Creation and publication of an RFP (time and materials)

Before accessing the form for creating an RFP, you must first determine whether you wish to :

• Create an RFP from a blank form
• Use a template, i.e. start from a form template that includes information from an RFP that you have already published in the past
• Take over a draft, i.e. take over a form that you have already started to fill in but which has never yet been published 

First, we will look at creating an RFP from a blank form.

This form offers the possibility of creating 2 types of Requests for Proposals:

• Time and Materials, which is the form we will present in this article
• Fixed price 

By selecting the "Time and Materials" form, you access a single page form broken down into several sections.

The navigation between the different sections has been simplified, you just have to click on a step from the menu on the left to access it, which means that you can complete the form in the order you want depending on the information you have.

If you are missing any information to complete the form, you can save your RFP as a draft at any time and come back to complete it later.

You will be able to publish your RFP once each stage has been completed. 

A stage is considered complete if all the mandatory information for that
stage has been filled in. (You can see at a glance on the left-hand menu 
which steps are already complete as they are displayed in green)

Step: Entity

In this step, you must select an entity among those to which you are attached and for which you will issue the RFP.

(For an entity to issue an RFP, it must be active and at least one active spending line must be associated with it).

Next, you must select the operational manager in charge of the project, the spending line and the buyer, who will be responsible for validating the expense linked to the service which will be selected when this expense exceeds the amount mentioned on the spending line.

Step: My need

This step will be displayed only if you use the LittleBig Connection platform for both sourcing and portage. This step allows you to indicate if :

• You are looking for an expertise
• You have already found an expertise

In case you want to create an RFP, you will have the choice to publish your RFP to your referenced suppliers lists, to targeted recipients or to our marketplace depending on what is allowed for the entity you selected in the previous step.

If, on the other hand, you have already found an expertise and you wish to create an RFP in order to regularize the service in LittleBig Connection, you will be able to send your RFP directly to the company that won the project and then follow up on the service and the invoicing on the platform.

Step : Project

The title of the project is to be filled in the step "Project" and it is an extremely important element because it is the one that will be displayed first to the service providers, it must accurately represent the expertise you are looking for.

In the same way, the description of the assignment through the fields "Project's context" and "Goals and deliverables" are decisive in order to allow you to find precisely the expertise you are looking for and to maximize the relevance of the proposals you will receive.

(the "Project's context" field is linked to each entity and can be pre-filled in the form if the "Entity presentation" field is filled in the entity configuration)

If you wish, you can also indicate the estimated duration of the project and whether the intervention time required is full time or part-time.

(this information is not compulsory but it is useful to give visibility to the service providers so that they can plan ahead and also to avoid them having to ask you questions directly)

Finally, you also have the possibility to attach up to 5 documents to your RFP if you consider it relevant.

(if you are using the multi-project RFP, a field is displayed allowing you to determine the number of profiles sought)

Step: Location

At this stage, you can activate the confidentiality option of your RFP, which allows you to hide the information allowing your company to be identified.

You must enter a location for the assignment, which can, for example, be taken from the assignment locations set up at the entity level that you selected in the first stage of the form.

You must indicate whether the project will be carried out face-to-face or remotely (totally or partially) and indicate whether travel, more or less regular, is to be expected as part of the project.

Step: Skills

In order to receive the most relevant proposals possible, it is advisable to fill in the skills (hard skills, soft skills) and languages to be mastered for the successful completion of the project and, for each skill or language added, you should also specify the desired level.

Our skills search bar allows you to obtain suggestions related to your input in order to facilitate the completion of this part.

You can also add a skill even if it is not suggested by our search 
engine by pressing by our search engine by pressing "Enter".

Step: Specific settings

This step is only displayed if your company account uses at least one of our following premium features:

• Adding custom fields
• Management of project codes
• Management of daily fees 

Step: Duration and budget

You can then enter a start date for the project but it is not mandatory, it can be used to give visibility to service providers.

You will also need to indicate the estimated duration of the purchase order.

The estimated duration of the purchase order indicated in the RFP 
is mainly indicative you will always have the possibility to specify 
and modify this duration when selecting a proposal. 

In order to complete your RFP, you will need to enter the estimated maximum budget per unit of work.

In a "Time and Materials" type of RFP, you can propose a maximum estimated budget per day or per hour.

In addition, if the entity you selected at the beginning of the form has been set up with profile codes and rate cards, then you must select the profile code corresponding to the expertise you are looking for.

You have the possibility to display or hide the maximum estimated budget to the service providers who will come to consult your RFP on our platform.

Step: Publication

In the last step of the form, you can set a deadline for proposals. This is a deadline which, once passed, will prevent providers from submitting new proposals to you, although they will still have access to your RFP until it is closed.

This date can therefore allow you to manage the flow of proposals you receive in two ways:

• You receive too many proposals and cannot qualify them all, you can use this date (by filling it in with yesterday's date for example) 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 grant additional time by extending the duration in order to receive new proposals.

Next, you need to determine which service providers will be able to respond to your RFP:

• if you are looking for expertise (see step My need) for your project you will be able, depending on the settings of the entity you selected at the beginning of the form, to open your RFP to :
  • your lists of referenced suppliers
  • targeted recipients via their email address or their LittleBig Connection account if they are already registered on the platform
  • our marketplace
    
    
• if on the contrary, you have already found an expertise (see step My need) for your project, you will be able to send your RFP directly to the provider who won it via his/her email address or his/her LittleBig Connection account.

Finally, you will be able to view or select the validation workflow for the publication of your RFP (the validation workflow settings are linked to your customer account settings).

The selection of the validation workflow takes into account the spending line and the estimated total budget that you have entered in your form.

The total estimated budget is calculated using the maximum estimated 
budget per unit (day or hour) as well as the estimated duration 
of the purchase order mentioned in the form.

When all the steps are complete and you feel that you have filled in all the essential information, all you have to do is click on the publish button.

Your RFP will be published once all the steps of the validation workflow have been validated.