Create a Time and materials Request for Proposals (RFP)

LittleBig Connection is a platform that allows you to manage all your Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and intellectual services projects. You can create both time and materials, and capped time and materials RFPs, in order to find the experts you need. Let's see in this article how to create and publish a time and materials RFP, and if necessary modify it.

Within this article

• Overall video
• Create and publish a time and materials RFP
  1. Entity
  2. My need (if applicable)
  3. Project
  4. Location
  5. Skills
  6. Specific settings (if applicable)
  7. Duration and budget
  8. Publish
• Modify a time and materials RFP

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Overall video

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Create and publish a time and materials RFP

To start creating your RFP, go to the RFP tab and click on Create an RFP.

On the first page that will appear, you will have to decide if you wish to: 

• Create a new request for proposals from an empty form : You can choose between two RFP types in the dropdown menu 
  • Time and materials: this is an RFP for which there is an obligation of means, where you agree on the price of a resource per day or per hour and for a given duration. 
  • Capped time and materials: this is an RFP for which there is an obligation of result and where you agree on a monthly or total price pack for a given deliverable. To know more about creating a capped time and materials RFP, please read our dedicated article.
• Use a template, i.e. using an RFP form template. A template is created automatically as soon as you publish a Time and materials RFP, so that you can reuse it later if necessary, with several fields already pre-filled. 
• Resume from a draft, i.e. resume a form that you have already started to fill out and that has not yet been published.

Among these options, please select the option to create a new RFP for a Time and materials project, then click on Validate. You will be redirected to a one-page form, broken down into several steps located in a menu on the left-hand side of your screen and that you can complete in the order you like. 

Below are the 8 steps to complete to publish your RFP: 

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1. Entity

Select an entity among those to which you are attached and for which you wish to issue the RFP.

When the entity is selected, the Operational Manager, Spending Line and Buyer fields are automatically filled with the information available for the entity. You have the possibility to modify these fields if needed.

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2. My need (if applicable)

You will see this step only if you use LittleBig Connection platform for both Sourcing and Portage. It allows you to indicate if: 

• You are looking for an expertise, at this point you will have the option of publishing your RFP to your preferred suppliers, to targeted recipients or to our marketplace (Sourcing) depending on what is allowed for the entity you selected in the previous step.
• You already found an expertise and wish to create an RFP in order to regularize the project in LittleBig Connection. As such, you will be able to send your RFP directly to the Business Manager or Freelancer that won the project, with the purpose of being able to follow up and carry out the invoicing of the project on the platform directly.

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3. Project

Several parts must be completed in this step, in order to provide as much information as possible on the content of the project and thus, ensure that you receive the most relevant proposals:

• Project title: It should accurately represent the expertise or the end goal you are looking to achieve with the project. This is an important element, being the first thing to be displayed to potential suppliers.
• Project's context

• Goals and deliverables
• Estimated duration of project (optional)
• Intervention time (optional): full time or part time

• Attachment (optional): maximum of 5 documents

• Mandatory Clauses: When special mandatory clauses have been set up in an entity by the administrator they will appear in this section. As an RFP creator you will be able to see them in the RFP creation form and will be able to activate them if relevant. .

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4. Location

• RFP confidentiality: If you activate it, the information that may be used to identify your company (logo, company name, location of the project), will be hidden from the suppliers. Note, this may reduce the relevance of the proposals you receive. 
• Project location: Indicate where the project is taking place (mandatory even if the project is done remotely).

• Intervention in remote work: Indicate if the project will be done in person or remotely (fully or partially).

• Travel: If travel is required, activate the corresponding toggle button and indicate the location(s) and frequency of any potential travel

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5. Skills

In order to receive the most relevant proposals possible, it is advisable to indicate the hard skills, soft skills and languages to be mastered for successful completion of the project. For each added skill or language, you will also need to specify the desired level of expertise. To add them:

• Type the skill you are looking for in the search bar (at least 3 characters are required to launch the search).
• Select the corresponding skill in the list of results

• For each skill, indicate the level of expertise you seek, using the star system: 

	Beginner
	Confirmed
	Expert
	Guru

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6. Specific settings (if applicable)

This step is only displayed if your company account uses at least one of the premium features listed below:

• Custom fields (to learn more, go to this article)
• Project codes and project breakdown (to learn more, go to this article)
• Daily fees (to learn more, go to this article)

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7. Duration and budget

• Start date (optional): You may enter a start date for the project to give visibility to suppliers.
• Estimated purchase order length: The estimated duration of the purchase order indicated in the RFP is mainly indicative, you will always have the possibility of further specify and modify its duration at the time of the selection of a proposal.
• Renewal of the purchase order: Activate the button to indicate if the Purchase Order can potentially be renewed. This information is indicative and does not commit you to anything, it can  however, help suppliers to plan ahead.
• Working Unit (WU): Select the type of work unit for the project in days or hours
• Price per WU in € excl. taxes: Indicate the maximum budget per working unit (day or hour) that you are considering for this project. You have the option of displaying or hiding this budget to the suppliers who will see your RFP.
• Profile codes (if applicable): If the entity you have selected at the beginning of the form has been configured with the premium feature profile codes and rate grids, you must select the profile code corresponding to the expertise you are looking for.

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8. Publish

• Recipients: Configure the publication of your RFP by activating/deactivating the toggle buttons
  • Use a publication sequence: If your administrator has configured a publication sequence in the selected entity. This allows you to make your RFP visible progressively to your lists of preferred suppliers or to the LittleBig Connection's marketplace in the order of the sequence. While setting up the sequencing in an RFP you will be able to unselect suppliers if needed but there must always remain a minimum of one on each step. Note that once your RFP is published you will no longer be able to modify the settings of the sequence. 
  • Open to the LittleBig Connection marketplace: By making your RFP visible on our marketplace, either to service companies and/or freelancers, you allow the members of our suppliers' community to have access to it. If a supplier from the marketplace wins your RFP, then the Connect Offer - Sourcing will apply.
  • Preferred suppliers: Publish your RFP only to your preferred suppliers so that only they have access to it. Choose the list(s) of preferred suppliers from the drop-down menu. You can edit the lists by clicking on Edit if you need to remove one or more suppliers from the list. If a preferred supplier wins your RFP, then the Rise Offer will apply.
  • Send to targeted recipients : You can send your RFP directly to specific suppliers suppliers who are members of our community (via their name or email address) or to suppliers who are not yet registered on the platform (via their email address).
    • If you have indicated that you are looking for an expertise, this option allows you, for example, to put your preferred suppliers in competition with non-preferred suppliers. If a non preferred supplier wins your AO, then the Connect Offer - Portage will apply.
    • If you have indicated that you have already found an expertise, this option allows you to regularize the project on LittleBig Connection in order to ensure its follow-up and invoicing. If a preferred supplier wins your RFP, then the Rise Offer will apply, otherwise it will be the Connect Offer - Portage.
• Deadline for proposals (optional): Allows you to stop responses from coming in to your RFP after the date specified, while still leaving your RFP visible to suppliers. You may change this date at any point to prevent the influx or re-start the reception of new proposals. This date can therefore allow you to manage the flow of proposals you receive in two ways:
  • If you receive too many proposals and you can't qualify them all, you can use this date to prevent new proposals (temporarily or permanently).
  • If your deadline has been reached and you have not found the expertise you were looking for among the proposals received, you can extend the deadline to receive new proposals.
• Next validation steps: You can view or select the validation workflow for the publication of your RFP. The validation workflow settings are linked to your Customer account settings.

When all the steps are complete and you feel you have filled in all the essential information, all you have to do is click on Publish, at the bottom right of the form.

Your RFP will be published once all the steps of the validation workflow have been validated. You can follow the progress of the workflow and send reminders internally if needed.

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Modify a time and materials RFP

To modify an RFP already published:

1. Go to the RFP tab, then click on My RFPs
2. You will be redirected to the table containing all the RFPs in your scope. Click on the action menu on the right of the table for the RFP you wish to modify, then click on Modify.
3. You can now modify the information for each step of the RFP: entity, my need, project, location, skills, specific settings (if applicable), duration, budget and publication criteria.
4. Once you have made your changes, click on Save and exit in the top right corner of the form