A: You do not have to pay in order to view RFPs (although you must register) or submit a bid. You will only be due a Transaction Fee upon successfully winning a particular bid.

A: First, agree to the terms of service, register your organization, and finally either upload an RFP or view a listing of bid opportunities; whichever is applicable. RFP's can be uploaded by submitters seeking bids or downloaded by vendors wishing to bid, after the completion of the aforementioned registration process. Furthermore, RFP's are searchable by geographical region, industry, type of RFP or dollar amount to name a few.

A: No. The responding organization cannot submit a response unless you are a registered vendor, have a Vendor Agreement in place with RFP Zone and have supplied all supporting information.

A: The Transaction Fee is on a net/30 term which commences one day after the awarding of the winning bidder by the issuer of the RFP.

A: Yes. Once logged in to the system you are able to view the status of all of your RFP's, the number of responses, the dollar amounts, etc.

A: Provider with existing products that are being used to respond to an RFP should include applicable IITAA compliance templates to provide information on the IITAA compliance as part of the evaluation of the product for purchase and the compliance template maybe required, if specified in the RFP. Products that do not meet IITAA requirements will still be considered if other products that meet minimal functional requirements of the RFP also do not meet the IITAA requirements.

A: Vendors should be encouraged to apply even if they do not meet all of the requirements of IITAA. Vendors should be encouraged to fill out compliance templates to highlight where their products do comply with IITAA, features that could comply with minor modifications and features that could only comply with extensive modifications. Since IITAA is a relatively new requirement many vendors may not be aware of the requirements or may not have integrated all the requirements into their products. Vendors who may only partially satisfy the requirements may still find that they have more accessibility features than similar products and therefore will have a competitive advantage over other products. It is important to point out to vendors that if they bring their products into compliance they will have a competitive advantage.

A: Not all bids have a pre-bid meeting and attendance is not mandatory unless specified. In the event that there is a pre-bid meeting, it is typically used by the issuing organization to discuss specifications for a specific bid/proposal, and it allows for vendors to ask questions in order to seek clarification.