When it comes to requests for proposal (RFPs) and other formal procurement solicitations for default prevention, the process is often labor intensive for issuers and respondents. Whether it’s ensuring compliance with general purchasing procedures or assessing responsiveness to pricing and scope, there is a lot of information to weigh, often in a limited amount of time.
You can make the process more efficient if you can review the most important qualifications of your respondents before having to first absorb the contents in their entirety. The easiest way to do this is by reserving a section of your default prevention request for proposal for responses to mandatory questions.
You can begin your review by examining the answers to these questions. In some cases, this may provide you with immediate confirmation that a respondent is not qualified, sparing you additional review and analysis. By the same token, such questions might help unqualified vendors to perceive their shortcomings more clearly and convince them not to bid, saving everyone time from the start.
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Try to form questions around “deal breaking” issues that can help you quickly cull responses that are clearly not the right fit. You may not be able to capture every issue in one black-and-white question. If so, include several questions on the same topic in order to get a complete picture. These questions will also give your respondents a clear indicator of your priorities, and should help them customize their overall response to your informational needs.
Your particular circumstances will inform the questions you include, but here are some sample questions to consider:
Services & Approach
Timelines & Staffing
Reporting
Pricing
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Student loan default prevention experts recommend taking advantage of outside resources to assist in your efforts to keep students on track to successful repayment. If you’re planning to seek proposals from outside organizations for providing default prevention assistance, there are some best practices you’ll want to keep in mind as you develop your Request for Proposal:
1. Clearly state your institution’s goals and objectives regarding your
default management program needs and requirements.
Bidding vendors, RFP bid reviewers and decision-makers should have a clear understanding of your
institution’s goals and objectives, outcomes you are seeking, and the proposed services that vendors
offer. Is your goal to:
You might even consider cross-campus collaboration to help identify specific goals for your institution. When everyone understands the goal, it’s easier to assess which vendors actually satisfy your requirements.
2. Build in plenty of specifics about the services you are requesting.
Default prevention vendors provide various types and levels of services. For instance, some focus on
direct outreach to borrowers, and some look to borrowers to sign up for services (a self-service
approach). Consider these questions:
If you plan to benchmark one provider’s performance against another, be sure you are comparing the same scope of data and results. If the vendor’s proposed services (and prices) match closely the requested services in your RFP, it is a good sign that the vendor has put some effort into really understanding your needs.
3. Require standard pricing information from all bidding vendors.
Does your institution require an annual, all-inclusive price, or do you prefer to pick and choose
from a menu of options? To be sure that the services included in that pricing meet all of your
requirements, ask for specific descriptions of the work the vendors will perform — including the
number of borrower accounts that will be included — and request an explanation of how costs are
built into their models. Be sure vendors also explain clearly the costs associated with any
additional services in their proposals. And to keep things clear, provide a pricing matrix for all
vendors to complete, so that pricing bids are equal across the spectrum.
4. Take time to analyze and understand your bids.
When it is time to review your vendor bids, calculate all scoring of proposed services and pricing,
using the same criteria for all vendors. Different services offered by vendors could influence their
effectiveness in reducing CDRs. Consider these important variables when making a final comparison:
At the end of the process, you and your team will benefit from a careful analysis.
» Free Bonus: The Step by Step Guide for Creating a Default Prevention Request for Proposal |