Vendor Evaluation & Selection

HIS Pros has developed a unique "Non-RFP" approach to selecting systems, which saves both time and money by avoiding a voluminous "Request For Proposal" (RFP) feature checklist. Instead, our approach starts by defining each user department's "Top 10" application needs, including current functionality they do not want to lose and adding new features gleaned from demos by leading HIS vendors. We issue a "Request For Information" (RFI) to the handful of vendors our years of experience indicates might meet the organization's needs soliciting client lists and "ball park" price quotes.

Based on the demos and RFI responses, a few vendors are then issued a "Request for Price Quotation" (RPQ), wherein HIS Pros starts to negotiate contract terms early in the process, while obtaining extremely detailed price including such "hidden" costs as travel and files conversion fees. While the RFIs and RPQs are being scrutinized, hospital users are ascertaining how the systems function in the real world through thoroughly scored telephone reference checks with their department-head peers.

We use highly structured checklists to score vendor demonstrations, telephone references, un-chaperoned site visits and user documentation, which validate how well vendors perform in the real world. The results are graded, scored on custom spreadsheets and presented in periodic meetings that achieve a consensus among department heads, Medical Staff and IT, thus insuring end user "buy-in" to the new system.