SharePoint RFP Guidelines
A friend passed along a link to an article by West Monroe Partners entitled SharePoint RFP Guidelines. It makes for interesting reading, especially if you are in the early stages of deploying SharePoint. I have never been one to state that a successful SharePoint deployment requires external expertise; I have known several companies that have used internal resources exclusively to take SharePoint a long, long way. That said, I have never been a fan of “let’s just deploy it and see what happens”.
One of the advantages of the RFP development process, as stated in the article, is that it forces you to focus on defining who you, where you are and where you want to go. That, in turn, pushes the model (as I like to state) of developing from the inside (you) out (SharePoint)… instead of falling victim to doing it in the reverse. I’ve responded to many RFP’s (and even helped write a few) and have always felt that the more detailed and thorough the document the more “helpable” the potential client.
Take a look at the article. I argue that even if you are well established in your SharePoint usage the guidelines discussed will be useful for that next SharePoint initiative. Define your own success criteria!