Step 1: Review the Procurement Process

Procurement refers to the process of selecting vendors, establishing payment terms, strategic vetting, selection, the negotiation of contracts and actual purchasing of goods, services, and other work vital to an organization.

A request for proposals or RFP is part of the procurement cycle. It provides an overview and background of the company, the relevant financial information, the define the requirements section, including availability requirements and business requirements, and the administrative information about the bidding process. The RFP specifies the type of contract that you wish cloud vendors to respond with (firm-fixed-price, cost-plus, or cost-plus-award-fee).

A subset of the RFP, the statement of work (SOW), lays the groundwork for the project. It includes and defines all aspects of the project, such as activities, deliverables, and the timetable, and any relevant information on the existing technical environment.

Procurement 101

• Procurement Process
• Request for Proposal (RFP)
• Components of an RFP
• Sample IT RFP
• How to Write an RFP
• Cost Estimation
• Components of an RFP Response

Before moving to Step 2, take some time to become acquainted with the basics of the procurement process and discuss the elements of procurement with your colleagues in Discussion: Procurement Process Review.

Step 2: Review BallotOnline’s RFP for Web Services

For this stage of the procurement process, you will assume the role of the bid and proposal manager at a vendor providing cloud migration services for the AWS platform. Your final deliverable will be a proposal in response to the web application services RFP posted by BallotOnline.

Boilerplate language contains key legal provisions that can affect the enforceability of an RFP. It is important to have a basic understanding of boilerplate language and how it is used in an RFP.

You may want to review sample boilerplate language used in RFPs and RFP responses before moving on to the next step.

Take Note

Before beginning your proposal, fully examine the web services RFP posted by BallotOnline so you understand the project requirements, including security, financial, regulatory, and technical issues that will need to be considered in your proposal response.

Step 3: Identify the Key Components of the RFP Response

You have shared BallotOnline’s requirements with your colleagues, and your organization has decided to move forward with writing a proposal.

It is now time to identify the key components of an RFP response. Those components will include technical aspects as well as costs and personnel considerations. The financial proposal should outline all costs associated with implementing the technical proposal.

You should also keep the AWS features and offerings and cloud service provider (CSP) pricing issues in mind.

In the next step, you will start working on your draft RFP response.

Step 4: Mapping the RFP Requirements

It is important that your proposal addresses the specific details outlined in the RFP. You should create a two-column table breaking down your proposal to map to each component of the RFP.

Review the RFP from BallotOnline and prepare an RFP mapping document. Submit this document for review.

END OF FIRST PART OF PROJECT

tep 5: Begin Drafting Your Individual RFP Response

Although you will not submit your response to the dropbox at this time, you should take time to organize your thoughts and begin writing the final proposal now, as you will discuss your proposed response with peers in the next step.

Use the RFP Response Template to write your draft RFP response.

Your RFP Response Proposal should include enough details to assure the reviewer that your proposal can address all aspects of the requirements. The most common reasons that a proposal is rejected include not addressing a specific requirement or not providing enough details on how the vendor can meet a requirement or plan to meet a requirement.

It is acceptable for the RFP response proposal to have a statement, “Proposed solution meets this requirement” when addressing specific requirements that are outside the scope of this course.

Step 6: Discuss Your Proposed RFP Response With Colleagues

With your draft now ready, the next step is to discuss your RFP response with your colleagues. Proposal writing is a process, and several iterations may be necessary to meet the client’s needs. Take a moment to discuss your proposed RFP response with your colleagues in the Discussion: Proposed RFP Response forum. However, do not share your actual RFP response in the discussion.

After the discussion, it’s time for the final step, in which you will put together your individual final RFP response.

Step 7: Submit the Final RFP Response

At this point, you should have a much better understanding of how vendors will respond to a cloud RFP and the type of information that you can expect to see in their proposals. As a professional in the cloud computing field, you will need to review and understand both technical and cost proposals, and make the best decision for your organization.

It is now time to put everything together in the final RFP response to submit to BallotOnline for review.

Complete your RFP response and submit it via the dropbox below.

Before you submit your assignment, review the competencies below, which your instructor will use to evaluate your work. A good practice would be to use each competency as a self-check to confirm you have incorporated all of them in your work.

• 1.7: Create neat and professional looking documents appropriate for the project or presentation.
• 5.1: Evaluate the Business IT needs of an organization.
• 5.2: Propose strategies the organization can employ using cloud solutions to enhance organizational effectiveness.
• 6.1: Articulate the systems architecture of the cloud – cloud infrastructure, cloud service, cloud platform, and cloud storage.
• 6.8: Review, evaluate, and utilize emerging technologies related to cloud to support business needs.
• 7.2: Examine industry best-practices and standards.
• 9.4: Acquire cloud service / Manage cloud procurement project.
• 9.5: Design virtualized network infrastructure to meet business needs.
• 9.6: Design cloud storage infrastructure to meet business needs.