Agency – Anchorage Water & Wastewater Utility

Interviewee – Todd Nyback

Interview Date –10/13/2016

Outcome – Win

Proposal Bid – $64,980

RSM - John Redfern

Proposal - originally dated 4/1/2016

Background

• IT group wanted to get out of the website business and wanted a solution that could be updated by the end users
• Reached out to a number of vendors and received 12 proposals
• Narrowed it down to 3 companies and 2 gave oral interviews (he didn't say who the other vendors were, but noted that they were open source)

Why did we win?

• "Vision shined in the oral interviews"
• During the case studies in orals, we did the best job even though we had the shortest time to prepare since we went first
• Price was a consideration, but it wasn't weighted very heavily; our price was right in the middle - not the cheapest or most expensive
• Liked our fixed fee
• Internal committee identified with some of our sites, and like that we had a number of different water utility examples
• Really liked our methodology and project approach
• While showcasing the product, thought product was very mature and that regular users could use it without having to involve IT

What could we improve?

• Do a better job with proposal as it was close for us to make the shortlist - our proposal was ok, but it wasn't tailored to a water utility

Other points

• Sales team was John R. and Robert did the demo and did a good job with reacting to the scenarios
• It's not over until the contract is signed - we almost lost the deal as their purchasing team ahd an issue with the Vision MSA
• 40% upfront was almost a sticking point as they felt they were paying for something that they weren't getting yet

Takeaways

• Do a better job of tailoring our proposal to districts and include more personalized aspects to their environment
• Finalize entire agreement with their purchasing team and then sign the contract