The checklist: what to require from any vendor
Sixteen questions in four groups. Ask all vendors the same ones and require documents, not statements. Where a question has our answer published, the link shows it — hold everyone to the same standard.
For procurement and sourcing
You know how to evaluate vendors. Here is what to demand from this category.
Evaluating vendors is your profession: verifiable references, complete files, comparable offers. What nobody hands you is the other half — what a BPM or ITSM platform actually is, and which questions separate two proposals that sound identical. This page is that other half. The checklist below applies to any vendor, ourselves included: every question links to where you can verify our answer.
What you are being asked to buy, in one paragraph
A BPM (business process management) platform is software that models an organization's processes — who does what, in what order, with which data and approvals — and then executes them: it assigns the work, enforces the rules, records every action and measures the result. An ITSM platform is the same idea applied to IT services (incidents, requests, changes, assets). Some products do one of the two; some do both on a single engine.
The practical consequence for a buyer: this is not a license you file away, it is where part of the company's operation will run. That is why the questions that matter are about evidence, scope and permanence — the ones below.
For your procurement file
The documents a recommendation can attach, no form in the way:
Measure us with the same yardstick
Send us the questions on this list — or your own evaluation format. Answering procurement teams with documents is the part of the job we like.