Certainly. The process begins with an initial sourcing strategy conversation between our business line, our internal client or even our external clients, the procurement officer, and other elements of our organization that are relevant stakeholders.
At that point in time, a needs assessment is done, including a landscape analysis of what the market offers, to determine whether there is a competitive marketplace, or whether it is a specific need that only one supplier could satisfy. As my colleagues mentioned, if it is one supplier, that is challenged internally quite vigorously. It is often in the public's best interest to have an open and competitive procurement. We have seen evidence of a very competitive marketplace from an IT and IT services standpoint.
Once that procurement strategy is established, the procurement then goes through an internal governance framework where it is reviewed. Quite often, our complex enterprise procurements are subject to the open collaborative procurement process, in which we begin with either a request for information, RFI, or an invitation to qualify.
Then, as mentioned previously, we work with those pre-qualified bidders to establish the RFP, and then publish it.
