Give your project the best chance for success – before it starts.
Identify & Define your project scope with a clear and concise RFP / RFQ.
Are your RFP processes difficult to manage?
Are they just more work that is not part of your everyday workload?
Are your design service bids coming in as competitive and complete as they should?
There IS a solution. Let Smith LaRock collaborate with you to develop your RFP!
Like any building project, a solid foundation is a must! Preparing and issuing a Request For Proposal (RFP) for a new facility design or construction project can be challenging, but it is your foundation. What do you need? What comes first? Where do you collect all the necessary information? What IS the necessary information you need to collect?
We can help:
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streamline and de-stress the process
- develop more comprehensive scope description, space needs, and project definitions
- communicate and create the shared vision necessary to see your project through
- create conceptual design planning documents and estimates
- more fully communicate what designers need for meaningful responses
- simplify your workload while sharing a clear vision of your project needs
- It all comes down to communication! Better information sooner = better results later.
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What’s in the RFP?
Owners need to standardize their proposal requests to clearly define a project’s actual needs in terms that Architects, Engineers, and Builders can understand. It is critically important to work directly with key stakeholders and corporate standards to define contractual requirements, describe project needs, and provide a system of evaluation to help ensure that owners are receiving quality bids to make informed business decisions.
Does your RFP contain?:
1. Detailed project description
2. Concise project goals
3. Required specs & guidelines
4. Proposed schedules or timelines
5. Insurance requirements
6. Contract type and description
7. Terms and conditions
8. Clear instructions to bidders
9. Criteria used in evaluation
10.Procedures for RFP questions
Internally, do you have a system of “weighting” so that you can “score” a candidate objectively? Is your RFP similar enough that you compare this RFP response to your last project?
give Smith LaRock Architecture a call. 303-534-2200
Why do you care about my RFP?
Whether writing RFPs for design services for your facility needs is part of your everyday business or not, having access to design knowledge and specialized capability adds credibility at the early stage of your project and can be invaluable to an owner’s understanding of their own project. Realistic schedules, preliminary costs, and clear scope descriptions ensure that bids are solid. Owners are often familiar with their own “plant language,” a market which doesn’t quite translate to the commercial building construction market.
Often, RFPs have one or many critical parts wholly missing, too restrictive, or not specific enough. Design professionals can’t give their best bid unless the complete scope of the project is understood. The real trick is to leave the door open for bidders to provide a better or more efficient solution. Owners are limiting themselves by not realizing all the benefits of the design process. Sometimes the best RFP is because of what it doesn’t require. The challenge is understanding where to edit…
