RFI stands for Request for Information. Through it, you can ask general questions that help you extract a list of possible solutions to your needs. It also helps you get to know your potential supplier candidates better.
At the end of this process, you should have enough information about the suitable approaches and their implications to make an educated decision on your actual requirements. This enables you to write an appropriate RFQ. A Request for Information also helps you narrow down the list of vendors, so you only keep the most relevant ones.
This is why the RFI is usually the first request used amongst any series of procurement events like RFPs (Requests for Proposals), RFQs (Requests for Quotations), RFTs (Requests for Tenders), and Auctions.
Now that you’re in the know about what RFIs are and how they’re used, let’s explore how Prokuria can help you make this process simple, streamlined, and fast!
Usually, a request is split into 5 modules that interchange to create all request type variants:
General Information;
Suppliers – type their email address to invite them;
Documents – upload relevant documentation;
Items – or services;
Questions – Ask what you need to know.
For our scenario, we just select “Yes” in the RFI drop-down in the General Information section and voila: a simple, streamlined, and ready-to-use RFI frame at your disposal with 4 of the 5 available modules (Prokuria removed the Items one for you).
Go through each section and fill in the appropriate information. Pay special attention to the Questions section, which is the bread and butter of the RFI.
You can find more useful tips about this topic within one of our previous posts: Same Question, 3 Different Ways of Asking Your Suppliers in an RFP.
Pro Tips
If you have any unclarities about your procurement needs, start the process with an RFI, and ask your suppliers.
Use the description field and the option to attach documents to provide your suppliers with the necessary context.
Keep the questions general and open – you will get many different responses and plenty of different viewpoints on the subject, which will help you view the complete picture.
Think of scoring metrics for your questions.
Use Prokuria’s Compare Bids feature to quickly analyze the similarities and differences between suppliers’ answers.
