New Supplier Relationship – Defining Your Requirements

In the requirements you document for your prospective suppliers, it’s really important to communicate to them what outcomes and objectives you need to achieve organisationally, as a result of the service/solution you anticipate procuring from them.

In other words, explain that once you have implemented the service/solution and it is running successfully, what your organisation can now achieve that it couldn’t achieve prior to the successful implementation?

Articulate this in terms of time-frames, a spectrum of percentage improvements expected across each service/solution area and so forth. Quantify these objectives as best you can as it helps prospective suppliers understand the degree to which you have carefully considered your expectations and how you will measure them.

It is also helpful for prospective suppliers to get visibility of appropriate parts of your business case, visibility of the end-to-end anticipated procurement process, positive consequences of the solution being fit for its intended purpose and the negative consequences if the service/solution is found wanting.

In overview terms, the ‘holistic’ approach to documenting your requirements is to assure your prospective suppliers are appropriately informed and can contextualise their responses appropriately, the key aspects to include (more details in the specific bullets on this webpage), are:

• A ‘holistic’ executive view of how your organisation operates and your plans and objectives for the future
• Why you think you need to implement the solution service being procured
• An outline of the end-to-end procurement process itself so that the prospective suppliers fully understand the approach you are taking and why
• The business objectives your organisation wants to achieve, ideally as fully quantified as possible
• Example ‘Use Cases’ (business process operational flows)
• The negative impact of the solution procured on the organisation, if the solution/service is not fit for its intended purpose
• The prospective supplier selection process and what evidence the supplier can provide you with that will improve their chances of winning the bid
• How you will manage the performance of the supplier.

A clear and articulated explanation to the prospective supplier of why your organisation has decided to replace aspects of its service delivery and/or solution and how you came to that decision.

A full outline of the process including milestones, the client team involved, the contracting strategy and benefits realisation process.

There is a clear organisational vision documented that outlines what hurdles the organisation will overcome and the objectives it will achieve once the service delivery is in place.

The objectives to be achieved clearly state what the objective is, how they align to the overall business outcome, when the objective needs to be achieved by and what degree of improvement is expected.

There are specific use cases that explain what the key current operational processes are and where the client sees opportunity for improving on those processes to achieve its ‘Future State’.

A clear understanding of the operational and financial impact on the organisation/objective if the requirement is not fully achieved to the level, investment and time scale expected.

A clear, fair and equitable process to compare each supplier’s bid against the quantified business objectives expected on a like for like basis.

How the client will use SMART KPIs to monitor the speed and effectiveness of the supplier’s solution achieving the expected business outcomes.

Observe participant’s behavior; encourage engagement; assure procurement compliance; assure supplier remains accountable for solution fitness for purpose.​

Assures system requirements; clarifies user operating scenarios (use cases); offers up ‘the art of the possible’.​

Puts people at ease; asks very insightful questions of participants; participants feel their contribution is critical.​