What is RFP (Request for Proposal)

A Request for Proposal, or RFP for its acronym in English, is a document that is prepared internally in the company with the aim of requesting different suppliers their best solution and budget to cover specific needs.

It is a document that is used in many sectors, also in telecommunications, where it is especially useful due to the complexity of the projects and the wide variety of offers and solutions that operators offer. 

A good RFP (Request for proposal) will facilitate the supplier selection process and will prevent us from leaving budget items outside of supplier requests. Here you can know about rfp process.

Now that you know what a request for proposal or RFP is, let's see what it should contain:

What should an RFP (Request for Proposal) contain?

This is a complex request in which it is necessary to exhaustively detail both the starting point and what is expected to be achieved, not only in economic terms, but also in technical, functional and project characteristics (quality, safety, execution, etc. .)

If desired, prior to sending the RFP, a confidentiality agreement can be sent to be signed by the different providers that will receive the RFP. 

In the case of an RFP for a telecommunications project, the Request for Proposal must contain, at least:  

1. INTRODUCTION:

Explanation of the commercial activity of the company and contact details of the person who will manage the process. 

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE CONTRACTING PROCESS 

At this point, the current and future needs that are intended to be covered with the provider's service should be considered. Here we must specify the technological and cost optimization objectives to be pursued.

3. DESCRIPTION OF THE CURRENT AND FUTURE SITUATION

It is very important to describe in as much detail as possible the current situation of the company. In the case of a telecommunications project, it is necessary to analyze the company's consumption data and evaluate the company's technological challenges for the coming years and its possible technological solutions. 

4. GENERAL ASPECTS

4.1. REGULATION OF THE RELAY PROCESS BY CHANGE OF OPERATOR

Here the phase of taking the service must be described in detail: when and how we want the change of operator resulting from this tender to be made. 

4.2. PORTABILITY PROCESS

At this point, everything that must be taken into account at the time of portability must be specified: what phases it will have, what procedure and timings must be fulfilled for the shipment of SIMs and equipment, etc.

4.3. SERVICES ASSOCIATED WITH THE OPERATION

In the case of needing other services associated with the principal, they must be detailed in this section.  

5. REQUIREMENTS AND SPECIFICATIONS

These are the points that the operator must comply with and special requests from the client, such as, for example, if you need a certain number of terminals, specifying model, capacity, etc. 

6. SCHEDULED CALENDAR

It is important to set deadlines for the operators based on the rush and urgency, although you have to be reasonable as operators need time to prepare. 

In this section, it is possible to specify the timings foreseen for each phase of the project such as dates of receipt of proposals, face-to-face meetings, whether or not there is an option to present a second retouched proposal, final decision date, etc.