Summary:
In selecting vendors to receive University purchase orders and contracts, Purchasing Services uses a variety of
tools. The most commonly used tool is the competitive bid process, used for products for which exact
specifications can be written and communicated to bidders. The vendor offering the lowest bid for the product is
awarded the purchase order or contract.
The competitive proposal process is used for complex services or combinations of goods and services
("Services"). In this process, a variety of factors besides price must be taken into consideration in selecting a
vendor.
Regents Purchasing Policy states:
Vendor selections shall be made using an objective process and may be based on total benefits to the
University, considering price, level of services and other variables as appropriate.
Purchasing Services will determine whether it is appropriate to invite competitive proposals in lieu of bids. A
Purchasing Buyer will oversee all aspects of the competitive proposals process.
A Request For Proposal (RFP) is an invitation to vendors to submit a written offer to supply services. The RFP
will require the vendor to define the specific financial and/or service commitments that comprise the offer.
Purchasing makes the RFP available to multiple vendors to review and respond with a proposal. Evaluation of
competing proposals is based on various criteria, one of which is price.
An Evaluation Team, which may comprise people inside the University and outside the University, evaluates the
proposals on the basis of evaluation criteria stated in the RFP. Team members are selected on the basis of their
interest in and/or expertise in the services. Prior to awarding proposals $50,000 or over, the buyer will send all
non-selected respondents a letter stating the reasons for non-selection of their proposal.
The Evaluation Team may invite finalist(s) to do a presentation to the Team. Information learned from the
presentations may be considered in the final scoring of the proposals. The Team may also negotiate with
finalist(s).
If the awarded contract is valued at $250,000 or over, Purchasing will obtain approval from the Board of Regents
before the contract is awarded.
Timeline:
The timeline for the RFP process varies, based on the complexity of the services to be purchased. A complex
service will require a complex RFP, which will require more time to write, more time for vendors to compose a
response, more time to evaluate, and more time to negotiate contract terms with the finalist.
(WF HD Purchasing Stuff/RFP Stuff/2007/RequestforProposalOverview.doc 5/10/07)
When the deadline for the proposal submission has arrived, the Purchasing Buyer will forward the proposals to
the Evaluation Team with RFP Referral Form and Proposal Evaluation Instructions. This document includes an
information sheet on 3 methods of scoring the proposals, as well as a Template for Documenting Evaluation of
Proposals.
The Team may, under the Purchasing Buyer's direction, request proposal clarifications from the Respondents.
When the proposal evaluation is complete, the Team will identify finalist(s) and may invite them to do
presentations. Negotiations with one or more finalists are also appropriate at this time, as part of the
presentations or following the presentations.
If, at the presentations, information is learned that would affect the scoring against the evaluation criteria, the
Team may revise their scoring. An explanation for the scoring changes must accompany the revised score
sheet.