[COMPANY NAME AND/OR LOGO]
Request For Proposal
FOR
PURCHASE OF AN
Enterprise learning Platform
AND Related SERVICES
Date: ______
Proposal Due Date: ______
Table of Contents
I. Introduction......
A.Description of Company......
B.Project Purpose......
C.Project Scope......
D.Project Objectives......
E.Current Systems Environment......
II. Vendor Instructions......
A.Schedule for Evaluation Process......
B.Company Contact Name and Address......
C.Number of Proposal Copies......
D.Proposal Format......
E.Proposal Evaluation Criteria......
F.RFP Response Information......
III. Vendor Qualifications......
A.Vendor Background......
B.Industry Experience......
IV. Proposed Product Descriptions......
A.Product Overview......
B.Product Functionality......
V. Implementation Services......
VI. Support and Training Services......
VII. License, Installation, Maintenance, and Training Costs......
A.License Fees......
B.Implementation Services......
C.Software Support Services......
D.Training Services......
E.Hosting Services......
F.Other Costs......
Appendix A – Business and Functional Requirements......
Appendix B – Technical Requirements......
Appendix C – Hosting Requirements......
I.Introduction
A.Description of Company
About Company
______(“Company”), is a [publicly/privately held] company and is a Fortune ____ company.With a history dating back to ______, Company provides ______products and services to ______.On ______, Company had consolidated assets of $______.The company operates ______offices throughout ______. with an employee base of ______employees in the North America.
History of Company
[INSERT]
B.Project Purpose
The purpose of this Request for Proposal (“RFP”) is to provide:
- Vendors with a clear understanding of Company’s current and future e-Learning needs.
- Vendors with clear and consistent instructions for responding to this RFP.
- Company with the means for evaluating vendors' system solutions.
Company is seeking to acquire and install an integrated web-based learning management and learning content management system (“Software”) that can be used for Company’s ______project (“Project”).
The ______department with Company is evaluating learning management and learning content management systems and is responsible for ______.
C.Project Scope
Company is interested in acquiring the Software to be the core application for the Project.Company is seeking proposals from experienced software vendors.The vendors are expected to provide quality software products, install those products, offer basic training on using and monitoring those products, and make available, at least annually, upgrades to the software products.
D.Project Objectives
The Company objectives for the Project are:
[INSERT LIST – IF APPLICABLE]
E.Current Systems Environment
The following are the Company desktop, distributed, and mainframe environments:
Desktop Environment:
Browsers:
Operating System:
Database:
II.Vendor Instructions
A.Schedule for Evaluation Process
- Request For Proposal sent to potential vendors: ______
- Questions Deadline: ______
- Response Due Date: ______
- Vendor Presentations: ______to______
- Proposal Evaluations Complete: Week of ______
- Vendor of Choice Selection:
B.Company Contact Name and Address
______[Name]
______[Title]
Company
[ADDRESS]
E-mail copy:
Phone:
Contact ______at Company at the telephone number or e-mail address above to arrange a confidential meeting to answer any questions.
Should vendor decide not to respond to this RFP, Company would appreciate notification in writing or by e-mail as soon as possible.
All contact with Company regarding this RFP and any subsequently submitted responses should be coordinated through ______unless otherwise specifically instructed.
Proposals may be withdrawn or modified in writing prior to the proposal submission deadline.
C.Number of Proposal Copies
Please submit one electronic copy by Close of Business (5 PM) on ______. Send the completed RFP to the following address:
[Email address]
D.Proposal Format
Provide Company with answers to all questions in this RFP. We want detailed answers, but please keep them as short as possible while still satisfactorily answering the questions. When possible, respond to the question itself rather than referring to an attachment. Include any attachments you deem necessary to complete your response at the end of the document.
All pricing in your proposal should be identified as one-time or recurring.Include quantity discounts where applicable. Your proposal should include the preferred payment method and payment schedule, including payment requirements, available discounts, and/or other invoicing details your company deems significant.
E.Proposal Evaluation Criteria
Our selection will be based on Company’s assessment of the vendor in the following areas: (i) vendor qualifications and capability, (ii) product functionality, (iii) product technical support services, (iv) service features, (v) product integration capability, (vi) system implementation capability, (vii) price, (viii) flexibility, and (ix) training capability/availability.We also may base our decision upon the responses of vendor references.Notwithstanding the foregoing, Company reserves the right to select any vendor, for any reason, at any time.
F.RFP Response Information
Effective Date of Bid
Vendors should state in writing in its Proposal to Company that all furnished information, including price, will remain valid and applicable for 60 days from the date the vendor Proposal is received by Company.
Confidentiality
Any information supplied to Company by the vendor will be treated as confidential and will not be released to any third party.Company is under no obligation to return any information presented as part of a Proposal.
This RFP and all materials submitted by Company contains confidential and proprietary information about Company, and may not be disclosed by vendor to any third parties without the prior written consent of Company.Furthermore, you shall disclose the materials contained in this RFP only to those in your organization who need such material to respond to this RFP.Company understands that you may need a solution partner(s) to submit a Proposal.Company expects any solution partner to adhere to the same confidentiality requirements as you, and this RFP may not be forwarded to a solution partner for evaluation or for any other purpose without the express written consent of Company.Upon Company's request, you will return to Company all materials sent to you in connection with this RFP.When submitting confidential material to Company you must clearly mark it as such.
III.Vendor Qualifications
A.Vendor Background
- Please provide a brief history of your company, including the number of years in business.
- How many offices do you have? Please provide information on each office, including location and services provided.
- Please provide the total number of full-time employees in your organization, broken down by job function.
- Please provide a link to financial statements for the last two years. If you are a private company, please submit these as part of the RFP response. This information is required.
- Please identify the percentage of your company’s revenues that are applied to research and development.
- We are looking for a partner for the long-term. Is your company profitable? What is your total market share? If possible, please provide support for your response.
- What do you think differentiates your company from other LMS vendors?
- What awards and industry recognition has your company received?
- Please define and describe any products or applications other than the Learning Management System that you currently offer.
B.Industry Experience
- Please describe your experience in our industry.
- Please provide information on the history of your LMS. When was it first released?
- Please provide 2-3 references for your solution. We will not contact references until after the first proposal stage is complete.
IV.Proposed Product Descriptions
A.Product Overview
- Provide names and descriptions for the Software recommended in your proposal.
- Please include information on your product roadmap.
B.Product Functionality
- Please complete Appendix A: Business and Functional Requirements for the product(s) you are proposing.
- Please complete Appendix B: Technical Specifications for the product(s) you are proposing.
- Please complete Appendix C: Hosting Overview for the product(s) you are proposing, if applicable.
- At some point, we may be interested in integrating performance management application into our LMS. Do you offer a performance management system? If so, please provide details below or in an appendix.
V.Implementation Services
- Provide an overview of the process that will be used to implement your system. Include a high-level timeline of the process.
- What resources will you provide do support the implementation? What resources do you expect us to provide?
- How do you address communication with the project team?
- How is legacy data integrated into the system?
- Describe your products ability to integrate with an HRIS, such as PeopleSoft or SAP?
- How do you manage and control costs during an implementation?
- What training is provided during implementation?
VI. Support and Training Services
- Describe the technical support options that you offer for the system. Please identify hours of operationand other relevant information.
- Briefly describe your documented support process.
- Describe your standard service level agreement (SLA) for support, including severity levels and escalation procedures.
- Do you offer any online support mechanisms for your customers?
- What sort of product documentation are we provided with?
- How do you ensure feedback from your customers? Do you have a user group or conference?
- How are product upgrades handled?
- Describe the training procedures for your software. Please identify classes offered, class locations, and any other relevant information
VII.License, Installation, Maintenance, and Training Costs
A.License Fees
- What is the cost of the base system?
B.Implementation Services
- Describe the typical implementation fees for a company of our size.
C.Software Support Services
- What is the cost of annual support services, including maintenance?
D.TrainingServices
- Provide a description and cost of education and training required to use the Software.
E.Hosting Services
- Identify the costs associated with your hosting services.
F.Other Costs
- Identify any other costs associated with your proposal.
Appendix A – Business and Functional Requirements
We are looking for more than yes/no answers. Please answer all questions completely, in as much details as you feel is necessary to fully represent the abilities of your system. If you do not feel that a question applies, put Not Applicable.
A.1General Requirements
A.1.1Do you deliver an ASP, hosted, or internally installed solution? Please specify all potential modes of delivery of your applications.
A.1.2How does the system provide the capability to present multiple discreet views of the catalog (Filter the view of the catalog based on the users’ demographics)? Please specify what functionality you deliver.
A.1.3How does your system provide the capability to track training for external (customers, vendors, etc…) as well as internal learners?
A.1.4Does your system provide any capabilities to manage “Training for Profit”? Please specify what is delivered.
A.1.5How are the Learner, Manager, and Administrator interfaces configurable?
A.1.6How does the system provide the ability to modify screen layout by audience? How configurable is the user interface?
A.1.7Can both students and administrators access system through a web browser?
A.2Learner Capabilities
A.2.1Does the system support the use of individual development plans at the learner level?
A.2.2Does your system provide the ability for learners to view/update their development plans?
A.2.3Does the system provide the ability to automatically assign training as required or recommended by job title, role, career track, or any other variables?
A.2.4Does the system provide the capability for learners to view job-specific training requirements?
A.2.5Does your system provide the ability for learners to view/update their training history (transcript)?
A.2.6Does the system provide the ability for learners to add “ad hoc” training events through self-service and have them approved by their manager (i.e., OJT, informal mentoring, training completed outside of IBC, GED attainment, etc…)?
A.2.7Does your system provide self-service reporting at the learner level (i.e., development plan, training history, certifications)?
A.2.8Does the system allow users to:
- Process self-registration?
- View waitlist status?
- Cancel an existing class registration?
A.3User Interfaces – Manager Interface
A.3.1Does the system provide the ability for a manager to group enroll their entire team into a given course?
A.3.2Does the system provide the ability for a manager to approve/deny enrollments when approval is required?
A.3.3Does the system support the use of group development plans at the manager level?
A.3.4Does the system provide the ability to automatically assign training to learners by business unit, department, location, manager, etc.?Please specify what you deliver.
A.3.5Does the system provide the ability for managers to view/update the development plans of their direct reports?
A.3.6Does the system provide the ability for managers to view/update the training history of (transcripts) of their direct reports?
A.3.7Does the system provide the capability for users other than a manager to approve enrollment requests?
A.3.8Does the system provide “out-of-the-box” manager-focused reporting (i.e., progress toward team development plans, team/individual-training histories, and certification expirations/completions)? Please specify what you deliver.
A.3.9Does the system support the ability for a manager to cancel an existing class registration for one of his/her direct reports? How is this done?
A.4User Interfaces – Administrator Interface
A.4.1Does the system provide the ability to group learners for mass enrollments (i.e., grouped by business unit, department, location, employee group), etc.?Please specify what criteria are available for mass enrollments?
A.4.2Does the system provide the capability for an administrator to reserve seats in a given session for a specific group of users?
A.4.3Does the system provide the capability for an administrator to generate the following reports:
- Sign-in Sheets?
- Absentee Tracking?
- Does the system allow administrators to view scheduled resources in a calendar format?
- Does the system provide the capability to manually create user accounts?
- Does the system provide the capability to store trainer support information (i.e., facilitator guides, instructions, etc…) within the LMS?
- Can administrators can set up curriculums that support electives and enforce prerequisites?
- Does the system can enforce registration cut-off time?
- Does the system support two-level online registration approval process?
- Does the system allow administrators to view waitlist status?
- Does the system support the ability to specify a cancellation cutoff point?
- Does the system support management of qualified instructors, facilities, resources, and equipment for ILT courses?
- Does the system support organizations, jobs, etc?
- Does the system prevent duplicate registrations?
- Can administrators override requirements (e.g., prerequisites), if necessary?
- Does the system allows administrators to set enrollment limits?
- Does the system allow instructors to review student and enrollment statistics?
- Does the system support the ability to represent multiple organizational hierarchies or trees?
A.5Course Management & Administration
A.5.1Does the system provide the capability to track external “ad hoc” learning events (i.e., seminars, college credit courses, GED attainment, etc…)?
A.5.2Does the system support curricula and certification programs (bundles of courses that must be completed in a specific order)?
A.5.3Does the system provide the capability to offer a course both as part of a program as well as “stand alone?”
A.5.4Does the system support curricula and certification programs that have flexible registration and completion rules regarding the number of activities that need to be registered for and completed?
A.5.5Does the system provide support for all training mediums (i.e., ILT, synchronousor asynchronous eLearning, self-paced)?
A.5.6Does the system provide the capability to assign and enforce prerequisites for training activities?
A.5.7Does the system provide the capability to reschedule sessions without manually re-enrolling learners?
A.5.8Does the system support blended learning?
A.5.9Does the system provide the ability to track attendance at multi-day training events with separate attendance for each individual day of the event?
A.5.10Does your system provide the capability to charge back costs to the learner’s cost center?
A.5.11Can re-certification periods be established as an absolute or relative date? How?
A.5.12Does the system support the creation of curriculum to logically group a variety of training activities?
A.5.13Describe the how the system can support for the following abilities:
- Control which users can view a curriculum and other learning activities.
- Activate/inactivate a curriculum and other learning activities.
- Adding a course catalog/taxonomy entry to a "favorites" list
- Inclusion of all learning items, including documents, discussion groups, threaded discussions, etc.
- Track external vendors that deliver training.
A.6Resource Management
A.6.1The system must support the ability to track availability of classroom training resources (instructors, classrooms and equipment). How is this done?
A.6.2The system must support the ability to manage qualified instructors. How is this done?
A.6.3Does the system support conflict checking when scheduling resources (instructors, rooms, and equipment, etc…)? How?
A.7eLearning
A.7.1Is the system compliant with the following eLearning standards?Please specify your compliance\conformance level.
- AICC
- SCORM 1.2
- SCORM 2004
- Does the system support the ability to interface with external eLearning vendors?
- What collaboration capabilities are deliveredwith the system (i.e., chat, threaded discussion groups, online study groups, etc…)?Please specify what is delivered.
- What content development tools are supported by the system?
- Does the system support bookmarking within web-based content?
- Does the system support relaunching of a completed learning activity?
- Does the system allow for the delivery of learner content with different “learner tracks”?
- How does the system track multiple "tries" at a learning event?
- Does the system require the use of plug-ins by the learner?
- Does the system allow learners to create personal study aids (notes, highlights, bookmarks and weblinks) in a sharable format?
- Does the system allow learners to tap into course specific expert communities?
- Does the system provide the capability to store scanned forms, MS Word docs, PowerPoint, PDFs, etc… within the LMS at the course level?
- Can the form types listed above be used as learning activities?
A.8Synchronous Training