Technical Overview for IT Professionals



Application Template: Request for Proposal

Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 is technology in Windows Server® that offers an integrated portfolio of collaboration and communication services designed to connect people, information, processes and systems both within and beyond the organizational firewall. Now available at no additional cost, Windows SharePoint Services makes it simpler for IT professionals to implement and manage a team collaboration infrastructure. Application Templates are tailored to address the needs and requirements for specific business processes or sets of tasks for organizations of any size. The templates provide out-of-the-box, customizable scenarios which solve business needs as well as providing a starting point for partners and developers looking to build more sophisticated Windows SharePoint Services solutions.

Description of Template

The Request for Proposal (RFP) application template for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 helps teams manage the process of creating RFPs and collecting proposals from vendors. Team members can use the site to upload request information, track its status and assign ownership to an apprpriate site team member. Responses can be tracked and organized by adding responding vendor information, uploading proposals received and tracking the whether a proposal is in review, rejected or accepted.

In addition, the site serves as a central repository for common documents related to proposals, such as a Statement of Work and RFP documentation and proposals received from vendors. Using the Group Discussion capabilities of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, team members can discuss proposals received using and can view these discussions through an RSS reader such as the one provided with Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007.

Activities Performed in this Application Template

➢ Create Vendor Information: Vendors who submit proposals can be added to the site including vendor information such as name, contact information and detailed notes. This enables team members to assign proposals received to a particular vendor, enabling simplified organization of the proposals submitted.

➢ Create a Request for Proposal: Team members can use the site to capture information about RFPs. The site allows for uploading of detailed RFP documents and creation of an item that links these documents to the RFP title, description, owner, due date and status. Once a request is created, it is saved and can be viewed on the main page or within the user specific My RFP pages on the site. As the status for an RFP changes, for example from Initiated to Reviewing Proposals, a team member returns to this page to update the Status of the RFP.

➢ Manage Proposals Received from Vendors: As vendors submit their proposals, team members can use the system to upload the documents and track the status of proposals. Upon completing an upload, the user completes the fields to correctly categorize and identify the proposal, entering vendor submitted the proposal, the date received, which RFP it is covering and whether the proposal is being reviewed, accepted or rejected. Once this information is completed, the site categorizes the proposals by RFP as well as by vendor, enabling simplified organization of proposals received. Users can also view all data regarding a certain proposal on a single page, including description, owner, deadline and current proposals received.

➢ Statements of Work: Once a proposal is accepted, the site enables the team to upload a statement of work, which can be attributed to a particular RFP. The statement of work can be any type of document and can be used to track agreed upon details of how the work is to be performed, milestones and deadlines for performance.

➢ Discussion Management: The site also includes the capability to centrally host discussions regarding a particular RFP. Members can create discussion topics that site members can then reply to. The discussions are viewable by all other members of the team.

Users also have the capability of viewing the discussions through an RSS reader such as the one provided in Office Outlook 2007. When a reply is added, Office Outlook 2007 synchronizes with the site, providing a direct link to the discussion to simplify the process of tracking discussion entering a reply.

Site Lists and Libraries

Proposals: This Document Library stores the RFP proposals made by vendors

Request Documents: This Document Library store supporting documents pertaining to an RFP

Statements of Work: This Document Library stores the final “Statement of Work” pertaining to an RFP

RFP Requests: This list stores the individual requests for proposal

Vendors: This list tracks the vendors who have submitted a proposal for a particular RFP

Team Discussion: Use the team discussion list to hold newsgroup-style discussions

Tasks: Use the Tasks list to track work that your team needs to complete

Customizing SharePoint Sites and Templates

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is a Web site development and management program that provides powerful tools to build, customize, and contribute to Windows SharePoint Services sites using the latest Web design technologies and established standards in an IT-controlled environment.

Use Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to create and deploy interactive solutions without having to write code. Automate business processes, such as document approval, custom event notification and other collaboration tasks with the workflow designer. Create reporting and tracking applications using data views and forms to easily gather and aggregate data from outside your site and from lists and document libraries on the Web.

Extend your solution by building advanced interactive Microsoft pages. Insert and edit controls with the same powerful activity menus and control property grids previously found only in the Microsoft Visual Studio® development system.

Technical Dependencies

The Request for Proposal application template has the following technical requirements:

➢ Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0*

➢ Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (optional)

➢ Microsoft Office Word 2007

*Review Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 system requirements for additional information:



More Information

For more information on the technologies described in this article, please visit:

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0:



Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007:



Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services:



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Technical Overview for

IT Professionals

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