How Do You Find Potential Vendors?

bas says : Just curious, if you are going into an Request For Proposal process (RFP) what sources do you use to create a list of the vendors you want to approach? Word of month? The internet?

And what are your criteria to select the ones that you are actually going to write to?

Bernard says : I've never been in a position to where I needed to go through an RFP process to buy software. However, it seems to me that from what I see, the majority of software buyers do not spend enough time focusing on what their needs are and then searching for a solution that best addresses those needs.

salcorp says : I think the first step would definetly be the Internet. You could easily get deep into the specifics and mechanics of how to bring your requirements to life that you would be at least aware of what exists out there.
Next, with that info you could ask for the 2 cents of people you know can give you valueable input and not being forced to nod every time you hear something you are not acquainted to.

ross_valusoft says :

salcorp>I think the first step would definetly be the Internet. You could easily get deep into the specifics and mechanics of how to bring your requirements to life that you would be at least aware of what exists out there.
Next, with that info you could ask for the 2 cents of people you know can give you valueable input and not being forced to nod every time you hear something you are not acquainted to.

I agree that asking your peers (eg industry associations) can give you some pointers. Their industry magazines are also another good source. But be careful who you ask...competitors might be happy to point you to a bad product so that they have an advantage over you. To avoid this potential problem, you could hire a consultant to do the leg work and asking for you while your identity is kept secret.

Ross

salcorp says : That is so true....

nowadays I´m doing one of my clients a RPF for a Document Management Software exactly because they ran into some trouble when doing it themselves.
Basically because they are a big and well-know company, prices were unrealistic and you could feel the blood being sucked from them.

clifford.lobo says : I cant understand how can the internet help you in specific cases, most of the requirements that are required in the RFI are client or requirement specific and though this should be more of internal rather than trying to search for somehing specific and generic that is avilable on sources like magazines and internet. Lets say in general cases, this should help but when we are tracking some specific requirements, it would not be realistic to hook up something that is generic

Clifford.

bas says : I used to work for a large publisher, and did the software selection for an advertising sales management system. A very specific niche. I used the internet succesfully to locate some vendors, and used an industry portal to locate some more. So it can be done. However, this was for the long list, and initial selection was done based upon installed base, general functionality and how long they are in the biz.

Bas