RFI (Request for Information)
An RFI is a preliminary document a buyer sends to vendors to gather information about their capabilities, approach, or market offerings, without asking for a priced proposal.
In short
- Informational, not competitive -- there's no pricing ask and usually no formal scoring.
- Used earlier than an RFP, often to shortlist vendors or scope out a market before a formal solicitation.
- Responses feed into how a later RFP or SOW gets written, rather than resulting in an award.
- Lighter-weight than an RFP: fewer mandatory sections, less legal boilerplate.
Where it fits in the buying process
A buyer unsure which vendors can even do the work, or unsure how to scope it, sends an RFI to gather capability information, rough approach, and sometimes ballpark cost ranges. It's a research step, and the vendor responses typically shape the requirements and evaluation criteria the buyer later puts into a formal RFP.
Why it shouldn't be treated like an RFP
Because an RFI doesn't ask for a binding price or commit either side to anything, running it through the same lens as a competitive RFP review misses the point -- there's no award decision or evaluation-criteria comparison to check, just whether the request gathered the information the buyer actually needed.
How ScopeWise checks this
ScopeWise's RFP review pipeline is built around solicitations that ask vendors for a priced proposal -- the Commercial agent's RFP checks specifically look for budget or pricing-format disclosure, which an RFI by design doesn't include, so RFIs sit outside what that pipeline is tuned to evaluate today.