IT procurement
How to buy without buying a problem: criteria, negotiation and the way out.
The fate of an IT project is usually decided before the RFP goes out: whether it is clear what the outcome is, who accepts it and how we will know it is done. The contract can only cement or worsen that — it will not fix it.
The most expensive mistake is not about price. It is the missing exit path: what happens to the data, the code and the people when the engagement ends. Working that out mid-crisis costs many times more than writing it down up front.
A common argument
„We will pick a vendor and settle the details in the contract.”
How it actually is
Once the vendor is chosen your negotiating power drops to zero, because the alternative just disappeared. What goes into the contract is decided while more than one offer is still live.
Questions I hear most often
- ? How do we describe a scope we do not fully know yet?
- ? Fixed price or time and materials — which is actually cheaper here?
- ? Which evaluation criteria cannot be gamed?
- ? What has to be in the contract for us to be able to leave it?