When you are ready to receive bids from suppliers or vendors for copiers/printers, there are a number of options.

Companies can put out a Request for Information (RFI), Request for Proposal (RFP) or a Request for Quotation (RFQ). Each has its place, depending on the organization’s level of expertise surrounding the copier/printer industry and their overall document output strategy.

The choice is also based on the level of understanding the organization has about its standards, needs, and desires. Let’s take a look at each one, and then I’ll give you our advice after being involved in over $100,000,000 in copier and printer acquisitions over the last 17 years.

The Request for Information (RFI)

A Request for Information (RFI) is used to collect information from suppliers related to their capabilities, and is usually used as an information gathering process to identify suppliers and build a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Quotation (RFQ).

The Request for Proposal (RFP)

A Request for Proposal (RFP) is used to gather proposals on specific commodities or services. It invites creativity and innovation from the suppliers regarding their response, which may be used in the analysis to select the winning supplier. The risk is that the RFP may fail to capture consistant information from suppliers,hampering the decision making process.

The Request for Quotation (RFQ)

A Request for Quotation (RFQ) is used to gather proposals on specific products or services. It typically involves price per item, payment terms, quality level per item and contract length. The RFQ includes detailed specifications of the items/services to force suppliers to provide more accurate quotes that are directly comparable. One main component of the Request for Quotation is that the specifications can be used as legal binding documentation for the suppliers.

What should you use to acquire copiers and printers?

Experience suggests that the more specific you can be in the initial bidding process, the more likely the supplier will provide their best offer first, reducing the need for re-bidding and nearly eliminate the need for end-of-procurement negotiation. This points directly to the use of an RFQ.

Five tips for creating a Request for Quotation for Copiers/Printers.

1. Do a complete objective assessment every time. Without complete, objective information, you won’t know your true needs and won’t be able to be specific enough in writing your RFQ to fully take advantage of its benefits.
2. Set your strategic, operational, and device-level standards yourself. Knowing what your organization wants and needs from your document output system will allow you to set quality levels and expectations, which suppliers will respond to in your RFQ. If suppliers are asked to help set standards, 10 times out of 10 the standards will help that supplier win the bidding process in some way. Set these yourself!
3. Issue your RFQ in a format that forces comparable supplier responses. The more you are able to ask questions and get responses in a yes/no/no, but manner, the easier the analysis of the responses will be.
4. Make the winning supplier’s bid legally binding. BUYER BEWARE: Supplier contracts are structured to eliminate your ability to make their responses legally binding — they also include clauses to negate most of what you negotiated with them through the buying process. DON’T SIGN THEIR CONTRACT! Write your own, and make sure you tie their RFQ response into the final documentation!
5. Manage your copier/printer environment to the quality levels the supplier agreed to. A legally binding Request for Quote (RFQ) is the number one way to achieve control over your suppliers and your document output system. If you don’t pay attention, there’s a good chance that you won’t get what the supplier agreed to. Equipment and supplier performance will slip, costs will increase, and a whole host of other issues may arise that are easily avoidable if you are paying attention.

If you have any questions, or need any help implementing any of these tips or deciding which option you will use to get bids from copier or printer suppliers, feel free to give us a call. We’ve been helping companies all across the United States for 17 years achieve lower costs, better equipment and supplier performance, and reduce the risk of copying and printing contracts. We’ll be glad to help!

NOTE: The descriptions of Request for Information (RFI), Request for Proposal (RFP), and Request for Quotation (RFQ) are based on descriptions found in Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com).

Tags: contract management, copier bids, copier rfp, request for proposal

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 8:41 am and is filed under Fleet Acquisition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.