How to write an EDI professional services brief

1. What is this service?

It might be used to commission consultancy, research, training, auditing, strategy development, accessibility work, evaluation or another specialist service.

A good brief does not need to prescribe every detail of the solution. It should give providers enough information to understand:

• the organisation and context
• the problem or opportunity
• what you want to achieve
• who is affected
• the scope of the work
• constraints and requirements
• what you expect the provider to deliver
• how proposals will be assessed.

2. When might you commission it?

Use a professional services brief when you:

• are approaching several providers
• are running a formal procurement
• want comparable proposals
• need internal approval before commissioning
• need to clarify an emerging requirement
• are unsure exactly what an external provider should deliver
• want to avoid providers interpreting your requirement differently.

3. Before you commission

Ask internally:

The problem

• What are we trying to solve?
• What evidence tells us this is a problem?
• Is the problem clearly defined?

The outcome

• What do we want to be different?
• What decisions should this work enable us to make?
• How will we know whether it has been successful?

The organisation

• Who owns the project?
• Who needs to approve it?
• Who needs to contribute?
• Who will implement the recommendations?

The practicalities

• What is our budget?
• What is our deadline?
• What information can we provide?
• Are there confidentiality or data requirements?
• Are there procurement requirements we need to follow?

The scope

• What is included?
• What is explicitly excluded?
• Are there related projects that need to be considered?

4. Define your brief

A useful brief can follow this structure:

Background

Who you are and why the project is needed.

Objectives

What you want to achieve.

Scope

The areas, people, locations, services, policies or processes included.

Stakeholders

Who needs to be involved.

Evidence available

Relevant data, research, previous reports or existing work.

Deliverables

What you expect the provider to produce.

Timescale

Key dates and milestones.

Budget

Available budget or pricing requirements.

Requirements

Accessibility, confidentiality, data protection, safeguarding or other requirements.

Proposal requirements

What suppliers should include in their response.

Evaluation criteria

How proposals will be assessed.

Success measures

How you will judge whether the project achieved its purpose.

5. What to ask providers

You can copy these questions into a brief:

• How do you understand the problem we are trying to address?
• What approach would you recommend and why?
• What assumptions have you made?
• What information would you need from us?
• What would you do differently if the evidence changed?
• What would you deliver?
• How would you involve relevant stakeholders?
• How would you manage accessibility and inclusion within the project itself?
• What risks do you foresee?
• How would you measure success?
• What would you need from us to deliver successfully?
• What would you recommend we do after the project?

6. How to compare proposals

Use the same criteria for each proposal.

Adjust the weightings to suit the project.

For public-sector procurement, award criteria need to be clear, measurable, specific and proportionate, and the assessment methodology and relative importance of criteria need to be established appropriately.

7. What good looks like

A strong proposal:

• demonstrates understanding of your context
• answers your actual brief
• explains the reasoning behind the methodology
• distinguishes evidence from assumptions
• gives you confidence that the work is deliverable
• identifies what you need to contribute
• provides clear outputs
• explains how findings will be turned into action
• is proportionate to the size and complexity of the project.

8. Things to watch out for

Red flags include:

• a generic proposal that could have been sent to any organisation
• impressive language but little detail
• a methodology that is unclear
• promises of transformation without explaining how
• excessive focus on the provider's credentials
• unclear deliverables
• unexplained additional costs
• unrealistic timescales
• no consideration of stakeholder involvement
• no explanation of how success will be measured.

9. What should you receive?

Depending on the project, your commissioning pack might include:

• project brief
• provider questions
• evaluation matrix
• timetable
• proposal template
• contract requirements
• deliverables schedule
• success measures
• reporting requirements.

10. After commissioning

Once a provider is appointed:

• confirm scope and deliverables
• agree roles and responsibilities
• establish project governance
• confirm milestones
• agree how decisions will be made
• confirm how risks and changes will be managed
• establish reporting arrangements
• agree how findings will be shared
• schedule evaluation before the project starts.