Knowing what you want from a software package up front can keep you on track (and on budget) when it comes time to finish your vendor evaluation and make a final selection. Similarly, knowing what you're measuring a current vendor against can help you provide feedback if the company starts to fall short -- if you've been tracking metrics closely enough to notice. That's where vendor scorecard templates come in.
For new projects, scorecards offer an organized way to display important criteria and necessary capabilities -- making vendor evaluations and software comparisons easier and more efficient. By including every requirement or specification on the scorecard, you can determine if the offering meets your needs -- or could, for an additional fee. Weighting different sections of the scorecard can then give you a score against which you can do a vendor or product comparison to choose the product that best meets your needs.
The following sample vendor scorecard templates offer a range of formats and requirements to help you choose the right product for your organization and ensure the vendors you have now are meeting the terms of their contracts.
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| Templates for vendor management |
These templates will help your organization manage the performance of its current stable of vendors.
SOURCE: BizTree.
OFFERING: A basic vendor evaluation template to
gauge the performance of vendors you're currently working with or plan to work with in the
future.
SOURCE: PM Boulevard
OFFERING: Guidelines for implementing a vendor
management program, including sample business justifications, vendor assessment questions and
cost/benefit analysis.
| Templates for choosing, evaluating vendors |
Many of these templates offer sample criteria for a specific business function.
TYPE:General vendor evaluation
SOURCE: Toolbox.com
OFFERING: Excel-based
templates that provide a starting point for evaluating and selecting package-based application
software.
TYPE: Business intelligence vendor evaluation
SOURCE: Information Management
OFFERING: Information on selecting the appropriate business intelligence
vendor and software solution -- including sample questions and a scorecard.
TYPE:Risk management software vendor evaluation
SOURCE:International Risk Management Institute Inc.
OFFERING:Sample product evaluation
criteria for risk management tools.
TYPE:Higher-education vendor evaluation
SOURCE: EduCause Quarterly
OFFERING: User-written tips, information and sample scorecards for evaluating
hardware vendors and investments.
TYPE: Human resources software vendor evaluation
SOURCE: Software Research Tools
OFFERING: Sample vendor-scripted scenarios and a list of criteria for evaluating human
resource management tools.
TYPE: General vendor evaluation criteria with human services example
SOURCE: TechSoup
OFFERING: A sample functionality scorecard
listing examples of software requirements to be used as a starting point for a more tailored
technology evaluation. (Scroll down the page to find an Excel file for downloading; the scorecard
includes criteria used in a human services organization's software search.)