Web Development RFP: What is It? How to Write?

Want to develop an RFP for your business?
No idea how to start with it?

You have landed at the right place if you are looking to create or integrate RFP in your business.

Your web portal is the first thing your customers see, so having a visually appealing and easy-to-navigate reflects the benefits of your brand’s products/services and your unique value proposition (UVP).

Finding the right web developers to build your web solutionis the key to achieving this goal.

This journey begins with a well-structured web development RFP (request for proposal) that specifies every detail of your project.

Being one of the leading web development companies in Canada and the USA, we understand what most of the companies want in RFP. So, with the help of our experienced web development consultants we have written a blog about RFP to guide you with the most important points to include in RFP.

Let’s understand the basics.

What is a Web Development RFP?

For instance:

Let’s say you have a store of kids’ clothes and you are looking to create a mobile app for you store. You are looking for multiple bids to outsource the projects. For this you will want to make sure that the companies that are bidding must know:

1. What is the scope of the project?
2. What can be the cost of development?
3. In how much time will the project be completed?
4. What kind of technology can be used for development?
5. What are the possible roadblocks?

The RFP document contains your project’s specific requirements and deliverables and your company and contact information. A well-structured RFP will help you in the vendor selection process and compare vendor bids.

Why Create a Web Development RFP?

An RFP for web portal development simplifies and improves the process by providing the vendors with all the necessary information. A well-crafted web solution development RFP also simplifies communication between you and the development supplier by addressing your future expectations and competencies.

In short, RFPs benefit both clients and vendors in the following ways:

1. Every vendor has different expertise and different perspectives for your project development. With this, you will be able to evaluate the different approaches of each vendor before selecting one.
2. You will be able to analyze the vendor’s skill, as you will get custom offers based on your project requirements.
3. Even though you invest time and effort to write RFP, it saves your time from repeating the same information again and again.
4. WIth RFP you can properly document the process, and set the benchmarks to measure project’s success, and provides clean & crisp communication.
5. Expectations are cleared from the beginning which helps the agency if you are a good fit.

Web development process is important because web development goes through 7 phases of web development life-cycle to achieve top-notch results.

Next, let’s have a look at the important criterias to include in RFP.

9 Important Points to Include in the RFP

You want your web development RFP to stand out from the crowd by being more focused, self-aware, and straightforward than the other RFPs in your potential vendor’s inboxes.

Let’s have a look at the 9 most important points that you must include in your RFP document.

1. Include Summary of Your Requirements to Get The General Idea

   Introduce your business and the purpose of the RFP. State what you want the service provider to do and what the pain point your business is facing, and if it’s a web redesign, state why it isn’t the current one serving your needs.

   The introduction should be brief and include critical elements such as:

   • Information about your company and your company’s ideology.
   • The most noticeable characteristics of the brand.
   • Your leading service or product.
   • The primary objective of web design.
   • The reason you’re submitting your RFP.

2. Give Your Company’s Introduction and Background

   Describe your company, its objective, and your role within it. They’ve probably never heard of you and won’t be able to find out about your business.

   Also, tell a little about your values.

   What distinguishes you from your competitors?

   By describing your values and USPs, you increase your chances of finding an organization that is a good value fit for your goals and processes. Many agencies specialize in a specific area of web design, and they can make better recommendations if they know if you fit into one of their niches.

   For instance, if the vendor knows you’re a nonprofit from the start, they can make specific recommendations from their team members who have relevant experience and knowledge of how nonprofits succeed on the web.

3. Detailed Information About Project Goals, Target Audience, and Conversions

   Explain what you intend to accomplish with the new web portal. What are the most important things, in your opinion, that will ensure success?

   Along with project objectives, you should consider who your web portal is intended to serve. Which of your target audiences will be the most reliant on your web solution?

   What steps do you want your customers to take?

   For instance, in the B2B space, sample goal conversions target consumers to reach out to your sales team, request a interactive product demo, or place an order through your website.

   Knowing the concrete goals and the specific site visitors whose needs you’re attempting to meet simplifies the development team’s job.

   Also, by assisting your vendor in understanding the different conversions for each audience, the design can be more tailored based on the audience most likely to visit that section.

4. Give Your Project Budget to Get The Overall Idea

   You should include your available project budget, even if it’s your best guess. You should specify a range, “We’d like to spend $x but are willing to go up to $y for the right proposal”.

   Websites are like cars, ranging from $5,000 to $500,000. Telling them your budget means they’ll tell you what they can offer you for that price: a Hyundai, a Toyota, a BMW, or a Bentley.

   All excellent vehicles with distinct value propositions. If you don’t have a budget, at least let your vendor know what “level” you want by pointing out other web solution that you admire, want to emulate, or think would suit your needs. You are a professional organization looking for a professional service. It is acceptable to discuss money.

   Also, if you have a separate budget for assets such as photographs, illustrations, software licenses, services, and so on, make sure to include it.

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5. Provide Project Timeline for Important Actions

   Setting milestones and meeting deadlines are essential for any business. So, the proposal timeline should be specified and highlighted at the top of the web design RFP.

   First and foremost, set the web project launch goal to specify the exact day you want your web solution design to go live.

   Second, inform vendors when they can expect to hear back on their responses.

   Third, notify all critical milestones such as new product launches, advertising campaigns, annual conferences, etc.

   Finally, avoid setting unrealistic deadlines. Even simple sites can take up to 8 weeks to complete, and 9-12 months is not uncommon for complex sites or web applications. If you are upfront about your timeline, your vendors will be forthcoming about its likelihood. An experienced web development consulting company can help you with the project timeline after understanding your requirements.

6. Set Deliverables to Plan the Project

   While core objectives are about goals, deliverables are more about structure and functionality. The project scope is the most important section of the web design RFP. Therefore, you should take your time and carefully consider each point.

   First and foremost, consider what specific services you require. You want to build or redesign your web solution. However, do not jump to conclusions because you may also require additional services.

   This is where you should go into more detail about the project. To the best of your ability, describe all of the services you know you’ll be hiring a web team for. For example, in the case of a web redesign project, you could be paying for:

   • Project management
   • Content management system
   • Copywriting
   • Illustration
   • Design of information
   • Graphic design
   • Digital marketing
   • Front-end development (HTML/CSS, animations)
   • Backend development (CMS, third-party APIs, custom software/features)
   • Custom software or app creation
   • Optimization of mobile devices
   • Audit of accessibility
   • Quality assurance and testing
   • SEO
   • Educating prospective buyers

   A sitemap and wireframes could be deliverables for a task like information design. It could be source files in Photoshop or Sketch format for visual design.

   Project management, for example, does not have a specific deliverable, but it is an important part of the process, and doing it well is an important component of successful projects. It’s best to be explicit about what needs to be delivered, but it’s also fine if you don’t know what’s involved.

7. Technical Requirements of the Project

   This is a broad topic, but your goal here is to describe any limitations or requirements you know in advance. Because a web portal is fundamentally a technical software product, such details may have the greatest impact on the timeline and deliverables.

   Here are some examples of technical requirements:

   • eCommerce Technical Requirements

     Do you intend to sell products or accept credit cards through e-commerce?

     Retail merchants need shopping carts, user accounts, inventory control, and shipping calculators. Are there other additional rules that should be followed if you accept sales of products, such as discounts for specific users, gift cards, and so on? All of this information will assist vendors in recommending the best tools for the project.

   • Content Management Software Technical Requirements

     Do you require a specific platform, such as Drupal or Joomla? Are you willing to consider unfamiliar options as thousands of CMS software options are available in the market?

     The vendor may also have an in-house solution that will meet your requirements well. Large projects may necessitate the creation of a custom platform for your company. It’s also perfectly acceptable to say you have no preference and are open to vendor recommendations.

   • Backend Programming Language Requirements

     Is your system only compatible with a specific language for custom web software development, such as PHP, JavaScript, or Node? Do you already have an infrastructure that the vendor should be familiar with?

     There are so many backend languages and different types of databases available in the market, so you need to check with the vendor which technologies they will use in the web development.

   • Legacy Browser Support Requirements

     How many visitors still use outdated browsers like Internet Explorer 11? Do they require assistance? Making a web solution work or display properly in a legacy browser requires additional development time.

   Aspects	Description
   Third-party Software Integrations	If your current web portal relies on third-party services for email newsletters, marketing automation, CRM/contact management, or inventory management, so make sure to mention them so that these can be integrated with the new web solution design and explain how you expect it to work. For instance, when someone subscribes to a newsletter, the contact should be automatically added to Salesforce. If a customer buys a product and opts in, their details should be added to your database, and so on.
   User accounts	Do you need membership management for your web portal? This is for granting people access to special or hidden content on your web solution, such as after submitting an email address or paying to view a whitepaper. An example would be password-protected pages that anyone with the same password can access without needing to be logged in.
   Accessibility	Do you need the web portal to be accessible to people who have low vision? This is becoming a more common item in RFPs, and it’s important to understand that accessibility requirements fall on a spectrum, and you should know how far you want to go with it or leave it to the web agencies to make a recommendation.
   Analytics	How do you intend to track inbound visitors and content success? You should ask the vendor how to manage and track these data after the project begins. Google Analytics is a popular option because it is free and effective, but many other options provide additional functionality, such as Crazy Egg, which generates heat maps to aid in conversions.

8. The Primary Point of Contact for Communication Throughout the Project

   Doing any of your work is pointless if you do not provide information to submit. Ensure the end of your RFP includes a way for bidders to send you their proposals, whether it’s an email for digital copies or a physical address. Incorporate DMARC reports for email security and highlight the need for a clear proposal submission method.

   Also, if you want to use a task-management app like Hitask or Google Tasks to schedule weekly check-ins and feedback calls, just mention it on the RFP. If not sure, you can discuss it with your assigned project manager.

9. Project Deployment to Maximize Value

   What happens after the web project is completed and launched?

   It’s fairly common to enter into an ongoing retainer agreement with the vendor for support, training, ongoing development, strategy, and search engine optimization, among other things.

   In reality, the launch of a website is only the beginning of a process: in addition to fixing bugs and adding features in the future, you must also consider how you will drive sales-ready leads and traffic to the new web solution.

   Web solutions are ongoing efforts that must adapt to new technologies and use cases — or, in the best-case scenario, be scaled to handle massive amounts of traffic!

   If post-launch marketing and advertising are important for you, search for full-service web companies that will create and develop the site and work with you to maximize its value after it is launched. Next, let’s check how to select the best vendor for your project.

Which Criterias to Know for Selecting the Best Vendor?

Remember that the purpose of the proposal you send is to assess the quality of vendor fit for your project. Some questions you could ask the proposer to include in the reply can be:

1. Examples of similar projects (to assess technical capability)
2. Client references, as well as whether email or phone is preferable (to assess credibility)
3. Timeline of the project, including major tasks and milestones (to assess process)
4. Accurate estimate budget for the project (to assess process)
5. Consider mobile/responsive design (to assess familiarity with current trends)

You will receive numerous proposal responses; each company will have different qualities, track records, and skills. Some will compete on price, while others will compete on quality, and still, others will compete on features.

You’re balancing the team’s expertise with your budget constraints, but ultimately, you want the best work partner you can afford. Several of these are undoubtedly important, so prioritize them based on what is most important to you.

That’s all there is to it! That’s our advice on writing a killer web design and development RFP to help you write your first proposal.

Final Thoughts on Crafting RFP for Your Business Development

An RFP can be useful for finding the best vendors for your web design projects. You can ensure accurate bids from vendors who are a good fit for your project by taking the time to create a well-written document.

Remember to include all of the necessary elements in your RFP for a smoother proposal process, such as project requirements, timeline, budget, and so on. And this way, you can find the ideal vendor for your web design project with a little effort.

Still have doubts?

If so, please do not hesitate to contact us. Monocubed will guide you through the entire process and assist you in developing a secure API. We are a Canadian web development company that works with small, medium, and large-sized businesses and entrepreneurs to build secure applications.