Transport RFP Management challenges - Part 1

 

For most companies executing a transport RFP project is not a routine activity. It is a highly time consuming activity, but a necessity nonetheless. The RFP is an investment in improving logistics operations resulting in savings, improved services or both.

 

In this series of two articles we look at the 6 biggest challenges on managing transport RFP projects as reported by companies. In this first article we take you through the first 3 challenges.

How to deal with these challenges?

 

Unfortunately there are no easy ways or shortcuts to face the most common challenges in executing a RFP project. It is just hard work. But there are certainly ways to ensure a RFP project is managed in an efficient and professional way

 

1 – Maximising Savings

 

This challenge is often directly related to the inability to come to an apples-for-apples comparison in the analysis. If you don’t know what the result is how can you come to a conclusion and recommendation? But even if you are able to come to clear conclusions and recommendations, it is of high importance to keep monitoring the achievements.
Most companies are happy with the savings results they achieve on paper from a RFP project. But many companies are not able to tell us two months later if the results actually materialized in the day-to-day operations. Without a savings achievement monitoring process (or tool) in place you can never be sure what the real result was.

 

2 - Highly time consuming exercise and lack of staff resources

 

An average RFP Project takes around 3 to 4 months from start (data gathering) to finish (awarding and contracting). As most transport and supply chain staff have to perform such a project next to their regular day-to-day activities it is seen as a highly time consuming and disruptive exercise.

 

RFP’s should be in integrated part of every supply chain organization’s strategic agenda. Unfortunately, too often RFP’s are executed at the last moment as an afterthought. Every supply chain operation makes an annual cost budgets. This budget should also include expense for executing one or more RFP’s each year. By making it part of the strategic planning it ensures that preparation steps for the RFP are taken on a timely basis, which will reduce the overall time consumption in the long run and will result in improvement of the quality of the RFP (and consequently the results). Planning results in better allocation of resources for RFP execution is an investment that will see a definite return.

 

 

3 - Unavailability of specialist tools or technology

For most companies tendering is not a routine exercise and as a result most companies do not have specialist RFP technology and/or tools available. In most case this leads to extensive use of the good old Excel sheets. It is estimated that about 30% of companies use Excel to create their own analysis tools. And another 30% of companies does not even use any tools at all for analysis.
Using a robust and standardized RFP process enhances the speed with which a RFP can be managed and the quality of the results. Many companies decide to outsource their RFP Management activities to specialist companies that have a set of tested tools. The trend in the market is to bring complex RFP processes more and more online whereby the use of professional internet portals are preferred.

 

 

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