This course is a result of 25 years of consulting project management experience, participating in dozens of vendor selection processes, gathering stakeholder requirements for a new product or service and analyzing multiple vendor responses.

This course will start with the discussion of request types including Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Quotation (RFQ), Request for Information (RFI), Invitation to Quote (ITQ) and several others. We will then cover the most typical layout of the RFP/RFI document including introduction, instructions to bidders, proposal response formats, bid evaluation methods, terms and conditions and requirements.

We will then discuss several recommended strategies for the companies issuing the RFP/RFI as well as the potential games the vendors could play in order to maximize their revenues from the project.

Once we cover the basics of the RFP/RFI process, we will turn our attention to an actual business case where a large North American hotel chain decided to replace their existing Property Management System (PMS) and had to choose a platform from fifteen potential vendors. We will examine the current state of the hospitality industry, the severe impact of the technology and the key capabilities desired by the hotel chains.

Later we will examine the structure of our own RFP, the anticipated timeline and the key questions included in the RFP.