The Request for Information (RFI) document is a selection artefact aimed at reducing your vendor longlist to a shortlist. So if there are a dozen vendors in your longlist, the RFI should halve that list so you have a realistic shortlist for the next stage of your selection.

The RFI document should be short and tell the prospective solution provider the key things they need to know about your business and your To-Be solution expectations.

The RFI process actually has two parts:

1. The RFI document
2. A means to respond to a set of RFI questions (e.g. an online form)

You expect the vendor to:

• read the RFI document
• decline or respond to the RFI questions
• call you to ask clarification questions about the RFI

After you evaluate the RFI responses, you make a 'cut' of the vendors to get you to your selection shortlist.

The PM should inform the steering team of the RFI result and provide a rationale for why specific vendor were cut or not cut from the longlist.

Selection 2