There is a variety of options when it comes to choosing a perfect tech partner for your mobile app development project. Sometimes, the choice is so big that it makes you experience choice paralysis so it takes you eons to narrow down your options. An RFP document is what can help you screen prospective vendors effectively and find a company for fruitful, long-term collaboration.
To compare companies on equal terms, it’s better to provide all of them with a document containing the same information and questions. Usually, companies prepare a Request for Information (RFI), a Request for Quotation (RFQ), or a Request for Proposal (RFP) document. Each of them has its own specifics and is used in concrete situations.
RFI is similar to a basic screening. You request information about the potential vendors — history, portfolio — and give a brief overview of your business challenge. Based on the responses to this document, you will select app development companies for the next round of negotiations. RFI is ideal when you are looking for general information and lack well-defined ideas about a solution.
RFP often follows the RFI but could also be a stand-alone document. A mobile app RFP is more specific in its requirements and the requested information about the vendors.
RFP should contain enough context so potential app development vendors can provide solutions. In the end, you may get feedback and different takes on the task. Hubspot states that RFP “gives you a sneak peek into different strategies you may not have considered since each vendor will include their own unique action plan along with their bid.”
RFQ is also known as an Invitation For Bid (IFB). The key difference between an RFQ and an RFP is that an RFP is sent out when you expect the vendors’ creativity and solutions. Sending an RFQ, on the contrary, means you already know what you want to develop, and you need to find out the project’s exact cost.
Our company is constantly getting requests from existing businesses and market newcomers. Based on our experience, we prefer to start the negotiations with a mobile app RFP.
Why? It’s thorough enough to give us a good understanding of the business and its needs while allowing us to be creative and show our expertise.
Often, companies use an RFP as a tool to increase the competition between multiple vendors to get the lowest price, but this doesn't reflect an RFP's actual value; this value would be that you gain the ability to compare all potential vendors in terms of value, price, and expertise.
The mobile app RFP process improves the overall quality of your search and your purchase decisions. In addition, it guarantees you and potential vendors are on the same page.
Investing enough time and effort into creating an RFP increases the chances of getting more qualitative responses. As your decision will be based on these responses, the success of the entire app development project will depend on its RFP.
An RFP can be written by a business analyst, product owner, or product manager. The most important aspect of this task is that the person writing the RFP has a deep understanding of the mobile app development project. Further, it’s a good idea to involve the department that will use the service or be responsible for the app in the RFP writing process.
For instance, if there is a technical department in your company, write an RFP with these developers. However, if no team members are well-versed in technology, you should notify the vendors about this in the “Technical requirements” section of your RFP.
Before starting to work on the RFP, ensure that you have enough information on the following:
Below, you will find the most effective mobile app RFP structure we've created based on our experience and the interests of both vendors and businesses. To start, we recommend writing an RFP that consists of four parts where:
We understand that an RFP is a detailed document and is full of confidential information, so we highly recommend you sign NDAs with all the potential vendors first. This way, you'll be sure your product idea will be kept out of the public domain.
In this subsection, you should provide the vendors with the dates of the RFP’s process stages. Usually, the stages are as follows:
Make sure you give the developers sufficient time to respond to your RFP to get more accurate estimates for your project.
In this subsection, inform the vendors of what you expect from them. By defining the data and documents you need, you increase the relevant responses and minimize the time for explanations and requests for additional information. For example, you may want to ask for a company presentation, a portfolio with relevant projects, reviews with contacts, a proposal, and an estimation.
Give the vendors a clear understanding of what is most important for you (experience, timeline, cost, etc.). This information will help them to be as competitive as possible and provide you with the best possible proposal.
Let the vendors know who makes the decisions about the project and who is responsible for the RFP process. The vendors should be able to get in touch with someone from your company in case they have any questions.
An executive summary is like an elevator pitch. There is no need to write much, just include a quick overview of your business, the required solution, and its main goal.
Present your company. Share a bit about its history, mission and goals, provided products and services, and targeted markets. You may add any additional information if you think it will help the vendors gain a better understanding of who you are.
In this subsection, you should answer the following questions:
Provide as many details as you can regarding the project’s scope by detailing the following:
Don't forget you can always add additional information that will help readers understand the product better.
This subsection should show your vision and preferences about the technical side of the project:
If you have budget limitations, it is better to include the lowest and the highest possible price in the mobile app RFP. This will help the vendors tell you what scope of work they can do within your budget. Further, it will save you from considering irrelevant proposals.
If the budget is a crucial aspect of the screening process, you want to receive similar estimation documents from potential vendors. As the app development cost depends on the project scope, the number of platforms, the backend, and the admin parts, we advise our clients to conduct business analysis.
Specifically, have a business analyst systemize and refine product requirements. After that, you can prepare a cost estimate template to share with vendors.
Tell the vendors about your plans, including:
Keeping this information in mind, vendors determine if they have the required resources and specialists for your project and whether they can meet your deadline.
Now it’s time for the potential vendors to present themselves. Ask them the following questions:
Projects speak louder than any information a company may share about its experience and expertise. Ask potential vendors to provide their best and most relevant projects. To understand the cases better, ask about:
The mobile app development company with the most relevant experience will be able to provide the most accurate time and budget estimation as they are well aware of the best practices and challenges related to the industry or the potential technology . Also, companies that have similar projects in their portfolio usually have some development tools and shortcuts that will help you reduce the cost and time of development.
Now, it is time to get more in-depth information about the main processes of the project and ask some specific questions about the app development process, like:
Also, you’ll want to ask the following questions about the design process:
For the QA process, make sure you get information on the following data points :
Finally, ask the following management process questions:
Finally, we get to the very purpose of the document — it's time to see what the vendor has to offer. This section should contain information about the solution, project timeline and resources, pricing model, budget, and support plan.
Ask the vendors about their project vision and ideas about the best solutions to your problems.
Ask to provide a detailed project timeline, including estimated start dates, schedule of activities, deliverables, and resources to be used.
Ask about the pricing mode l: is it a fixed price or a time and material-based price project? It could be a provisional estimation with a list of services included and a payment calendar.
Ask about the guarantee period and types of support plans that are offered.
Based on the above tips, we prepared a ready-to-use mobile app RFP template. Don’t forget to customize it to your project’s needs.
The RFP process may seem somewhat complicated, but it's worth going through. It helps you to see whether you have a clear, detailed understanding of the product inside the company, to organize comprehensive comparisons, and, in the end, to find the best app development partner that would minimize project risks and help you create a high-quality solution.
For mobile application development companies, reviewing and responding to an RFP takes a lot of time and effort, especially if it is not well-written. Therefore, you need to develop a quality document if you want quality responses.
At Orangesoft, we provide detailed feedback on every RFP we receive. So if you're struggling to find the right company for your project, we encourage you to get in touch and let us know how we might help.
When issuing an RFP, businesses usually provide vendors with detailed information about their business idea while also expecting input and solutions from the vendor. An RFQ, on the other hand, is typically less detailed and simply asks vendors to provide a price quote for a specific product.
An RFP for mobile application development is a document that lays out requirements for a specific project. The document outlines the expected functions and features of an app, project scope, estimated budget, project timeline, and other criteria that will help a company secure offers from relevant vendors.
An app proposal should contain information about the RFP process itself and include a section detailing the project scope, technical requirements, timelines, and budget for the app development. Also, an RFP should include details about the vendor.
An RFP should be written by a person with a detailed understanding of the mobile app development project. This can be a business analyst, product owner, or product manager. You should also ask for input from the department that will use the service or take part in the app development process. However, if you are a non-tech company, you should notify the vendors about this in the “Technical Requirements” section of your RFP.
Requirements elicitation starts during the discovery stage of the app development process. A business analyst first analyzes the target audience of the future product, looks into customer needs, and runs competitor analysis. Then, a business analyst will collect and document the initial requirements for the product that will be later validated and translated into the final requirements for a mobile application.
There are quite a few variables that go into mobile app planning. A project plan is a blueprint of the goals and tasks your team needs to complete the project. To establish those goals, your app development team should have a clear vision of your business idea, project specifications, product limitations, and other variables.
