The expensive and slow race to the starting line

The image below is the typical gestation of a project. The RFP can take weeks or months and the client already has a start date and an end date in mind even before they completed the RFP. The modern approach to just-in-time working means that there is a scramble on both sides to get the project in place before deadlines start. Bonuses, promotions and sales targets are all in play which is why we see so many projects announced in December so that they can be included in bonus calculations.

It would hard to design a more wasteful process as many suppliers are competing for the same work and they will not be paid for the work in responding to the RFP. It is regarded as the cost of doing business and there are some companies who simply do not respond to RFPs. These are usually the better companies who already have a full pipeline due to the quality of their work and satisfied customers.

The number of suppliers will be reduced to a shortlist but this will be very near the end of the process which means that many will have worked for nothing. Even the ones who have not succeeded will have improved the final answer as their clarifications will identify weaknesses in the client's project proposal or opportunities they had not identified.

At the end of the process at lot of time has been used up. At least 3 months and it can be more than a year even for a medium size project. By the time the project starts the personnel who have worked on the response will have moved to paid work and may not be available at the start. Sometimes it takes so long that the people are no longer employed by the supplier which is embarrassing on both sides.

Mobilisation is under pressure and the project is put under pressure to make up time that is perceived as lost. Sometimes the project has not achieved a great deal of clarity as the whole process is competitive between the suppliers and even with the client. The client may have contractors and personnel who believe that the project should be done 'in-house' and have a vested interest in making all the suppliers look bad.

There has to a fairer, quicker way of doing this to get a better outcome and reduce wasted effort.