Sample RFP Template: Intranets
Introduction
All too often, a company’s intranet functions more as a portal for outdated and
inaccessible content versus a system to drive real collaboration. The difference?
Selecting a platform that makes creating, updating and sharing internal
information easy, but maintains the necessary security your company needs.
This guide provides a starting point to get you through the platform selection
process for your company intranet.
How to use an RFP
Request for Proposal (RFP) documents are a common practice in technology selection – they allow companies to get a digestible, side-by-side comparison of the tools they are considering and help narrow down that list to the best contenders. Though in practice that sounds like a no-brainer, that same process can often lead to inaccurate responses, misunderstood checklists and quite often some of the best vendors opting out. Why? Thoughtful RFPs take time and energy and vendors frequently doubt that investment will pay off.
There is a middle ground here. RFPs can be helpful in keeping track of a platform’s strengths and weaknesses and understanding initial capabilities. That middle ground – an informed RFP – will ultimately ensure you get vendors to participate who are the best fit for your needs. An informed RFP means:
You provide clear insight into the goals of your Intranet, including details like how many internal users and administrators, what processes you are hoping to improve and operational efficiencies you are hoping to gain.
You compromise with your selection process and the vendor’s sales process. This is a challenging one. Fairness amongst respondents is often top of mind with any
comparison, but a rigid process will inevitably lead to some of the best company’s opting out of the response. Listen to their needs and see where compromise is possible.
Be prepared to commit your time and resources. Good vendors will want and need more information to provide a good response. Give it to them.
Don’t expect a significant level of detail or firmness. RFPs are meant as an initial scoping exercise – more time with you and your team is needed for any level of accuracy. Through the process you’ll begin to
understand how the vendor works, get an idea on capabilities and potentially an (extremely) high-level estimate around cost and time.
RFP vs. RFI
Depending on who you talk to, the debate of how an organization should solicit technology vendors to engage in a project is varied. There is a growing contingent who believe a Request For Information (RFI) will save both your organization and the software vendors you are reaching out to a considerable amount of time.
While you can certainly limit your search from 15-20 vendors to just 3-4 through an RFI, eventually a scope will have to occur, on both sides; consequently, developing an RFP is far from a fool’s errand. Again, so long as it’s understood that your team is strictly establishing a baseline. (In other words, we can all agree specifics about a vendor’s ability to deliver under budget for your vague, yet-to-be discussed intranet project seems rather unreasonable.)
The optimal outcome here is productive follow-up conversations aided by a mutual understanding forged by the RFP. And that starts here. This RFP template will help you gather information you need from vendors to determine
whether or not they can meet your project’s requirements.
But again, bring compromise and flexibility to the table here – without that any real insight will be lost in checklists and insincere responses.
1. Develop Requirements.
Understanding your core requirements and potential deal breakers from the
onset makes for a successful selection process.
Critical Requirements.
In the same way you will expect vendors to provide thoughtful responses on how their platform can help address your specific business needs, vendors will expect you to have a clear vision on what you are looking for. This section is where that comes out – and can make or break the success of the selection process and your project.
Now, any good vendor will help guide you through many of these questions – their process should uncover things you hadn’t thought about, provide ideas around intranet best practices and demonstrate real data from other projects they have completed.
But, coming to the table with, at minimum, a description of your current processes and systems, your known requirements and other specifics will lead to a better RFP response.
We recommend providing an executive summary addressing the following:
The basics Company name, overview, primary stakeholders and roles
The background Details on your current system(s) and processes related to internal communication and collaboration
The deal breakers Does your company only work with .NET platforms? Do you need single sign-on with Microsoft Exchange? Reveal any of your deal-breaking requirements up front.
The details Impetus: Why are you looking for a new Intranet and what triggered this search? Impact: What processes do you hope this platform will fix, enhance, create, etc…? Intentions: What is your procurement process like? What can the vendor expect?
2. Create a Timeline.
This is the beginning of a relationship. You’re not just buying software, you’re
forging a partnership, and building a quick timeline will provide all parties
involved with transparency. Moreover, it will help weed out the pretenders from
the contenders.
RFP timelines can range from two to three key dates to a long list of events. We’ve seen the most success with a well thought out process that ensures you have baked in the appropriate amount of time for ample reviews. Equally important, make sure your timeline has considered any needed up-front meetings that may be requested by the respondents.
Milestone Date(s)
Distribute RFP
Send your RFP out to your long-list of vendors. Pre-Proposal Phone Conference Sessions
Provide a series of times for open phone conversations. Many vendors will request one-on-one meetings, though this can be time consuming it will also result in more thoughtful responses.
1 Week for multiple conference sessions
Pre-Proposal Question Deadline
Give respondents the ability to send additional questions prior to issuing their response. Again, though this takes time, it also means you’ll receive much better responses. You can publish all answers to a single place to ensure fairness in the process.
1-2 Weeks for Questions after the initial conference
RFP Deadline
Select Short List of Vendors 1-2 Weeks for Review
Detailed Meeting with Short List of Vendors 2-3 Weeks
Final Evaluations 2-3 Weeks
Selection
3. The RFP Template.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Company Information Company name:
Address:
Primary Contact: Email address: Phone (s):
Best hours to reach me: Company Overview
Restrictions / Deal Breakers
RFP MILESTONE DATES Distribute RFP
Pre-Proposal Phone Conference Pre-Proposal Questions Deadline RFP Deadline
Select Vendor Short List Meet with Short Listed Vendors Conduct Evaluations
Purchase Intranet Platform
CAPABILITIES AND REQUIREMENTS VENDOR RESPONSE
1 – Out of the box
2 – Custom Implementation
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
Intranet Experience
Does the platform provide the ability to customize the intranet based on a user’s role or previous behaviors?
Does the platform incorporate enterprise search capabilities that is configurable?
Does the platform include common templates and modules?
Will the platform incorporate responsive design and render appropriately on multiple devices?
Asset and Document Management
Does the platform provide a means to bulk upload content such as files and images?
Which of the following content types are supported out of the box:
Files (PDF, Word, etc…) Videos
Images Text HTML
Calendar Events
Does the platform provide a means to browse reusable content in a content repository?
Does the platform support content editing, including support for rich text with HTML and style (CSS) enforcement?
Workflow and Governance
Does the platform provide the ability to define workflows through an easy to use administrative interface?
Does workflow include the ability to determine which roles have access to perform which actions at each step in the workflow?
Does the platform support multiple workflows to support multiple sections?
Can workflow be highly granular, meaning that workflow could be as detailed as a specific page on the intranet?
Does the platform automate notification to users and roles when there is content to review? Does the platform provide a full revision history of changes made and who performed them?
Does the platform allow older versions of content to be rolled back?
Collaboration
Does the platform allow for comments and comment moderation?
Does the platform have the capability to generate polls?
Does the platform have customizable forms for employees to contribute ideas or ask questions? Does the platform have capabilities for commenting, ‘liking’ and sharing content?
Does the platform support employee profiles?
Administration
Are there limits to the number of users that can be added as viewers, contributors, administrators, etc…?
Does the platform support custom roles? Can a user be assigned to multiple roles?
Integration
Does the platform provide integration to analytics platforms?
Does the platform provide integration and authentication with Active Directory? Can the platform integrate with SharePoint document libraries?
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS
Can you provide any intranet case studies of companies in our industry?
Describe your process – how do you determine needs, scope a solution and deliver?
Describe any skills that will be needed to deploy and manage the intranet?
Will the intranet render correctly in major browsers and mobile devices?
Is a testing and development area available?
USER SCENARIOS
How will the intranet support the following common user scenarios:
Scenario 1:
Scenario 3:
