The RFP solicitation
In the second part of the project, you will use the knowledge you developed in Part 1 to create an RFP solicitation document using these part 2 formatting guidelines. The RFP document that you will be creating must be on an IT related project, task, or function that a company has decided to outsource. The procurement document should reflect an area of individual or team interest, or you may select one of the procurement cases below as the basis for creating an RFP.
DESCRIPTION OF RFP PROCUREMENT OPTIONS
Option A – An Inventory Control System
You sell IT related equipment from a catalog, and business has been blossoming. But your inventory tracking system is inadequate. In high season, supply outages have been frequent, and customer complaints about delays have been increasing. You fear that your business will die on the vine unless something is done to improve things. You want to hire a management consultant to design a new inventory tracking system. This kind of work requires typically about six months of effort. It is now May. You need to issue an RFP for this work. The procurement will be for the design stage onlyimplementation may or may not be handled under a separate contract later. Hint: Creating a project charter and project scope statement will facilitate to identify the procurement-SOW. Use what you have learned in part 1 to develop an RFP solicitation.
Option B – Call Center Hardware Upgrade.
The call center has decided to outsource the work to replace 500 single monitor by dual LED monitors to increase agent productivity and reduce overall energy expenditure in the building. The increase in productivity will create a more customer-friendly experience by reducing customer wait time and decreasing frustrations that the agents face with the current single monitor setup. The lower energy costs will result in lower operating costs for the call center, and the increase in productivity will generate additional revenue. Hint: Creating a project charter and project scope statement will facilitate to identify the procurement-SOW. Use what you have learned in part 1 to develop an RFP solicitation.
Directions for Part 2-A Create an RFP Solicitation – IT Related
Use the RFP Procurement Template (Links to an external site.) and follow the document to create the following:
The first page of your overall submission must be a cover sheet that contains the project title, name, date, and course identifying information
The second page will be a table of contents (TOC) listing the major RFP sections and page numbers.
The next 10-12 pages constitute the main body of the RFP. Download and use the RFP template as a guide to creating your solicitation by clicking here. You should not have any not applicable sections (N/A) or to be determined (TBD) in the proposal. Include a reference page at the end of the proposal listing the references that you used in the RFP preparation in APA format, including websites, if any. Don’t also forget to cite any sources in the text of your paper using APA format. This is an academic assignment, so APA format is required.
The minimum structure should, therefore, be as follows.
Cover sheet (one page)
Table of contents (one page)
RFP main body (minimum of 10 to 12 pages)
References in APA format (no page limit)
Appendices (no page limit)
Appendix B: supplier list (one page)
Total assignment length should be 13 to 16 pages long, including everything. The format of your entire proposal must use standard margins with 12-point font.
Resources: The PMBOK Guide is a good starting point. Please be advised that much relevant material is also available on the Internet, so you might want to search for materials that may yield insights into the RFP development process.