's a problem with the process. Next, it can be a triumph of process over substance. Again, somebody goes through the process and you think, well, they won't because they went through the process. I mean, everything that you're checking for. The pretender kind of prerequisites to tendering the pass. You come to the evaluation process, the pass. But then they're not really that good. So, the process made them win, but the substance they're offering isn't perfect. That can be an issue. Next, it can inhibit flare, creativity and innovation. Number five, it can be expensive for all parties. Because of the time it takes to prepare the materials, time it takes, you know, the entire process can just be expensive, and so that can be a challenge. Next, it can inhibit negotiation, and the last prices submitted are often inflated to allow room for negotiation. Yeah, well, people are smart. I mean, they know that they are kind of allowing for a wiggling room because if somebody has already done tenders before, they know that at some point there could be a post tender negotiation. And that isn't even the case, before you add a contract, you're still going to negotiate over some terms in that contract. One of the terms you may want to talk about is price. Somebody might give you an inflated price because somehow they're telling themselves that we are still going to negotiate about these things. Let's allow for room for negotiation, so that can be a disadvantage. Okay. 3. Prerequisite for Tendering: Talk about prerequisites for tendering. Basically, before you invite for tenders, what are some of the things that you look for? Now, there are a number of things that you need to look at. The first thing that you need to understand is what exactly do you want? This way you're going to get good value for money. You're going to invest. I look, if you're going to spend money on something, then you might as well as know why you're spending money on that thing. Because how do you know that you've gotten return on your investment if you have no idea what you even wanted. Start by asking yourself what exactly is it that you are looking for what exactly is it that you want. And by doing this, rather this process means that you can focus on things like outcome based specification or output. Remember whatever it is that you is going to be put down as the specifications. You're going to write it as part of the specifications. If you're going to write an outcome based, outcome based specification, this is what that means. You focus on what is to be achieved rather than how it should be done. Now, an example of that would be let's say the tender is about certain gadgets. You are dealing in cars, and then there are these gadgets that are supposed to help with the reduction of greenhouse gases emission. In that tender, under the specification in that invitation to tenders, under the specifications, you might say that something like this, what you expect from the supplier. It could be something like the gadget shall reduce the emission of greenhouse gases at rate x within the environmental poly. Second thing that you might also that might also help you to understand or to know what exactly it is that you're looking for when you're doing a specification. You can use the function based specification. Now, unlike the other unlike the outcome based specification, the idea is to ensure that your specification points to what the requirements should do or be able to do as opposed to its technical profile. Let's say that the entire attend is supposed to be for web designed. Under the function specification, what you're actually saying is that it could be something like a landing page. Rather than saying I want a landing page done with this coding language because that's just going to make it technical. You say you tell them what to expect the landing page to do. I want you to capture leads, I want you to send the leads to an email, I want you to make a list, whatever it is. You are explaining the function that you from from that particular landing page. That is function based specification. It is advised to have some of your specification terms described using commonly used standards like the European standards, the British standards, the international standards, the ISO, basically. That is not to say that you can't use technical terms. I mean, if it is an engineering tender, of course, you're going to use technical terms. I'm just saying that you have to balance that. You can use outcome based, you can use function based and they'll work. 4. Documents used in Invitation to Tender (ITT): Now, let's talk about something else as part of the tendering process. Let's move on to the documents that are going to be needed in the invitation to tender process. What documents are you going to need in this process? Some of the documents that are going to need will include a covering letter, providing instructions. So we're going to talk about I mean, the cover letter is going to talk about instructions that you expect the suppliers to comply with things like labels to be used, return date, contract names, numbers, ETC. Of course, your letter will also have some disclaimer or some, you know, you're going to have some line that explains rather that states something like we are not bound to accept any or the lowest tender. So that is just you covering your basis legally. Okay. Number two, you'll also need an acknowledgment form. Number three, specification. We already talked about that. You're going to provide the specifications. Number four, a cost price and delivery schedule. Number five, a detailed breakdown of production cost, things like your margins, things like overhead. I mean, things that are the supplier is going to be comfortable to disclose so that you can understand as a buyer, what exactly are you paying for? Number next, a quality schedule. Number next, assigned declaration of a bonafide tender. Eight apparent company guarantee or performance bond to be completed as appropriate. Nine series of questions on policies. For instance, health and safety, environment, social responsibility, all of that, all of which expect the supplier to respond. So these are going to be, you know, questions. You're just addressing the suppliers. You're asking them, what is the tack on, you know, for example, their health and safety standards, how are they doing it? Things like the environmental policies. If you are concerned with, you know, the green environment and all that. So these are questions. Any questions that you lect the supplier to answer so that it can clarify whether or not clarify their position in that tener basico. And next a list of information required on the suppliers company profile, assuming they've not given that. Next, request for the suppliers company accounts. So the last three years financial statements. If they've not supplied dozens, you may want dozens. And finally, a list of satisfied customers along with at least one reference. All that is going to help you to understand you and the supplier understand each other. 5. Prequalification and selection criteria: Not to avoid since if you put out an advert, an invitation to tenders advert. You're going to get many people, all of you believe that they are qualified to avoid dealing with people who are not qualified, it means you have to go through or you have to set up your pre qualification before inviting tenders. Let's talk about that. The pre qualification before inviting tenders. There are a number of strategies. There are a number of criteria that you can use to get rid of the suppliers or the contractors who are not qualified. Some of those will include things like financial standing, check for that, quality procedures, capacity and competence, track record. By doing that, of course, the ones are not qualified, you'll have to go away. It's not like they're going away. They just want to make it to the selection process. Speaking of the selection process, let's talk about that. Now that you've gotten rid of the suppliers who aren't qualified, how then do you select suppliers who are qualified? Let's talk about selecting the suppliers. For starters, the process is not going to be different from that of pre qualification because you can decide to look at something like the financial status. Now, the second way can be to take a look at things like qualitative and quantitative criteria such as materials used, applicable standards, price, track record, the proposed solution. I mean, that's another way to decide if the person is qualified or not. You can also look at things like quality of product or service, delivery times, terms and conditions. Now that is going to be more in line of payments. What are the payment terms, what are the warranties. Next, you can also look at costs, the initial cost that cost plus the whole life cost. 6. Post Tender negotiation and contract award: Um, now let's move on to something else. Let's talk about so you've gone through that entire process, right? You have a selected candidate, but you've not given them the contract or you've not awarded the contract. So you still aren't negotiate in between you, okay? And that means post tendering negotiation. Now, let's start by defining post tendering negotiation. No. This is the kind of negotiation that takes place between the client, that is the organization. And the potential supplier after receipt of tender or tenders, but before contract is awarded. Now, you're not supposed to confuse this with tender clarification. Because tender clarification is a different thing. Tender clarification just means that the procurement officers meet the potential bidders to clarify certain aspects of the tender document. Post tendering negotiation takes place after the tender evaluation process has been concluded, but before the contract. The number of reasons why people get into post tendering negotiation. Some of those reasons could include things like the prize or alteration of certain aspects to the proposal. The post tendering negotiation is actually a good way to get value for your money. Remember, it's all about the bags. The rest is conversation. As a procurement person, it's your job, it's your duty. It's your duty to figure out if you're going to need post tendering negotiation, No. Do you figure out if yes, you've gotten the supplier, do you just start the contract, or do we still want to talk about some things at this point? Once you figure that one out, and then you can go ahead and decide, let's negotiate or let's not negotiate, especially in public procurement. Now, if all you're interested in is to get the best and final offer before, then there are a number of ways that you can do that that don't necessarily involve or include post tendering negotiation. An example here could be something like sending to suppliers on anonymous basis, a list of all the cost or prizes obtained and inviting their best and final offer. Number two is reverse options. In this case, in the case of reverse options. Options. What you're actually doing is you are asking the suppliers to give you their Final offer. The lowest offer. They just have to outbid each other on proposing lowest offers. Until A, they're accepted by the buyer or B until the other suppliers decline to reduce the price any further. You see this a lot in online auctions. You go through the entire process. We started, you started by understanding what tender tendering is and then we went all the way. Finally, you've done your post tendering negotiation. It's timed to award the contract. Let's talk about that. Let's talk about awarding the contract. Once you have the suppliers or the supply that you need, a contract should be negotiated, finalized and signed. What I want to understand is that invitation to tenders is just a way of you getting an offer. What is an offer? An offer is basically an expression of willingness to get into a contract on certain terms if those terms are accepted. So Before you jump into giving a contract, you need to make sure that you are on the same page because now with a contract, you have a legally binding agreement. Negotiate the agreement, make sure the terms are understood and then sign it. What are you going to do next? You're going to make three copies, sign all the copies, send them to the suppliers, make sure they sign all the copies and return s to you, and then you can start the process. If there's any question, let me know and I'll see you in the next video. 7. Understanding RFP and Its main parts: In this video, we talk about how to write a request for proposal. What is a request for proposal? Well, the name tells you what it is, I mean, it's there in the title. Anyway, a request for proposal or RFP is issued by an organization to obtain proposals for the supply of inputs to the organization, usually goods or services. Proposals in this case, what is commonly referred to as bids or offers in the world of tenders. So by requesting for proposal, the organization is simply saying, hey, look, we have this problem, and we need somebody who can tell us how or somebody who can propose a solution. How are you going to help us get to one to three? That is what the request for proposal actually does. So when an organization puts it out there, they're simply telling you, the supplier, or the contractor, that is the problem you're facing. So kindly suggest a solution to that problem and then tell us how much it will cost the organization to finance the f. At times, an organization may use a request for RFT, which is alternatively called an invitation to tender or invitation to bid when seeking offers for the supply of inputs to the organization. And with that, you can ask yourself or somebody might actually propose this question. Is there a difference between RFP and RFT? Of course, there has to be some difference, otherwise you won't have those two terms. So a request for proposal is used where the requirement is less prescriptive or less defined. So that means when an organization requests you to do that, okay? When the organization puts out a request for proposal, they're simply saying, is the problem. And therefore, you expected to be creative in proposing the solution? Because we have an idea of what we need. We just don't have the details or the technical details of how to go about it. Like basically, it's like saying, well, I'm starting an commerce business, and for starters, I'm looking for an e commerce platform, and that's pretty much it. And so can you help us come up with one? I mean, yeah, yeah, I have a rough idea of what I want. I just don't know the details that go into making that thing. So in that case, I'll say, write me a proposal, tell me how we're going to do it. And since I'm sending this thing out there to more than one supplier. I mean, it's pretty much anybody who can do it is going to respond to it. So that means I get to get ideas, various alternatives to my problem. So that is why the organization does that. Another example would be, let's say I want a studio. Now, I know some things that a studio will need, and probably they'll need a camera, a microphone, lights, you know, the basic stuff. But as far as interior decoration is concerned, I have no idea how to go about that. So I may want somebody, okay, some interior designer to propose a solution to that. So they write me a proposal, tell me what they're going to do, and if I like the proposal, then we are a game In contrast, the request for tenders, invitation to tender, invitation to bid will be used for more exacting requirements with tender latitudes correspondingly reduced. So in this case, I'm saying that you know exactly what you want. In that case, what you're going to do well, you're going to use those ones. You're going to use RFP. Here's the thing. Most organizations don't want to waste time going through the request for proposal just to get bombarded by unsolicited proposals. All proposals from people they don't really want to work with. People are not qualified to be writing those proposals by people I mean suppliers. To avoid all that, the organization can use things like request for information, expression of interest, basically refi and E or I to avoid all these. Now, these are open documents. And by open documents, I mean, they are the kind of documents that if you act upon them, it doesn't really mean that you have a contact with the organization. In fact, what they're actually doing is that they provide the organization with information to shortlist the potential suppliers from whom they can then request for proposal or request for tenders. So let's talk about the main parts in a request for proposal. The templates used in a request for proposal will differ, obviously. But the following are the four main parts that all those templates are going to look rather to have, irrespective of whatever format you're using. They're going to have the following four things. Number one, instruction to proposals and proposal conditions. Number two, the requirement. Number three, information to be supplied by proposals, and number four, the proposed contract. Now, as part of this, as part of this learning process, I've used some of the materials from the CIPs, basically the Chartered Institute of procurement and supply. I mean, those guys are all about procurement. So you can also check them out and see some of the materials they have, but I'm using some of the materials as a guideline to help you develop your RFP. 8. PART ONE: Instructions to proposers: Again, I just want to point out that if you're in a position to make sure that you download the template that comes with the PDF template that comes with this video, and you can use it as we go along. So let's start. Let's talk about the first thing that you need to do. Number one, distraction to proposals and proposal conditions. So this part is going to set out the expectations, obligations, and requirements for the buyer and the proposer while the RFP is active. So here you have a definitions. It's always a good idea to start with defining the terms you're going to use and basically to avoid confusion as you go along the the proposal. By definitions, these are the things that you're going to define, things like company name contract, contractor, proposal, reposer requirement. What is any of those ones going to mean as far as the proposal is concerned? Here's what I mean, I mean, you can also use the template to understand more about this, but he's I mean. An example, by a company. Company means then you insert the name of the company. Contract means any contract that results from this request for proposal, contractor means the entity that forms a contract with the company for provision of requirement. Proposal means a written offer submitted in response to this request for proposal. Proposal means an entity that submits or is invited to submit a proposal in response to this request for proposal. Requirement means the supply to be made by the contractor to the company in accordance with part two of the RFP. Okay. By part two, I mean the part where you're going to be talking about your requirements. So if your requirements are in part three, then you might as z in accordance with the maze in accordance with part three. But for the sake of this one, part two is going to be how we talk about the requirements. Again, look, if you can, just download the PDF so that you can go along with this you do have to one, wait. What is that and where is it coming from? Now let's move on to the next thing is to write a summary of requirements. The idea is to summarize the requirements in such a way that the proposal is going to have an idea of what you want. So as an example, is something that I downloaded or I accessed from one of the UN ADs RFP that they wrote some years back. So is an example of requirement. The purpose of this request for proposal is to enter into a long term agreement, LTA with successful bidders and select suitable contractors to carry out the ongoing IT outsourcing needs of the UN ads for a duration of two years starting in April 2015, with a potential extension of one additional year. U NAD is seeking functional and technical skills in the following areas of information technology. That is open source development, and then using Drople PHP, or whatever, system and database administration, project management, business analysis. UN aid is an organization that is dependent on the budgetary and extra budgetary contribution it receives for the implementation of its activities. Bidders are therefore requested to propose the best and most co effective solution to meet UN aids requirement while ensuring a high level of service. That is an example of requirements. Of course, you can do better than that. I mean, I'm not saying that is but that is good. But I'm just saying you can do better. Depending on whatever it is that you want. So Understand your requirements, what do you want them, what problem do you have so that they can write a proposal to that. If you put out bad requirements, then it just means that they're going to write a proposal that is not going to meet your needs. The next thing that you want to worry about is the structure of the document. The reason why you're doing this is because you're trying to help you you want to make sure that wherever wherever is reading the proposal, and also wherever is reading it, they know where they can find activities that they're looking for. I'm talking about having a structure like for instance, title, part one. Part one, you have something like instruction to proposals and proposal condition, p two requirements, part three information to be provided, but for proposed contract, and then the description or exactly is contained in all of these parts. So you make sure that you have that. Now the next thing that you also want to make sure that is there in your RFP is RFP key dates. The been the dates so that we can know when is what happening or what is happening at any given moment. I mean, things like some of the key dates will include things like RFP issue date, date for the proposal acknowledgement, date of proposal briefing or site visit, if need be, RFP closing date and time estimated contract award date, all that stuff. So you need to make sure that of course, if there are things that you want to add, you can also add. Uh, remember, they said, this is just a template, okay. There are various ways you can write a request for proposal. So, you know, it's all up to you. What are the key dates? What are the key important dates, and then you put them there. Now, next, company contact person, so the company contact, who's the key contact person? I mean, look, in case somebody in case a supplier is writing this, and they need some clarification or something. Whom do they contact. Put the name there. You're talking about things like the person's name, their title, their contact number, whatever it is, e mail address, all that stuff. Make sure that that one is also there in the RFP. Now, next, queries and questions during the RFP. At this point, just want to show that the process is going to be a fair process. In case the supplier or the proposer has some doubts. So you are kind of solving just melting down all those doubts. You could have a clause that says something like this. Proposal are to direct any queries and information regarding the RFP, content or process to the company contact. No other company personnel are to be contacted in relation to the RFP unless directed to do so by the company contact. Company reserves the right to disqualify and reject proposals that do not comply with this requirement. All questions should be submitted in writing, either by post fats or to the nominated email address. Company may choose to convey response to submitted questions and queries to all proposals so that each is equally informed. The next thing you want to put down there is proposal briefing and site visit, if need be. It could actually be a case that I mean, imagine you RFP for construction of a school. So It doesn't matter how good I am with my architecture or construction company. I'm just going to start writing a proposal when I've not even visited the place. I need to know what does the land look like and all that stuff that matter to people who do construction. They may want to visit the site. You need to tell them something like company will hold an RFP briefing session to further familiarize proposals with the requirement. This briefing will also include a visit to the company site. A maximum of two representatives from each proposal is permitted to attend the RFP briefing session and site visit. Further details regarding the RFP briefing session and site visit will be provided to proposals. The next thing you want to talk about is amendments to the RFP documents. This is where you show how any changes are going to be handled. In case, they are changes, how are you going to handle those changes. It could be something like company may amend the RFP documents by issuing notices by way of formal you know, whatever you want to put there by way of formal, you know, variation or agenda, to that effect, all proposals may extend the RFP closing date and time if deemed appropriate. Some companies get crafty with this. I mean, they put out an RFP. And then you do whatever you want to do. But since you want to eliminate some of the people. They change something, they do a variation, and then they send an e mail or through whatever channel they say they're going to use. Now you're stuck there. You didn't read the thing, and come the day, you're disqualified and you wit. How did that happen? Well, because we changed a few things that you didn't change in your proposal. You always have to make sure that you have open lines of communication, and they say they're going to do this and they're going to do it through these platforms, you pay attention. Next, proposal, lodgment methods, and requirements. These where you actually give instructions as to how the proposal is going to be submitted. Talking about things like proposers must submit number of copies of their proposal to the company in any of the following methods by post, you'll give the postal address by e mail. Of course, you give instructions regarding that one by hand, you give instructions, and so on and so forth. The next thing you want to bring out is the plan in case of ledge proposals. You could say something like proposals are responsible for submitting their proposal prior to the RFP closing date time. In accordance with the acceptable lodgment requirements described in clause blah, blah, blah, you give a give a number as of that clause. There will be no allowance made by the company for any delay in transmission of the proposal from the proposal to company. Any proposal received by the company later than the stipulated RFP closing date and the time may be removed from further consideration by the company. Yeah, that is important. You need to tell them that so that you don't have to deal with people who are submitting the proposals late. But the next thing you also want to talk about in your RFP is rules regarding acceptance of proposals. Why is that important? Now, you have to understand why are they doing this? See, the proposal is going to lead to a contract down the line. So you want them to know that accepting a proposal is necessarily the same as Accepting that you have a contract. Basically, you need to cover yourself legally as far as that is concerned. I'm talking about something like proposal may be for all or part of the requirement and may be accepted by company, either wholly or in part. A proposal will not be accepted by a company unless and until company assigned a contract or sent a notice of award in writing for the successful proposal. Company is under no obligation to accept the lowest priced proposal or any proposal and reserves the right to reject any proposal which is complete conditional or not complying with the RFP document. That is one of those parts that you don't want to leave out in your proposal because look, you have to limit your liabilities. Okay? So these are some of the risks that you encounter by poorly drafting RFPs, and then you end up being sued. So you don't want to leave that out. Now, next, validity of proposal. Okay, is what you need to know. Proposal are just like coffers. They're going to run forever. Okay. You want to explain to them that this thing is only going to be valid between this time and this time. Past that time, it's done. You have to make sure they know that. You need to have something that states along the following lines. Proposals submitted in response to the RFP are to remain valid for a period of and then you give them the time from the RFP closing date. Next, talk about evaluation of proposals. At this point. At this point, you just want to talk about the company policies regarding how you're going to evaluate the proposals. This is important because again, it will help the proposals to know what you're looking for. I mean, they could use it to beat the system, but that's not the point. The point is, these are policies that you're going to use so that if somebody is rejected, they know why they are rejected. Things like the minimum selection criteria to be used in the evaluation of proposal include but are not limited to the following. You can insert the criteria. These criterias are not in any particular order, nor do they necessarily carry equal weight. Company may request additional information from proposals to assist further evaluation of proposals. The more prescriptive, your definition of the criterias are, the more weight it puts on you. But it doesn't really matter. It depends on your policies. What are you going to look at? Is it cost? Are you going to look at track record of the proposal? I mean, there are many ways to evaluate these. It depends how are you going to select the qualified person and the person who isn't the proposal that isn't qualified. Now, the other thing that you also want to make sure that is available there will be regarding withdrawals. You could end up having something like this. Proposals may be withdrawn at any time prior to the RFP closing date and time by written notice to the company? The next thing that you also want to make sure that is available there is a clause stating that proposals are to inform themselves. It is important to make sure that you have that clause. It's one of those clauses that just again help you to limit your liability. It could be something like company has taken all reasonable care to ensure that the RFP is accurate. However, the company gives no representation or warranty as to the accuracy or sufficiency of the contained information and that all proposals will receive the same information. Proposers are required to inform themselves fully of all conditions, risks, and other circumstances relating to the proposed contract prior to submitting a contract. Proposed prizes shall be deemed to cover the cost of complying with all the conditions of the RFP and all of the things necessary for the due and proper performance and completion of the requirement. The next part, you want to make sure that the proposer knows your standard as far as the cost of preparing the proposal. Now, why are you doing this? You're doing this because we really don't want them to do something and then later think you're going to reimburse them. So you're going to have a clause. Well, unless you're going to reimburse them. So you're going to have a clause that states something like all costs relating to the preparation and submission of a proposal are the sole responsibility of the proposal. Company shall not pay any proposal wholly or in part for its proposal. After that, you want to talk about confidentiality. Of course, that will depend on the type on the type of proposal on the nature of work to be done. So you could have something like this as a clause in your RFP. Except as required for the preparation of a proposal, proposal must not without company's prior written consent, disclose to any third party any of the contents of the RFP documents. Proposals must ensure that their employees, consultant, and agents are also bound and comply with this condition of confidentiality. Of course, these are all those areas that you're going to have to seek legal advice on, okay? Because you may end up having cases where somebody says there was comp right infringement, there was whatever, look, seek legal advice. Next, inconsistencies and omission. I mean, it's not like if you cannot make a mistake. We all make mistakes. So this is where you want to bring out the question of what if there is a mistake in the RFP? Or what if the company has made a mistake? So you can have something like this in that RFP. Proposals must promptly advise company in writing of any inconsistencies and omissions they discover in the RFP. Why are they doing that? Because look, you know, somebody can actually exploit a mistake and profit from that. So you just want to let them know that if they try to profit from your mistake, you can later just say, look, these are mistake we made, and this is the clause that we wrote that says that we are in a position to make a mistake. I mean, you could have made a mistake. So if you did it, we're not really going to be held liable for that or held accountable for that. Here's why. 9. PART TWO: Setting out the Requirements: Now, the next thing you also want. Again, I just want to point out that there's a PDF that you can download that goes along with this so that it makes it easier for you to follow along as you're watching the video. Now the next thing that you also want to make sure that is there in your RFP is number two, the requirements. Remember, everything you've been talking about is part of number one, which was instruction to proposals and proposal conditions. And so now we're talking about number two, which is the requirements. So what are these requirements? The idea here is to make sure that you've actually stipulated the requirements. What exactly do you need the proposals to talk about? What is the problem that you're having so that they can propose a solution to that. Um, you're going to have something like this. Background and context for the requirement, organization's overview, including contract details. So who's involved in the requirement, who specifically are the customers of the requirement, who will be the principal point of contact in the buying organization, Litail descriptions of the requirement. There is something else that you also want to bring out. Sometimes requirements need to be very technical. And prescriptive, setting out exact obligations like weights, size, color, and distance. In other situations. Usually in a case of RFP and not in RFT, the requirement can be more functional or performance based and describe the expected outcomes or the problem that need to be solved. Next, you can also use drawings and diagrams to give more details as to what you expect. Next, mention quality requirements, performance standards, You also want to talk about whether they're going to be some approvals required, things like external permits or things like that. And finally, you also want to tell them your inputs, the buying organizations inputs, what are you going to be paying for, what are you going to provide if there's anything that you're going to provide to help the proposals to understand more about your requirements? Meaning, will the buying organization be providing any services or materials in support of the requirement, EG office space, materials, computers, ETC? So you really need to be careful when you're doing this. Remember, Aside from the Part one, which was just instructions and stuff like that, the requirement phase, this is the part of the proposal that will actually end up becoming or end up forming the final contract. So you really want to pay attention to what you write here. You really want to pay attention to the kind of information you give out at this stage. 10. Information to be provided and proposed contract: Now, next, let's move on to number three or part three. Information to be provided by proposals. So far what you've done is that you've told the proposals, your requirements. Now it's time for you to move further and tell them exactly what it is that you want them to write back about in the proposal. This section of the RFP sets out what information the buying organization want to receive from potential suppliers. Again, I just want to remember, just like in the requirements part, the information outlined in this section is also going to form part of the final contract. You have to be careful. Excellent RFP drafting principle is to keep all response obligation in one place. This way, the potential supplier does not need to search through the whole RFP to work out what questions need to be answered or information to be provided. The information to be provided by the potential suppliers tend to fall under three categories. These are pricing information other than price commercial information, and number three technical information. Pricing information. This section is going to be used to collect the price and rates from all the suppliers. The other one, non price commercial information. Under this, you're going to have things like form of proposal, company details, contact information, TC, financial information, history, and previous job performance, including reference from clients, details of held insurance, compliance with the proposed contract terms and conditions. Then technical information. So here, you're going to seek information that will involve things like execution plans and key dates, details of resources and key personnel performing the requirement. Okay. Proposed subcontractors or outsourcing of any part of the requirement, quality management plans, health and safety management plans, environment, and sustainability management plans, employee relation and industrial regulation management plans, other management plans and administrative arrangements, risk management plans, and mitigation approaches, transition or implementation plans, and any proposed alternatives. Once you have all that in place, the final stage is going to be the proposed contract. Your proposed contract is going to be it's something that you're going to talk about, but you can have a blank you can have a draft contract, so that they have a clue as to what the contract is going to be like. Now, this, whatever you've just talked about, it's just a guide directing RFPs. Download the PDF, which is a template and then you can fill in. Of course, feel free to change what you don't want and all that stuff. In case of any question, do let me know mo, and I'll see you in the next video.