Request for Proposal for Distribution
Scenario
You are a project manager in the human resources department
for a global investment management firm, LRH Financial. You are currently
updating your benefits administration to an external company; this is expected
to be a minimum 5-year operational commitment. As part of this move, you are
revising your benefits options, updating the employees on the changes,
revamping the intranet to include self-service benefits administration, and
redeploying about 20 human resources benefits staff to new positions with the
human resources department. The vendor that will be taking over benefits
administration operations has not yet been chosen. Due to a lack of resources
in the information technology department, a vendor will be used to update the
intranet and train employees on the new self-service functionality. It is not
yet clear how the redeployment of the benefits staff will be completed. In the
past, this type of activity has been handled by a boutique management
consulting company.
You just met with your boss, Pat, the Vice President of
Human Resources. Pat emphasized that you will have responsibility for all the
contracting, negotiating, and vendor management activities. You will need to
work closely with purchasing and accounts payable as you complete these
activities.
Question
You had your meeting with the project sponsor and the other
decision makers, and they approved your general approach. Now you need to
develop the request for proposal (RFP) for distribution. You have decided to
use a number of vendors for the project, preferring deep expertise to a vendor
who can “do it all.” Develop a list of criteria against which all the
proposals will be evaluated. It should include the following:
? background
information on the company and project
? the
bid/proposal process from the vendor’s perspective
? the
criteria that will be used to evaluate the vendors
? timing
with which the vendor must comply
? descriptions
of any specific terminology or specialized terms
? open
questions or issues
NOTE: You do not have a list of specific requirements.
Create them to the best of your ability using your own experience and Internet
research. It is acceptable to use placeholders for the requirements. The
process and flow of information/decisions are critical.
Question 2
Pat and the other decision makers are anxious to sign a
contract with a vendor as soon as possible. They are strongly urging you just
to sign a contract with the boutique consulting company you have always used
for the staff redeployment activities. You are not convinced that it is the
best firm to do the job, and you are concerned about its abilities to work
effectively with the human resources team. There have been some differences of
opinion in the past, and that firm has sometimes gone around the project
manager, directly to Pat. The firm defers to Pat and does not always make the
hard decisions that need to be made. (You suspect that this is why Pat wants to
use the firm and not worry about looking at any others.) You have not had any
experience with the firm directly, but you have heard the same story from
several of your peers who have worked with the firm.
Describe your approach to solving this difference of
opinion. Be sure to answer the following questions:
? What is
the best way to respond to Pat and the decision makers?
? Is
choosing this vendor consistent with the vendor strategy you chose during the
group project? If not, what are the implications of using the vendor?
? What are
the benefits of completing the full-vendor analysis?
? If you
chose to go with the vendor, what could you do to minimize the risk of the
vendor behaving in the same way? What could you build into the contract to
address your concerns?
