.png)
Helping a Regional Council Build a Clear, Confident RFP for a Modern Data Platform
A Regional Council was preparing to go to market for a Modern Data Platform, something that would support their core activities and lift their long-term data management, integration, and governance capability. But pressure was building.
Data had been identified as a strategic asset, timelines were tight, and there were concerns that the RFP wasn’t ready to stand up to scrutiny. Internal teams had progressed requirements and completed an ROI process, but gaps remained. Some requirements were ambiguous, and platform-led stakeholders weren’t fully aligned, and there was a real risk that the RFP could lead to biased vendor responses or poor long-term outcomes.
Date: 2025 | Client: Local Government | Sector: Regional Public Sector Organisation
The Challenge.
Our customer needed to improve the quality and clarity of the RFP fast & without delaying their wider programme.
Key challenges included:
-
Pressure to move quickly due to budgeting, planning, and delivery timelines
-
A shortlist from the ROI process, but concerns about robustness and alignment to long-term outcomes
-
An early RFP draft that focused too heavily on product features
-
Limited internal expertise in modern data platforms and data governance
-
Ambiguous requirements that could lead to inconsistent or incomparable vendor proposals
-
The need to remain vendor neutral and defensible in a public-sector procurement environment
If the RFP went live in this state, our customer risked selecting a vendor based on features rather than business outcomes, weakening governance, and creating long-term dependencies they didn’t want
What we did (together).
Cyma stepped in as an independent advisory partner, not writing the RFP for them, but helping them strengthen it, challenge assumptions, and ensure it was fit for purpose.
Working alongside the customer, we:
-
Attended discovery workshops to understand context, priorities, and constraints
-
Reviewed the draft RFP through a business outcome and governance lens
-
Identified gaps, broad statements, and areas needing clarity or reframing
-
Challenged assumptions that carried over from the ROI process
-
Introduced the need for customer-specific demonstration scenarios to reduce vendor bias
-
Recommended a phased selection approach, including discovery/clarification workshops
-
Encouraged open, honest information sharing with vendors so proposals were grounded in reality
We helped our customer separate what they needed to achieve from how vendors might deliver it, removing overprescription and reducing bias.
People who ask the hard questions early
Challenging assumptions and surfacing risks before the RFP went live.
Designed around outcomes, not platforms
Reframing requirements to focus on the customer’s long-term data goals.
A rightsized, advisory approach
Delivering value within budget without taking over the entire RFP.
Better vendor comparability, less confusion
Clearer requirements, defined demo scenarios, and a phased selection process.
The Result.
Our customer moved forward with a clearer, more defensible, and better structured RFP, one that reflected the organisation’s real needs and long-term ambitions.
The work delivered:
-
A strengthened RFP that went live confidently on GETS
-
A scoring and evaluation model aligned to the business’s strategic and operational priorities
-
Vendor demonstration scenarios tailored to real use cases
-
Reduced risk of vendor-led or technology-first decision-making
-
Increased internal confidence that the RFP was “fit for purpose”
Stakeholders had greater clarity on what a modern data platform should achieve and how to set vendors up to succeed.
Why it worked.
Cyma took an advisory role that focused on value, clarity, and practical support, not ownership of the RFP.
Key factors in success included:
-
Asking the hard questions early, preventing late stage rework
-
A collaborative, iterative approach between Cyma and internal customer teams
-
Adapting to the customer’s budget while still delivering meaningful outcomes
-
Challenging thinking on what information vendors needed to do their best work
One leader summed it up well:
“You asked some really good (and hard) initial questions, challenged what we were looking to do, and how this RFP and its content can support us to get there."