In summary

Brief

Develop an RFP to outsource the operation and maintenance of critical security infrastructure.

Solution

The RFP development team was embedded with the client’s operations team to ensure clear understanding and articulation of requirements.

Result

The RFP was released on time following a streamlined process which minimised disruption to busy operations staff, and led to an RFP which enabled supplier responses to closely align with business needs

In detail

Frame was engaged to produce the RFP for the ongoing operation and maintenance of the perimeter security service for a major financial institution.

The client’s network perimeter service is a highly secure, highly available and highly redundant environment. It connects the client’s corporate environment to external networks and parties, serving and protecting corporate and customer interests.

Operation and maintenance of the service is outsourced. While the scope was limited to the outsourced services, the client used the RFP process to explore the possibility of transitioning other similar in-house services in the future.

Experienced in writing, evaluating and responding to RFPs, Frame designed and developed a document with both the client and the respondents in mind. With a focus on ease of response, the evaluation process was simplified. The key was to be able to compare apples with apples.

We provided a high level of expertise in managing the RFP project as well as producing the documentation. Frame streamlined the process in order to minimise disruption to busy operations staff.

Our collaborative approach with stakeholders ensured prompt approval of key deliverables. And Frame managed and overcame the delicate challenge of gathering requirements from internal staff whose positions may be outsourced in the future.

The team included an ITIL specialist and a security specialist, ensuring service management and security service requirements were in line with industry best practice.

The result was an RFP that accurately described the environment and which provided a clear roadmap for the future. What’s more, it gave the organisation up-to-date operations documentation of the environment.

Frame project managed the 4-month RFP process on behalf of the client and:

  • assessed and baselined the current environment
  • captured and documented the operations requirements, roles and responsibilities, service levels and reporting requirements
  • identified gaps between the existing and required environments
  • structured the requirements in the RFP
  • prepared the document suite for issue.

After reviewing existing documentation, we quickly identified what was needed to fully describe the environment to outside parties, and so engaged technical specialists from across the organisation.

Working closely with the business and technical stakeholders to gather and document requirements, face-to-face meetings were followed with a managed review cycle. Templates were used to collect stakeholder requirements which Frame edited, returned to the contributor for review and then collated into the RFP format. Roundtable reviews followed to ensure common understanding among stakeholders and to expedite the process of finalising the RFP.

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