The Challenge

Conducting a successful Request for Quotation (RFQ), whether it is a prelude to a more complex Request for Proposal (RFP) or an end in itself, is all about details.

It is crucial to zero in on the exact specifications of items or services you want suppliers to bid on so that they understand what they are bidding on and you receive what you really need.

And it is also crucial to define those specifications in a consistent, highly-detailed way so that you can accurately compare the quotes you receive from suppliers. 

Poorly defined specifications lead to suppliers, essentially, bidding on different products or services when they are forced to assume information or to fill in missing data, or even worse, to suppliers delivering products or services that don’t really meet your needs. 

Additionally, it is vital to maintain all of the steps in the decision making process in case you want to conduct multiple rounds of bidding or a reverse auction to get the best overall price. Changes in quotations over time must be tracked to accurately gauge how those changes affect the overall value of each quote in comparison to one another.

ReqMan™ is free – what’s the catch?

The Solution

ReqMan™ includes many features that help ensure that specifications generated from requirements are detailed and on target.

ReqMan™ tracks the entire history of a requirement’s development and also provides numerous tools, such as questionnaires, simplified dialogue between stakeholders, and so forth, that ensure that each requirement is well-defined and thought out. 

Also, after an RFQ has been distributed, suppliers can engage in the dialogue within the ReqMan™ system themselves to clarify any specification that lacks necessary detail.

And because ReqMan™ captures and tracks all input to requirements, you can use that feedback to improve the level of detail of future RFQ distributions.

IT procurement tool

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