The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO)
- Client: The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO)
- Service: Bid Builder
- Industry: Nonprofit
- Location: Washington, DC
Company Bio: Founded in 1910, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (link) is a non-profit professional association. Boasting over 18,000 members from approximately 2,300 institutions across more than 40 countries, AACRAO is dedicated to supporting higher education professionals and over 16.5 million enrolled learners. The association promotes advocacy, research, and policy-based guidance and training, ensuring a seamless educational experience for learners at all stages.
“We were impressed with The Bid Lab’s approach to our website redesign project. From the onset, their team fosters a collaborative environment, bringing our team together and guiding us through a well-structured process. It was extremely important to us that every stakeholder felt heard and that their input was taken into account when developing the Scope of Work. The Bid Lab was organized, unbiased, and friendly and engaged our many teams of stakeholders efficiently. We are excited about the final product and proud that this high-quality solicitation reflects the AACRAO brand!“
– Charles Hahn, Director of IT, The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers
AACRAO Overview
- Collaborated with stakeholders to assess the current needs for a website redesign.
- Conducted AACRAO stakeholder interviews, then developed an overview of priorities before drafting a final Scope of Work.
- Developed a project plan to meet AACRAO’s timeline to issue the RFP and accept bids.
- Drafted the RFP to include a project overview and all vendor requirements.
- Provided guidance on managing the bid submission process, evaluation scoring and selection of the final vendor.
The Challenge
For more than a century, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) has been committed to professional development, advocacy, research, and learning mobility. As a best-in-class professional development association, their services continually evolve to meet the needs of their association’s members. With that in mind, AACRAO knew they wanted to strengthen their digital presence. By modernizing their branding and website design, they could better promote their mission, values, and services for years to come.
However, their lack of a clearly defined Scope of Work made it difficult to begin their search for web design services. They knew that updating their old site with a fresh, contemporary redesign would improve the digital experience for their members, staff, and visitors alike. But they also wanted the redesign to incorporate ideas that would better meet the diverse needs of their members.
AACRAO knew that issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) would be the ideal way to attract innovative firms to compete for their website redesign project. However, without any Scope of Work, creating and issuing an RFP would be overwhelming.
That’s when they decided to visit The Bid Lab.
The Solution
The Bid Lab initiated the project by bringing stakeholders from AACRAO together for the initial kick-off call. After establishing a meeting schedule and project agendas, The Bid Lab began pinpointing key priorities for the new website.
To better inform their Scope of Work, AACRAO and The Bid Lab realized that they needed to conduct more in-depth stakeholder interviews about the website. By determining common end-user and staff priorities and pain points, AACRAO could then use that information to form the basis of a more specific Scope of Work. This would help establish the required elements for the new website.
The Bid Lab initiated constructive staff-wide meetings with the five divisions of AACRAO. These interviews, along with a few quantitative surveys, provided valuable insights and perspectives into what the project needed to include within its Scope of Work. This process identified specific website needs like robust search features, site integrations and tools, databases, event registration and resource libraries. These elements would be included as part of the site redesign and branding refresh.
The Bid Lab produced an overview of stakeholder interviews to guide the development of the Scope of Work. Upon the approval of the final Scope of Work draft by AACRAO, The Bid Lab could finally begin drafting the RFP. Our writers and project manager, along with the team at AACRAO, draft the RFP according to the priorities established in the Scope. We were able to draw on our previous experiences in the industry as well as data from stakeholder interviews to complete and deliver a concise and comprehensive RFP that captured AACRAO’s vision for a new website.
“The Bid Lab’s attention to detail, from conducting insightful interviews to understanding the unique needs of our members and users, made the experience both enjoyable and productive. Working with them felt like a true partnership, and we are delighted with how they helped us develop an RFP that aligns with AACRAO’s vision.”
– Joseph Beam, Director, Marketing & Communication, , The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers
The Results of the Engagement
With a completed Scope of Work, The Bid Lab assisted AACRAO with the development of their redesign RFP. AACRAO was able to issue the RFP and Scope of Work on time.
Additionally, The Bid Lab amplified the exposure to qualified vendors by posting the RFP to our various outreach channels. These included social media platforms, our company newsletter, and the user-friendly RFP database Bid Banana (here’s the bid!). AACRAO was highly satisfied with the structured approach and attention to detail that The Bid Lab provided throughout the project.
As for The Bid Lab, we are looking forward to visiting their brand-new website once the redesign project is completed.
Need a Scope of Work Like AACRAO? The Bid Lab Can Help!
Does your solicitation seem unfocused? Are you struggling to describe your organization’s needs? Worry no more! The Bid Lab can help your organization clarify and draft a Scope of Work. You’ll be swimming in vendor responses before you know it. So, if you’re ready to discover how we can help you stick to your procurement timeline, feel free to reach out! The Bid Lab is always available for a free consultation. Learn more by calling 1-844-4BIDLAB or emailing respond@thebidlab.com.
