ADVISEN FPN ONCE AGAIN triggers thoughts that, while not strictly “risk management,” are “close enough.”
There are three “requests for” documents that everyone charged with buying anything need to consider.
- 1. Request for Information (RFI)
2. Request for Proposal (RFP)
3. Request for Quote (RFQ)
RARELY DOES a buyer know as much about a product category as the folks who make and maintain that product.
I was tasked with finding a multi-function Customer Support application.
Customer Support, while I’ve done it from time to time, is not my field.
I did a search and found several companies that claimed their product could do what I thought I needed to accomplish.
I sent out Requests for Information (RFIs) to selected vendors.
The responses I received opened my eyes to the potential of Customer Support software . . . and more.
Based on responses to the RFIs, I invited two or three vendors to individual face-to-face meetings.
During those meetings I learned more about the products’ capabilities and what, if any, benefits my organization would accrue with each vendor’s product.
Based on the face-to-face meetings, I sent a Request for Proposal (RFP) to the vendors I interviewed.
The RFP instructed the vendors NOT to include pricing.
Back when I was involved with mil-spec hardware, I learned that (at least) the U.S. government insisted on separate proposal and quote documents. Apparently the proposals were reviewed by the people who would USE the product while the quotes were reviewed by the bean counters for dollar value.
Although I had interviewed the vendors submitting responses to my RFPs and RFQs, management still had to put its stamp of approval.
The vendors’ responses to my RFP also helped me to “sell” the product to management.
Finally, the vendors response to the RFQ was presented to management.
Was a higher priced product justified? Would a lower-priced product do the basic job we intended?
VENDORS AS EXPERTS
In a previous life I was a writer – first for newspapers (you remember those), then PR, and finally technical publications.
As a tech writer I managed to attend several conventions for writers.
At each convention there were a multitude of vendors pitching products (along with tee shirts, pens, and other nonsense) to the folks who might use their products.
I never turned down a vendor “dog and pony” (presentation) if I thought the vendor had a product I could use to make my job easier, faster, or more cost effective. (Writers usually are considered overhead that contribute nothing to the organization’s bottom line; therefore “cost effectiveness” was a personal priority. For what it’s worth, the opinion that writers are just overhead is a gross canard.)
No one knew both their product and the competitions’ products better than the pitchmen and women at the conventions.
MY FIRST PURCHASE
This will be telling my age (I’m a geezer and proud of it).
My first RF-series purchase was for a desktop publishing system.
My employer, prior to my coming on board, was paying a contractor “Big Bucks” to write, compose, and print small manuals. When the contractor proposed to compose some text and drawings for a mere $20,000 I went to my boss and suggested I could buy a complete desktop publishing system for much less and I would compose the document.
My boss bought the idea and I started researching what the company needed for desktop publishing.
The total bill, for computer, software applications, and a laser printer came to less than $10,000.1
Over my writing career I used multiple versions of Ventura (later Corel) Publisher, Interleaf, Adobe FrameMaker, and even PageMaker. My favorites – for the jobs I was doing – were Publisher and FrameMaker. Word, while an excellent word processor, is not, in my opinion, a page composition application. This blog entry was created using LibreOffice Writer which offers fewer UI changes than Microsoft’s product . . . and is free.
Buying a product always is enlightening providing the buyer goes into the purchase with an open mind.
I’ve selected a number of products for a number of organization and it always is educational.
Sources
1. 80286 computer with 19-inch monitor; Windows, Microsoft Word, Ventura Publisher, In-a-Vision, optical mouse, laser printer.
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
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