The RFP process is governed by legal and procurement rules that may not support the best outcomes for your content operations. You must adhere to these compliance requirements, but there are still steps you can take to create an effective RFP.

RFPs are time-consuming and difficult. If you’re creating an RFP for a component content management system (CCMS) or other content system, here’s our advice to improve your odds of a successful purchase.

Narrow your vendor list to two or three viable candidatesYour organization’s requirements may rule out some content solutions. For example, if your organization requires an on-premises solution, there’s no point in talking to SaaS-only vendors and vice versa. You may find similar hard requirements around operating system support, multilingual authoring, and vendor profiles (US-based, not US-based, minimum revenue size, specialist, not specialist).

Write specific use cases that will be used to evaluate candidatesSpecific use cases for an effective RFP should include:

• Content requirements
• Content samples
• Examples of how authoring, review, and publishing should work

Use cases should not include:

• General needs that apply to many tools. “The CCMS must provide the ability to write in XML,” and “The solution must have versioning capabilities,” are examples of content requirements that every CCMS can fulfill. You must create targeted use cases to assess potential solutions.
• Jargon or verbiage that only content creators understand. Make sure your legal and procurement teams acknowledge your use cases so that everyone understands how to evaluate potential solutions.

Use sandboxes to test your use cases in potential software solutionsDuring the RFP process, you’ll see product demonstrations from candidate vendors. Ideally, the vendor will tailor the demo to address the use cases you’ve shared. If not, ask for a not-for-production sandbox so your users can test your use cases.

As a final note, it’s important to have an exit strategy any time you’re considering a new system. During the RFP process, ask questions about how you can exit that tool in the future.

Writing an RFP is no small task. If you want a deeper dive into the tips we’ve shared in this blog post, listen to our podcast, Creating content ops RFPs: Strategies for success.

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