GSA held an event on RFP on 28^th January 2020. Industry leaders engaged in the RFP discussion focusing on the following topics: procurement to partnership, visionary sourcing and the legal view of the RFP. Panel was chaired by Kerry Hallard, CEO of GSA, who also posed the motion: The RFP process is flawed and does not guarantee buyers to select the best partners.

Angela Wyatt, consulting director at Horizon Seven, shared with the audience a new approach to the RFP, the visionary sourcing. She explained the difference between traditional RFP and Agile sourcing. Her point is that Agile sourcing is more effective and takes less time to be implemented. It benefits both the buyer and the provider as the process works as a dynamic, negotiable and collaborative workshops. Meanwhile Wipro shared 4 key point regarding Agile Sourcing which are preparation, benefits for supplier, in the room and benefits for consumer.

David Brook, managing director at Turnstone Services Ltd, tackled the image of the RFP and believes that RFP process should be, and objective process focused on delivering best results. He also gave valuable advice on leading a good RFP process.

Imran Syed, legal director at DLA Piper, was the one who shared legal insight on the RFP and tackled the legal issues that an RFP process can deal with.

Furthermore, GSA conducted an online survey following the discussion on ‘Death of the RFP. Long live the RFP’.

At the end of the event, Kerry Hallard posed the motion and presented the results gathered from the GSA survey. The results were similar with the audience’s beliefs.

To find out more on the RFP, we advise you to take a look on the event's slides which include lots of useful information from industry leaders:Death of the RFP. Long live the RFP

To access the GSA survey results and find valuable data on RFP, please find our RFP report here: RFP Report 2020.