I responded to Lee offline quite awhile ago, but since posts from non-consultants were asked for, here is how we handled the RFP for NEKLS. After a prior experience contracting with a vendor who refused to deal with an RFP, it is our policy to never select an ILS vendor without an RFP. Most recently we used an RFP in selecting a new Koha support vendor with good response. We did not attempt to separate price from non-price proposals, and in fact used a preliminary evaluation matrix with a 20%/80% ratio for price and non-price factors. Although it was certainly not the only factor, cost was an integral part of our decision making, but we did not select the lowest priced proposal. Jim Minges Message: 4 Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:57:07 +1200 From: Paul Nielsen <pauln@hauraki-dc.govt.nz> Subject: Re: [Koha] RFI/RFP for FOSS -Librarians and Service Providers To: Lee Phillips <lphillips@buttepubliclibrary.info> Cc: "koha@lists.katipo.co.nz" <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz> Message-ID: <B92D76D471268041BACAF827AC6564BD01EFD31D8E@ginger.hauraki-dc.govt.nz
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi Lee, I only just noticed this thread now, so hopefully I am not too late for you. We used a pretty standard 2 envelope (Price/non-price) RFP process that we sent to a pre-selected list of vendors, including two Koha support companies. We short-listed after non-price evaluation and then opened the $ envelopes after a round of further evaluation/testing/demos and site visits etc. We selected Koha & Catalyst so can I infer that it must work for OS products and providers? I've attached our RFP for you to review - it is quite brief as we wanted to keep it as simple as possible. Regards, Paul Nielsen | Library Manager ddi: (07) 862 5064 | email: pauln@hauraki-dc.govt.nz Hauraki District Council | William Street Paeroa 3600 | PO Box 17 Paeroa 3640 | NZ ph: (07) 862 8609 or 0800 734 834 (from within district) | fax: (07) 862 8607 web: www.hauraki-dc.govt.nz<http://www.hauraki-dc.govt.nz> | email: info@hauraki-dc.govt.nz<
mailto:info@hauraki-dc.govt.nz> | HDC Libraries< http://library.hauraki-dc.govt.nz> P Please consider the environment before printing this email
________________________________ From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Lori Bowen Ayre Sent: Saturday, 11 June 2011 12:43 p.m. To: Lee Phillips Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] RFI/RFP for FOSS -Librarians and Service Providers
Hi Lee,
I was hoping someone who isn't a consultant would chime in on this thread but since they didn't, I'll share my approach to this issue. I generally recommend that libraries evaluate the products' functionality separate from the pricing. You can determine the functional capabilities of the proprietary products by issuing an RFP or an RFI or maybe even a questionnaire but that won't necessarily work for the open source products since there is no single sales and marketing department for Evergreen or Koha and responding to those RFPs is just too onerous.
But you can get the information yourself. Sometimes what I've done is help the library with the process of identifying their needs and then doing most of the evaluation of the OS products themselves. The goal is to end up with a matrix of how each product matches up to the libraries need. The matrix is basically filled out by the libraries themselves based on tehir own testing of the open source product and by working with sales people from the proprietary vendors.
Once you've evaluated the products and know which ones will meet your needs functionly, then you issue an RFQ. You are MUCH more likely to get responses (from migration and support companies that service Koha and Evergreen) to an RFQ than you are to an RFP that is boilerplate and designed for proprietary systems and which ultimately makes the OS options look bad because some key questions aren't even asked.
But some of those key questions SHOULD be asked in the RFQ (e.g. cost of migration of data to get started...and what about when you decide to leave that vendor?, software license and maintenance cost of each module of software and SIP server, hardware requirements, etc).
I hope this helps. Would love to hear what you've come up with if this message comes too late to be of use!
Lori
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lori Bowen Ayre // Library Technology Consultant The Galecia Group // www.galecia.com<http://www.galecia.com/> (707) 763-6869 // Lori.Ayre@galecia.com<mailto:Lori.Ayre@galecia.com>
<mailto:Lori.Ayre@galecia.com>Specializing in open source ILS solutions, RFID, filtering, workflow optimization, and materials handling =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
On Wed, May 25, 2011 at 8:01 AM, Lee Phillips < lphillips@buttepubliclibrary.info<mailto:lphillips@buttepubliclibrary.info>> wrote: Hello all from Montana, We have been having the craziest weather here and in the US in general. It is has been the longest winter for us that I can remember. Anyway, I am working on a white paper about equitable RFP and RFI (request for proposals or request for information) that are vendor neutral and gives FOSS library ware equal footing in the bidding process. In addition I have been contacted by the Montana Library Consortium (who currently uses Sirisi) to consult on their RFI for the shared catalog ILS for the same reason. Many of you who were at KohaCon 9 in TX. will remember the Montana State Library representative who attended(Mike Price) and he was less than kind in his reporting back to the state library. I have found RFP templates that I am currently modifying to create a format that is unbiased for FOSS and proprietary products. SO....if you have recently gone out for an RFP for your ILS and have information that I can incorporate into this white paper (and pass on the the Montana Shared Catalog) I would be grateful. Of course time is of the essence, so please send me what you have or point me to info that would be important to consider. Thank you for your time, as always it is a privilege and a pleasure to be part of the Koha Community. Sincerely Lee Phillips Director Butte Silver Bow Public Library Butte, Montana _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz<mailto:Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz> http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
"NEKLS and its member libraries are leaders and innovators in providing exemplary library services." Jim Minges, Director Northeast Kansas Library System 4317 West 6th Street Lawrence, KS 66049 Phone: 785-838-4090 FAX: 785-838-3989 jminges@nekls.org