Given how important technology is to businesses today, senior leaders must be concerned about getting the procurement process right. 

Gone are the days when IT was confined to email, phone lines and servers. Now, IT touches – or powers – everything we do in business, from creating and hosting documents, to building and managing applications and the growing beast of cyber security. 

Many find it challenging to know what to go to market for and how to manage the procurement process. In this blog, we speak to Mark Leahy, our Head of Procurement, to understand how to make the procurement process for IT support services as smooth as possible, providing plenty of best practice guidance along the way. 

The typical procurement process 

1. Supplier due diligence and pre-engagement checks 

Before starting any scoping activity, it’s important to carry out initial due diligence and a light-touch market scan. This helps identify suitable suppliers that align with your organisation’s risk appetite, technical requirements, and financial expectations. 

Due diligence at this stage should focus on: 

  • Confirming suppliers have the appropriate certifications, accreditations and insurances in place (e.g. Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001). 
  • Assessing financial stability to reduce the risk of supply chain disruption. 
  • Understanding capacity and technical capability to meet likely future needs. 
  • Checking for reputational or regulatory red flags (e.g. past data breaches or sanctions). 

This early stage helps to filter out unsuitable suppliers and provides a credible foundation for further engagement and scope setting. 

2. Initial scoping 

The initial scope should be created at the start of every procurement process. This list should include what the procurement lead believes the business needs at a top level, such as someone to manage cloud computing or cyber security. 

3. Broader requirement gathering

Once a baseline list of services is established, the procurement lead should discuss individual and team needs across the business and create a more comprehensive list of requirements based on particular tasks and team functions. 

4. Needs refinement

Now it’s time for the long list to be prioritised, removing duplicate and similar tasks and removing anything that is not business critical or that can be picked up internally. 

5. Brief building

The refined list details what the company needs from an IT support partner, forms the foundation for the brief and details the scope of services required. 

6. Objective setting 

The business now needs to define what good looks like and the metrics for how they’ll measure success from their new IT partner. Remember to link this back to the overarching business objectives. 

7. RFP process

The Request for Proposal is created and distributed or promoted, inviting potential IT support providers to submit a response. 

8. Shortlisting 

Now that you have your responses, it’s time to evaluate them and shortlist your top 3 to 5 MSPs to then invite to interview.  

Remember to cross check back the evaluation to the criteria you shared in the RFP process. Be sure to consider case studies and references at this point. 

9. Negotiation and appointment 

With your chosen partner now selected, it’s time to negotiate the finer details of the contract, including pricing, SLAs and any additional services you may want to procure that were not part of the original RFP. 

Tips for a smooth procurement process 

Communicate openly and transparently with all stakeholders throughout the process: this helps manage all parties’ expectations and sets the relationship up for long-term success. 

Ensure transparency by sharing any information that has material value to the process, during or after. You may miss something crucial out of the process, which later incurs an additional cost. Similarly, you might appoint the wrong partner, either because of expertise, cultural or business fit. 

Keep accurate records of all communications, proposals, evaluations, and decisions made so that you can refer to them at any point. 

What makes a good Request for Proposal (RFP)? 

A good, robust RFP should include all of the following: 

  • A detailed brief – where you are now and where you want to be
  • Your specific service requirements
  • What you’re looking to achieve
  • How you’ll measure success
  • Your indicative IT support budget
  • How you will evaluate responses 

Moving beyond money 

It’s easy for a business to base a procurement decision on price alone. From experience, we see too many take this approach only to hit numerous stumbling blocks.

When it comes to IT support and the security of your business’ IT infrastructure, it’s important that you make decisions on the best fit: who can provide the best service to your business? After all, the price to pay for a security breach or leaving a contract early to restart the procurement process can be substantial. It’s important to get it right the first time.