By Deb Mielke
Network World, 5/18/98

Are those late nights troubleshooting net connections to Singapore getting you down? What about all those calls from angry corporate salespeople who can't access pricing data from the road? Right now, those network outsourcing vendors that have been beating down your door might be sounding pretty reasonable. After all, you've been trying to hire three new net engineers for months, and the only applicants have been unemployed music majors. Maybe it's time to start thinking about outsourcing your network.

But there's a catch: You dread the laborious task of drafting a request for proposal. This document spells out your requirements for service and equipment and gives prospective vendors the information they need to prepare a bid. Although you may be tempted to just bang out your requirements in a hurry and slap the paperwork together, the time you in-vest in preparing a solid RFP will later save time, money and frustration.

After all, the RFP is the template for your vendor's contract with you. If the vendor doesn't know what you expect, a long contract negotiation is a certainty. In fact, a less-than-solid RFP could ultimately result in both parties throwing their hands in the air and deciding it's just not the worth the effort to do business together.

With that in mind, this guide will walk you through the steps of the RFP process. The advice is based on consulting firm TeleChoice, Inc.'s recent experience outsourcing its network.