RIMS Feature Highlight Electronic RFPs and Awards

Publish an RFP (Request for Proposal) in minutes to a selected vendor list or group. RIMS™ enables accelerated RFP publishing by pre-selecting RFP recipient candidates based on your vendor service area settings. RIMS™ will help find the right vendors for the job – every time, and much more quickly than with typical systems lacking the smart selection features of RIMS™.

Information such as the property description entered into RIMS™ during the request processes is leveraged in RFP creation; Job Managers retain the ability to update or correct information while publishing an RFP, but are not forced to re-enter information.

Additional information relevant to the job may be incorporated in RFP comments or through the user of templates for specific performance criteria. For privacy reasons, file uploads are not accessible to vendors until a job has been awarded.

RFP candidates are instantly notified by email whenever a bidding opportunity is available. Vendors access RIMS™ using their own unique account ID and password, ensuring that you receive bids only from your selected RFP recipients. Through this interface, vendors securely communicate their bids and related comments regarding their experience or specialties. Job Managers may review bids received at any time, and select a vendor from the bids listing. A single mouse click takes the Job Manager to the Award page, where vendor fee and delivery date are confirmed. One further click creates the Award and notifies the winning bidder by email. Non-winning bidders are also notified that the award has been made, so that they may comfortably bid on other work and assign staff members appropriately.

Winning bidders are presented with a New Award on their RIMS™ desktop. After reviewing the details of the award, including scope of work and fee, the vendor must “Accept” the award before certain sensitive information is revealed, including property contact information and links to document attachments.

When the selected vendor either accepts or rejects the award, the Job Manager and Account Officer / Requester are notified by email.

All of this interaction takes place without the time consuming game of phone tag! [RFPs do contain complete contact information for the Job Manager so that questions can be answered if necessary.] Overall, eliminated or drastically reduced phone consultations will make your group more efficient and the entire procurement process more balanced and fair.