Writing and distributing an RFP or RFI is a lot of work, but the even bigger job is reading all of the vendor responses and sitting through all of the questions that the vendors have to ask. RFP/RFI writing is truly only the beginning of the process.

Few people realize just how complicated and tricky the process of vendor response evaluation is. Following are some of the dimensions that need to be considered.

• The decision to choose one vendor or solution over others typically involves millions of dollars, very large budgets, large headcount, as well as intangibles of value and power. This means that the people directly associated with the project tend to be super-sensitive to all aspects of the process and the final decision. For many, their future careers depend on the results.

• Many other people are likely to become  involved simply because they know that he decision will have indirect impacts on them.

• Some groups will be zealots for some aspects of the system:

  • Some will promote one kind of hardware over another

  • Some will promote one software package over another

  • Some will promote one provider over another

  • Some focus on the smallest points

  • Some attempt to maintain an overview perspective

• Participants in the process have different backgrounds and perspectives

  • Some understand the situation better than others

  • Some are more intelligent than others

  • Some are more emotional than others

  • Some have almost no experience or familiarity with the issues and processes

• Participants in the process have different core beliefs and principles

• Some of the participants will obstruct others because they don't like them

With so much at stake, so many variables involved, and so many egos participating it is actually surprising that organization make any decision at all.

It means that the process must be handled systematically, fairly, and rationally, allowing many (if not all) of the participants to feel that they contributed to the final decision.

TTA has developed the TTA-QuickEvaluate© Methodology to provide you with a framework for meeting the needs of everyone participating in the Vendor evaluation process.