RFP (Request for Proposal)
An RFP is a formal document a buyer issues to solicit priced, competitive proposals from vendors for a defined piece of work, evaluated against stated criteria.
In short
- Solicits competitive, priced proposals from multiple vendors, not a single agreed scope.
- States evaluation criteria upfront -- how submissions will be scored and compared.
- Defines a submission deadline, Q&A window, and award timeline.
- A vendor's winning response typically becomes the basis for the eventual SOW.
How an RFP differs from a SOW
A SOW defines work both parties have already agreed to; an RFP is issued before that agreement exists, to a pool of vendors who don't yet have the engagement. It asks vendors to propose their own approach, timeline, and price against the buyer's stated requirements, rather than confirming terms already negotiated.
What makes an RFP well-structured
A strong RFP states clear evaluation criteria and weighting, a defined submission format, a firm deadline, a structured Q&A process for vendor questions, and enough scope detail that vendors can price accurately. Missing any of these produces proposals that aren't comparable to each other, which defeats the point of running a competitive process.
How ScopeWise checks this
ScopeWise's Scope, Delivery, and Commercial agents run doc-type-aware checks for RFPs -- looking for defined evaluation criteria, a submission deadline and Q&A window, and disclosed budget or pricing format -- backed by a separate RFP rule set distinct from the SOW rules.