Why write a request for proposal before approaching consultancies?
To receive comparable offers and choose on method rather than impression. Without a request for proposal, each consultancy imagines its own project: one prices a single standard on one site, another three standards on every site, a third forgets the training. The prices then mean nothing.
The document also serves internally. Writing it forces management to settle questions that would otherwise surface in the middle of the assignment: which scope, which deadline, who leads, how much time the teams can give. Finally, it becomes an annex to the contract: whatever is not in it will be discussed, and often invoiced, later.
A request for proposal does not need to be long. Ten to fifteen pages are enough for an SME. The selection criteria themselves are detailed in our guide on how to choose an ISO consultant in Morocco; this article shows how to turn them into a tender document. The method is the same for a Moroccan company, a West African manufacturer or the subsidiary of a foreign group that must follow its head office’s purchasing rules.
What should an ISO consultancy request for proposal contain?
Ten sections, in this order. Each one answers a question the consultancy will need to ask itself to price and plan the assignment.
Section | Content | Why the consultancy needs it |
|---|---|---|
1. Context | Activity, markets, customer or requirement behind the project | Understand what is at stake and the real deadline |
2. Scope | Standards and versions, sites, activities, headcount, teams, outsourced activities | These are the factors that drive the workload |
3. Starting point | Existing certifications, documents, last audit, quality manager in post | Assess the gap to close |
4. Objectives and deadline | Target audit date, customer constraints, transitions to plan | Build a realistic schedule |
5. Expected deliverables | List, format, language, ownership | Price the work and avoid misunderstandings |
6. Split of roles | What the consultancy does, what your teams do | Calibrate the number of days |
7. Training | Audiences, numbers, languages, inclusion in the training plan | Schedule the sessions and prepare the funding file |
8. Constraints | Shift hours, safety rules, site access, working languages | Organise the on-site presence |
9. Requirements for the team | Lead consultant, deputy, qualifications, independence | Check competence before signing |
10. Response format | Structure of the offer, price by phase, documents to attach, deadline | Make the offers comparable |
Scope: the data to provide
Give the same information that the certification body will ask you for to calculate audit time. The Global ACI-TECH-3-004 document starts from headcount, temporary, part-time and shift workers included, then takes account of the risk level of the activity, the sites, outsourced activities and working languages. Global ACI is the body that took over the work of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). Whatever lengthens the audit also lengthens the preparation.
- Standards and versions: for example ISO 9001:2026, ISO 14001:2026 and ISO 45001:2018, as an integrated system or not.
- Sites: address, activities of each, headcount per site, any central function. For a group, state whether the sites have very similar activities: according to Global ACI-TECH-3-001, that is the condition for the body to audit a sample rather than every site.
- Activities: what you design, manufacture, install or deliver, and what you subcontract.
- Organisation: shift teams, night work, construction sites or work at customers’ premises.
- Languages: French, Arabic, English, depending on the roles and on exchanges with customers.
The deliverables to list
Write the list down, even if it seems obvious. For a certification project, it usually includes: the gap analysis report, the project plan, the process map, the analyses (context, interested parties, risks and opportunities, environmental aspects, occupational risks, depending on the standards), the register of legal requirements, documented information approved by its owners, training materials and attendance certificates, internal audit reports, preparation of the management review and the mock audit report. State that all documents belong to you, in an editable format.
How do you set the schedule and milestones?
Work back from the real deadline, and tie each payment to a deliverable. The schedule also depends on your certification body: for certification to ISO 9001:2026, it can issue an accredited certificate only after its accreditation body’s transition decision, by 30 September 2027 at the latest according to Global ACI’s transition document. The other 2026-2029 deadlines are summarised in our article on ISO consultancy in 2026-2027.
Milestone | What must be delivered | Link with payment |
|---|---|---|
Kick-off | Kick-off meeting, detailed schedule, project manager appointed | Possible down payment |
End of gap analysis | Prioritised gap report, confirmed schedule | Payment for phase 1 |
System designed | Process map, analyses, policy and objectives approved | Payment for phase 2 |
System rolled out | Documents approved, teams trained, records under way | Payment for phase 3 |
System verified | Cycle of internal audits, management review held | Payment for phase 4 |
Mock audit | Report and action plan | Payment for phase 5 |
After the certification audit | Findings handled, evidence sent to the body | Balance |
Leave enough time between roll-out and audit to produce evidence: indicators tracked over several months, a full cycle of internal audits, a management review. A schedule that places the mock audit one week after the drafting ends leaves nothing to check.
How do you score and compare the offers received?
With a grid set before the offers are opened, elimination criteria and a score for each criterion. The grid below is a template to adapt: the weights reflect our recommendations, not a rule.
Criterion | Indicative weight | What is scored |
|---|---|---|
Understanding of the need and method | 30% | On-site gap analysis, prioritised plan, skills transfer, fit with your context |
Proposed team | 25% | Named lead consultant and deputy, auditor qualifications, competence on each standard |
Comparable references | 15% | Same standard, same size, same industry; feedback from the references called |
Schedule and organisation | 10% | Realism, on-site days, handling of sites and languages |
Price | 20% | Price broken down by phase, additional costs, options |
Score each criterion from 0 to 3: 0 absent, 1 insufficient, 2 compliant, 3 demonstrated by evidence. A claim without evidence scores 2 at best.
Before any scoring, set aside the offers that fail the elimination criteria:
- no declaration of independence from certification bodies. ISO/IEC 17021-1 forbids a certification body to provide management system consultancy, according to the SADCAS assessment checklist (clause 5.2.5), used by the accreditation body of the Southern African Development Community;
- no named consultant, or undeclared subcontracting;
- a guarantee of certification, or a firm timeline announced without a gap analysis;
- a promised CSF reimbursement amount.
Then meet the two or three best-scored consultancies. Ask the lead consultant, not the salesperson, to present how they would run the gap analysis on your site, and call at least two of their references.
Which mistakes should you avoid in a tender?
The most expensive ones are made before the request for proposal is sent:
- A vague scope (“ISO certification for the group”) that produces offers impossible to compare.
- Hiding the starting point for fear of looking behind: the consultancy will discover it at the gap analysis, and the schedule will slip.
- Forgetting shift teams, temporary staff or secondary sites, which count for the certification body as much as for the preparation workload.
- Not saying who drafts. If you expect the consultancy to write everything, say so; but a system written without your process owners is hard to defend in an audit.
- Choosing on total price, without looking at on-site days or at what is excluded.
- Forgetting training and its funding. In Morocco, OFPPT (the national vocational training office) runs the special training contracts (contrats spéciaux de formation, CSF). Under the CSF procedures manual of OFPPT (May 2006, amended by Amendment No. 2 of 2 June 2014), training that is not written into the training plan before it takes place falls at best under the unplanned training rate, a reference rate of 40% instead of 70% for planned training delivered by an external provider. The detail is on our CSF and GIAC funding page.
- Neglecting life after the certificate: internal audits, regulatory monitoring, preparation of surveillance audits.
Which checklist should you run before sending the request for proposal?
Check these points with management and the future project manager:
The factors that will make the offers vary are detailed in our article on ISO consultancy fees and duration.