[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] ***SPAM*** Re: ***SPAM*** RFPs for system development

[Paul Bartell]

Ive heard that some government agencies receive such templates from
the very contractors that are responding to the RFPs. Though this may
make the RFPs somewhat biased, maybe offering a good starting point to
purchasing departments would make it easier for them to be able to
make more open source friendly RFPs.

On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 3:13 PM, Bob Molyneux <drdata at molyneux.com> wrote:
> Kathy,
>
> Thank you for starting this most interesting thread.
>
> I think we all understand the rationale behind the RFP process. Open
> government is more likely to be honest and many government agencies use
> RFIs, RFPs, RFQs, RFwhatevers in an attempt to get the best price and
> capabilities for purchases they make in an open fashion and thereby thwart
> insider dealing and corruption. We hope. The problem we are having in the
> open source world is not the concept of RFPs but rather their execution.
>
> I see a fair number of RFPs (I work for Equinox Software, Inc.) and these
> documents do betray a predilection for proprietary solutions. There is just
> no question about that observation, IMHO. Why?
>
> I speculate:
>
> RFP writers are now a semi-profession. God help us, we have experts. Suppose
> you get hired to do the purchasing for some government agency. Every 10
> years, your department is asked to do an RFP for an ILS for the library. A
> what? Bear in mind that you last did an RFP for cleaning the high school
> gyms, and before that it was for coal for the hospital power plant. You know
> from nothing about libraries. You meet the librarian.
> ILS...MARC...circulation...*blah blah blah*
>
> You need help because you have to have an RFP out next week for repairing
> your agency's cars which, face it, is important...the library? Not so much.
> And you are going to be outta here in another to years. What do you do?
>
> I don't know but I bet there are sites/companies/subscription services that
> will help you. [If not, I think I might start one! Sounds like a library
> kinda problem.] Oh, good! An ILS template. *whew*
>
> Those services, necessarily, are a step behind the real world. Being a step
> behind, they use the state of the art from that time. Mind, those same sites
> are worried about big things like RFPs for maintenance state planes and RFPs
> for buildings. Really big things come first. I bet the template for library
> ILSs comes pretty far down on the update list.
>
> So, there you are working in Purchasing and what do you do? You grab the
> most recent template which in our world is 5 years out of date and you tweak
> it here or there and off it goes. Deeply embedded into the warp and woof of
> that RFP is the proprietary model. I can tell you that it is beyond
> frustrating to have to comment on just about *every* line about just about
> every capability. We do not price by stations. Almost everyone asks that
> question: how much per station? You have to answer that question with a
> comment and, folks, at that point, the person reading the response is
> worried about the price of pencils for the high school. He knows pencils
> but..."stations?" We are in a deep hole at that point and we can't win it.
> We are very chary about answering RFPs. Lots of effort but...we speak open
> source..they speak a different language and our two languages are
> orthogonal.
>
> If my speculation is correct, our approach, then is to the
> folks/services/etc. that help Purchasing departments. And, too, to the
> "experts" in the library field who advise. About which...enough of you have
> heard me on this subject...
>
> Bob
> Equinox Software, Inc.
>
>
>
> Bob Molyneux
> drdata at molyneux.com
>



-- 
Random quote of the week/month/whenever i get to updating it: "Quis custodiet
ipsos custodes?": "who shall watch the watchers themselves?" - Juvenal