eDiscovery Daily Blog

• April 6, 2011

 

Open, two-way communication with a service provider is absolutely critical to a successful project.  It needs to start early, even before a project starts.  For many projects, it starts with the Request for Proposal (RFP).  Your goal with an RFP is to get good information from a vendor: information on pricing, information on schedule, information on approach, and information on deliverables.  To give you complete, accurate information, they need information from you.

Include this information in your RFPs:

• Information about your Firm/Organization (location, key contacts)
• Information about the Case (the party you represent, the case schedule)
• Information about the Proposal Submission Process (contact information for the person who can answer questions about the RFP; contact information for those to whom the proposal should be submitted; the date the proposal is due; in what form the proposal should be delivered; any requirements you have regarding the format of the proposal)
• Description of the Services you will Require
• Information about the Scope of the Project  (the size of a document/data collection, types and characteristics of the documents/data)
• Information on the Deliverable to the Vendor (when documents/data will be available to the vendor; in what form they will be delivered)
• Description of the Deliverables you Require (formats, media, data elements, etc.)
• Date by which the Project must be Completed (and include interim milestone dates if that’s appropriate)
• Description of your Planned Participation in the Project (will you participate in training?  will you be onsite for any portion of the project?)
• Description of your Preferred Method of Communication with the Service Provider
• Description of your Requirements regarding Status Reports (how often do you require them? what information should be included?  to whom should they be submitted?)

Later in this blog series, we’ll discuss what questions you should ask in a proposal for several types of eDiscovery services.

What information do you provide to a service provider in an RFP?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.