The Colorado Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel (OADC)
- Client: The Colorado Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel (OADC)
- Service: Bid Builder
- Industry: Legal
- Location: Denver, Colorado
Company Bio: The Colorado OADC (link) is funded to provide representation for indigent persons in criminal and juvenile delinquency cases in which the Public Defender’s Office determines that an ethical conflict of interest exists. The mission of the OADC, through holistic public defense, is to help adults and children who have been charged with criminal and delinquent offenses by the government. The OADC’s holistic practice model fosters ethical, informed, and standard-driven best practices in public defense. The OADC allocates resources intentionally designed to rebalance the disparate power wielded by the government in the criminal legal system.
“Thank you for shepherding us through the website bid process with the patience of a saint and the organizational skills of a military logistics officer. Your expertise helped us avoid countless potential pitfalls, and your documents are things of beauty. I particularly appreciated how you managed to wrangle all these cats with grace and patience! Thanks to your guidance, we now have a clear path forward and a great partner selected. We couldn’t have done this without you!“
– Lindy Frolich, The Colorado Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel (OADC)
OADC Overview
- Collaborated with both stakeholders and system end users to develop the Scope of Work
- Developed scorecards for the evaluation process and generated a vendor evaluation report
- Drafted, managed, and evaluated Request For Information (RFI) vendor responses
- Helped define budget and pricing for the Request for Proposal (RFP)
- Managed pre-proposal processes along with vendor Q&A
- Organized and attended vendor presentations for shortlisted vendors
- Guided vendor selection process
The Challenge
Development for the Colorado OADC’s new custom software solution, procured successfully by The Bid Lab, was just on the horizon. However, the OADC slowly began to realize that they would likely need a modern, fresh website as well. Goals for their website included strengthening their organization’s brand, organizing content, making information more accessible for contractors and the general public, and developing better ways to facilitate stakeholder interaction. This new website needed to anticipate upcoming software integrations. Stakeholders also recognized an opportunity to update the look and feel of their organization’s online presence. In other words, the site needed a flexible, modern redesign.
However, the organization was unfamiliar with the Scope of Work necessary to hire a website designer. Their previous long-time vendor had custom-built and managed their site for nearly a decade. Unfortunately, there was no consistent way to add new features or content to the website.
Those managing the day-to-day website knew what new features they wanted to include. However, they also wanted to ensure that all participating stakeholders could add their input. Excitement grew over this new transition. But how does an organization evaluate and score vendors, let alone budget time, money, and expectations, for such an important project with limited in-house resources?
Luckily, the OADC had already worked with the perfect partner. Now, The Bid Lab would help them launch their next procurement process.
“The Bid Lab knew that transitioning from a long-time vendor was daunting for us. Their understanding of procurement as well as their ability to navigate new technologies and complex business practices made this important project a success. No other team is as easy to work with or as dependable as The Bid Lab. Given that our website is the most public-facing touch point for our organization, this project needed to go smoothly, and The Bid Lab made sure that it did.“
– Lindy Frolich, The Colorado Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel (OADC)
The OADC’s Solution
Our team at The Bid Lab always benefits when we work with repeat clients– and this time, we were delighted to discover a few familiar faces from the Colorado OADC’s previous project!
As the OADC needed help with the Scope of Work and budgeting, we issued a Request for Information (RFI) to qualified vendors, receiving 19 responses from various website development and design firms. Based on these vendor responses and independent research from similar solicitations, The Bid Lab presented the Scope of Work components to the OADC stakeholders. With the input of numerous OADC key stakeholders, we prioritized key elements to include in the final Scope of Work. By determining our priorities and reviewing the RFI results, we could begin making budgetary recommendations to the OADC.
Once we finished our work on the RFP and gained final approval for release, we worked with the OADC to post the bid on the state-designated procurement platform. During the RFP process, The Bid Lab presented in the pre-proposal conference presentation deck and the vendor Q&A process.
The Bid Lab also prepared scorecards for the OADC so the evaluation committee could evaluate prospective vendor proposals. After scoring each proposal, our team presented the results to the evaluation committee for review. The Bid Lab coordinated and hosted presentations and asked the finalists follow-up questions.
Finally, after the OADC and The Bid Lab were ready to close the project, we developed an in-depth project evaluation report, including competitive rankings of the vendor scores, prices, and responses. Ultimately, The Bid Lab guided the onboarding process for the new vendor in terms of navigating financial, insurance, and legal requirements for implementing a new Website design and development partner.
“The Bid Lab’s expertise, professionalism and ability to guide so many different personalities through serious conversations are what sets them apart. Our team enjoyed working with them, and we’re thrilled with the results of this project.”
Daniel Nunez, The Colorado Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel (OADC)
The Results of the Engagement
Over 160 vendors downloaded the solicitation document from the state’s chosen platform alone. Our competitive procurement process resulted in 13 qualified proposals, of which we invited four vendors to the final demonstration round. After careful deliberation and input from the vendor evaluations drafted by The Bid Lab, the OADC successfully procured a brand-new vendor. Not only did we help them choose a new vendor, but the project will finish 25% under budget. Soon, the OADC will have a brand new website to go with their new software– and they didn’t need to break the bank for it.
The OADC came back to The Bid Lab because of the success of our previous engagement. As a result, we knew exactly what our client expected of us, which meant we could deliver quality results even more efficiently than we did in our first project. Consequently, the RFI, pre-proposal conference and Q&A addendum for this second project took 118 fewer hours to launch. That’s a whopping 29% efficiency increase from before– and resulted in just as much success. Whenever the OADC needs us again, we’re happy to step up and help them find quality, experienced vendors for any future endeavors!
The Bid Lab: Double the Bids, Double the Fun
Are you ready to double the number of qualified vendors for your upcoming solicitation process? Need help managing a complicated two-headed snake of a proposal project? Just like we did for the OADC, we can help you manage multiple procurement processes. So, reach out to The Bid Lab for a free consultation today! You can also call us at 1-844-4BIDLAB or email respond@thebidlab.com to learn how we can help you build a competitive bidding process.
In the meantime, check out how we’ve helped others in the legal industry (such as the personal injury attorneys at Napoli Shkolnik) and the Colorado-based Office of Respondent Parents Counsel (ORPC). Other Colorado-area case studies include The Colorado Fund for People with Disabilities and Life From the Summit,
