RFP - Request For Proposal
What is an RFP?
“A request for proposal (RFP) is a solicitation, made through a bidding process by an agency or company interested in procurement of a commodity to potential suppliers to submit business proposals.”
To RFP, or not to RFP?
The main reason business decide to pursue an RFP is because of transparency. Here at USEC "Transparency" is not just a catchword, it is
the biggest difference between a traditional Broker Approach versus RFP process. Prime example of this are the Broker Fees;
- Utilizing the traditional procurement process Broker Fees are included in the energy price that is being offered to you the customer, this means that there are no immediate Out of Pocket cost to you. Instead the fee is paid to the Broker by the Supplier every time you pay your business energy bill.
- USEC negotiates the RFP Fees upfront, in doing so it eliminates surprises in the back end and gives you a clear picture of what the true cost of the procurement process services really is. This small step in our process allows for transparency like you've never experienced before.
USEC RFP Process:
- Data Collection - It is essential for us to understand the complexity of your Business Energy Profile, some things that we look at are the Historical Usage Data, be it monthly or IDR, existing energy agreement, previous RFP if available, RFP questioner to be completed by your facilities engineer or individual designated to coordinate the process.
- Energy Profile Analysis - During this stage your Account Representative will conduct a detailed interview in direct correlation to the RFP questioner. This step of the process helps us identify the complexity of the RFP.
- RFP Fee - Once we have a clear picture of the workload ahead of us, only then can we accurately provide you with the proposal which will include the breakdown of the RFP, a clear RFP time-line and the cost of our services. (RFP fee negotiation stage)
- Create and Distribute the RFP - This is the stage in which the actual Request for Proposal will be created with all of it's bells and whistles and distributed to all of the Suppliers identified in the RFP questioner.
- Proposals Review - As suppliers submit their proposals in response to the RFP, your Account Representative will review the data to ensure that the RFP guidelines are being followed, meaning that the offers are comparing apples to apples.
- Bid Submission - At this time USEC will present you with all of the bids that met the RFP guidelines and make our recommendation based on decades of experience.
- Your Decision - You guessed it, this is the step where you inform USEC which supplier won the RFP, we will then communicate with that supplier to ensure timely delivery of the Energy Service Agreement (ESA) to be reviewed by your Legal.
- Energy Service Agreement Execution - Once the ESA has been reviewed by your legal and approved we will then request the final version and submit it to you for execution. Due to the volatility of the energy market this step is extremely time sensitive.
- Post RFP Audit - Once you receive the first invoice following the RFP, your USEC account representative will conduct a formal Audit to ensure that no mistakes were made on part of the supplier in processing the procurement request.
