An Invitation To Bid (ITB) seeks suppliers who can supply a specific goods or services at the lowest price. ITBs...

• Only consider price as the determining factor between responsible, responsive bidders
• Do not allow negotiations​
• Take approximately 3 months to complete
  
  

Requests For Proposals (RFP) seek proposals from suppliers about how best to achieve the agency's objectives. Proposals are evaluated on criteria other than just price. RFPs...

• Are a good option if you don’t know what’s available, or what approach is best​
• Allow you to evaluate meaningful criteria other than price
• Include evaluations and negotiations
• Take approximately 6 months to complete
  
  

Requests For Qualifications (RFQ) seek to qualify a roster of suppliers to do additional competitive procurements later. RFQs...

• Are used to identify suppliers who are interested and available
• Establish a master contract with each qualified supplier including negotiated terms and conditions but no formal scope of work
• Are followed by work order procurements solicited to the pool of qualified suppliers. (You can use the pool for multiple procurements to establish multiple contracts with defined scopes or specifications.)
  
  • Solicit work orders to the entire pool or a subset of the qualified supplier pool based on the competition requirements determined by the work order spend ($10,000-$50,000: solicit at least 3 pool suppliers; $50,000+ solicit to the entire pool of qualified suppliers)
  • Evaluate work orders based on project needs: cost or experience
• Take approximately 3 months to complete
  
  

Requests For Information (RFI) are used to research a process, product, or the viability of a proposed solution by asking the supplier community to provide information on the topic. RFIs...

• Are informal​
• Are not technically a procurement​
• Don't have a specified format for responses​
• Don’t reject "late" responses​
• Take approximately 3 months to complete
  
  

1. Complete all fields in the assigned service request:
• Funding Sources
• Bidding Requirements
• Insurance Requirements Form
  The Insurance Requirements Form is integrated with the service request. Once you complete the Solicitation Service Request Risk Management will be notified to complete their review.
2. Attach the required documents to your Solicitation service request:
• Draft RFP Scope of Work (SOW) / ITB Specifications (Specs Tip Sheet)
• Incorporate ecolabels & sustainability standards (Sustainable Purchasing Guide)
• Attachments and Exhibits
• Attachments: documents or forms bidders/proposers must submit
• Exhibits: additional information for bidders/proposers
• (ITB Only) Pricing Sheet - list the bid items you expect bidders to price, including the unit of measure
• (RFP Only) Proposal Evaluation Planning
• Evaluation committee: identify who will review proposals (functional, technical, and end user perspectives, etc.)
• Proposal questions: describe what we want from the proposer (narrative response, Q&A chart, etc.)
• Evaluation criteria: define the qualifications used to score proposals; assign points to what's most important

Your information will automatically be routed to the Business Development & Contract Compliance office for review and assignment of small business utilization and apprenticeship goals.

Your Procurement staff will send you a Message in King County E-Procurement when the documents have been uploaded to SharePoint and are ready for your collaboration and finalization.

Forward all questions related to the procurement to the Procurement staff; you'll be asked to assist P&P in preparing formal responses, published online as addenda.

At the pre-bid/proposal meeting, your agency will present a summary of the contract scope or specifications describing your needs. This is an informational meeting. All questions from bidders or proposers about the contract must be submitted in writing.

Supplier questions will be submitted to your Procurement staff; you'll be asked to assist in preparing a formal response. P&P will issue clarifications and changes to the solicitation through King County E-Procurement.