http://www.preceptgroup.com/blog/2009/employee-benefits-rfp-the-necessary-evil/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=employee-benefits-rfp-the-necessary-evil An insider's perspective on employee benefit programs and the issues that affect employers most. Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:09:47 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.preceptgroup.com/blog/2009/employee-benefits-rfp-the-necessary-evil/#comment-45 Audrey Collins Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://webdev.preceptgroup.com/blog/?p=2666#comment-45 As someone who also responds to RFPs, I wholeheartedly agree with both you and Mr. Haraden. I would like to add some technical suggestions for those who develop and issue RFPs. 1. Please issue your RFP in Word. I have received scanned documents where I had to re-type all the questions in order to respond to them. If there are descriptive portions that you don't want people to alter, then have those separate from the parts that need responses. Also, Excel spreadsheets can be OK if you are limiting responses to yes/no or brief data points, but are not the best for "essay" responses -- especially if you have locked the size of the cell. Which brings me to my next point . . . 2. If you decide to limit the length of a response, please consider the type of question and allow an appropriate amount of space for a thoughtful response. It is quite frustrating to be asked a question like, "In 50 words or less, please give a detailed description of your process and show how it complies with government regulations." Just citing the names of the government regulations can require more than 50 words! We realize that you don't want to wade through 3" thick binders, but some responses need more detail (or even diagrams) to answer the question fully. Thanks! As someone who also responds to RFPs, I wholeheartedly agree with both you and Mr. Haraden. I would like to add some technical suggestions for those who develop and issue RFPs. 1. Please issue your RFP in Word. I have received scanned documents where I had to re-type all the questions in order to respond to them. If there are descriptive portions that you don’t want people to alter, then have those separate from the parts that need responses. Also, Excel spreadsheets can be OK if you are limiting responses to yes/no or brief data points, but are not the best for “essay” responses — especially if you have locked the size of the cell. Which brings me to my next point . . . 2. If you decide to limit the length of a response, please consider the type of question and allow an appropriate amount of space for a thoughtful response. It is quite frustrating to be asked a question like, “In 50 words or less, please give a detailed description of your process and show how it complies with government regulations.” Just citing the names of the government regulations can require more than 50 words! We realize that you don’t want to wade through 3″ thick binders, but some responses need more detail (or even diagrams) to answer the question fully. Thanks!

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