TS Today - Creating a Vision for the Future of Vacation Ownership Issue #142, Jul/Aug 2015 | Page 36

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Jul/Aug, 2015

Achieving Strategic Success with RFPs
By Jeffrey T. Weinland, Karen A.
Brancato, and Alfred J. “Ben” Rossi
A fundamental element in the strategicmanagement process of timeshare owners’
associations is the selection of suppliers of
goods and services. As part of this process,
timeshare board members are obligated to
solicit bids from a variety of providers to
ensure that the needs of timeshare owners
are addressed in an appropriate and costeffective manner.
To manage the selection process for
major purchases, an organization typically
issues an RFP (Request for Proposal).
While most timeshare associations
have professional management companies
to assist with the RFP process, timeshare
board members are ultimately responsible
to ensure that their constituents’ interests
are well represented. Further, RFPs frequently are used to select and renew the
contracts of timeshare management companies, so timeshare owners and board members should be familiar with the process.

This article explores the RFP process
step by step to identify major issues and
challenges that timeshare owners’ associations may encounter while seeking providers or validating proposals for contract renewal of existing providers.

The Process Begins
As the name suggests, an RFP is an announcement made by an individual or organization (commonly known as the procurer) encouraging providers to return bids for
goods or services that the procurer desires.
In an effective RFP, the procurer provides a brief description of the organization and/or the project in question, detailed
information concerning the products and
services the procurer seeks, the format that
proposals should take, the timeline associated with the procurement process, and a
single procurer point of contact for potential suppliers.
Potential providers will use the information in the RFP to determine whether

their company should prepare a proposal
and, if so, to address their response in a
manner that best represents how the provider can meet the procurer’s needs.

Hiring an RFP Consultant
When considering RFPs for the most
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hire a consultant to advise them.
Such consultants may be potential
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industry professionals from other organizations who have been through an RFP process from a similar (and successful) project;
and retired industry professionals.
An RFP consultant will want to
speak with a wide variety of organizational stakeholders.
• Members of the board of directors
or executive committees tend to be wellversed in the organization’s strategic plan
and will understand what the intended project will achieve.
• Operational managers and staff can
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operational staff have a complete understanding of the shortcomings of current
solutions and can offer useful insights to
avoid similar challenges.
• Product suppliers can explain the
latest developments in their industry and
can provide general information about
what other customers are including in
similar projects.
• End users (timeshare owners, exchangers, and renters) can share expectations and challenges with current offerings,
and suggest possible remedies.
• The leaders of other similar organizations can provide information about their
experiences with suppliers and products.
Organizations choosing not to hire
an RFP consultant also should involve
these stakeholders.

Drafting the RFP
If you ask prospective providers the
right questions, you’ll get the right answers.
If not, you risk the GIGO syndrome—Garbage In, Garbage Out.
Clarity in evaluation criteria is a vital
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