Supplier Selection

Supplier Selection
Checklist

Version 1.0, Issued February 2002

Supplier Selection Checklist

Supplier Selection

Contents
1.

INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................................................... 3

2.

SUPPLIER STATUS ................................................................................................................................................................. 4

2.1.
EMPLOYEES ..........................................................................................................................................................................4
2.2.
GEOGRAPHY .........................................................................................................................................................................4
2.3.
CREDIBILITY.........................................................................................................................................................................4
2.3.1. Reputation in the Market ............................................................................................................................................. 4
2.3.2. Reference Clients........................................................................................................................................................... 4
2.3.3. Partners........................................................................................................................................................................... 4
2.3.4. Strategic Direction........................................................................................................................................................ 5
2.3.5. Existing Relationship .................................................................................................................................................... 5

3.

DELIVERY CAPABILITY..................................................................................................................................................... 5
3.1.
3.2.
3.3.
3.4.
3.5.

4.

PROCESSES ............................................................................................................................................................................... 6
4.1.
4.2.
4.3.

5.

PROFESSIONALISM ...............................................................................................................................................................8
FLEXIBILITY & COMMITMENT ...........................................................................................................................................8
OPEN /FRIENDLY ..................................................................................................................................................................8
INTEGRITY ............................................................................................................................................................................8
UNDERSTANDING YOUR BUSINESS GOALS......................................................................................................................8
PROACTIVE ...........................................................................................................................................................................8
UNDERSTANDS BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT .......................................................................................................................8
INNOVATIVE .........................................................................................................................................................................9

FINANCIAL/COMMERCIAL............................................................................................................................................... 9
7.1.
7.2.
7.3.
7.4.
7.5.
7.6.
7.7.

8.

INFRASTRUCTURE ................................................................................................................................................................7
DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT .........................................................................................................................................7
SECURITY..............................................................................................................................................................................7

SUPPLIER CULTURE............................................................................................................................................................. 8
6.1.
6.2.
6.3.
6.4.
6.5.
6.6.
6.7.
6.8.

7.

PROJECT M ANAGEMENT .....................................................................................................................................................6

A CCOUNT M ANAGEMENT ..................................................................................................................................................6
DESIGN / BUILD .....................................................................................................................................................................7

TECHNICAL STATUS ............................................................................................................................................................ 7

5.1.
5.2.
5.3.

6.

SERVICES...............................................................................................................................................................................5
QUALITY OF DELIVERABLES..............................................................................................................................................5
RESOURCES ...........................................................................................................................................................................5
GEOGRAPHY .........................................................................................................................................................................5
CUSTOMER INTERFACE .......................................................................................................................................................6

SUSTAINABILITY ..................................................................................................................................................................9
OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE/HISTORY ...................................................................................................................................9
CASH FLOW ..........................................................................................................................................................................9
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY .................................................................................................................................................9
NON-DISCLOSURE ................................................................................................................................................................9
COMPETITIVE PRICING........................................................................................................................................................9
SCHEDULE COMPLIANCE ....................................................................................................................................................9

SUPPORT...................................................................................................................................................................................10
8.1.
8.2.

COSTS ..................................................................................................................................................................................10
A VAILABILITY....................................................................................................................................................................10

APPENDIX 1 TABLE OF SCORES .........................................................................................................................................11

APPENDIX 2 SPIDER DIAGRAM OF SCORES ................................................................................................................12

Supplier Selection Checklist

Supplier Selection

1. Introduction
It is useful when selecting a supplier to have a checklist with which to evaluate the suppliers
suitability. How much of the checklist is used and how thoroughly will depend on your own needs.
However, even a brief review using this checklist may help raise points that could otherwise be
overlooked and become issues later.
This checklist has been designed primarily for suppliers that offer IT development services e.g.

Consultancy

Application design
Software development & implementation

It also has relevance to

Services

Software support

Application hosting

IT product suppliers

IT services (running infrastructure)

but is not targeted for these suppliers.

Remember that this checklist is primarily for use as an aide-memoir and is not designed to be an
exhaustive list of all possible issues to consider.
The format of this checklist has been designed to provide a simple list of issues for you to consider.
A tabular and diagrammatic format is provided at the end of this document.

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2. Supplier Status
2.1. Employees
How many are there?

Where are they based?

Are any of them critical?

2.2. Geography

How widespread are the offices? (Head Office, Local, National, Regional, Global)
What is the nature of the offices? (Sales, Development, Implementation, Support)

2.3. Credibility
This is a key area addressed by the sections below.
2.3.1. Reputation in the Market
Consider things like: -

White paper publication

Involvement in industry bodies

Public seminars

Main competitors
Identification of industry trends

Use can be made of consultants like Gartner and Giga

2.3.2. Reference Clients

Who have they worked with before on similar projects?

In particular, explore work with other parts of your business

Talk to these clients

Are there other clients that they don't quote as references?

Have they done any work for your competitors?

2.3.3. Partners
What is the quality and range of their formal partnerships? If this is weak do they have an informal
network that can be called upon to provide additional or specialist resources?

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2.3.4. Strategic Direction

Is it appropriate or necessary to develop a long-term relationship with this supplier? If so, do they
have the vision to innovate in the way you would like?

2.3.5. Existing Relationship

Is there an existing relationship with the supplier?

Who are the account managers? (from both sides)

What work has been done? (treat this as a critical reference client)

What are the terms and period for any co-operation?

3. Delivery Capability
3.1. Services
Can the supplier provide the complete range of services required for completing the project? - E.g.

Technical - software design, implementation and documentation?

Typical implementation time for this scale of project?

Project Management?

Support?

Graphic Design?

Application Hosting?

Design Creativity?

3.2. Quality of Deliverables

Can they produce evidence of good quality work?

Does it comply with their standards?

3.3. Resources

Are there enough to execute the work?

Is it clear what dependence there is on key individuals?

Is there contingency in the resource planning?

Would they be able to deal with the unexpected?

Are specific, named, resources allocated?

3.4. Geography

Is there an appropriate geographical presence to execute the project?

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3.5. Customer Interface

Is there a suitable customer interfaces for the project? E.g.

Account Management

Technology Consultant

Business Consultant

4. Processes

Do they have robust, repeatable, measurable processes for creating their deliverables?

Are they formally certified (e.g. ISO9000)?

Are project tracking & reporting procedures in place?

Processes should cover: -

Documentation
Project Team Communications

4.1. Project Management

Do they recognise the proposed work as a project?

How do they carry out Project management?

Is there: -

A formal methodology?
Resource management within projects?
Project tracking and progress reporting procedures?
Change management & control processes?

Do they fit with your own project control procedures, or can they be modified to do so?

4.2. Account Management

How is the relationship managed outside the context of specific projects, e.g. where a long term
partnership exists or is proposed.

How are projects planned within a portfolio?

How do you take advantage of economies of scale across projects?

How do you ensure reuse of technology 'components'? (Library Management)

What complaints/problem escalation procedures exist?

How willing are they to invest in a long-term relationship?

Is there a user group? Is it independent?

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4.3. Design/Build

Are there formal processes?

Do they have standards e.g. SSADM, RAD, DSDM, JAD etc?

Do we understand the methodology that they will use?

Do you have the capability to interpret and sign off the design documents that they will
create?

5. Technical Status
5.1. Infrastructure

Do they have the necessary technical infrastructure to develop the application?

Is there portability across operating systems, hardware etc?

Are the system management tools used in support industry standard?

Can they test in an environment compatible to yours?

5.2. Development Environment

Do they use appropriate standard or proprietary tools?

Will the output be supportable at reasonable cost?

How productive are they? (proprietary tools may be of value here)

Do they provide the ability to review progress on-line, securely

Is their documentation, clear enough for hand-over to others?

Will it generate re-usable modules for them and for your developers?

Under some circumstances the supplier's use of your standard development tools may also be
important. Consider the ability (capability, security) of the supplier to remotely access your
networks to speed delivery.

5.3. Security
Is their environment secure to the level required by the application and its content?

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6. Supplier Culture
6.1. Professionalism
What constitutes 'Professionalism' depends on the business environment and may need to be
judged by other people in the same field ('fellow professionals'/domain experts).

6.2. Flexibility & Commitment

How well will they handle schedule upsets, changes to requirements etc? This may be best judged
in informal discussion and by checks with reference clients.

6.3. Open/Friendly

How honest are they about problems faced & overcome?

Are they suitably discrete about their other clients?

Do you feel comfortable with them?

Do they appear to communicate openly and freely internally?

6.4. Integrity

Do they stand by their offerings?

Are they consistent in what they say:: -

during trade-off negotiations? (e.g. if budgets are limited)

about their capabilities?

Are they happy to be technically/financially audited if necessary?

6.5. Understanding Your Business Goals

Does the supplier really understand why you want to do this project, from a Business
perspective?

6.6. Proactive

Do they offer sensible & appropriate advice on potential solutions?

6.7. Understands Business Environment

Are they willing to work with other 3rd Party development environments and yours?

Where relevant, the supplier should understand multilingual requirements for content
delivery and its impact on maintenance complexity.

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6.8. Innovative

Look for an approach that is imaginative, flexible, and problem solving driven.

7. Financial/Commercial
7.1. Sustainability

Will they exist for the length of time we need them?

7.2. Ownership Structure/History

How new are they?

Services such as Dun & Bradstreet can help in this assessment.

Who owns them?

7.3. Cash Flow

Will they go broke during the project/product lifecycle?

Can be tested by checking whether they can accept payment at the end of the project.

7.4. Intellectual Property

Is there a clear agreement about the ownership of any deliverables?

7.5. Non-Disclosure

Is an appropriate security agreement in place to protect yours and the Supplier's

interests?

7.6. Competitive Pricing

Consider daily rates, and how these may vary.

Headline rates are not the whole story - consider ability to execute.

Trade off fixed price against time & materials.

Consider balance between cost, time & quality.

7.7. Schedule Compliance

Do they have the ability to execute within the project time-scales.

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8. Support

Decide what support will be required from the supplier, if any.

What will the user helpdesk role be?

Will the solution be created in a way that permits others (e.g. internal support functions)
to support it?

Is there a standard SLA with various levels of service?

8.1. Costs
Fixed (annual Contract).

Variable (per call, per hour).

8.2. Availability

Work hours (for international support time zones)

Holidays

Help desk functions - who, how, where

Do they have proper call management processes?

Are the escalation procedures clear?

Response times

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Supplier Selection

Appendix 1 Table of Scores

#

Description

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Supplier Status
Delivery Capability
Processes
Technical Status
Supplier Culture
Financial/Commercial
Support

Comment

Score
(1-10)

Pass
(Y/N)

Total:

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Supplier Selection

Appendix 2 Spider Diagram of Scores

1. Supplier Status

8. Other
2. Delivery Capability

7. Support

3. Processes

4. Technical Status
6. Financial/Commercial
5. Supplier Culture

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