How to find potential vendors for the contract? This is the first thought that comes to every contractor’s mind. It is easy to reach out to potential vendors, but how to find the right vendor for a specific project.

RFI helps you to shortlist the potential vendors from evaluating the RFI response of buyers. It is the document written by contractors to provide basic information about the company, tender, and related requirements. The RFI Vietnam is the first stage of the procurement process.

What do you mean by RFI?

RFI stands for Request for Information. It is a general document to ask the supplier or vendors about their services offered for any contract.

When a bidder should issue RFI?

For One Time Procurement

RFI is the primary step of the procurement process. This document is used by clients to find out the possible solution for their project. It helps you select the potential vendors for your specific project.

After receiving the response of RFI Vietnam, you can utilize it to design RFP for your tender. RFI for tender is quite similar to RFPs, but requests for proposals have more detailed information about the procurement process.

If you are still confused about RFP and RFI, check Tenders Pedia.

For Recurring Procurement Tenders

As RFI collects the basic information about potential vendors, some clients use RFI to create bidders’ profiles.

For example, this strategy is generally used by employee benefits consultants to find potential vendors for their clients. They create different profiles based on RFI response and then compare and shortlist the best vendor.

How to write compelling RFI?

Writing of RFI depends on the industry. It varies from industry to industry. Here is the few information a contractor should consider in their Request for Information:

Overview

The overview should have organizational goals, objectives, and basic details. This section should be a small overview of your organization that will help vendors to understand your services and upcoming project. In the end, the objective of the RFI is to give a brief about your company.

Requested Information

The second part should cover the requested information. Include details like requirements from the vendor, specifications, delivery timeline, and payment terms.

This section should have enough information to give an idea about your requirements. Don’t include everything in RFI Vietnam. Leave specifications and details for the Request for proposal.

Response

This section should have an outline of the expected response from the vendor. Include detailed evaluation criteria, guidelines on how to respond. You can send the RFI by mail and can receive the response on the same.

Moreover, you can provide the pre-designed template, so a vendor can use it to answer your questions.

Clarification

It should be the last section of your RFI Vietnam. You can include last-minute details and contact information under the clarification section. Mention your requirements responses.

The RFI should include all the details about the needs of the client. The main objective of the RFI is to evaluate multiple vendors and find potential vendors.

Response of RFI

You need to write a convincing response to the client’s RFI to win a document. Check out the steps below before submitting your response:

Go through the Review Documents and Drawings

The first step of writing a convincing response is to go through the RFP document and information you have. You need to understand the requirements and should identify the possible solution for the project.

Having prior knowledge helps you in writing better RFI. Here are the questions that you can consider for the construction Tender:

  • ● What is the usage of the building?
  • ● What is the layout of the tender?
  • ● Are specs generic or custom?
  • ● Have you ever done a relevant project in the past?
  • ● What are the specifications of the project?
  • ● What are the inconsistencies in the project?

Write down the things that need to be clarified. You can easily find the relevant information offline and online. Refer to Tenders Pedia for such information.

Divide the Questions

To prepare a better response, you can divide questions into “known” and “unknown” parts. Consider the following things:

  • ● Understand all the questions. Sometimes contractors formulate the questions in single statement form. You need to go through each question and understand how to address them.
  • ● Be clear about your requirements. Write a clear response to all the questions. Contractors might find it frustrating if your answers are not clear.
  • ● If you are framing questions in response, make sure they are easy to understand. You can provide examples for more clarification.
  • ● Sketch drawings or figures to make your question clearer.

The objective is to provide a clear-cut response to the contractor.

Standard Format

Never forget to follow the standard format while submitting the RFI Vietnam response. Check whether the contractor has provided you any format or you can follow the standard format.

Double-Check the format as it will mark your impression on the client. Don’t simply copy-paste your client’s RFI format as it will leave a bad impression on the client. Also, it will throw you out of the race. You can find numerous examples of RFI templates online. Your response and unique format will help you to stand out from the crowd.

Review your queries

Jot down the queries and review them together. Do the research and find the answers. Don’t waste the client’s time writing irrelevant answers to the questions.

Sending and Managing queries

You can draft all your queries in one place and send them to the contractor. Don’t include stupid questions as queries, you can lose credibility there. Be smart enough while sending queries.

However, you may not get a late response from the client or you might not hear anything from their side. You may get additional questions from the client-side, it’s all part of the RFI Vietnam process.

Convert queries into clarifications

However, even after sending the queries to the client, if you don’t get a response. Try to solve the queries by doing research. You can seek the help of experts to understand the RFP document better. Moreover, you can outsource the RFI response services to win the contract.

However, RFI plays an important role for both client and contractor. It helps the contractor to know about the client’s organization and a basic idea of what project the project is about. And it helps the client to find the potential bidder for the project. Be mindful while writing RFI and its response.