The Role of the Solutions Architects and Engineers on Request for Proposals (RFP)

Managing the technical aspects of Request for Proposal (RFP) and Request for Information (RFI) responses is a critical function that blends deep technical expertise with strategic communication and project management. 

Certainly, if you work in the US Federal sector you will likely be working on proposals. If your in the commercial sector you may as well, however, from experience your work likely focus on Request for Quotes and Request for Information.    Drawing from personal experience at 3PAR Data (now part of HPE), HDS Federal, Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) involvement in RFPs was expected for SMEs.

Below is a comprehensive guide to managing this process effectively and is great preparation for the Certified Cloud Presales Solutions Architect (CCPSA) and the Certified Federal Cloud Solutions Architect (CFCSA) certifications.

The Role of the Technical Lead(Commonly Chief Engineer/Solutions Architects)

As the technical lead for an RFP/RFI response, you are the architect of the proposed solution and the primary source of technical truth. Your mission is to design a compelling, accurate, and winning technical solution that meets the client's requirements, aligns with your company's capabilities, and instills confidence in your ability to deliver.

Figure 1 - Proposal Process and Cycles.

Phase 1: Deconstruction & Strategy (The First 48 Hours)

This initial phase is about rapidly assessing feasibility and building a plan.

1. Initial Technical Qualification (Go/No-Go)

Immediately upon receipt, you must help decide if this is a bid you can and should win from a technical standpoint.

• Feasibility Analysis: Can we actually do what the client is asking for with our current products, services, and personnel?
• Requirement Mapping: Do the mandatory requirements align with our core offerings? A quick check for "deal-breakers" or requirements that would require immense, unplanned development is crucial.
• Resource Assessment: Do we have the available technical experts (Subject Matter Experts or SMEs) to contribute to both the response and the potential project delivery?

2. Deep Dive & Requirements Decomposition

Once the decision is "Go," you must master the document.

• Create a Compliance Matrix: Break down every single technical requirement from the RFP into a spreadsheet. This matrix will become your project bible. It should include columns for:
  • Requirement ID #
  • Original RFP Text (verbatim)
  • Our Response (Compliant, Partially Compliant, Non-Compliant, Future Roadmap)
  • Clarifying Questions/Comments
  • Assigned SME
  • Response Draft
  • Status (Not Started, In Progress, Complete)
• Identify Ambiguities & Risks: Flag any requirements that are unclear, contradictory, or pose a significant technical or delivery risk. These will form the basis of your questions back to the issuer.

 3. Strategy & Kick-off Meeting

 You will lead the technical portion of the internal kick-off meeting with the proposal manager, sales lead, and other stakeholders.

• Present Initial Solution Vision: Propose a high-level solution architecture. Is this a standard deployment or a highly customized one?
• Assign Ownership: Using your compliance matrix, assign specific sections and requirements to the appropriate SMEs (e.g., security questions to the CISO's team, database questions to a DBA, integration questions to an API specialist).
• Establish a Timeline: Work with the proposal manager to set internal deadlines for first drafts, reviews, and final content submission, ensuring sufficient time for solution design and validation.

Table One - Common Team Structure on RFPs.

Phase 2: Solution Design & Content Creation

This is the core execution phase where the technical response is built.

 1. Architect the Solution

 This is your most critical task. You must design the definitive solution that will be proposed.

• Develop Architecture Diagrams: Create clear, professional diagrams (e.g., using Lucidchart, Visio, or draw.io) that illustrate the system architecture, data flows, network connectivity, and user interactions. These are often more powerful than paragraphs of text.
• Select Components: Specify the exact products, modules, hardware, and third-party components that make up the solution.
• Address Key Capabilities': Explicitly design for and document how your solution addresses:
  • Scalability: How will the system grow with the client's needs? Provide metrics (e.g., "supports up to 10,000 concurrent users with X configuration").
  • Reliability & Availability: What is the uptime guarantee? Describe failover, redundancy, and disaster recovery mechanisms.
  • Security: Detail the security posture, including data encryption (at rest and in transit), access controls, authentication methods (e.g., SSO, MFA), and compliance with standards (ISO 27001, SOC 2, etc.).
  • Interoperability & Integration: How will your solution connect with the client's existing systems? Detail API capabilities, supported protocols, and data formats.

2. Author & Curate Technical Content

 Transform the solution design into a persuasive written response.

• Write with a "So What?" Mindset: Don't just list features. For every technical feature, explain the business benefit.
  • Bad: "We use AES-256 encryption."
  • Good: "To ensure the complete confidentiality of your sensitive data, we employ AES-256 encryption, the same industry-leading standard used by financial institutions and governments to protect classified information."
• Leverage the Knowledge Base: Pull approved, pre-written content from your company's knowledge base or proposal automation software (e.g., RFPIO, Loopio) for common questions. Crucially, you must customize and review this content to ensure it directly answers the specific client's question.
• Manage SME Contributions: Continuously follow up with assigned SMEs to ensure their responses are on time, accurate, and well-written. You are often the editor who must translate deep technical jargon into clear, benefit-oriented language.

3. Quantify Everything

Use data and metrics to substantiate your claims.

• Performance Metrics: Provide response times, processing speeds, throughput, etc.
• Risk Calculation: When discussing risks, you might use a simple formula to show you've thought it through: Risk Score = Likelihood × Impact.
• Implementation Timeline: Provide a high-level technical implementation plan with phases and estimated durations.

Phase 3: Review, Refinement, & Finalization

Quality control is what separates an average response from a winning one.

1. Conduct Technical Peer Reviews

Before the content goes to the proposal manager, have another senior technical resource review the entire solution.

• Sanity Check: Does the solution make sense? Are there any internal contradictions?
• Accuracy Check: Are all technical claims, product names, and version numbers correct?
• Completeness Check: Have we answered every part of every technical question?

2. Participate in Color Team Reviews (e.g., Red Team Review)

In a formal process, a "Red Team" of senior staff who have not worked on the proposal will review it from the customer's perspective.

• Defend Your Solution: Be prepared to explain your architectural decisions and why your solution is superior to potential competitors.
• Incorporate Feedback: Be open to criticism. The Red Team is designed to find weaknesses before the client does. Refine your diagrams, explanations, and risk mitigation plans based on this feedback.

3. Final Technical Sign-off

• Consistency Check: Perform a final read-through of all technical sections to ensure consistent terminology, tone, and messaging. Ensure the technical solution aligns with the pricing and commercial sections.
• Final Approval: Provide the final technical sign-off to the proposal manager, confirming that the response is accurate, complete, and represents the best possible solution.

Best Practices & Key Principles

• Be the Customer's Advocate: Design the solution that is best for the client, not just the one that is easiest for you to sell. This builds trust.
• Collaborate Relentlessly: You cannot do this alone. Constantly communicate with Sales, Product Management, Legal, and Delivery teams.
• Create a "Single Source of Truth": The compliance matrix and the central architecture diagram should be the undisputed sources of truth for the technical solution.
• Visualize Complexity: A good diagram is worth a thousand words. Use them liberally.
• Manage Risk Proactively: Identify and document potential risks, but always present them with a clear and credible mitigation strategy.
• Learn from Wins and Losses: After submission, participate in a post-mortem. What technical arguments were successful? Where were we weak? Use this to improve your process and content library.

 Tools of the Trade

 Proposal Management Software: RFPIO, Loopio, Qvidian

• Collaboration Platforms: Microsoft Teams, Slack, Confluence, SharePoint
• Diagramming Tools: Lucidchart, Microsoft Visio, draw.io, Miro
• Project Management: Jira, Asana, Trello, Smartsheet
• The Compliance Matrix: Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets remains undefeated for this task.

In closeout as a solutions architect or engineer you'll be the subject matter expert on a lot proposals. Understanding the proposal process is a critical part of being an SA/SE with a significant amount of companies, especially in the federal sector.

Consider these certifications to get certified cloud solutions architectures.

Certified Cloud Presales Solutions Architect (CCPSA) and the Certified Federal Cloud Solutions Architect (CFCSA) certifications.