What is an RFI (Request for Information)?
An RFI gathers information about what is possible and who can do it, before any buying decision. How it differs from an RFQ or RFP.
A Request for Information (RFI) is issued before a buying decision, to learn what is available and who can supply it. Nothing is being bought yet.
When an RFI is the right tool
- You are scoping a project and do not yet know what is technically possible
- You need to understand the price band before requesting budget
- You want to know who the credible suppliers are before shortlisting
- The internal specification does not exist yet, and supplier input would improve it
What an RFI should ask for
Capability, relevant experience, indicative approach, and a rough order-of-magnitude cost — clearly labelled as indicative. Asking for a firm price at RFI stage produces numbers that are either padded to be safe or withdrawn later.
What people get wrong
Using an RFI to collect free consulting. Suppliers notice, and the good ones stop responding.
Treating indicative pricing as a quote. It was labelled indicative because it was given without a full specification.
Skipping straight to an RFQ when the requirement is genuinely unclear. You end up with a specification written by whichever supplier answered first.
On Bidancer
A first enquiry can be exactly this — a scoping conversation with a verified business whose capability you can see before you make contact. Because contact details stay private until the business accepts, an exploratory enquiry does not become a call list.
Response score
A measure of whether a business actually responds after accepting an engagement. Why accountability after acceptance is the hard part.
RFQ vs RFP
An RFQ asks for a price on something you have already specified. An RFP asks suppliers how they would solve the problem. Choosing the wrong one wastes everyone's time.