Vendor management

Define requirements before looking at options

Written before any demo: what the vendor must do, the volume and service level required, what must integrate with what, and the constraints that are genuinely non-negotiable.

Requirements written after seeing a product describe that product. This is the most common way selections are decided before they are run.

Separate must-have from nice-to-have and weight them in advance. Weighting after scoring is how a preferred vendor wins a process designed to be objective.

Evaluating