Request for proposal (RFP)

A request for proposal, or RFP, is a formal document an organization circulates to prospective vendors, laying out its requirements, evaluation criteria, and process, and asking each vendor to respond with a structured proposal covering their solution, pricing, timeline, and references. It is the standard mechanism larger organizations use to compare vendors on a like-for-like basis rather than through ad hoc sales conversations.

An RFP typically follows a narrower request for information, which gathers general capability details from a wider pool of vendors, and precedes a proof of concept, which tests the shortlisted vendors' actual product against real data. This differs from simply asking a vendor for a quote: an RFP is structured, distributed to multiple vendors at once, and usually scored against predefined criteria, which creates a documented, defensible basis for the eventual decision, particularly in public-sector or regulated procurement.

RFPs matter because they force requirements to be written down explicitly before vendor conversations begin, surfacing internal disagreement about what is actually needed. A well-constructed RFP should ask vendors to address total cost of ownership, not just license price, and to describe data portability and export options relevant to vendor lock-in. A common pitfall is an RFP written so generically that every vendor can claim to meet it, which produces proposals that look similar on paper and fail to differentiate real trade-offs, including how much of a shortlisted product is open versus proprietary under an open-core model.