Every year, Procurement Services processes many complex RFPs (Request for Proposals) for departments who seek supplier solutions for a commodity or a service or when it is in the university’s best interest to give potential suppliers a certain amount of flexibility in proposing a solution.
Guided by Procurement Services’ mission to educate, coach, and support departments through the purchasing process, we are happy to announce the new Request for Proposals (RFP) Manual. This comprehensive resource has been designed to guide departments through the planning, developing, evaluating, and awarding of RFPs.
The RFP Manual addresses the following questions:
- What is an RFP?
- When is an RFP necessary?
- How do I develop an RFP?
- What is the RFP process?
- How do I evaluate and score a proposal?
- How long will the RFP process take?
- What is the RFP Evaluation Committee?
- What are the RFP Evaluation Committee responsibilities?
This manual is very timely, as I have been drafting the scope for an RFP. I am going the RFP route because going with the lowest bidder could mean future headaches and possible fines if the supplier is not qualified to do the job. I think this is a great document with tons of good information. Thank you all for creating this.
Holt Craven, Transportation Department Business Officer, was part of the group who helped us test the manual
As with all of our education resources, the Request for Proposals (RFP) Manual can be found in the Procurement & Business Services website > Learn It page.
We hope this new resource is as helpful to you as it was to Holt. If you would like to see any other content added to it, please let us know by contacting procurement@ncsu.edu.