Product Selection Research

A $12.3b talent management firm launched a $14m multi-year transformation program to centralize their back office structure across nine different operating companies. As part of this journey, I assisted the client with vendor selection for their core initiatives.

RFI Evaluation Models

Summary

Over the course of a year, I designed the evaluation tools for the request for information (RFI), request for proposal (RFP), vendor demonstrations, and vendor negotiations. The scope of this project was largest I have ever seen in a product selection, covering not only contract-to-cash, but procure-to-pay, record-to-report, and hire-to-retire as well.

The broad scope of the engagement necessitated a highly cross-functional team. I worked closely with finance, technology, and HR professionals to put together high-quality deliverables for six vendors. We assembled a selection committee and faciliated numerous workshops to gather feedback at each step of the way, including four weeks of demonstrations and debriefs. The questionnaires and meeting notes were consolidated into reports that enhanced a painstakingly detailed scorecard analysis.

RFP Evaluation Metrics

Challenges

I faced two problems. First, the client was highly fragmented and decentralized across many multinational operating companies, requiring a heavy reliance on consensus decision-making to move everyone forward together. Even on our contracted project team, resources were pulled in from all over the firm across multiple specialties leading to an unclear chain of command. As a result, I struggled with the constant scope changes, closed door conversations, and unrelenting back and forth. In fact, I have counted 140 separate version of this scorecard model on my hard drive.

The second was the technical prowess many of these new scope changes demanded. There were vast amounts of data cleansing in processing vendor information, preparation in analyzing survey results, and translation in mapping many-to-many relationships (9 Level 1 processes to 37 Level 2 processes to 204 Level 3 processes to 28 components!)

RFP Evaluation Scorecard reports

Solutions

On the soft skills side, I learned that I needed to understand each individual's working style and motivation in order to navigate discussions without getting overwhelmed. By listening, paying attention, and empathizing, I found that driving progress required me to sense when I needed to assert myself and when more careful persuasion was required.

The RFP our team developed was considered to be the best and most detailed example that both the client and Gartner's representatives had seen. Additionally, my RFP response evaluation scorecard received positive feedback for its extreme complexity and customization (which incorporated scores from a team of 18 in 250 categories and 300+ settings for 6 vendors) as well as the simplicity of its executive level reporting. Upon seeing the scorecard, even stakeholders outside the program asked for a template to tailor for their own use. By using this data in client conversations, our team was able to guide the client to the pricing and negotiations phase.