Richardson, Greg (2005). Municipal Wireless: Request for Proposal (RFP) Best Practices. Civitium, July 2005.
http://www.civitium.com/CivitiumRFPBestPractices.pdf
This is a practical, straightforward resource about the RFP process for municipal wireless projects, designed for municipalities by Civitium, a major consulting firm for both small and large scale municipal wireless projects: http://www.civitium.com/. The resource is a useful tool for people who want to understand what is involved, plan, or evaluate the RFP process of a municipal broadband project. Also useful is a process chart that sketches the entire process of a municipal wireless project, showing where in this process the RFP lies.
The resource encourages municipalities to think about the RFP as a process rather than an event, and guides municipalities through a series of topics they should address to create a RFP that clearly reflects their goals for the network to potential bidders. For most topics there is a list of questions for municipalities to ask themselves to guide their thought and research process on the issue.
Generally, a RFP must define who will own the network, where funding will come from, the role of the city, what services are required, what assets will be made available, and, loosely, what technology is desired. Important steps in the RFP process include gathering stakeholder feedback; demand assessment - what need (or lack of need) there is in the community for the proposed service, and how a network might affect various stakeholders; business model definition - how the network will operate financially and who will have what responsibility; requirements definition strategies - advice on working with vendors; and asset inventory - an evaluation of what assests the municipality has that it can offer to the project. The resource also includes a list of sample RFPs and RFIs from municipalities that Civitium has worked with.
