As you may already deal with RFP, you know that you need it to find a service provider who will perform your project and meet your expectations by price, quality and time. To understand the whole process at the first stage, we suggest you our insight on how to write a request for proposal and have the best communication and decision process.
Define RFP
A request for proposal is a document needed to describe project specifics such as price and scope and ask potential service providers to come back with their bid for the work. Generally, it will help you to save your time, finding the right specialists, compare them and define the best one.
Usually, we receive a request from clients with their task on the project assessment. We are happy to get an RFP from our potential clients as we can move further and discuss the project. However, the most common situation is when we get a request, but we can’t define the concrete description to assess the project.
What Is Going on Next?
After we’ve received a request, we make a review on it and give it back with questions for each part of the project. In the end, this assessment, as well as the project scope, will have a gap with the final version. This will case lack of time, misunderstanding and weak communication process between client and service provider and a motivation loss.
In reality, you don’t need to put all your forces to get the correct assessment. You also don’t need to have in-depth knowledge in web development or read additional literature to send the right data.
We’ve collected the list of the essential points; then if you will follow them, you will get the most detailed survey and consultation from our project managers and developers, and it will be the best RFP response that you expect.
RFP Examples
The task usually consists of the number of desired features that could be included in any online store. We will provide you with an example of this process:
Almost all features from this list are included in the Magento® out-of-the-box, and it is difficult to assess the task from the request without details. Pure feature out-of-the-box counted as 0 hours, and you buy it with Magento CMS. Feature customization, i.e., custom programming is the paid hours for the development. The development from scratch also counted as a time for the developer’s work.
That is why our first advice is to try to look at your project functionality by your customer’s eyes, for example, when he is making a purchase, and to write a description, as follows:
This table shows exact information about how the user will pay off for the purchase. In this case, we know that custom functionality should be added to the local payment system and your assessment will be more concrete.
Other Requirements of Magento Store Functionality That Affect on the Total Project Cost
As well as standard feature, you can have individual elements that you think will be useful at your online store. As well as just a feature description, you should make the exact notes about the customization or the ways how you would like to use this feature. This will help you with a question how to write a request for proposal.
Offline Store
If you have a physical store, you need to mention it, because we should predict the way how we will add data of your offline customers to the customers base.
If you use any CRM or other additional systems for collecting and analyzing customers data, we need to connect it with Magento. For this purpose, we use API that should be written before the integration with the additional systems.
Blog and Content
Magento is a platform for eCommerce business, that is why to add a blog to your store, you need to download an extension. Think about do you need a blog and how it should look like. If the blog is not the primary sales channel, perhaps you can wait a couple of releases to find the best option for your future blog.
Design
Depending on which design will be at your online store will impact the price significantly. There are two ways: to make your design unique or to set up a ready theme.
Unique Design
The way of creating an exclusive look of your site is better than a ready theme that is why the customization could cost more. It includes designer’s working hours, as well as frontend and backend developers that will implement created mockups.
This approach will be in-demand for those who want to get an online store that will be matching your targeted audience, including visual identification of your brand. Custom design includes website development, in case if it will be extended, then you will get the right architecture, improved usability, and clean code.
Ready-to-Use Theme
Ready themes include a particular set of page templates. They can be downloaded, set up and used. The website will look average; yet, the customization will have its borders.
Limitations – are ready-to-use templates. If you want to change or add something to them, it will be custom code and extra expenses afterward. A theme will be restricted not only technically, but also in design. In particular, you can change UI theme frames: colors, block, swatch, and add own content.
Problems occur when developers add something custom, and their quantity becomes far too much. That is why a ready theme is good to go for the quick start of the project and further you should think of redesign.