Good morning, y'all. We are currently working on selecting a new ILS for our library to replace our Dinosaur Dynix system and are leaning heavily toward Koha. I am not nearly tech savvy enough to migrate and install it myself so we will definitely need a good vendor to handle that for us. Because of the limitations of our particular jurisdiction, we will need to do a Request For Proposals and go through a bidding process. My problem is I have been asked to come up with the specifications for our RFP and have no clue where to start. It occurred to me to draw on this Brain Trust and ask my fellow US systems folks on here for assistance. Why "reinvent the wheel", as the cliche' goes. So, if it isn't too much trouble and doesn't violate your system's confidentiality, would some of you mind forwarding to my private email (storypage at gmail.com) any specifications and/or RFPs you used when you switched to Koha? It would save me an awful lot of work and headaches. Alternately, could you give me a few hints on how to get started? We are primarily looking at contracting out server setup, migration, training and support. We will no doubt have very different needs from yours, but it will at least give me a starting point and some ideas. Thanks from the clueless, --Jim Maroon -- ================================================== "The man, who, by his own and his family's labour, can provide a sufficiency of food and raiment and a comfortable dwelling place, is not a poor man."--William Cobbett, *Cottage Economy*, 1826.
Buster wrote:
[...] Because of the limitations of our particular jurisdiction, we will need to do a Request For Proposals and go through a bidding process. My problem is I have been asked to come up with the specifications for our RFP and have no clue where to start.
We've bid for a few, but most RFPs are expensive for the buyer to prepare and both risky and expensive for vendors to answer. I think it means libraries would pay inflated prices in a fair market: both the costs of preparation of both sides in this process, plus a share of the costs of other unsuccessful proposals made by that vendor. I don't understand why anyone would want to buy FOSS that way. If you evaluate Koha and decide that you want it, could you obtain multiple quotes for each of Koha and the related services and choose between offers? That's a permitted alternative to a full-blown RFP-by-spec process in some places. If you must RFP by spec, I've not seen a good Koha-friendly generic spec yet, so it'll be interesting to see what you find! Also, there might be a procurement support service near you, similar to OSS-Watch.ac.uk for UK Higher Ed (although I've not heard of any library using them to procure Koha yet). Good luck, -- MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op. http://koha-community.org supporter, web and LMS developer, statistician. In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Available for hire for Koha work http://www.software.coop/products/koha
Buster, What I recommend people do that are in your situation is to decide on which products you are interested in based on your own evaluation of the functional requirements (which it sounds like you may have done already) and then put out an RFQ to get quotes from the various service providers. I think that would still meet your bidding process requirements, no? If not, just do an RFP with some key differentiators listed in the functional specs area (since you already know the hundreds of functions that do exist in Koha and every other ILS so why put everyone through the pain of asking). Include a pricing section in your RFP of course. That way, multiple Koha support providers can respond and it won't take them five days just to wade through a big ugly RFP responding to a bunch of question everyone already know the answer to. Lori =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lori Bowen Ayre // Library Technology Consultant The Galecia Group // www.galecia.com (707) 763-6869 // Lori.Ayre@galecia.com <Lori.Ayre@galecia.com>Specializing in open source ILS solutions, RFID, filtering, workflow optimization, and materials handling =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 2011/3/3 Buster <storypage@gmail.com>
Good morning, y'all.
We are currently working on selecting a new ILS for our library to replace our Dinosaur Dynix system and are leaning heavily toward Koha. I am not nearly tech savvy enough to migrate and install it myself so we will definitely need a good vendor to handle that for us. Because of the limitations of our particular jurisdiction, we will need to do a Request For Proposals and go through a bidding process. My problem is I have been asked to come up with the specifications for our RFP and have no clue where to start.
It occurred to me to draw on this Brain Trust and ask my fellow US systems folks on here for assistance. Why "reinvent the wheel", as the cliche' goes.
So, if it isn't too much trouble and doesn't violate your system's confidentiality, would some of you mind forwarding to my private email (storypage at gmail.com) any specifications and/or RFPs you used when you switched to Koha? It would save me an awful lot of work and headaches. Alternately, could you give me a few hints on how to get started? We are primarily looking at contracting out server setup, migration, training and support.
We will no doubt have very different needs from yours, but it will at least give me a starting point and some ideas.
Thanks from the clueless, --Jim Maroon
--
================================================== "The man, who, by his own and his family's labour, can provide a sufficiency of food and raiment and a comfortable dwelling place, is not a poor man." --William Cobbett, *Cottage Economy*, 1826.
_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
--
Lori Bowen Ayre wrote:
[...] Include a pricing section in your RFP of course. That way, multiple Koha support providers can respond and it won't take them five days just to wade through a big ugly RFP responding to a bunch of question everyone already know the answer to.
Good tips from someone on the other side of the fence! I might not rate webmink's views on organisational development, but I do like what he just posted about procuring FOSS: "Buying open source subscriptions may seem like a junior version of buying proprietary software. But if your procurement process treats it that way, you're probably losing out on benefits you need." http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2011/03/open-source-procurement-... Hope that helps, -- MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op. http://koha-community.org supporter, web and LMS developer, statistician. In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Available for hire for Koha work http://www.software.coop/products/koha
Thanks so much for all the helpful responses so far. I have receive numerous copies of RFPs. Because of the costs involved, I'm afraid we are bound by our municipality's rules and the regs from our finance department to require an RFP. Believe me, if I could avoid it, I would. However, the RFP is not for the ILS itself. Since it is free, we have downloaded it. No sense in requiring an RFP for something you already own, right? We are contracting for services to set up the server, migrate the data, train our staff, and support the system, not the system itself. Once we make the final decision which system we want (I know which one I want, but I am not we) we will then shop for a vendor for that system. Thanks again. If anyone else has any ideas or RFPs, please keep them coming. --Jim Maroon
2011/3/5 Buster <storypage@gmail.com>:
Thanks again. If anyone else has any ideas or RFPs, please keep them coming.
I have very little experience with RFPs, but I was wondering if this is something that could go on our wiki? Something like a list of things to take into consideration when you are writing an RFP for FLOSS support? What to do and what not to do etc. Best regards, Magnus Enger libriotech.no
Because of the costs involved, I'm afraid we are bound by our municipality's rules and the regs from our finance department to require an RFP. Believe me, if I could avoid it, I would. However, the RFP is not for the ILS itself. Since it is free, we have downloaded it. No sense in requiring an RFP for something you already own, right? Exactly the same things here (in France) : it's perfectly legal to say "we have choosen Koha and are looking for a company that can help us migrating, training,... It makes RFP much simpler : no need to explain what you need as features, you just have to say "i'm on ILS-A today, and need someone
Le 05/03/2011 00:30, Buster a écrit : that is experienced in migrating from ILS-A to Koha". It can be very easy & short ! HTH -- Paul POULAIN http://www.biblibre.com Expert en Logiciels Libres pour l'info-doc Tel : (33) 4 91 81 35 08
Does *anyone* have any procurement documents that they can share? Your RFP or RFQ or RFI....or whatever you used to make a decision about which product and which vendor/service provider you were going to go with. I'd love to look over some copies of what has worked for people. I have my recommendations but I'd like to see what has actually worked in the field so I am sure to be steering other libraries in the right direction! Lori P.S. If you can share them for their content but you don't want any "personally-identifying information" shared about your institution, I am happy to do some scrubbing. I'd like to come up with a template that people can use. And I'd share it with everyone if I can get some help from those who've gone through it already. On Sat, Mar 5, 2011 at 12:38 PM, Paul Poulain <paul.poulain@biblibre.com>wrote:
Because of the costs involved, I'm afraid we are bound by our municipality's rules and the regs from our finance department to require an RFP. Believe me, if I could avoid it, I would. However, the RFP is not for the ILS itself. Since it is free, we have downloaded it. No sense in requiring an RFP for something you already own, right? Exactly the same things here (in France) : it's perfectly legal to say "we have choosen Koha and are looking for a company that can help us migrating, training,... It makes RFP much simpler : no need to explain what you need as features, you just have to say "i'm on ILS-A today, and need someone
Le 05/03/2011 00:30, Buster a écrit : that is experienced in migrating from ILS-A to Koha". It can be very easy & short !
HTH
-- Paul POULAIN http://www.biblibre.com Expert en Logiciels Libres pour l'info-doc Tel : (33) 4 91 81 35 08
_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
-- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Lori Bowen Ayre // Library Technology Consultant The Galecia Group // www.galecia.com (707) 763-6869 // Lori.Ayre@galecia.com <Lori.Ayre@galecia.com>Specializing in open source ILS solutions, RFID, filtering, workflow optimization, and materials handling =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
participants (5)
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Buster -
Lori Bowen Ayre -
Magnus Enger -
MJ Ray -
Paul Poulain