How to Choose an IT Services Vendor: RFP Guide

A practical request for proposal template and checklist to find the right IT partner for your growing business

Why Most Growing Businesses Get IT Services Wrong

Most growing businesses don’t choose their IT vendor. They inherit one.

Someone knew someone. A contract got signed. Years pass. And suddenly you’re paying for services that don’t fit your business anymore because you never actually had a proper selection process.

Here’s the thing: choosing an IT vendor properly takes maybe a week of your time. Not choosing properly costs you hundreds of thousands over the life of the relationship.

This guide walks you through how to do it right.

What’s an RFP and Why You Actually Need One

RFP stands for Request for Proposal. It sounds corporate and intimidating. It’s really just a structured document where you tell vendors what you need and ask them to tell you how they’d do it.

You don’t need a 50-page legal document. You need something clear enough that you can compare apples to apples.

An RFP does three things for you:

• It forces you to think through what you need before you start talking to vendors
• It lets you compare responses instead of just going with whoever sounds best in a sales call
• It sets expectations upfront so there are no surprises later

Step One: Define Your Current State

Before you can tell a vendor what you need, you need to know what you currently have.

Write down:

• How many people do you have right now? How many do you expect in 12 months?
• What systems are you running? (Accounting software, CRM, project management tools, etc.)
• Are you in the cloud already or are you still running physical servers?
• What’s your biggest IT frustration right now?
• Do you handle customer data? Payment information? Anything sensitive?

This gives vendors a picture of your starting point. It also helps you realize what you’re unhappy with in your current setup.

Step Two: Define What You Actually Need

Now write down what success looks like. Not in technical terms. In business terms.

Examples:

• “We need IT support that lets our team focus on growth instead of fixing computer problems”
• “We need to scale from 15 people to 50 people without our IT systems falling apart”
• “We need someone who can advise us on whether we should move to cloud based systems”
• “We need better security because we handle customer payment data”

Then translate that into specific requirements. What does the vendor need to DO to make that happen?

Step Three: Create Your RFP Document

Here’s the basic structure. You can use this almost exactly as is.

SECTION 1: About Your Business

Briefly describe who you are, how many people you have, and what you do.

SECTION 2: Current IT Environment

List your current systems, hardware, software, and any existing IT support.

SECTION 3: Business Objectives

What are you trying to accomplish? (The business outcomes, not the technical requirements.)

SECTION 4: Specific Requirements

What specific services or support do you need? Break it down into categories:

• Managed services and monitoring
• Help desk and user support
• Cloud services and migration
• Cybersecurity and backup
• Strategic IT planning

For each category, say what you need: “Help desk support with response time of less than 2 hours for critical issues”

SECTION 5: Service Levels (SLA)

What uptime do you need? (99%, 99.5%, 99.9%? It makes a difference.)

How quickly should they respond to issues?

What hours of support do you need? (9 to 5 or 24/7?)

SECTION 6: Pricing

Break down what you want them to quote on. Per user per month? Flat rate? À la carte services?

Ask for a price breakdown so you can see what things cost.

SECTION 7: Company Information

How long have you been in business? What’s your experience with businesses our size? Can you provide references?

SECTION 8: Contract Terms

What contract length are you willing to consider? What’s your cancellation policy? How do we exit if it doesn’t work out?

Step Four: Send It Out and Manage Responses

Send your RFP to 3 to 5 vendors. Not 10. Not 1. Three to five is the sweet spot.

Give them at least two weeks to respond. They’ll need time to think through their answer.

When responses come back, read them carefully. Do they answer your questions or do they dance around them? Did they understand what you asked?

Watch for red flags:

• They didn’t answer your questions. They just sent their standard pitch.
• The pricing doesn’t match what they said verbally
• They’re vague about service levels or response times
• They won’t negotiate on contract terms at all

Step Five: The Conversations

Narrow it down to 2 vendors. Have a proper conversation with each of them.

This isn’t a sales call. It’s you learning whether you want to work with this person for the next few years.

Ask about their experience with businesses like yours. Ask about their biggest success story and their biggest failure. See how they talk about it.

Ask them to walk you through what the first 90 days would look like. How would they onboard your business?

Listen to how they talk. Do they listen to you or do they just talk? Are they defensive when you ask difficult questions or do they engage with them?

A good vendor should make you feel like they care about your success, not just the contract.

The Decision

After all that, you’ll know. One of them will feel like the right fit.

Those feeling matters. You’re going to have a relationship with this person for years. You want someone you like working with.

One last thing: start with a shorter contract. Twelve months or even month to month if they’ll allow it.

Give yourself an escape route. If it doesn’t work out, you want to be able to leave without being locked in for three years.

Once you’re confident, they’re the right partner, then you can talk about longer terms.