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With this RFP, AppLogistics seeks a solution that will provide the processes, servers and software necessary to create an internal sales intranet. A successful bidder will furnish an application framework necessary to support sales and marketing, and contribute the necessary personnel to get the project running and cut over to AppLogistics staff.

The key business requirements include contact management, customer asset management, historic sales analysis, order forecasting, order entry and an interface to different invent ory and supplier management systems.

Systems at the other, merged companies include several AS/400s, a VAX and Novell platforms; AppLogistics has no desire to change the computing environments within the divisions. AppLogistics itself has a mix of computing platforms, including Windows, Unix and Macintosh workstations. As stated earlier, each division maintains its own core business systems. The proposed intranet would layer on top of those systems, providing a uniform sales and marketing environment.

The final solution must detail the training, responsibility and tasks our IS staff members will perform during development and deployment. In addition, it must be clear how the system will be maintained once all the consultants and integrators leave.

Prime Objective Our No. 1 objective is the selection and implementation of a best-of-breed sales support tool, delivered over the comp any's intranet to the existing desk and laptops in the field. The application will feature an open, client/server architecture that can be integrated with and support other business systems and groupware applications. You can find the rest of our objectives online at www.NetworkComputing.com/818/818f1.html.

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? After all, an RFP is not a beauty contest--corporate RFPs rarely are. Most government RFPs are so ugly they make liver left in the sun look appetizing. Nevertheless, of the vendors invited to participate in this RFP, only four--Microsoft Corp., Netscape Communications Corp., Novell and Oracle Corp.--supplied well-defined solutions. The other vendors--Andersen Consulting, Apple Computer, Berbee Information Networks Corp., Digital Equipment Corp., Electronic Data Systems Corp., IBM Corp., MCI and Proxicom--declined for a number of reasons, ranging from being "too small" or "too busy" to being "too strapped for adequate resources." In the end, Oracle and Microsoft mad e our short list but no one received our RFP bid.