Buyer tool

Vendor Evaluation Checklist

Run this before you speak to any provider, and run it again on the responses. It is deliberately uncomfortable in places, because the expensive mistakes come from the questions nobody asked.

Everything below runs in your browser. Tick items as you go, print the result, or copy it as text into your procurement file.

Expertise and fit Has the provider delivered work of comparable scale, subject matter and audience to ours? Can they evidence the specific capability we are buying, rather than the general area? Do they understand our sector well enough to challenge our brief rather than just accept it? Is the person who will actually work on our programme involved in the pitch?

Scope and approach Have we agreed a written scope covering deliverables, formats, module count and word or minute volumes? Is the design approach explained, not just the build capability? Have they identified where our brief is ambiguous, and told us how they would resolve it? Is the source material we must provide written down, including quality expectations and deadlines?

Quality and evidence Will we see a worked sample of comparable work before committing? Have we agreed a storyboard or prototype sign-off gate before the build phase? What accessibility conformance standard is committed to, and will a conformance report be delivered? Have they explained how the content will be quality-checked, and by whom?

Project management and communication Who is the named project manager, and what is their daily availability? What is the review process, how many rounds are included, and what does each additional round cost? How are decisions and sign-offs recorded, and what happens if a stakeholder is unavailable? Have they told us the realistic critical path, including where our own delays would land?

Security, data and AI governance What data will they hold, and where will it be stored and accessed from? If AI tooling is used, what data leaves our environment, what is retained, and is there a human sign-off gate? Are security certifications current, and can we verify them directly with the issuer? Have we agreed breach notification and data deletion terms?

Intellectual property Who owns the source files, not just the published course? Is the intellectual property position written into the contract, with a completed handover process? Are fonts, images, stock and third-party assets licensed for our use, and documented? What happens to our content if the relationship ends, including on the platform?

Maintenance and support What is included in the warranty period, and what happens after it? Is annual maintenance quoted as a number, and what triggers an update charge? What is the turnaround for corrections and for regulatory or policy changes? Do we have a plan for content that has to change after a product or policy shift?

Commercial terms Is the quotation fixed or time and materials, and what are the milestone payment terms? Have we compared the quote structure with at least one other provider on the same basis? Are revision limits, change-order rates and intellectual property transfer costs stated? Have we checked what is excluded, since exclusions are where scope disputes originate?

Making the decision Have we recorded, in writing, why we chose this provider over the alternatives? Have we checked references in a market and scale comparable to ours? Have we confirmed the provider can absorb our volume within the proposed timeline? Do we have a named internal owner with the authority to make decisions quickly?

Next step

The RFP template turns these questions into a document a provider can respond to, and the comparison worksheet scores the responses consistently.

Open the RFP template

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