Subscriber Discussion

Would You Pay To Get A Government VSaaS RFP?

Carlton Purvis

•Sep 05, 2013

The government of Trinidad and Tobago owns half of the company Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago Limited. The company provides wireless and cable services along with installing alarm systems and video surveillance (the video surveillance services and alarm monitoring was just added as a service in 2010).

The company recently put out an RFP for video hosting solution to give cloud storage capability to its surveillance offerings. The catch is that interested bidders have to buy the RFP for $77 if they want to see the details. In fact, it seems like RFPs for telecommunications projects have to be purchased. Is this typical practice in other countries? It seems kind of unfair that bidders have to pay money just to take a peek at what the project is.

Side note: One interesting insight in this RFP is that the government has decided to waive taxes on video surveillance equipment to increase its import.

Brian Rhodes

•Sep 05, 2013

IPVMU Certified

I bet the fee weeds out a good chunk of the 'trunk slammer' bid responses.

Its to T&T's advantage to garner as many solicitations as possible, and the fee likely hinders that to a degree. But if they're willing to deal with that side effect, then I really don't have issue with it.

An integrator can easily spend thousands developing an RFP response, so $77 does not seem costly. 'Big' RFPs are seldom secrets when they finally hit the street even in the US, and I'm sure that's even more pronounced for an island nation.

Miguel Rascon

•Sep 06, 2013

Carlton,

Hi, normally in some countries in Latin America in government projects to can participate a bid those have cost to can participate or present a proposal. Its important to investigate the relationship of the company Telecomunications that you mention.

saludos,

Miguel