Request For Information (RFI) Overview

Architectural, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) firms can use the Request For Information (RFI) feature to document questions and responses from project team members. Although the Journals feature can also be used for submitting questions, the RFI feature is typically used for more important requests that require review which may or may not impact the schedule or budget. An example RFI would be a contractor emailing the architect a question about the interpretation of a construction drawing detail or a note in the specifications. This email would include a hyperlink to Corecon's TeamLink Portal allowing the external team member to respond in a secure manner.

Company References Within RFI Form

A Company can be referenced in three (3) areas within the RFI form: Originator, Coordinator and Respondent.

• Originator: Company that initiates the question.
• Coordinator: Typically, your firm will be referenced here.
• Respondent: The company that is responsible for answering the question. In some cases, there could be multiple respondents.

The table below provides example company references based on different user perspectives.

Steps To Complete Before Entering RFIs

1. Make sure all Companies that will be referenced in the RFI are in the Project Leads Directory or Project Directory .
2. Optional: Review the options list for RFI Types, Reasons, and Priority. All three can be used for filtering or sorting records.

RFI Functions

• Adding An RFI
• Edit An RFI
• Emailing an RFI to a Respondent(s)
• Printing an RFI for a Respondent(s)
• Email Open Items to External Team Members
• Emailing the RFI Response to the Originator
• Printing the RFI Response for the Originator

RFI Responses - Important Things To Know

• Emailing an RFI to the Respondent will include a hyperlink allowing the recipient to comment online via the TeamLink Portal. This is the preferred method as opposed to printing an RFI. The Coordinator Contact will get an alert when a response has been posted in the portal.
• Response workflow can be enabled to send emails to respondents sequentially or all at once (aka Parallel).
  • Sequential: An email alert would be sent automatically to the next respondent after comments have been entered in the TeamLink Portal by the current respondent. However, this would require 'Auto Notify Respondents' to be checked.
  • Parallel: Email response requests will be sent to all respondents at once.
• Responses that were sent via email and not through the portal will need to be moved from the Email Module's Inbox feature and be re-associated with the original RFI.
• After receiving the response be sure to mark the RFI Closed by clicking the pencil icon next to 'Requiest For Information (RFI) Details' shown at the top. This way only open items will appear in the Correspondence Calendar and Alerts view.
• The 'Create Follow Up RFI' button shown at the top can create another RFI which would also link the two records.