SharePoint Proposal Guidelines

Question

I'm thinking how much levels of details I should be put in a typical SharePoint proposal. So for example, should we put a section on the information architecture and the site structure, or leave it out to the business requirements phase.

I'm thinking to include the below in our typical proposal templates, not specifically in that order:

• Hardware Requirements
• Physical Architecture
• Logical Architecture
• Site Structure
• Content types
• Brief about the required workflows
• Training Plan
• Deployment Plan

I couldn't find online a proposal template to follow, what's the best outline of a typical proposal I should cover, bearing in mind that after client awarding there will be a detailed business requirements gathering and documentation session.

Answer 1

You will submit a proposal against a request, so I would focus the requirements. In past, I had to submit a proposal and here are my headings.

• An introduction of Company.
• Talk about the initial requirement which client mentioned.
• If you have multiple choices ( Office 365 or on-prem) then talk about both options
• Propose a Solution.
• High level of overview of topology ( wfe, app servers, search server etc)
• Information flow, Site/portal architecture along with all required flavor i.e. workflows, search, user profile etc
• Deployment/implementation Plan ( this include pilot launch, testing, timing, resources required etc)
• Training and documentation
• After deployment Support

Answer 2

In addition to @Waqas, I would certainly add the following:

• The possibility of cloud with Office 365 (obviously depending on the organisation they might not be willing at this stage, but I would still add a section about the possibility in the cloud).

• Governance - Hot topic and after implementation one of the first concerns

• Tooling - Backup, Workflow, Permissions, Migration.