Why Do Buyers Use RFPs to Purchase?

For large or important purchases, buyers solicit supplier proposals in competition.

To find the best solution for the problem they seek to fix

To obtain a reasonable price

To establish a relationship with a reliable supplier

Get this right and it’s called Value-for-Money

What Information Do Buyers Want to See?

Buyers want to understand the different ways they can address their problem.

Answers to a structured set of questions

Text explaining supplier’s understanding of
the problem

A description of the proposed solution

Ideally, the supplier’s proposal is responsive to the buyer’s questions.
EdgeworthBox streamlines the process for setting up and posting an RFP.

What Specific Actions Does the Buyer Take?

Buyers need to make it as easy as possible for suppliers to give them what they want

Discover all the relevant suppliers they could solicit

Woo suppliers into submitting a proposal

Provide suppliers complete description of the organisation and its problem

Drive supplier engagement

Review and rank all submissions

Obtain internal consensus on the winning bid

Ideally, buyers get the right solution at a reasonable price and suppliers get a long-term customer.

EdgeworthBox creates the conditions to drive more supplier proposals and to coordinate internal review.

How Do Buyers Assess Suppliers?

Buyers rate proposals and they rate suppliers

Scoring tools for rolling up a cardinal ranking of submissions across multiple stakeholders

Sophisticated reference checks of prior supplier performance

The right approach avoids much post-implementation trouble.
EdgeworthBox has dedicated scoring tools and a dedicated method for executing supplier verification.

How Do Buyers Keep Track of Data?

EdgeworthBox has repositories of structured data for both buyers and suppliers.

Sourcing made simple.

Improve the current approach to purchasing with tools, data, and community.

Execute easy RFPs, RFQs, RFIs, and reverse auctions.

Replace email and spreadsheets or augment your existing source-to-pay architecture.