OpenRFP Procurement Webservice

Abstract

The web supports numerous eProcurement models. Think of buying a car at a dealership compared to profiling your transportation needs online. Either way you are going to get basic transportation but you also expect to buy a lot more as you explore options, add features, and become aware of efficiency ratings (miles per gallon), and finally suffer sticker shock at the price. Ringgold off ers an online service for creating RFPs, called OpenRFP, and this session explores how OpenRFP helps libraries to choose the most cost-effective solutions in purchase of software and high-tech products, saving time and eff ort for staff and vendors. The goal is to improve understanding of product functionality, identifying important specifications, assigning weights for comparative scoring of vendor responses, while making the entire process accurate, open and transparent to staff and purchasing authorities.