The race to add more visual collaboration inside and outside of the enterprise is being driven by the need to work faster and compete in the global market. Today’s video conferencing providers are evolving to meet this demand.

Today, leading providers are challenging standard conferencing capabilities, pushing the envelope on multiple fronts. This stems from the user demand to have live video conferencing capabilities on mobile, desktop, and in conference rooms. As a result, we are seeing newer providers emerge who will readily compete with the incumbents.

Simplicity and ease of use is what users expect no matter the device or the environment. Providers who are not optimized for mobile will need to act quickly; as the need for immediate collaboration rises, so will user expectations in the enterprise. This also is true of the Conference and Huddle room. One-click connectivity is now the standard expectation.

The RFP process is one of the best ways to ensure successful procurements. It gives all your bidders the same view of exactly what you want, so they can accurately calculate their costs and make their proposals responsive. By providing a common form and format for all the responses, with a consistent framework to compare them in, an RFP gives you more confidence that what you buy will meet your needs.

Introduction

Aragon Research is publishing this guide to help buyers write effective requests for proposals (RFPs) and requests for information (RFIs) for Video Conferencing (VC).

This book is divided into two parts. This section, Part I, is addressed to you, the buyer, who is setting out to write an RFP. It explains some of the ways you can use an RFP to make your procurement financially safe and technically satisfying.

Because RFPs are legally binding and financially consequential, but can also be technically intricate, repetitive and tedious to create, we have compiled the content of a typical RFP for Video Conferencing software, which is contained in Part II. As an Aragon Research client, you are free to copy and paste this content into your own RFP template and then customize it to fit your specific situation. If you have never done an RFP before, work with your legal and financial staff to develop the rest of the necessary content.

In Part II, everything that is not in italics is intended to be part of your actual RFP, and is addressed to the vendors you send it to. The material in italics is for you, the buyer. Be sure to remove everything in italics before sending the RFP to bidders.