Getting the Most From Your RFP Response Evaluations
Save time and select the best possible vendor with a consistent, fair, and unbiased RFP response evaluation.
- Evaluating vendor responses to RFP proposals requires an objective, quantitative approach.
- Maintaining an equal, level, and unbiased evaluation process is essential to ensuring accurate vendor response evaluation and negotiation leverage.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Many evaluation teams do not allocate sufficient governance and time to effectively evaluate vendor RFP responses.
- Vendor RFP responses are challenging and frustrating to evaluate due to their inconsistency in format, worksheets, and outline.
- Investing the energy, time, and resources during the creation of your RFP will reduce the amount of time required to review vendors’ responses during the evaluation process. Having precise and meaningful requirements for the vendors to provide a simplistic response is best.
Impact and Result
- Create and format your RFP to control the vendors’ responses to enable effective and timely evaluation of the offer.
- Deploy a quantitative evaluation process that removes as much bias as possible.
- Ensure the evaluation team can reserve sufficient time on their calendars to prevent a rushed review of the vendors' responses.
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 2-phase advisory process. You'll receive 2 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
Guided Implementation 1: Prepare the RFP and the Evaluation Team to Evaluate Vendors’ Responses
- Call 1: Discuss and review the construction of the RFP so it matches the pricing and evaluation guide tools.
Guided Implementation 2: Evaluate and Score RFP Responses
- Call 1: Review the scoring documents and discuss how to provide RFP response feedback to the evaluation team.
Contributors
- Kirk Jaeckel, Global Manager Indirect Procurement, IT Hardware, Telecom, Network Infrastructure Services, Clarios
- Perry Sculley, Director Financial Operations, Visionworks of America
- 9 anonymous contributors
Looking at Risk in a New Light: The Six Pillars of Vendor Risk Management
Manage Exponential Value Relationships
Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative
Capture and Market the ROI of Your VMO
Cut Cost Through Effective IT Category Planning
Design and Build an Effective Contract Lifecycle Management Process
Maximize Value From Your Value-Added Reseller (VAR)
Drive Successful Sourcing Outcomes With a Robust RFP Process
Reduce Risk With Rock-Solid Service-Level Agreements
Slash Spending by Optimizing Your Software Maintenance and Support
Identify and Manage Financial Risk Impacts on Your Organization
Identify and Manage Strategic Risk Impacts on Your Organization
Identify and Manage Reputational Risk Impacts on Your Organization
Identify and Manage Security Risk Impacts on Your Organization
Evaluate Your Vendor Account Team to Optimize Vendor Relations
Elevate Your Vendor Management Initiative
Prepare for Negotiations More Effectively
Implement Your Negotiation Strategy More Effectively
Evaluate and Learn From Your Negotiation Sessions More Effectively
Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk
Master the Public Cloud IaaS Acquisition Models
Essentials of Vendor Management for Small Business
Identify and Manage Regulatory and Compliance Risk Impacts on Your Organization
Identify and Manage Operational Risk Impacts on Your Organization
Don’t Allow Software Licensing to Derail Your M&A
Identify and Reduce Agile Contract Risk
Improve Your Statements of Work to Hold Your Vendors Accountable
Understand Common IT Contract Provisions to Negotiate More Effectively
Master Contract Review and Negotiation for Software Agreements
Master the MSA for Your Managed Services Providers
Negotiate SaaS Agreements That Are Built to Last