Procurement is the engine that keeps organizations running. Yet for many, the Request for Proposal (RFP) process remains painfully slow, frustratingly complex, and riddled with avoidable errors.

For suppliers, it’s a daunting uphill task just to compete. For buyers, sourcing the right fit often feels more like navigating a maze than making a strategic decision. There are endless forms to fill, duplicate documents to manage, confusing formats to decipher, and tight deadlines to meet. What should be a collaborative and valuable process turns into an exhausting bureaucratic grind.

At Scale, we’ve immersed ourselves in this problem—reviewing hundreds of RFPs, supporting thousands of suppliers, and collaborating closely with procurement teams. We’ve seen the challenges up close. More importantly, we’ve built solutions to fix them.

Because when we asked around, the feedback was loud and clear.

• Procurement officers told us that evaluating RFPs is the worst part of their job.
• Suppliers said it takes a whole team just to make sure they don’t miss a checkbox.

So we went back to the drawing board. At Scale, we’ve redesigned the RFP experience—making it faster, smarter, and more human.

Procurement should be strategic. The RFP process should be seamless. We’re here to make both a reality.

😩 What’s Broken in the Current RFP Process?

1. Suppliers Are Forced to Start from Scratch—Every Time

   • Many suppliers keep folders titled “RFP Hell” because every time a new tender drops, they have to scramble to recompile documents they already submitted just last month.
   • ✅ Scale’s Fix: Supplier profile once. Auto-filled for all future RFPs. No more repeating yourself.

2. Manual Forms Create Room for Disqualification

   • Procurement officers frequently disqualify suppliers not because they’re unqualified—but because one form was missing or unsigned. Suppliers have lost entire bids after forgetting to attach just one document, even after weeks of preparation.
   • ✅ Scale’s Fix: All forms are built into the platform. Just select, check, or sign digitally. No disqualifications for technicalities.

3. Evaluation Takes Days—Even Weeks

   • Procurement officers often open over 30 attachments per tender, validate 10 documents per supplier, and then prepare manual summaries—while juggling other tenders. It’s overwhelming and inefficient.
   • ✅ Scale’s Fix: Built-in validations ensure complete submissions. Buyer dashboards organize everything for fast, clean evaluations.

4. Every Tender Feels Like a New System

   • Some RFPs come in Word, others in Excel, and some as poorly scanned forms. Instructions are often unclear and hard to follow, making suppliers second-guess their responses every time.
   • ✅ Scale’s Fix: Standardized templates tailored by sector. Clear instructions. No confusion.

5. No Visibility into Supplier History or Trends

   • Even after working with the same suppliers for years, many buyers have no organized view of their performance over time.
   • ✅ Scale’s Fix: Bid tracking, submission history, and performance data—all in one place.

6. Smaller Suppliers Get Left Behind

   • Some youth-led and women-owned businesses have to travel multiple times to a cybercafé just to submit a single RFP. For many, that’s half a week lost and one too many barriers to access.
   • ✅ Scale’s Fix: Mobile-first, low-cost, inclusive. Everyone gets a fair shot.

🚨 Introducing Scale’s New RFP Feature

  We’ve taken everything we’ve learned and built a powerful new RFP feature on Scale that’s already transforming how organizations across Africa run procurement:

• 🔄 Auto-fill forms using saved supplier profiles
• 📋 Digitize all required documents and declarations
• ⚖️ Structure every RFP for faster, fairer evaluations
• 📁 Track bid history, submissions, and compliance records
• 📱 Mobile-ready for low-tech, real-world environments

Whether you’re a buyer managing multiple tenders or a supplier juggling bids, Scale’s new RFP feature helps you move faster—with less stress.

📊 What Buyers & Suppliers Are Experiencing with Scale

Procurement teams are reducing manual processing time by up to 80%, with evaluations now starting on Day 1 instead of days later. No more delays caused by document sorting or eligibility checks.

Suppliers are submitting multiple bids within minutes—thanks to centralized profiles, document reuse, and guided submission workflows. It’s faster, easier, and more efficient than ever before.

🌍 Built for Africa’s Procurement Realities

Scale is designed for the real-world challenges faced by African procurement ecosystems:

• 🧾 Complex regulations? We simplify them.
• 🧵 Disconnected supplier networks? We unify them.
• 📱 Low-tech environments? We work on mobile, and anywhere in between.

🚀 Let’s Make Procurement Human Again

We’ve talked to the overworked procurement officers. We’ve sat with the frustrated suppliers. We’ve read the tangled tenders.

We built Scale to change the story.

👉 Experience the new RFP feature now →