Fifth Step in a Software Evaluation and Selection Project – Distribute RFPs and Score Responses

 

The blog on November 17 discussed the first step that should be undertaken whenever evaluating and selecting an HR system. Once you have defined project resources and initiated the project, the second step involves strategic planning and this was posted on November 24. Once the strategic planning phase takes place, it’s time to develop requirements. This third step was posted on December 4 about developing those requirements. The fourth step, Identify Vendors, was posted on December 18. Now it is time to Distribute RFPs (or RFIs) and then subsequently score the responses that you receive from the vendors.

 

All RFP responses from the vendors must be read and evaluated (typically taking 2-3 hours for each Core Project Team member to read and score each response).  For this reason your RFP listing should normally be kept to less than 8 vendors.  From the evaluation of the RFPs, a vendor short list should be developed since it is advisable only to request a maximum of 4 vendors to demonstrate their software. 

 

If you have a consultant retained, you should also consider having them read all RFP submissions and provide any additional information that they know about the vendor’s product or service.  This consultant can also identify areas of concern based on the responses.  Once all the RFPs have been scored (a scoring template should be developed for the RFP review sessions), the Core Project Team should revisit the decision drivers, develop a recommended “vendor short list” and confer with the Steering Committee and other key process owners (to assure buy-in and answer any questions).  The Core Project Team should then begin scheduling the demonstrations with the vendors based on project team and vendor availability.

 

 

Next up…Developing Demonstration Scripts as part of an evaluation

  

Solving a piece of the puzzle…

 

Matt Lafata, HRchitect