How to write a Request for Proposal (RFP)

It’s not easy to choose the best LMS that suits your specific requirements. With so many LMS providers in the market, deciding the best one might be difficult.

Comparing all of the different LMS vendor products is a crucial stage in the selection process. The RFP for LMS is the best approach for buyers to offer their expectations to LMS Vendors in the form of a Request for Proposal (RFP), and LMS Vendors to understand the prospect’s exact requirements and expectations from the product. If vendors believe they can satisfy your needs, they make offers; the organization examines the options and chooses the most appropriate one.

When is an LMS RFP most helpful?

If your company is to invest a large amount of money in an LMS and the risks of failure are high, an RFP is a way to go. What does it mean to make a “substantial” investment?

If you expect a tens of thousands of dollars (or more) difference in vendor cost, preparing your approach ahead of time with an RFP will only assist.

There may be no practical reason to issue a formal RFP at a low LMS pricing point. It can be overkill in low-cost circumstances that aren’t mission-critical. In such a scenario, you can perform your research and take advantage of the free online trials offered by entry-level cloud LMS providers.

However, it’s critical to remember that every RFP is built around a written definition of the buyer’s criteria. Any learning technology purchase, in my opinion, should start with a clear business need and reason.

Why a good RFP is game changing?

A botched RFP dilutes brand value for suppliers, causes administrative delays on your end, and wastes money and time on both sides, in addition to complicating an otherwise simple process. Are these factors taken into account when the consequences could affect both you and your potential supplier?

When you copy a learning management system RFP template from the internet (or, worse, make one up on the spot), you’re more likely to overlook why you need one in the first place. Your queries have little significance without a why, purpose, or objective, and the responses you receive have even less meaning because you have no criteria against which to compare them. Due to the ambiguity of the RFP, different suppliers interpret it differently, resulting in different and perhaps conflicting proposals.

You won’t be looking for LMS vendors on a whim if you use a thorough RFP. This would be similar to having an overgrown garden and rushing out to buy the first lawnmower you see without checking pricing, brands, reviews, or product details. A strong RFP form might mean the difference between success and failure when you’re dealing with thousands of dollars, hundreds of potential users, future succession planning, and multiple interconnected projects.

The Request for Information – Creating an RFP in 4 Steps

It’s time to write your RFP after your initial research pass and select a few vendors. It’s tempting to Google

• Step 1: Identify Needs

  Your RFP should include a section on LMS criteria or must-have features. This stage is vital in setting you on a path to success. Here are a few keys to helping you focus on the needs that matter:

  1. Give everyone a say. Don’t stop at the C-suite and HR managers. Inquire about the LMS’s impact on your technological infrastructure. Also, get end-user feedback — it’s vital.
  2. Concentrate on crucial qualities. It’s easy to think about every feature matters. But that doesn’t make every feature vital. Having showy tools won’t assist if you can’t offer instructional modules in many languages.
  3. Identify your issues. Is the existing system too limited? Need a mobile app? Is your organization missing formal training and looking to implement one? Knowing your obstacles will help you identify your strengths.
  4. Look ahead. Installing new software involves time and money. Save your firm time and money by anticipating future needs. Your LMS should have eCommerce features or the ability to add them later if you plan to sell your training content.
  5. Be precise. Many vendors on the LMS market provide solutions that handle many of the same problems. So be specific about your difficulties, needs, and ambitions. Then you can learn how vendors can alleviate your particular issues.

• Step:2 Make an RFP

  An RFP can’t be that difficult to create. While that is partially true, you must still focus on this stage. Otherwise, you risk putting out a sloppy RFP. Your goal should be to make it clear how vendors should respond. If suppliers can’t figure out what you want or how to best meet your needs, you’ll likely end yourself picking through messy bids that don’t describe how they can do so.

  Giving vendors a structure to follow eliminates questions about what information you want and how it should be formatted. Ahead of time, consider how your format requirements may affect vendor responses. For example, a spreadsheet should be formatted to allow Yes/no answers. With that design, long explanations aren’t reasonable.

  Managing this stage online is wise. It will save you time and provide an LMS RFP template for sending clear, organized, professional RFPs. The procedure streamlines requirement selection, and you can create and distribute RFPs that follow best practices. It also substantially reduces the time it takes to complete an RFP by up to 50%.

• Step: 3 Identify potential vendors and send out a request for proposals (RFP)

  If you do your research in advance, this stage will be uncomplicated. If this is the case, now is the time to create a vendor shortlist. Completing and submitting RFPs is a time-consuming activity that demands dedication and time. The research step is where you should be as broad as possible. By this time, you should have narrowed your focus to a specific topic.

   

  Your shortlist should be just that – a list of a few items. Include only those vendors who appear to be promising. Choose no more than five candidates to whom you will send your RFP. And if there are only two suppliers who appear to be worth pursuing, don’t waste your time by sending out further RFPs just because you can.

• Step 4: Assessing Responses

  Your LMS RFP has been sent out into the world. However, this does not imply that your work is finished.

  The responses must still be vetted. That process can take a long time in and of itself. It’s here that your evaluation team scrutinizes each vendor proposal to see if it’s exactly what you’re looking for. This selection, like picking the ideal wedding site, has a lot riding on it.

  When it comes to the evaluation process, you have two possibilities. Either wait until you receive all of the responses, which may take several weeks, or begin working on each proposal as it arrives.

  The second option is preferable. It will expedite the process and smooth out any potential back-and-forth with vendors.

  You’ll want to allow suppliers to ask questions and acquire any clarifications you require based on the interaction. Working through those questions as they come can help to speed up the process and keep it from becoming sluggish.

LMS Proposal Template

Every RFP should be distinct. When writing RFPs, I usually include these sections:

• History and Logistics

  Here are the relevant business drivers and logistics. To properly comprehend your current status, your main obstacles, and your desired outcomes, it is best to provide vendors with more context than they need. Include elements like:

  • About Buyer Organization
  • Learning Status
  • RFP Purpose and Scope
  • Objectives
  • Success Criteria
  • RFP Assumptions and Terms
  • Timeline and RFP Deadlines
  • Reply-to-RFP

Related: Mahara LMS RFP Sample

• Included in your RFP response are the following elements:

  1. Synopsis of the solution and proposal response
  2. Vendor Profile – contact information, history, business structure, location(s), size, clientele, experience, and unique selling point
  3. Use Case Feature Requirements – Who are your target users and what do you want them to do? So now what? It’s not just about finding the LMS and logging in. What do you want users to do differently or more in the future?
  4. Professional Service Needs – What implementation services do you need? Services for integration, data migration, content creation, business strategy, or none?
  5. Concerns about scale, uptime, and bandwidth; security; certifications; disaster recovery; internationalization; and deployment model
  6. The business has to know the historical usage information, the licensing model preference, and price factors.
  7. Request three client references who have used the vendor for a similar job.

  Appendix — Any additional information sellers wish to show their solution’s qualifications

Paradiso LMS Request for Proposal (RFP)

Paradiso is a pioneer in eLearning technology and has vast exposure to the unique business requirements of organizations across various domains. The experience has lent a helping hand for Paradiso to come up with the most effective, comprehensive, and holistic LMS RFP that enables you to compare vendors, LMS platforms, features, business objectives, and much more at a glance.

The Paradiso LMS RFP structure comprises crucial sections that demand information from the prospective buyer and responses to queries specific to your needs and company. It asks for information such as the objective, your organization’s strengths and weaknesses, the roles and expectations of the LMS vendor, the contract length and payment, and more.

Identify the most relevant section of questions from our LMS RFP and send your requirement to us to know more about us, and our LMS RFP/RFI.