How our Quotation Forms can Help (5 productivity boosters)

Creating a procurement form — Quotation form or RFP from scratch is not in every business manager’s top 10 list of items they want to be doing at work each day. For most of us, it is not even in the top 100! Purchasing professionals are results oriented…they want to be reporting to management on $’s saved, contracts awarded, trends and not that they spent their entire day drafting a RFP!  The Request for Quote (RFQ) and other procurement related forms like a Request for Proposal (RFP) are important and do require a strict attention to detail. Is there an easier way to accomplish this task so you can spend your time on more fruitful projects?

At RFQPro.com, we supply sample Procurement Templates for a variety of potential quotation requirements and this is how our quotation forms can help you in your day to day tasks.

Here is a link to the list of some of the forms we offer: https://www.rfqpro.com/pack-breakdown

In this list you will notice we provide both generic and specific types of tender documents which can be used

How Effective are your RFP’s? (3 Key Indicators)

How Effective are your RFP’s and the three key indicators to measure to help you improve. That is the question and unfortunately many professionals do not have this question on our radars. We often roll them out the door not truly realizing how ineffective they are or how we may be wasting time by not achieving the desired result.

Request for Proposals (RFP) have become the go to purchasing or procurement form. They are on the rise because more and more companies are using them for all their procurement needs and project work period. Whether this is the right form they should be using for the present task at hand is another blog post altogether! In this post we are going to help you produce an effective RFP by providing 3 key indicators to measure when you issue a RFP. If you follow these steps it will help you produce the desired results using the least amount of resources.

To get right to the point, you will save time, money and energy if you focus your efforts on the content you include in your RFP. Increasing and including the correct content will improve its potential for success.

What determines the correct content and effectiveness of the RFP are identified in these 3 key indicators below:

  1. Clarification Requests – If you are spending time responding to tons of the same questions asked by more than one of the bidders then the correct content or scope of work was unclear. So, the first key indicator which will help you determine how effective your RFP is would be the number and types of questions your supplier’s are asking during the response period. Could you have provided this information as part of the original Statement of Work or maybe some of the other deliverables were not detailed enough.
  2. Vendor Responses – The actual number of quality vendor responses received is the second key indicator.  YES, responding to a RFP is expensive and vendors will put in the effort to provide a quality response if the deliverables are clear. A win for both parties.
  3. Competitive Quotations – The prices quoted by your vendors is the third and possibly the most important indicator and YES, this will be a factor. If your RFP content is clear, the quoted prices will reflect this. Removing unknowns will reduce project costs.

Most Popular Forms used by Purchasing [3 free samples]

Most Popular Forms used by Purchasing Professionals today (3 free samples)

In order to manage the need to purchase supplies and services, purchasing professionals turn to certain forms, templates or documents to obtain the internally requested products or services.

Some standard forms you might be familiar with would be: Request for Quotation (RFQ); Request for Proposal (RFP); Request for Inofrmation (RFI); and there are many others.

While most of these procurement forms are relatively straightforward, the RFP is a form that has continued to evolve since its first started to appear in the early ’80’s. Since then, RFP’s have become more prevalent, refined and in some cases are all many companies issue (not what we recommend!!). Regardless, companies that purchase goods and services need procurement forms to help them manage their business. These forms are a necessary evil and ultimately will help you complete the task of getting to the stage for an award.

Work flow and players involved when you issue a RFP / RFQ

Before we detail the templates most used by purchasing professionals today, we think some background on the process would be helpful. Typically, there are 3 or 4 role players in the RFP or RFQ process. There is a Tenderer aka Bidder / Offeror / Supplier / Vendor (A seller of materials and/or supplies who submit a proposal or quotation against your requirements); then there is the Owner which is the parent company issuing the document and paying the bills — the user or internal department making the request or the fellow employees needing the material or service to complete the project — and last the procurement officer who is the person managing the RFP / RFQ. The procurement officer or purchasing agent often generate the documents, issue the RFP, analyze the supplier quotes, makes a recommendation, and finally manages the award to the supplier of choice. There are others like the accounting department which will pay the supplier and so on.

Now back to the most popular forms used today:

RFP – (Request for Proposal). Without question, this form is considered the go to form for procurement professionals, on larger dollar spend and when your selection criteria might use additional factors other than price, like service capabilities or technical support.

Free RFP Template is included in our Welcome Pack

RFQ – (Request for Quote). To some this is up for debate, but depending on the organization, sometimes the Buyer is simply looking for price and delivery on a simple material request.  We need 6 widgets and here is the part # so in this instance a RFP is overkill and is not worth the cost or effort.

Free RFQ Template is included in our Welcome Pack

EOI or RFI – (Expression of Interest) or (Request for Information).  An Expression of Interest (EOI) or (RFI) is used to gauge interest from potential suppliers for a potential upcoming project on the drawing board or hope to officially tender in the near future. An EOI, gives you the opportunity to pre-qualify vendors to ensure they are capable of completing the work under the restrictions or specifications outlined in your document.

Free Simple RFI Template > 8 pages

LOI or LOU – (Letter of Intent) or (Letter of Understanding). Often the next document to be used by the purchasing department if the spend warrants (vs going right to a PO).  It captures the summary terms negotiated by both parties during the award process and these details will eventually make their way into the formal contract. Simply, the Buyer is looking for a document they can use to bridge them over until a formal contract document can be executed.

There are many other documents a Buyer / Purchasing Agent will use in their day to day purchasing needs and if you, like many of us, find the RFP Process overwhelming or too time consuming the RFQPro Step by Step RFP Guide will make these tasks easier and will be released soon. It will simplify the RFP Process by providing a step by step guide c/w with sample forms typically used at each stage when issuing a RFP — a start to finish guide c/w templates. All templates will be provided in edit friendly Microsoft Word format. This comprehensive guide and template pack will be provided at a discount to all our subscribers and with returning customers receiving additional discounts over and above discounts offered to our subscriber base.