Part 3: Thorough Documentation
Once the vendor evaluation has begun, appropriate documentation keeps the process on track. While this may sound simple, the large volume of information you’ll collect can make it difficult to keep track of your priorities along the way.
Throughout the process, it’s important to ensure that your team’s documentation is organized in a centralized place. V2 has found success with a customizable suite of reusable templates developed to make evaluations more efficient. Identifying and preparing documents before an evaluation period will save time and reduce the effort during the journey.
Documentation Ideas To Consider
- Consider creating form letters for communications with vendors and stakeholders at the various phases of an evaluation including introductions, invitations, and dismissals.
- Build a matrix of requirements from your initial stakeholder discussions to highlight priorities and measure vendor performance against.
- Issue scorecards and evaluation forms/surveys to your stakeholders in order to standardize feedback and make the aggregation process easier as you collect data for a final decision.
- Determine the format of your final recommendation document so that you can incorporate information from each phase of the evaluation as it becomes available.
Limit the amount of administrative overhead that needs to occur during the evaluation by preparing your resources beforehand. That way once you’ve started the journey, you’ll be able to focus on the results and not the logistics.
While there is no accounting for every scenario, by taking these steps to prepare for a vendor evaluation, you set your organization up for success in selecting a vendor that is the best fit for your business.
Reduce the Impact of Unexpected Hurdles
- Identify your stakeholders and their priorities early to eliminate potential conflict later in the evaluation.
- Structure your evaluation and define vendor qualifications to quickly zero in on the most important factors for determining the right fit.
- Prepare your communication and output formats in advance to streamline the entire process. This will make coming to a decision that much easier and allow you to capture all of the necessary data points to support that decision.
Your time is valuable and internal teams don’t always have the bandwidth to lead their own vendor evaluations. Sometimes the first step in an evaluation is to call upon those with the expertise to make sure the process runs smoothly. V2 has a proven track record of managing vendor evaluations for clients and can help alleviate months of preparation.
Check out parts 1 and 2 of our series Identify Your Key Stakeholders and Define Your Results.
Contact Us today to discuss how the expert team at V2 can help your team make the right vendor choice!
