There are many ways to undertake an RFP process. Infinite Campus recommends a process that provides you the best chance of selecting the system that meets your needs, as well as the partner that can  implement the solution on time and within the budget.

The recommended RFP process from Infinite Campus has six steps. It is designed to separate the vendors who truly want to be your partner from the vendors who simply want to sell you something.

Step 1: Fundamental Technology Requirements
Some vendors currently offer advanced technology while others are playing catch-up on the technology front. By asking and verifying these next three questions, you can be assured that you are not going to end up with archaic technology that will need to be replaced in a few years.

1. Is the solution based upon a single community-wide data repository where information is entered once and is then available for all authorized stakeholders?
2. Is the system built upon a highly secure, multi-tier architecture?
3. Is the solution COMPLETELY web-based?

Given today's technology, negative or partial answers to any of these three questions should be viewed as unacceptable and the prospective vendor should be dropped from your short list.

Step 2: Screening Presentation
Right from the start, you should be sure that your prospective partners are willing to show up and devote time and energy. Only those vendors making it past Step 1 should be invited to the screening presentation.

The Screening Presentation provides you and your key stakeholders with an understanding of the vendor's vision, the capabilities of the proposed system, and the vendor's commitment to establishing and maintaining a presence within the K12 educational community. This understanding helps you develop a meaningful feature checklist and lets you better evaluate the validity of the vendors' responses to your requirements.

The screening presentation does not have to be a significant time commitment...perhaps two hours...but should be thorough enough for the selection team to get a good sense of whether or not the proposed solution is real, and if the team members would be comfortable working with the vendor to implement the solution.

Step 3: Accelerated Implementation Plan
Next, you should determine if your prospective partners are willing to invest the time and energy required to understand your political, cultural, and technological environment. At first glance, this step may seem out of place. However, the information gathering interactions between vendors and your key stakeholders will accomplish three things.

First, you will be able to better judge the “stick to the task” ability of each vendor. Second, you will learn things that should be included in your checklist document. Third, the prospective vendors will learn things about your organization that will help them better complete your checklist.

Before a prospective vendor is invited to complete an in-depth feature checklist, the vendor should submit a fully-developed proposed rapid implementation plan. Only those vendors making it past Step 2, Screening Presentation, should be invited to offer a proposed accelerated implementation plan.

The proposed rapid implementation plan should be “fully operational.” Only the insertion of actual calendar dates should be required for the plan to go from “proposed” to “actual.”

Because long-term implementation plans are frequently expensive, fraught with data synchronization problems, and prone to failure, the proposed rapid implementation plan should “fit the district” and should not exceed six months, following board approval of the contract, regardless of district size.

Review the plan for completeness and attention to detail. This will likely be one of the best indicators of whether or not the vendor can actually make their product work in your district.

Step 4: Feature Checklist Spreadsheet
By this time, prospective vendors will have a thorough understanding of your organization and you will have a thorough understanding of their proposed solutions and organizational capacity to function as your partner.

Only those vendors making it past Step 3, Rapid Implementation Plan, should be invited to complete your Feature Checklist Spreadsheet.

Like Infinite Campus, each prospective vendor will have a recommended checklist. Naturally, each vendor will try to slant the questions on their checklist in a way that favors their particular solution. Your job is to “cut and paste” the most appropriate questions from each prospective vendor's checklist into a composite document and then add your own questions to the mix.

The problem with the normal use of feature checklists is that vendors sometimes “check yes to everything to get through the door.” By reserving the checklist for Step 4, the purpose of the checklist now changes. The vendors you've invited to respond are already “through the door.” Each vendor must now accurately represent the existing capabilities of their current systems in light of your requirements. Each vendor's checklist will be a “gap analysis” document that will help you determine how much customization will be required for each system, as well as the amount of business process re-engineering your organization will need to undertake.

The format of the checklist document isn't important, but the scoring rubric is. If a prospective vendor's current product has features that clearly satisfy a specific requirement, the word YES should be written in the blank associated with it. If the current product does not have features that satisfy the requirement, the word NO should be written in the blank. If the prospective vendor is willing to guarantee in writing that an upcoming version of their product will have features that clearly satisfy a specific requirement, the general availability date (GA = xx/xx/xxxx) for this feature should be written in the blank. Finally, if the prospective vendor is willing to customize the existing product to meet a specific requirement, a good faith cost estimate for that customization should be recorded on the blank.

There are a variety of ways to score the completed checklists. Simply pick a methodology and apply it uniformly. However, the composite scores are not as important as the sense you'll have of how close each vendor's proposed solution comes...either “out of the box” or for additional cost...to matching your expectations.

Step 5: Summary Presentation
The fifth step in the process is the summary presentation. The purpose of a summary presentation is to allow you and your key stakeholders to ask in-depth questions about the proposed information system. Answers to your questions will enable you to make your final decision and enter into contract negotiations with the successful vendor.

For best results, a list of in-depth questions should be submitted to the individual vendors at least one week prior to the scheduled summary presentations. It is recommended that you use a formal consensus process to help your key stakeholders arrive at their final decision.

Step 6: Final Decision and Due Diligence
By this time, you will have a well-established preference for one of the proposed system. You will also have fairly accurate information about licensing, support, and implementation costs. However, you will need to comply with applicable state procurement laws and ensure your fiduciary responsibility to your school board and taxpayers. For this reason, the final step of the process will be a formal RFP that is advertised according to your organization's established practices.

The advertised RFP should make it clear that you are looking for a system where:
1. The solution is based upon a single community-wide data repository where information is entered once and is then available for all authorized stakeholders.
2. The system is built upon a highly secure, multi-tier architecture.
3. The solution is COMPLETELY web-based.

Obviously, the vendors who participated in the extended pre-RFP process will have already completed a very large percentage of the advertised RFP. Specifically, they will have already filled out the implementation plan and the comprehensive feature checklist.

In addition to the implementation plan and the comprehensive feature checklist, the advertised RFP document should contain the necessary district and state-specific “boilerplate” (e.g. tobacco free environment, equal opportunity subcontracting, insurance requirements, etc.). The RFP should contain a financial worksheet that will be filled out by each vendor. Vendors should indicate their “best and final” cost proposal.

It is possible that one or more vendors who were not involved in the pre-RFP process will respond. If one of these vendors offers astonishing features at a fantastic price, you should postpone your final decision and allow that vendor to make the presentations necessary to be evaluated in a manner consistent with the established finalists. However, it is most likely that your already-preferred vendor will submit a reasonable cost proposal and you can then visit one or more customer reference sites, make your final decision, and conduct final negotiations.