"I want a partner to tell me what I need, not what I want."
Posted by Jennifer Burns on Fri, Jul 16, 2010
I promised to blog about CCMIs National Summit on Telecom Expense Management and some of the sessions. While Ian’s keynote presentation was by far my favorite, of course, I really enjoyed a session presented by Steve Martin the IT Financial Officer of Liberty Mutual Insurance. He presented a Case Study that discussed the RFP portion of his company’s Telecom Expense Management provider selection process.
Steve’s presentation resonated with me personally. In my earlier days at Quickcomm, I was the person responsible for responding to any RFX that came our way. Responding to an RFX takes a significant amount of time, thought and….patience. To say that this portion of my job was both grueling and frustrating is a complete understatement. I am still wondering what I did in a previous life that warranted this task to fall on to my plate. I have received RFXs that were over 200 pages (which didn’t include our response), ones that required 9 copies printed while asking how we will help them “go green”, ones required on blue paper, one that inquired into Quickcomm’s preferred snack choice is and I won’t even get into some of the off-the-wall questions we have had to respond to. Don’t ask.
Sorry, I digress. Of course, I understand that the RFP process is a necessary evil for some organizations. And while it is a huge undertaking on the supplier’s part, it is even more so for an enterprise. Scoping, writing, reading, evaluating and down-selecting is far more difficult than simply responding. When I saw Steve’s case study, I absolutely had to attend as I was really curious as to hear from an enterprise what the thought process was behind this huge undertaking. I left the session wanting to sing Steve’s praises from a mountain top. He really had some valuable knowledge and tips to share that helped both enterprises and suppliers. Here are some:
- Don’t ask questions just because you can. Only ask what is necessary. His RFP was originally 413 questions which after second review was whittled down to 255 questions.
- Discuss RFP scoring BEFORE the RFP is launched.
- Create a supplier background RFI process. Ask repetitive bidders a standard set of questions and keep the responses on file and leverage for future RFX.
- Focus on your company’s specific needs.
- Create a company overview document for Telecom Expense Management. Provide as much current state information and historical data as possible. Include current workflows and processes. (I can’t stress how much this helps suppliers properly scope, respond and price your project.)
- Define team roles and responsibilities. Ensure that everyone on the RFP Team understands roles and responsibilities before the RFP launches.
- Summarize all of the supplier responses along with the following comparison
- Did they provide the same answer, if “Yes”, eliminate it as a differentiator
- Level of confidence in the response
- Follow up questions you may have
- Supplier edge
- Interact with the suppliers during the process. View a demo, discuss the RFP, clarify responses and discuss your potential issues and concerns in detail.
And my absolute favorite was:
- Approach the RFP as if the supplier knows best. I know it seems self serving that I would say this is my favorite but hear me out. I will be the first person to say that you know your business best…here comes the “but”. While you may know your business best, some suppliers are experts in telecom expense management. TEM suppliers have been implementing these projects and processes for clients of all shapes and sizes. And we have been doing it for a long time and have had to overcome some unique challenges.
Steve noted during the session that the way they were currently doing things wasn’t necessarily the best way. I loved it when he said, “We weren’t doing the right thing in the first place, and we needed someone to tell us that. I want a partner to tell me what I need, not what I want.”