What a campus mailroom RFP actually needs

An RFP is not a wishlist; it's a contract scaffold. The first job of a campus parcel locker RFP is to make vendor responses comparable. The second is to surface the things vendors prefer not to discuss in a demo.

Start with a clear scope of work that names the buildings, the expected weekly package volume, and the deployment style (centralized hub, distributed, outdoor, hybrid). Vendors should not be guessing your footprint.

Spell out integration requirements explicitly: which SIS, which SSO, which carriers, which optional systems (LMS, ILS, POS). Vendors who hedge here will hedge later.

Require a data and security section. Ask for SOC 2 alignment, FERPA posture, data residency, encryption posture, and incident response SLAs. If a vendor cannot describe these crisply, that's the answer.

Pricing should ask for per-door cost by size class, install, software, training, and ongoing support — separately. Bundled pricing prevents apples-to-apples comparison.

Finally, require an SLA: uptime, response time, replacement time for failed compartments. A locker that doesn't open is worse than no locker.