Does Your Business Analyst Have a Say in Vendor Selection? (They Should.)

Few companies have the budget and bandwidth to develop everything they do in-house. From software tools that ease payroll and marketing processes to outside firms that take over parts of their external options, companies often work with dozens of contractors and vendors that make their business run. 

While these vendors are necessary, they are often difficult to choose. The wrong vendor can create confusion within your internal team and lose money for the company in wasted time and resources. 

This is where business analysts come in. Learn how to involve your business analyst in the vendor review process to see how they can reduce risk in bid selection and contractor onboarding. 

Business Analysts Play a Strong Role in the Bid Process

To understand how involved business analysts are in the bid process, consider the workflow drafted by Powernoodle for a request for proposal evaluation and vendor selection. BAs can have a seat at the table from the very first step — the team selection process —  through product demonstrations right to the final evaluation. Business analysts understand the more nuanced needs of the company to identify what sets various proposals apart from each other.

Business analysts are so valuable to the RFP process that Eugenia Bereziuk, growth hacker at Workee, shared how companies can create bids based on what business analysts look for. This includes advice for making recommendations for project operations and workflow and creating requirements documents for BAs so they understand the scope and needs of the company.

Some business analysts specialize in helping companies with their RFPs and vendor assessments. For example, Ken Reiher, vice president of operations at ComplyAssistant, created a guide for the vendor risk management process with steps that a business analyst would take to evaluate a vendor and determine any financial or security risks to the company. 

While third-party vendors should make sure their operations follow industry best practices, Reiher says the burden is on the customer to make sure the vendor meets their agreed-upon standards and doesn’t put the company at risk. This means that it’s up to the company to have an analyst who can effectively evaluate external companies and determine whether they would help or hinder their team’s growth. 

Good Business Analysis Mitigates Risk

The main benefit of keeping business analysts on your team through the bid process is risk management. 

“Risks come in all shapes and sizes, but generally speaking if we can predict them and spot them early we have a better opportunity to formulate an appropriate response,” writes consultant and business analyst trainer Adrian Reed. 

He believes that “risk” is everyone’s business, not just the BA’s. When each stakeholder and employee is aware of potential challenges ahead, they can work to eliminate them and make better-informed decisions. 

With regard to vendor and supplier risk specifically, Gatekeeper’s Ian Bryce recommends investing resources in vendor evaluations based on the level of risk to the company. The higher the risk in taking on that vendor, the more time should be spent reviewing their impacts. Additionally, teams can “pre-qualify” new vendors by having a set list of criteria that are expected for any consideration. Vendors who don’t need those requirements don’t move on to the next part of the bid process.

Teams that understand that every vendor and project comes with risk can better plan for problems in the onboarding process, or with long-term problems. Journalist Marc Davis explains that companies that are used to evaluating and taking risks can better mitigate the chances of negative consequences. Their infrastructure can support riskier projects because there will be back-up plans and safety nets in store.
As BAs evaluate the risks they need to take in order to benefit from a new vendor, they can also dig into the various fallback options to make sure the company is protected if the contractor doesn’t deliver as promised.

Business Analysts Belong in the Decision-Making Process

Whether business analysts are appointed to a selection committee for a short-term role or are hired specifically to vet RFPs, they need to have the ear of senior leadership and other stakeholders in the decision-making process. 

“The data analyst, or any of the many variations of that title given to this role, has become one of the most valuable positions in providing this insight across the enterprise,” writes executive and entrepreneur Marc Zionts. 

Not only do BAs collect data and research the various processes and requirements, but they also present their findings in a manner that management can understand and utilize. Their ideas turn into actionable items and considerations for the executive team. This is why it is crucial to keep keep analysts close to the decision-makers of a company.

“Decisions are a vital corporate asset,” Jan Purchase, founder of IT consultancy Lux Magi, says. “Their quality contributes to the profitability, client reputation and competitiveness of the organization making them. Many will control pivotal business processes and dictate how well the company performs and how it is perceived by clients.” 

Without a clear decision-making process and analysts who can make clear calls to benefit the company, teams are left to process bids based on gut instinct or biased relationships. 

BAs Usually Implement the Tools They Select

The team at ZaranTech explains that the business analyst often works within the company to implement solutions and make sure those solutions are accepted within the organization. This includes steps like user documentation, training and acceptance testing. This gives them extra value in the bid process as they will be expected to work with the vendors they choose. 

Experienced BAs likely have seen new ideas and products introduced to team members in the past, and can better tell what kind of work goes into introducing a new feature or tool to the staff. This makes them more qualified to accept or reject a new tool or to know which outside company provides the best solution for the team.

“Arguably the single most essential skill for a successful Business Analyst to have is the ability to understanding needs and expectations, regardless of whether they are from internal or external clients,” says Nadine Rochester, regional marketing director at Strategy Execution.

By having a clear view of the needs of the organization, Rochester says, business analysts can take steps to fulfill those gaps with the right external vendors and suppliers.  

Additionally, Sergey Bryl, chief data science officer at software development company MacPaw, follows the rule of thumb that “the cost of finding the solution [shouldn’t] eclipse the economic benefits from that decision.” This means that some companies may benefit from hiring an outside firm before moving forward, while others can see significant ROI from keeping a business analyst on staff. Either way, the goal is to find a team member that can successfully lead a company from the RFP call process through implementation. 

Vendor Selection and Requirements Reviews Are Getting Harder

As your company continues to grow, and as businesses become more advanced and connected, RFPs aren’t getting any easier to review and evaluate. 

James Proctor, director of professional services at Inteq Group, says that if business analysts don’t ask the right business questions, the analysis they provide risks being superficial. The result is that the business isn’t really prepared for the changes that would be brought on by a new process or system.

Of course, one of the main reasons for the difficulty of getting business and business systems requirements right is their complexity. Penny Pullan, Ph.D., founder of Making Projects Work, says that “the simpler projects of yesteryear are no longer typical,” and most projects affect different parts of the business in different ways — some of which aren’t immediately known. 

Business analysts need to adapt and change their roles to meet these needs and develop better tools and processes for developing business requirements.     

Business solution designer and consultant Brad Egeland writes that business analysts often bridge the gap between the project managers and the tech team. BAs can provide greater clarity into the scope of projects and implementation issues. They offer insights from the tech side but can also take the high-level view that project managers need. As long as BAs can maintain this delicate balance, they can work to better define requirements and analyze bid options.

Your company might not need a business analyst that works exclusively to review potential vendors and their RFPs, but a BA should always be at the table when your company is considering starting the bid process, especially if the supplier will impact your business operations in any way.