Feb 15, 2019 5 Ways a Virtual Data Room Improves the RFP process
Talk to the procurement officer at any large company, nonprofit, or government agency and you will learn about the Request for Proposal commonly referred to an “RFP”.
You’ll also hear about their frustration with the procedures and processes built around this important task that provides options for a company or business that is seeking services or products from vendors. A Virtual Data Room is the perfect solution to these issues.
Any organization in search of suppliers will want to have competitive proposals from a number of different vendors. This process, if deployed correctly, should result in a “better” price for services and/or a “better” services or solution response provided by the chosen vendor. RFPs are typically used by government agencies and also public and private companies that are soliciting contracts. They typically will want to invite several bids, so that they can ascertain which vendor or supplier best fits their needs for that project. So why is an RFP such a pain for companies to implement?
Why is it such a frustrating process? It’s time-consuming and difficult to manage particularly if you only use mail, telephone and email as your communication methods. Unless the process is managed efficiently, the cost of putting out an RFP can easily become unviable.
To be effective, an RFP should be managed by a cross-functional team with 24/7 access to all of the documents and communication related to the bidding process. Having the right software solution to manage the process seamlessly is the answer.
RFP Challenges
RFPs provide the issuing organization with a wealth of information about the bidding companies: corporate history, technical expertise, management structure, how they plan to approach the project, and financial information. And since the purpose of an RFP is to gather this data from several companies, there’s a lot of information to manage and it all has to be kept secure and confidential.
To get the best result from an RFP you should have a cross-functional team evaluate the responses. But working with a team on the RFP process can be frustrating.
- You have to coordinate calendars for meetings
- You all have to be in the same physical space
- Long email threads make it hard to control the conversation or find information
- Email is not the most secure technology
A Virtual Data Room solves all these issues
- It’s a completely secure online space where your team can meet and view documents and bids. This saves time and, in some cases, travel. It’s much easier to coordinate a time to meet in a Virtual Data Room.
- Both the issuing company and the bidders can upload their information with confidence. Users can drag and drop or bulk upload files, folders, and folder trees easily.
- You can invite data room users (as many as you want), from inside and outside your firm and control the permissions and access rights of each user.
- All document and user activities are logged for audit and compliance. You get usage reports by document, folder and document library. An email alert system advises when changes have been made to documents.
- All communication in the Virtual Data Room is secure and searchable. And by streamlining the communication procedures, you can significantly reduce the cost of the RFP process.
A Virtual Data Room is the perfect tool to streamline the RFP process and make it easier to manage.
About the author: Mickey Henry is the owner of idrShare, LLC and supports investment banks, advisory firms and corporations by building and hosting customer designed virtual data rooms. Mr. Henry has over 18 years’ experience in providing data rooms and provides passionate support to his clients.