Choosing the right enterprise video platform starts with writing a clear, strategic RFP that aligns with your business goals and filters out the noise. Continue reading
Confused about what to include and how to structure your RFP for an enterprise video platform? This guide will help you craft a powerful video platform RFP that will lead you to choose a reliable video solution provider for your organization.
In this blog, we’ll walk you through every essential element—from defining your company’s background and pinpointing your specific business objectives to outlining platform requirements, customizations, pricing, support, and beyond.
Our comprehensive approach is designed to help you ask the right questions about video platform needs and make informed decisions with confidence.
So, let’s get started and understand the process of writing an RFP for an enterprise video platform.
Video Platform RFP (Request For Proposal) is a formal documentation created by enterprises to solicit proposals/bids from vendors who provide video management and distribution solutions.
The document outlines the business goals and specific requirements for an enterprise video platform and intends to invite multiple video platform providers to submit proposals.
Leveraging the RFP process helps businesses evaluate and choose the best-fit technology partner for managing and distributing videos online.
Writing a strategic RFP makes it easier to find a reliable video platform provider – all you need to do is ask the right questions in your Request For Proposal. When you write a well-researched & guided RFP for your video platform, it helps in many ways:
In simple words, crafting a solid RFP helps in weeding out poor-grade video platforms that are either over-promising or lack the core streaming features that you need.
By clearly outlining your video platform requirements in the RFP, you enable vendors to present tailored solutions, facilitating a more effective evaluation process.
“A meticulously prepared RFP serves as a foundational tool, guiding you toward a video platform that meets both current demands and future growth, ultimately contributing to your organization’s long-term success.”
Now, let’s move forward to our blog’s core topic, i.e., which elements to include in an enterprise video platform RFP.
This list is curated by experts to help you create an RFP for your enterprise video platform. All these elements will help you craft an easy-to-understand RFP that guides vendors to showcase their tailored video solutions while ensuring all essential features are covered.
A well-written Video Platform RFP always starts with a clear purpose statement, i.e., to select a partner who can provide efficient video solutions.
Writing a direct and unambiguous introduction or purpose statement helps potential vendors understand the RFP’s core objective at first impression.
For Example:
“Our Organization invites you to respond to this Request For Proposal (RFP). The focus of the RFP is to choose a video solution provider that fits our enterprise’s video storage & distribution requirements for internal communications.”
That’s it. Short and crisp!!!! This will help the vendors to understand what specific services or solutions you’re looking for, and accordingly, they can tailor their video solution proposals.
Providing details about your Company, like what you do and in which industry you operate, helps vendors to understand your organization’s identity and video platform needs.
You can also talk about your media ecosystem, geographical reach, your mission & values, your achievements, and milestones. All this information would set a solid foundation for the vendors to craft tailored solution proposals.
In the Scope of Work, be specific about what kind of video solutions you’re looking for.
Whether you want a video hub for internal communications & training, a video website for marketing, a video library archive for centralized video management, or simply video streaming apps for viewer engagement, be very specific about your business scope.
Example:
We are a media production house that streams high-quality live and on-demand event content on our website. Our challenge is to reach a broader audience by offering a personalized user experience on mobile and Smart TV applications.
The objective of this RFP is to determine which is the best video solution provider that can help us in:
Hosting & Infrastructure
Give a clear understanding of the technical environment and infra components you want for your video platform. It’s recommended to enquire about:
Scalability & Performance
Your Video Platform RFP must include questions about the platform’s scalability and load-balancing in real-time. Here’s a sample template to refer to:
Video Security Protocols:
If you don’t want to compromise on how your videos will be used over the internet, requesting details on security protocols is essential in the video platform RFP.
Here are a few important questions you need to ask regarding video security:
User Experience & User Engagement:
When writing RFP for an enterprise video platform, ask about the scopes for UX enhancements and engagement tools, as it is essential to keep viewers hooked to the video platform.
We suggest including questions like:
Accessibility and Cross-platform Compatibility:
To ensure your videos are available and accessible across devices, your video platform RFP must include queries on cross-device compatibility. We suggest asking the vendors about Adaptive Bitrate Technology, Built-in Transcoders, and App development frameworks. A few questions to guide:
Monetization Scopes:
If monetizing videos is a priority, then you must ask how the video platform can help with profitable revenue generation. We suggest asking questions about:
Analytics & Reporting:
If you want to leverage data-driven decisions for your video platform’s success, then your RFP must include queries like:
It’s important to include a customization & branding section in your enterprise video platform RFP. This section is designed to ensure that the proposed video platform not only meets your technical and functional requirements but also aligns perfectly with your organization’s brand identity and business goals.
You can specify your platform’s customization needs, like having dedicated cloud hosting + your own CDNs or adding custom playback controls & watermarking in the online video player.
In terms of branding, seek clarity on whether you can have a complete white-label video platform or not. Ask about customizing the entire UI of your video platform as per brand identity.
Here’s a question template that might help you in writing this RFP section.
Customer support is an important aspect to consider when writing an RFP for an enterprise video platform.
This section outlines the video platform’s core support factors, like Target Response Time, Target Fix Time, Service Availability, Issue Resolution Process, Escalation Paths, SLAs, and Disaster Recovery Process.
Considering enterprise video platform needs, you can also ask vendors about providing a dedicated account manager, training assistance, platform migration support, and scheduled maintenance, if required.
Here’s a sample question template for your help.
A well-drafted video platform RFP covers more than just the technical configurations and platform features. A dedicated pricing-related header is a must.
This section of your RFP is essential to ensure that vendors provide a detailed and transparent financial proposal that aligns with your video platform goals and budgeting.
Here, you need to ask about the service cost of the video solutions mentioned in the RFP, including everything – platform fees, licensing fees, support fees, and user-based charges, if any.
Request vendors to disclose any potential variables that might affect pricing, such as costs for storage, bandwidth, encoding hours, DRM, or app development.
You can also mention your payment terms, i.e., monthly or annually, and specific invoice requirements.
Here are a few questions you can include in your video platform RFP.
This part of your RFP asks vendors to define their proposed action plan from project kickoff to full operational launch, accompanied by a tentative timeline.
Key highlights should include critical project phases such as Initial Planning, Design & Customization, Development & Integrations, Testing & QA, Deployment, and Post-launch optimization.
The timeline format should look like this:
Apart from the timeline, it’s recommended to ask about the project team, like who would be leading what task and who will be the supporting members.
A compliance section is critical in an enterprise video platform RFP as it ensures all the participating vendors adhere to the established standards throughout the process.
In this section, request compliance requirements, such as business certifications, data privacy regulations, security standards, quality management standards, or integration capabilities.
You can also set confidentiality protocols that require every recipient of your RFP to handle the bidding aspects with utmost confidentiality.
By establishing such clear compliances, it’s easier to reject video solution proposals that do not meet the minimum process standards.
This section outlines how video solution providers should format and organize their proposal submissions. Defining a uniform proposal structure ensures all the proposals are presented in a consistent manner, making it easier to review and compare the details of each submission.
Describe your proposal structure neatly, maybe in the format below:
It’s also recommended to specify the exact submission process, i.e., how and where to submit the proposals, including deadlines and submission portals or email addresses.
An RFP should outline the very need for video platform in your organization – specify whether is it for video storage, video distribution, live video streaming, or simply video cataloging and management.
Be it for internal communications & training, marketing, centralized video management, or customer engagement, mention your business scope in the video platform RFP clearly. This will allow the vendors to understand your video platform requirements and accordingly tailor solutions exclusively for your brand/business.
Whether you’re drafting your first RFP or refining an existing process, this guide provides the ultimate blueprint for choosing the best video platform provider.
Embrace a strategic approach and ask the right questions, which we have discussed above.
In case you have any doubts about writing your Request For Proposal, feel free to talk with our experts.
While many vendors offer enterprise video solutions, Muvi stands out as the ultimate answer to all your video storage, management, and distribution needs. Try Muvi products for free and find out why it’s the best no-code streaming solution ever made.
Written by: Richi Milan
Richi is a passionate content marketing enthusiast with hands-on experience in strategizing and creating compelling content. Currently, working with world's best OTT platform provider - Muvi. Dive-in and explore the OTT-verse with Richi!!
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