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The types of solicitation documents in procurement you use will change depending on the situation, and even experienced procurement teams can be confused about which document to use at times. Understanding solicitation documents will help you align sourcing methods with risk, complexity, and institutional goals while improving your ability to evaluate suppliers effectively.
A solicitation document is a formal request issued by an institution to invite suppliers to compete for business under defined terms. It establishes requirements, evaluation criteria, timelines, and contractual expectations in advance of award.
In education procurement, documentation serves several key purposes:
While policies vary by state and institution type, a solicitation document is essential for managing risk and accountability.
Typically, you have three options:
Each is designed for a different sourcing scenario, and the choice is not driven by spend levels. Institutions must consider the level of complexity, the importance of qualitative factors, and the degree of flexibility needed during the evaluation process.
An RFP is commonly used when institutions need to evaluate more than price, allowing procurement teams to assess experience, methodology, service levels, compliance, and long-term value alongside cost. RFPs are common for professional services, technology systems, and multi-year agreements where outcomes and performance are key.
RFPs offer flexibility in evaluation, but they are also time and resource intensive. RFPs offer flexibility in evaluation, but they are also time and resource intensive. E&I Cooperative Services addresses this challenge through a rigorous RFP process that incorporates our Economic Benefit Model (EBM), which quantifies the total value delivered to member institutions—including cost savings, administrative efficiency, and strategic support—making the investment in competitive solicitation measurably worthwhile.
A request for quotation is typically used when requirements are clearly defined and price is the primary differentiator. These can help find interested suppliers and get competitive pricing, typically for commodity or standardized goods where there’s little difference in quality.
RFQs are generally faster to execute than RFPs, but they provide limited flexibility. And if requirements are not well defined, it can create confusion and issues after award.
An IFB is a formal solicitation where an award is typically made to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. This approach is common in the public sector and facilities-related procurement where specifications can be tightly defined.
IFBs work best when there is little room for interpretation.
RFPs offer the greatest flexibility but also demand the most internal resources. It can take weeks to draft an RFP properly. While some parts will be boilerplate templates, the average public sector RFP is 116 pages long. Compare that to RFQs that might only be two to five pages.
Some institutions use a streamlined process, called RFP Lite. This includes a shorter page limit, more focused criteria, and faster timelines. In other cases, another type of document is issued, called a Request for Information (RFI). This is used to gather information about suppliers and solutions as a steppingstone to creating a more targeted RFP or RFQ.
Institutions sometimes choose the wrong type of solicitation document, such as:
Procurement teams typically consider several factors when selecting a solicitation document. In some cases, issuing a new solicitation is not the best approach. Educational institutions are increasingly adding cooperative purchasing as an alternative approach alongside traditional solicitation documents.
Through cooperative contracts, the competitive solicitation is conducted upstream, allowing institutions to access pre-competed agreements that meet education-specific requirements. It’s common for institutions to achieve their procurement goals and also reduce costs by 10% to 15% with cooperative contracts.
Because the solicitation documents are crafted and managed by the cooperative, it also streamlines the procurement process. Combining demand across institutions produces significant volume discounts while still allowing institutions to customize and tailor purchases for their needs.
E&I Cooperative Services is the only member-owned nonprofit sourcing cooperative that serves the education sector exclusively. With more than 6,200 member institutions, E&I has significant buying power to get price concessions from leading suppliers and craft cooperative agreements favorable to educational institutions.
Browse our portfolio of more than 200 competitively solicited agreements and see how educational institutions are streamlining the procurement process and reducing costs.