The RFP is the standard way for most businesses to select products and vendors. In the case of Information Technology the RFP can be the first step in a multi-million dollar undertaking, this is especially true in the case of requests for proposals involving the deployment, upgrades or support of major ERP applications, such as SAP or Oracle.  

With the general acceptance of global delivery (offshore services from countries such as India and China) proposal responses have become very difficult to compare and evaluate, involving as they do: hybrid staffing mixes, different solution approaches, opaque costing models, varied assumptions and different levels of effort.

It has always been difficult for businesses to really know that they have selected their best choice in terms of price and capabilities.  But that is not the most insidious problem - the worst thing about a poor RFP and selections based primarily on the standard mechanism of price, scope and timeline is that they are, more often than not, the hidden cause of subsequent project problems or inability to meet service level agreements (SLAs).

Unfortunately execution issues, whether complete failure, major scope changes, delays or one of the other 101 things that can go wrong with a project that can cost many thousands (or millions) of dollars can be traced back to a weak RFP process  

The Q12C methodology involves a selection roadmap and adaptive methodology that businesses can use to gain control, reduce risk, and introduce rigor and insight in to their RFP build, selection and execution process.