enterprise 2.0 rfp template (intranets, community, extranets, knowledge base)

Confidential • Company Name -- SeekOmegadocument.docx

Enterprise 2.0 – SeekOmega.com

Enterprise 2.0 – Collaborative NetworksRequest for Proposal (RFP)

FOR: ________________________Examples (Intranet, Social Business Initiative, Solution, Extranet, Knowledge Base, Community)

Feel free to adapt it for your own use and drop me a note at mfidelman at kelmarpartners.com if you use the template or have any questions.]

TIPS: Anything in yellow highlight will need to be replaced or a choice will need to be made.

#2 SEE EXHIBIT A FOR A LIST OF ENTERPRISE 2.0 VENDORS

http://www.seekomega.com/




1. General Information

This section summarizes the General Information for the _________ Communities and is summarized into the following categories:

Purpose of the RFP RFP communications RFP timeline RFP preparation Vendor responses Effective dates of pricing Evaluation criteria Right to reject RFP responses

1.1 Purpose of the RFP

The purpose of this Request for Proposal (RFP) is to establish the functional, technical and operational requirements for a _________ platform and _______management solution for _________.

The contents of this RFP are proprietary and are not to be disclosed to third parties without the express permission of _________.

The planned _________ solution will be a combination of: Primary

o o

Secondaryo o

When we talk about building a solution, _________ is providing the infrastructure or “playpen” and the initial spark for the solution to get started. While we can nurture and guide the company to a certain degree, it would be a mistake to assume that we can single-handedly ignite a solution on our own. We have to have the patience and conviction to let the solution grow and evolve in whatever direction the users want them to grow. The solution will (or will not) be accessible from our website, but they will have an identity, name and style that are (same/different) from the _________ website and brand.

<OPTIONAL> While the _________ customer component will be an important part of our solution, it is just a small slice of the total addressable audience.

TIP: This section should explain your high-level objectives. To develop this section of the RFP, it is important to take a step back and ensure that your team has a full—and shared—understanding of what you expect the project to accomplish. The more specific you can be with your objectives, the more specific and more accurate your




One of the most important parts to becoming successful with the solution will be to continually provide fresh and new content. The expectation is that much of the content will ultimately come from team members.

Finally, building the solution will take a significant commitment and dedicated resources to manage and develop content for, and host (employees/guests) on the site. Another important point to make is that the solution will evolve over time – from both a content and adoption standpoint. The core infrastructure and initial content need to be in place for the launch, but it takes time to build trust in the solution, and to get members to begin contributing and actively participating in the solution.

We acknowledge that building the _________ solution will be a multi-year project.

At a high level, the types of content information planned for our solution include: EXAMPLES

“Hot off the press” Content (relatively short shelf-life – days or weeks)o Industry and other topical newso Microbloggingo Blogs and columnso Discussion groups and forums (threaded conversations)o User editable wikiso Alerts and RSS news or blog feedso Daily/weekly digest of new content/discussions

“Library-Type” Content (longer shelf-life – months or years)o Articles and whitepapers – by _________ or contributedo Analyst reportso Webinars – real-time and archivedo Podcasts and videoo Links to other relevant content

Ideally, we want the solution to become a destination site where our employees/customers come for valuable and topical content and to share insights with other employees/customers.

1.2 RFP CommunicationsPlease direct all communications and correspondence regarding this RFP to:

Name – Title –Address – Email address - Phone number –

1.3 TimelineRFP submission date - ____ Vendor proposal due date - ____Vendor selection - ____Vendor contract process - _____________ detailed plan with vendor - ____Launch Solution - ____




1.4 RFP PreparationAll costs incurred in the preparation and presentation of a RFP will be absorbed by the prospective vendors. In the event that modifications or additions to the RFP become necessary, prospective vendors will be notified in writing. All supporting materials submitted with the Proposal will become the property of _________ unless otherwise requested by the prospective vendors at time of submission.

1.5 Vendor ResponsesProspective vendors are required to submit their proposals no later than ________. All supporting materials and documentation must be included with the Proposal. Proposals should be sent or emailed to ________. We may ask vendors to present their proposals in person or by webcast to the _________ evaluation team.

1.6 Effective Dates of PricingProspective vendors should state in writing that all furnished information, including pricing, will remain valid and applicable for a minimum of one-hundred and twenty (120) days from the date their Proposal is received by _________ and should submit their best and final offers.

1.7 Evaluation CriteriaProspective vendor Proposals will be evaluated using the following general criteria:

Ability to satisfy functional business requirements Ability to satisfy technical and integration requirements Strategic partnering potential Cost

1.8 Right to Reject_________ reserves the right to:

Accept or reject any and/or all submitted proposals Request additional information from all prospective vendors at any time Negotiate a contract with the selected vendor(s) Include the vendor's RFP response in whole or by reference in the final contract Accept the proposal of any vendor at any time during the process and other

vendors may or may not be awarded the opportunity to further discuss their proposals or demonstrate their solutions to the _________ team.

Therefore your response should include all information necessary for _________ to evaluate your solution, pricing and contract terms.




2.0 Requirements

This section summarizes the key requirements for the _________ Communities and is summarized into the following categories:

Solution strategy Infrastructure requirements Functionality requirements Ongoing management requirements Technology requirements Other requirements Cost requirements

2.1 Solution StrategyWe believe that getting the strategy right is an integral part of building our solution. As part of your proposal, we would like you to include a description of how you will help us strategize our solution and approach. This may be part of a bundled package or priced separately. It is important to make sure that you are explicit in terms how you can help us, a description of your qualifications and an estimate of the time/cost necessary to help us finalize our strategy.

2.2 Infrastructure Requirements (suit to fit) The key infrastructure requirements include:

Platformo Provide a robust, fully encrypted, and hosted platform that provides

room to grow the solution and meets the other requirements detailed below

o Establish single sign-on and permissions ruleso Implement and manage legal and intellectual property agreements for

access to content, member privacyo Establish service level agreements that are acceptable to _________o Document and train _________ personnel in administration and

management of siteo Provide periodic training to _________ personnel as updates are made to

the platform or as new _________ personnel get involved with site administration

Strategy and planningo Drive completion of solution strategy plano Create a comprehensive project plano Develop a customized look and feel

TIP: Once you have identified the main focus of the project, it is important to specify key objectives and allow the vendor to provide a solution for each of the areas you have identified. For instance, if the project focuses on project management capabilities, you will need to detail the issues your organization is currently experiencing and any




o Build a membership recruitment plano Design a launch plan (for marketing and PR)o Generate an ROI measurement plano Develop solution rules for participation, posting, etc.

Multiple siteso Support up to ___ solution siteso Enterprise search across solution sites o Separate URLS for each solution siteo Separate look-and-feel for each solution siteo Support different levels of members (i.e. guest, registered, employee

customer) with different permissions/privileges and access to content

Scalability and Governanceo Support up to ___ concurrent userso Support different restrictions for members (ranging from total blocking

to full access)o Support collaborative networking (i.e. professional profile, my favorite

files/links, photo, etc.) o Support for employee/user rating

2.3 Functionality Requirements (suit to fit) The key functionality requirements include:

Content types – we need to support the following content capabilitieso Dashboard charting and gaugeso Document and content librarieso Multimedia libraries for videos, podcasts and other multimediao Discussion forumso Blogso Wikiso Webcastso Podcastso Vlogs (video blogs)o Linkso Realtime polls and surveys

Project Management o Ability to manage taskso Ability to set up project sites/pages o Ability to add team members to project sites/pageso Dashboard reporting on projects




Available metrics – we want to be able to measure the following metrics. The metrics should be available in standard reports and in user definable reports. The reports should be available online and printed or exported if necessary:o Unique visitors by date and date rangeo Page views by date and date rangeo Session time by date and date rangeo Registered members and join dateo Peak number of concurrent users (in live events)o Total number of users (in live events)o Repeat visits and Frequent visitors

Customization requirements

o Ability to update and program solution easily using java script, deki script or php.

o Ability to create new workflow forms (i.e. expense reports, travel, requests) and pages on the fly

Data integration and mashupso Ability to integrate data from our ERP, CRM, MRP systemso Reporting – we need to mashup our ERP data with our CRM data to show

our sales team detailed customer payment information o Dashboards - Ability to chart real time data quickly

Other requirements o Ratings - ability to rate content & userso Workflow – custom workflowo RSS feeds – RSS feeds for news, blogs and other contento Notification Alerts - alerts for content (users can set alerts for pages,

discussions, blogs and other content)o Subscriptions – ability for members to subscribe to any content on a

daily, weekly or other time basis of their choosingo Search – ability to search content by title and within documents or

discussions (Google-like search capabilities)o Enterprise search – ability to search across multiple instances of solutiono Email Posting - Ability to post to blogs and discussion groups by emailo “What’s new” – easy way to find new content or discussionso Talkback – ability to add comments on content, etc.o Social sharing – one-click ability to share any content via email and

other social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, de.lic.ious, etc. o Administration – ability for our admin manager to perform most routine

administrative tasks such as setting permissions, making modifications to most pages, etc.

TIP: CustomizationWhen it comes to customization, there are some key pieces of information that can help you select the best partner for your solution. How does the respondent plan to develop your set of solutions? Will they use mostly out-of-the-box templates, or will they architect a custom-developed tool? Depending on your needs, some may propose using a combination of these two approaches. Your RFP should include questions that will clarify




2.4 Ongoing Management RequirementsThe key ongoing management requirements include:

Managemento Provide a dedicated moderator to the communities to manage

conversations and actively enhance member experience – with the goal of growing the communities and keeping the solution active and vibrant (based on activity and new members/partners added)

o Maintain and regularly check physical and virtual linkso Manage and summarize user feedback – and incorporate feedback into

improving the siteo Provide continuous programming and membership moderation o Provide solution training and demos to new/prospective memberso Generate detailed solution reports and analysis of results

Solution Marketingo Identify potential members partners and user groups to target, including

obtaining of email addresseso Invite potential users to joino Get people to join – driving awareness and attentiono Encourage people to stay active and contribute o Manage the membership and partnershipso Create regular and periodic marketing campaigns to generate traffic,

awareness of solution and member/partner growth

Content creationo Source new content (the majority of content must be from non-_________

to give it an aura of success)o Build links to related sites, blogs, etc. (the onus of research and effort

for this task will be on the vendor – to be augmented over time by _________ employees)

Content managemento Keep the content fresho Prune and cull old or out-of-date contento Coordinate, kick start and prime discussions o Edit, review, upload and ‘censor’ materials and discussions, as

necessary

Content Moderationo Please provide an overview of your moderation services (if any) and the

various pricing options

2.5 Technology RequirementsThe key technology requirements include:

Provide us with information that cover these technical details: (if hosted)

Uptime and availability Backups Bandwidth




Support access Privacy of data

2.6 Other RequirementsAre the any requirements that we missed? Please include ideas / topics / suggestions that we may have missed that you believe would greatly enhance a solution experience and/or be an area where you could provide significant value to the members of the solution and/or _________ as the solution sponsor.

2.7 Cost RequirementsThe initial proposal should outline a price quote and all pricing options available to support the requirements identified in the RFP. The price quote should address a plan for developing a solution and launching before the end of _____.

The price quote should include the amount and timing of the following:

Upfront costso How much? o What is included in the upfront costs?o How many hours/days are covered in the upfront costs?o What is the final deliverable?o What flexibility is available in pricing?

Annual costso What are the annual costs?o What is included in the annual costs?o How many hours/days per week are covered by this pricing?o What flexibility is available in pricing?o What ROI metrics can we expect?

Payment optionso Monthly, quarterly, etc.

2.8 OtherVendors should provide pricing data for any services not included as part of the software or support purchase. These may include training, implementation support, moderation, ongoing consultation, etc. This should include detailed rates for the different levels and experience of consultants that may be needed on this engagement.

TIP: People and RolesFinally, ask for information about the respondent’s proposed team structure and the key roles it plans to fulfill in building your proposed solution. Respondents should provide a high-level snapshot of their proposed teams and resources, including specific roles and number of team members, as well as a basic reasoning behind their proposed team




Vendors should also be prepared to provide us with a list of reference-able customers with similar background as our solution. You may include information about reference-able customers in your response or include them in your presentation

Note: Some of this RFP is from an actual RFP developed by Tom Humbarger [email protected] who has kindly allowed us to use and modify.


mailto:[email protected]



Exhibit A: Forrester Wave 2009

Enterprise 2.0 Vendors

MindTouch Microsoft IBM Lotus

Jive Software Novell Central Desktop

Download the RFP Scorecard Tool


http://www.scribd.com/doc/23345858/Enterprise-2-0-RFP-Evaluation-Scorecard

http://www.mindtouch.com/

enterprise 2.0 rfp template (intranets, community, extranets, knowledge base)

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