Communicating with Vendors

Timeline

Provide a realistic timeline for the entire RFP process to all vendors.

Stage Description Completion date Standard operating procedure guidelines

Segment RFI/RFP by Category

Requirements Infrastructure Security Dependencies Risks

Financials Accounting Service level Functionality Viability

NDAs

All vendors responding to the RFP must sign the NDA provided.

Provide a specific date and time for execution.

RFP Launch

Send RFP documentation to the designated vendor contact.

Once a solicitation has been released by Contracts and Procurement, communication with vendors should be directed to the buyer named in the solicitation.

TIP: If vendors approach other members inside your organization, ask that the inquiry be redirected to the named buyer in the solicitation. This is critical to ensure vendors are not given an advantage (or disadvantage) by information provided to one potential bidder, but not all. Additionally, only the written text in a solicitation document is binding; nonbinding verbal statements have the potential to create problems.

TIP: Taking both a primary and secondary vendor through contract review and lab stages is advantageous; in the event the primary candidate fails critical use cases in the lab, you have a contingency candidate.

Confirm all vendor contact information & designate one contact per vendor for all communications.

Provide specifications for written questions and completion dates.

Aggregate vendor submissions into one master side-by-side analysis format for easy, at-a-glance comparison of all answers.

Set one date and time for an open, verbal communication for all written questions to be answered. This minimizes the chance that a vendor may have undue influence on the solicitation.

Any other requests, such as copies of written documentation, should be directed to the buyer at Contracts and Procurement.

After verbal meetings, conduct no further communication with vendors.

Make choices and communicate them clearly, especially with disqualifications.

Contract Award

After proposals have been submitted to Contracts and Procurement and an award recommendation has been made, agencies may choose to give the name and date of the awarded vendor to vendors when requested.

Contract Negotiation

No further communications shall be conducted with disqualified vendors until contract negotiations have been completed with the awarded vendor.

If a contract cannot be reached with the awarded vendor, written documentation should be provided to the awarded vendor to communicate that contract negotiations have been terminated. The buyer should move onto the vendor with the second best score in the evaluation criteria.