Choose and manage capable IT vendors with our IT Vendor Selection Procedure. The IT vendor management procedure provides methods for determining, documenting and inspecting vendors for compliance with your company’s policies and purchase/lease requirements.

It also ensures vendor performance capabilities are sufficient to meet IT requirements. The IT Vendor Selection Procedure applies to all potential and current vendors of IT products and services. (20 pages, 3841 words)

IT Vendor Management Responsibilities:

The Information Technology Asset Manager is responsible for initial Information Technology vendor identification and collecting information regarding potential vendors. The Information Technology Asset Manager is also responsible for maintaining vendor performance data for ongoing evaluations. They should list a number of qualified vendors and submit the list to Finance for its review.

Information Technology Managers are responsible for final review and approval of new Information Technology vendors, as well as maintaining a file on current vendors. Finance should request and evaluate financial information from vendors identified by the Information Technology Asset Manager.

Financial Management is responsible for evaluating potential vendors’ financial information and for final vendor approval.

Quality Management is responsible for evaluating vendors’ quality systems, where appropriate, and for reporting vendor quality performance on a regular basis.

IT Vendor Management Definitions:

Request For Proposal (RFP) – A document that an enterprise sends to a vendor, inviting the vendor to submit a bid for hardware, software, services, or any combination of the three. An organization will typically issue several RFPs to obtain and evaluate competing bids.

Service Level Agreement (SLA) – Contract between a service provider and an end user, stipulating and committing the provider to a required level of service. An SLA typically includes such features as support options, enforcement or penalty provisions for services not rendered, guaranteed system performance levels related to uptime/downtime, specific levels of customer support, what software or hardware will be provided, and product (and/or service) fees.

IT Vendor Selection Procedure Activities

IT Vendor Evaluation
Request for Proposal
IT Vendor Selection
IT Vendor Review
IT Vendor Files

IT Vendor Selection Procedure References

ISO 9001:2008 Standard- Quality Management Systems Requirements, Clauses 6.1 (Provision of Resources), 6.2.2(Competence, Awareness, and Training), 7.5.1 (Control of Production and Service Provision), and 7.5.3 (Identification and Traceablility)
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002