Government employees often fear that collaborating with prospective vendors or outside stakeholders crosses over a legal line and creates an unfair advantage. However, it is generally acceptable to communicate with potential vendors in a fair and open way before a formal solicitation has been released. Through a Request for Information (RFI), governments can solicit ideas from the vendor community, subject matter experts, and community stakeholders while maintaining a level playing field.
This module will help you gain confidence in using RFIs as a standard market research tool to inform an important procurement, learn how to design and issue RFIs in a simple manner to maximize vendor and community participation, and apply best practice RFI examples from across the country to meet your government's needs.