Opportunity alert: The Tech Council of Delaware is seeking a consultant

As it heads toward a major turning point, the Tech Council of Delaware is actively seeking consultancy quotes to create a three-year strategic plan and operating budget.

This will be the Tech Council’s first formal strategic plan. The organization was created in 2021 as the Delaware IT Industry Council. It was developed by the Delaware Community Foundation and Rodel as an LLC within Rodel on a three-year incubation period. In the beginning, a landscape analysis document was created by the Delaware Prosperity Partnership.

“We utilize that document as our guiding plan, if you will, to start doing efforts forward through the counsel,” Zakiyyah Ali, executive director of the Tech Council, told Technical.ly.

“So technically, it’s not a strategic plan but was a very seminal and important document at the outset,” she added.

Since officially launching as a membership organization in March 2023, The Tech Council has brought on 33 organizational members comprised of corporate, educational, community and government orgs, plus individual members from across the state.

With the incubation period ending on June 30, the Tech Council needs to have a formal strategic plan in place so it can transition to its post-startup phase.

That said, Ali stressed that it’s not looking for proposals.

“We don’t want anyone to propose anything to us because we know exactly what we want,” Ali said.

Instead, the Tech Council is looking for quotes that show that the applicant is a good fit for the project.

The request for quotes form can be submitted by qualified consultants who can act as an objective third party from anywhere in the United States. Delaware consultants within the Delaware tech ecosystem may be considered if they can be neutral.

There are no set requirements in terms of whether consultants are for-profit or not-for-profit, or how much revenue they have made.

“In essence, we asked quite a few questions on the request for quotes,” Ali said. “We’ll compare and contrast all of the quotes we receive along a rubric.”

A PDF document lays out the Tech Council’s governing structure, history, legal structure and programming.

Interested consultants and firms are encouraged to attend one of three informational sessions in January:

• Info Session #1: Jan. 17, 3-4 p.m.
• Info Session #2: Jan. 23, 2-3 p.m.
• Info Session #3: Jan. 30, 10-11 a,m,