What is the Difference among RFI, RFP and RFQ Other Services

RFI (Request for information) is an exploratory stage notice floated by the purchasers to procure the products, services or works, which they have not purchased in the past and have very little or nil experience about the same. Responses to RFI by the suppliers helps in collecting macro-level information about the intended product/service, the competitive landscape, new technologies available and efficacy of the product/service.

Since, RFI is more like a fact-finding document, there is no universal template for RFI. Purchasers can ask open ended questions in the RFI notices and answers to them by various respondents, will give them maximum exposure about the products/services being procured in future through RFP stage. For example if a government university wants to procure Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, then the responses received through various respondents will help the university in preparing the proper RFP document.

RFP (Request for Proposal) is a document that requests suppliers to propose solutions to the purchasers' requirement of various products and services. Through the responses to the RFI, which is a previous stage to RFP, the purchaser has already gathered sufficient knowledge/inputs about the procured item. Generally a RFP is issued when the purchaser plans to evaluate the vendors on other factors beyond pricing.

In order to get best value of the money and to have a well-defined process of evaluation, the purchasers should freeze few specifications like: Timelines, payment terms, guarantee/warrantee, specific technology to be used (if at all), size, quantity, information about existing system in case if the proposed solution needs to interact/integrate with the existing system.
However, apart from the pricing, the purchasers should keep few specifications/parameters which shall be evaluated based on weighted average. These parameters can be related with innovation, quality, supplier's relevant experience, financial strength, support and maintenance, team size etc.

RFQ (Request For Quotation) is floated in a situation where the purchaser is clear about its requirement and the responses would be evaluated purely based on the pricing. In most of the cases the procurement through RFQ is used when the purchaser is looking to buy off-the-shelf products that do not need customization. In some cases the RFQ is issued only to the pre-qualified suppliers.