SEARCHING FOR AND FINDING RFPS: A RESEARCH BASED APPROACH FOR EVALUATORS

Matthew Von Hendy MA/MLS

Green Heron Information Services

WELCOME!

Owner—Green Heron Information Services

Professional Librarian—National Academies of Science, EPA, NASA

Birder, cyclist, runner—recent Alaskan adventurer

SESSION GOALS

Discuss some general background and challenges about RFPs

Look at FedBizOpps as a tool to discover federal RFP opportunities

Examine a range of commercial RFP services that cover state, local and non-profit RFPs

Talk about resources to monitor RFP websites and organize RFP results

Questions and answers

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO DO THIS?

TOP 3 REASONS NOT TO PURSUE RFPS

Relationships matter more than ever Competition is twice as fierce Time spent vs. results For other reasons see

http://www.inc.com/john-warrillow/death-by-rfp-seven-reasons-not-to-respond.html

WHAT WE WON’T COVER

Technical details of responding to RFPs Tips for writing winning proposals Registration requirements for FedBizOpp and

other vendor registration systems

REQUESTS FOR PROPOSALS (RFPS)

Announcement that organization is looking to hire business/individuals to provide services

RFPs issued by all levels of government—federal, state and local governments

Increasingly they also issued by non-profit organizations, businesses and other groups.

A RFP BY ANY OTHER NAME

Apologies to Shakespeare – RFPs are sometimes referred to as ‘request for services’ or ‘request for program’

Perhaps some minor technical differences but essentially the same

Focus on the US and North America where RFP dominates

USING GOOGLE TO TRACK RFPS

Not my starting point but if you are going to do this…

Use double quotation marks for phrase searching

‘and’ and ‘or’ boolean operators to link key ideas

Use the site filter to limit results to government sites

For example, "request for proposal" or rfp and evaluation "energy efficiency" site:gov

GOOGLE TRACKING (CONT.)

Under the search box, click on the ‘Search Tools’ link to bring up more options for filtering your results

Filters will include time and location Use the time filter to limit your results to a

specific period such as the last week or last month

If you find a search that brings good results, set it up as a ‘Google Alert’ – this will require you having or creating a Google account

USING OTHER SEARCH TOOLS

Other search engines can be used for this purpose

Yahoo, Bing --- fairly similar to Google but enough differences that you may to consider this option

Again use search techniques and filters to get better results

If the results are good both Yahoo and Bing allow you to create alerts

FEDERAL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES(FEDBIZOPPS)

https://www.fbo.gov/ Central place for all government RFPs worth

more than $25,000 Theoretically, all federal RFPs are supposed

to make it here…also check individual agency sites

Powerful but complicated tool to search Can be publically searched but to bid on RFPs

you need to be registered in SAM and have a DUNS number

SUGGESTED WAYS TO SEARCH FEDBIZOPPS

Search options include keyword, posted date, agency, solicitation number

Use ‘Advanced Search’ Under “Keyword or SOL#” type in ‘evalua*’

asterisk is truncation symbol and finds anything that starts with that root–

Leave NAICS code blank, under ‘Classification Code’ choose ‘R-Professional, administrative and management support services”

FEDBIZOPPS (CONT.)

Searches can also be restricted to a specific agency

If you are registered as a vendor, searches can be saved and run at later dates

Also check the agency website and look under ‘procurement’ or ‘contracting’—you never know what you might find there that didn’t make FedBizOpps

STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT RFPS

Sheer number of state and local government RFPs is one challenge

Quality of state and local government RFPs sites vary widely—

Also, many local and state governments have contracted out this service to private companies

COMMERCIAL RFP FINDING SERVICES

Find RFP http://www.findrfp.com/default.aspx

One of the oldest and largest of these services. Clean searchable interface with results not seen elsewhere. Free risk-free trial– relatively low rates. The RFP Database -

http://www.rfpdb.com/A crowd-sourcing service so to speak where RFPs are added by requestors at no charge. Free to search but small charge to download results. Mixed results

COMMERCIAL RFPS SERVICES #2

Bidnet https://www.bidnet.com/ Focused solely on government RFPs and contracts. Seems geared towards larger companies. Onvia http://

www.onvia.com/solutions/onvia-advantage/daily-government-contract-opportunities

Well-known and respected company. Concentrates solely on government sector for RFPs. RFPs are just part of their business. Excellent product with prices to match.

COMMERCIAL RFPS SERVICES #3

Bidsync http://www.bidsync.com/ Another service focused on government RFPs. Also provides services to RFP responders. Very good at capturing items on the county level. Evaluators have reported good results. Moderately priced. Government Bids com http

://www.governmentbids.com/Well established. Free to search but looking at results requires membership. Seems to concentrate on supply services and perhaps not so much on consulting services.

COMMERCIAL RFPS SERVICES (#4)

Government Navigator http://www.governmentnavigator.com/

Concentrates on the IT sector of government RFPs. Not sure how relevant it would be for evaluators. Free trial. Public Purchase

http://www.publicpurchase.com/Free registration although you have to pay to see much. Includes some school districts.

NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION RFPS

Philanthropy News Digest RFPshttp://www.philanthropynewsdigest.org/rfpsWell respected source. Typically funding programs seeking applications.

KEEPING TRACK OF RFPS

Most government agencies and non-profit organizations have specific pages where RFPs will be posted

If you have a finite number of organizations that you are keeping your eye on for RFPs…

Software can help you save time by letting you know when any content is changed on a particular page or site.

A FEW FREE TOOLS FOR DOING THIS.. Track Engine

http://www.trackengine.com/servlets/com.nexlabs.trackengine.ui.Login

Hard on the eyes but recommended for good results and it is also free. Change Detection

https://www.changedetection.com/Not a pretty interface but easy to use with decent results and it’s free.

SOME LOW COST MONITORING RESOURCES

WebSite-Watcher http://aignes.com/ Low cost subscription service that allows for unlimited number of websites to be tracked and delivers results in customized easy to read format. Green Heron Information Services can also

do website RFP monitoring for you

DON’T LET YOUR RFP NOTIFICATIONS LOOK LIKE THIS…

ORGANIZING YOUR RFP NOTIFICATIONS

Create a file or folder (whatever works for you) for RFP notifications –remember to look through it regularly as RFPs are time sensitive

Citation managers that can handle web documents and images can be good tools for this purpose as well

Zotero https://www.zotero.org/ Excellent resource—easy to use and free

IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS LATER…

Always happy to chat about research questions and research resources

Monthly newsletter on research resources and tips for evaluators – if you are interested in getting it – email me: info@greenheroninfo.com

QUESTIONS?

CONNECT WITH ME

Matthew Von Hendy Green Heron Information Services (240) 401-7433 info@greenheroninfo.com www.greenheroninfo.com LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/vonhendy Twitter @GreenHeronInfo

THANK YOU!