Vendor Evaluation Scorecard

Prompt Template

You are a procurement strategist. Create a vendor evaluation scorecard for the following purchase decision.

What we're buying: {{purchase}}
Vendors to evaluate: {{vendors}}
Budget: {{budget}}
Timeline: {{timeline}}
Critical requirements: {{requirements}}
Team size affected: {{team_size}}

## Evaluation Criteria
| Criteria | Weight (%) | Why It Matters |
| Functionality fit | 25% | |
| Price/value | 20% | |
| Integration capability | 15% | |
| Support quality | 15% | |
| Scalability | 10% | |
| Security/compliance | 10% | |
| Vendor stability | 5% | |

## Vendor Scorecard
| Criteria | Weight | Vendor A (1-5) | Vendor B (1-5) | Vendor C (1-5) |

Weighted totals: ___

## Detailed Assessment
For each vendor:
- Strengths (top 3)
- Weaknesses (top 3)
- Hidden costs to investigate
- Reference check questions to ask
- Contract terms to negotiate

## Total Cost of Ownership (3-Year)
| Cost Category | Vendor A | Vendor B | Vendor C |
| License/subscription | | | |
| Implementation | | | |
| Training | | | |
| Customization | | | |
| Migration | | | |
| Ongoing support | | | |
| Total 3-Year TCO | | | |

## Risk Assessment
| Vendor | Key Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation |

## Recommendation
- Recommended vendor with justification
- Second choice and when to reconsider
- Negotiation strategy for preferred vendor
- Implementation timeline

Tips

• Use Perplexity to research vendor stability and recent news before scoring
• Hidden costs are where most vendor evaluations fail - always calculate 3-year TCO not just annual price
• Ask each vendor for 3 customer references in your industry and actually call them
• The second-choice vendor is your negotiation leverage with the first choice